Fiery ACK Cleric Rips Up William Ruto's Leadership: "Ruling Class That Doesn't Care"

• The Anglican Church of Kenya has been known for its bold input into the politics of the day in the country
• Very Reverend Canon Sammy Wainaina is the former provost of the All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi
• Wainaina fearlessly shredded President William Ruto's administration for failing to keep its promises to Kenyans as police officers listened in silence

Michael Ollinga is a journalist at TUKO.co.ke with over 10 years of experience covering courts and crimes, special reports, and current affairs in Kenya.

Nairobi - The Adviser on Anglican Communion Affairs in London, Reverend Sammy Wainaina, has slammed President William Ruto's administration and Members of Parliament for failing Kenyans.

Who is the ACK provost?

The former Anglican of Kenya (ACK) Provost called out the Kenya Kwanza administration for failing to fulfil its promise of reducing the cost of living for Kenyans.

In a fiery sermon at All Saints Cathedral on Sunday, December 17, Wainaina boldly called out the head of state for turning against his promise and increasing Kenyans' economic burden through taxes.

Wainaina described the current regime as one that does not care about the challenging economic situation that many Kenyans are facing and blasted the parliament for being spineless and continually ceding to the demands of the executive.

ACK cleric blasts William Ruto's administration

"I hear of a ruling class that does not seem to care about the depressing situation in this country. The executive is using a weak parliament to increase taxes on Kenyans.

"When this government was campaigning, it said it was going to reduce taxes; in fact, they were criticising the then government that they were part of because of the high taxation, but today, the load of taxation is becoming heavier and heavier at a time when we are hearing cases of grand corruption," Wainaina said to a quiet congregation at the renowned church.

The cleric accused the government of being dishonest in its approach to leadership, claiming that it was lukewarm in reducing the cost of living and overlooking massive corruption across the public sector.

"On one hand, you overtax people; on the other, the same government gets into corruption scandals like the edible oil saga. What does the government have to do with edible oil? Unfortunately, any government project is riddled with a lot of corruption, and then you are told it is not fit for human consumption," added Wainaina.

Fuel prices in Kenya

He also questioned the country's high fuel costs when global prices for the commodity had significantly declined.

"Fuel prices are not making sense in Kenya. If you compare it with the world, the prices are going down, but in Kenya, they are going up and affecting the lives of the poor Kenyans," he observed, further calling out the administration over the wastage of public resources.

Wainaina was unhappy with the Controller of Budget's (COB's) report about the expenditure by the presidency, terming it unsustainable.

"Most of the public resources are going to waste, and the COB stated publicly that KSh 2.2 billion has been spent in the offices of the president and State House between July and September 2023, which means we spent KSh 23 million a day and about KSh 1 million per hour, that is not sustainable," Wainaina posed.

The cleric's address, which has spread like wildfire across social media, came on a day the head of state addressed the nation over his administration's progress, drawing mixed reactions.

Presidency money being used to pay NMS debts

In his address, Ruto explained that the money allocated to state house was not only being spent by state house.

He claimed that a big chunk of the money was being used to settle pending bills accrued by Nairobi Metropolitan Service (NMS) which took charge of affairs of Nairobi county following the impeachment of Mike Sonko, who was the governor between 2017 and December 2020.