President William Ruto has claimed that the Kenyan youth ran away when he took to X to engage them through the X Spaces.
President Ruto who was speaking on Sunday, July 21, 2024, after attending a church service at Chebango in Bomet County, said that despite giving in to most demands made by Gen Zs, they have continued with their protests.
Ruto on X Spaces
Ruto pointed out that he had called for a conversation with the Gen Zs, but they refused to engage him and demanded that he joins the X Spaces.
The Head of State went ahead to claim that after he went to the X platform to engage the Gen Zs through the X Spaces as demanded, they ran away.
“Walisema tusipitishe Finance Bill, mimi nimewacha Finance Bill. Nikawaita wakasema hawataki kuja kuzungumza na mimi. Wakaniambia niende huko kwa X, mimi nikaenda huko kwa X, wakatoroka huko, hawakukuwepo,” Ruto stated.
Ruto on dialogue
Ruto went ahead to claim that he has gone further and called for a dialogue, which has also been declined by the protesters.
He said the Kenyan Gen Zs have continued to claim that they are faceless.
However, Ruto stated that there are people who have been funding the protests, and challenged the unnamed financiers to step forward and declare their end game and what they want to achieve through the protests.
Ruto on democracy
Ruto was firm that Kenya is a democratic country and that her democracy will not be surrendered to faceless, formless and anonymous anarchists.
“Wakasema tuitishe mazungumzo, nimeitisha mazungumzo, wamekataa. Nimewaambia, wanaendelea kusema wao ni faceless, wao ni formless…Mimi nimewaambia, sasa my friends, you know, I have given everybody a chance to say whatever they want.
“We cannot continue like this. The country is much important than any group of people. We must stand together as a nation, protect our nation and make sure that Kenya is a democracy,” Ruto said while addressing Chebango residents in Bomet County.
Technical hitches in Ruto’s X Spaces
However, Kenyans did not run away from Ruto’s X Spaces as per his claims.
President Ruto’s much-anticipated X Spaces got off to a shaky start on Friday, July 5, 2024, with sessions dropping three times, before the government opted to participate in the space using X influencer Osama Otero’s X handle.
The first X Space session started past the slated time of 2 pm at around 2:20 pm after the president held a press conference at State House.
The first X Space ended after eight minutes, without any conversation happening as hitches were experienced.
The total number of listeners in the first space was about 63,000 listeners.
The second X space lasted 13 minutes without making any progress before dropping. It had about 90,000 listeners.
The final attempt at hosting the space lasted 22 minutes, with the bulk of the time spent trying to sort out technical hitches marked with loud silence as some of those handling the backend forgot to mute the president’s microphone, leaving listeners hearing the goings-on.