Amidst a growing economic crisis and deadly flooding across Kenya, President William Ruto visited President Joe Biden in the United States in May. While President Ruto’s administration is bulldozing the homes of Nairobi residents in the middle of intense flooding, he is doubling down on his commitment to I.M.F. reforms and austerity measures. His lack of investment in the public sector has led to widespread strikes among medical employees, which has compounded the flooding crisis. 

Many African countries have turned to Russian partnerships in recent history. The Russian private military contractor Africorps (formally Wagner Group) is present in Sudan, the Central African Republic, Madagascar, Libya, and Mali. In 2024, Africorps added Burkina Faso to the list of countries where it maintains operations, replacing French military members. In response to questions about Russian encroachment on the African continent, Kenyan President Ruto told reporters “Russia[ns] have their own friends. Everybody is ready to choose their friends,” going on to say that “[w]e are very good friends with the US.” Ruto has even allowed the United States to underwrite a Kenyan security force for deployment in Haiti at the United States’ insistence. President Ruto said “[w]e are ready to deploy […] Our security men are upbeat. They are ready, they are willing.” Kenya’s partnership with the United States has yielded dubious benefits to the indebted African nation. To buy back a two billion dollar bond set to mature this summer, Ruto was forced to issue new high-interest government bonds. This move reduces investor fears of Kenya defaulting on its loans, but the high coupon rate of the bond endangers Kenya’s fragile economy. To fund these absurd interest fees, William Ruto has intervened with crushing austerity and tax increases. 

According to the Financial Times, Ruto told striking doctors “I made a conscious decision that we must live within our means,” brushing off their demands. One of the doctors’ main demands was an increase in intern trainee pay which would significantly improve working conditions in hospitals and improve patient outcomes across Kenya. As repaying debt grows more difficult for Ruto’s administration, his country’s infrastructure will be further neglected. The current flooding crisis has been exacerbated by a lack of public infrastructure investment. The Guardian spoke with Jane Kalekye who is staying in a temporary housing facility for internal refugees, who said “I only have the clothes on my back now, and even these were given to me by the clothing shelter.” Refugees like Jane were awarded a mere equivalent of 75$ U.S.D. for their lost homes. Before the flooding episode, William Ruto told his constituents “You recently heard that our country is going to experience El Niño, but who is God, have you heard that those people say that we will not have it (El Niño) but there will just be heavy rainfall.” 

The Senate Foreign Affairs Committee has recommended to Speaker Mike Johnson that President Ruto give an address before Congress during his visit to the capital. Ruto is flexing his “in” status with American elite circles, while his constituents continue to be displaced and his administration continues to bulldoze homes. The words of his congressional address will likely ring hollow to many Kenyans stuck in transitional facilities. Illustrating the broad range of those displaced, a Kenyan Red Cross worker told the Guardian “It is the first time we have been forced to use boats to go into [middle-income] estates.” President Ruto will need to do more for his country than align himself with the United States just to expect the cyclical debt and poverty to end on its own. The administration must become more responsive to emergencies if it is to retain any legitimacy among domestic and international citizens. In particular, the administration needs to do everything it can to prevent essential workers such as those in the medical field from going on strike and stalling the economy. His early appeasement of striker demands could have saved the lives of thousands of Kenyans who perished in this year’s El Niño flooding.