• Kenyans go to the polls on August 9.
• Deputy President William Ruto, 55, and opposition leader Raila Odinga, 77, are in the lead.
• Food and fuel prices are going up, unemployment is high, and the economy has been stuck since the pandemic.

The people of Kenya will go to the polls on August 9, and a change in leadership couldn’t come at a more important time for East Africa’s largest economy. Food and fuel prices are going up, unemployment is high, and the economy has been stuck since the pandemic.

Polls show that Deputy President William Ruto, 55, and veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, 77, are in the lead in the race to replace President Uhuru Kenyatta, whose term is coming to an end.

It’s a bitter fight between two people who used to be enemies but are now allies and then enemies again. They both want to be in charge of a country that’s pretty stable in a dangerous area.

Ruto calls himself the “Hustler-in-Chief,” because he started out as a chicken seller in Kenya’s Rift Valley and is now on the verge of becoming the most powerful person in the country.

“I may be the child of nobody but we want to make this a country of everybody,” the Kenyan vice president told media at his large official home in Nairobi’s wealthy Karen neighbourhood.

“We want to make this country a country of opportunity for every child in Kenya.”

Odinga says this is the last time he will run for president. He has tried four times before and lost each time. In the last three elections, he has tried to overturn the results.

“I had considered not running this time but there was a lot of pressure on me from my supporters to run because of what I represent,” he told media promising change if he was elected.

“I’ve been saying that the aspirations and the desires of the people of Kenya as expressed in the founding document of our nation, what you can call the Kenyan dream, has not been realised.”

Professor George Wajackoyah and David Mwaure Waihiga are the other two people who have been given the green light to run for president. Both of them are long shots and aren’t likely to win.

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