Audio By Vocalize
Ruto’s crackdown on foreign traders sparks debate over protecting local businesses without straining Kenya’s diplomatic ties. July 23, 2026.[PCS]
President William Ruto is flat-out wrong about foreigners doing small businesses in Kenya. Dr Ruto revived Pan-Africanism after Muammar Gaddafi - preaching an African currency and Africa trading with itself and has earned acclaim at the UN and in Addis Ababa for that. He made multilateralism sound African again. Why does the champion of borderless trade want to hunt foreign hawkers selling duvets and screen protectors on Nairobi's River Road?
In June 2023 in Lusaka, at his first COMESA Heads of State Summit, Ruto went direct: "Our people cannot trade while hostage to foreign currency... We must urgently address this." He demanded a Pan-African payment and settlement system to break dollar hegemony over intra-African commerce and dismantle costly Western correspondent banks.
While in Djibouti in 2023, Ruto hammered this doctrine: Why must Kenya and Djibouti trade be routed through Washington? In Bujumbura, at the 23rd COMESA Summit, he echoed the need to de-dollarise African trade but not confront America. "We are not against the dollar-buy American goods in dollars, and African in local currency. This argument asserts Africa's monetary sovereignty and strategic autonomy.
