‘These are Leaders Behaving Badly’: Ekuru Aukot Rips into Ruto–Opposition Spat

ThirdWay Alliance Party leader Ekuru Aukot has faulted the name‑calling and public shaming traded between President William Ruto and opposition leaders that has recently dominated headlines.

In an interview on March 19, 2026 on national media, Aukot dismissed both sides of the divide as “leaders behaving badly,” casting the exchanges as a troubling reflection of Kenya’s political culture.

Aukot painted Kenya as a family with leaders as its guardians, lamenting that they have shown a slipping sense of self‑worth and responsibility. He argued that instead of embodying stewardship, both sides have reduced themselves to petty exchanges, betraying the trust of the citizens they ought to protect.

“It demonstrates a leadership that lacks self-worthiness. A leadership that is not thinking like a parent who has children, whether in their own family context, or looking at Kenya as a family,” he said.

Borrowing from his role as a trusted member of the Committee of Experts that drafted the 2010 Constitution, Aukot stressed that Kenya has, since independence, suffered from a chronic deficit of good leadership.

He further anchored his critique in Chapter Six of the Constitution, which emphasizes leadership and integrity.

Article 75(1)(c) demands that “a State officer shall behave, whether in public and official life, in private life, or in association with other persons, in a manner that avoids demeaning the office the officer holds.”

The lawyer-cum-politician further challenged the electorate to treat the ongoing exchanges as a mirror for reflection, urging them to use this moment as a pedestal to decide the kind of leaders they want ahead of the 2027 general elections.

“It now calls upon Kenyans, as we go into 2027, to revise the extent to which they interrogate the character of people they want to have as leaders. Are these the kind of people we can actually emulate?” Dr Aukot asked.

During his tour of the western region, President Ruto lashed out at the opposition with insults and shaming, an unusual departure from his repeated calls for issue based politics.

In turn, the United Alternative Government retaliated with equally scathing remarks, exposing a worsening political climate barely 15 months to the 2027 general elections, a mood that signals a troubling drift from substance to spectacle.

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