Weeks after capturing the nation's attention with whirlwind tours, President William Ruto's third-born daughter Charlene Ruto has introduced members of her team.
Addressing delegates at the 2022 YouLead Summit in Arusha, Tanzania on Tuesday, December 13, Charlene introduced two members of her team who she said work at "the Office of the First Daughter".
Among the staff, who accompanied Charlene to Tanzania, were her advisor Mike Sagana and Jermaine Momanyi, the Head of Trade and Investments at the Office of the First Daughter, as she calls it.
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“Before again I continue, I wanted to introduce quickly my team from Kenya. So, I’ll start with the back. This is Mike Sagana, he’s one of my team members. He’s a politician and he’s my principal advisor in my team. And this is Jermaine Momanyi, he is the Head of Trade and Investments at the Office of the First Daughter," Charlene said, arousing laughter and clapping from the audience.
Office of the first daughter is properly constituted.
Awuoro! pic.twitter.com/5N91hppu9H— Robert ALAI (@RobertAlai) December 13, 2022
In a video that has since gone viral on social media, Charlene is seen trying to continue with her speech amid the commotion saying, "I don’t get what’s funny."
A section of Kenyans who reacted to the video wondered if the office is anchored in law.
"Office of the First Daughter? Are we being serious now. Si we just turn into a monarch then so that we have Princes Charlene Ruto of Sugoishire? But why do politicians' kids & spouses think when we elect their parents or spouses we have automatically elected them?" Twitter user @jumaf3 posed.
Content creator Andrew Kibe wrote: "In Kenya we now have ‘Office of the First Daughter’? And she seems to have one of those tu agendas from majuu."
“Lakini Charlene Ruto surely, now there is an ‘Office of the First Daughter’? Complete with a team of ‘Advisors’ and probably a cabinet. Wueh,” Twitter user @Wachira_254_ said.
“You mean we have an Office of the First Daughter fully financed by the Exchequer?” Caxstone P. Kigata wondered.
Charlene has in recent weeks captured the nation’s attention with a series of highly publicised public engagements.
The events, local and abroad, have generated debate on social media about the role of the first daughter, considering that the children of the past four presidents rarely operated in the public limelight.
On November 24, the First daughter met Narok county officials, including governor Patrick Ole Ntutu.
Speaking after the meeting Charlene conveyed her father’s message that calls on all citizens to own up tree-growing initiatives and plant 300 trees each in their respective farms in the next 5 years.
She said she is on a mission to urge Kenyans to be part of the solutions to the dangerous levels of climate change which can be achieved through tree planting.
Apart from tree planting Charlene, who is a Director at the Weston Hotel on Lang’ata Road, said she is on a tour of counties to hold talks with leaders and Kenyans centred on tourism, agriculture, and youth empowerment.
“For example, tree planting can be one source of creating employment among the youths who can be given the mandate to manage tree nurseries and let them sell seedlings to Kenyans,” Charlene said after she participated in a tree planting exercise at the Narok county headquarters.
“We want to help the President and the whole world to tackle climate change and all issues that impact negatively on people's livelihood and the economy through our campaign."
To realize the required tree cover, she called on county governments to take tree planting seriously. She reiterated President Ruto's call of planting 15 million trees in 10 years in their regions and especially by including tree planting in school programs.
Recently, she also held a meeting with Morocco’s Youth minister, Mohammed Mehdi.
After the meeting, she wrote, “conversation and exchange of ideas that will go a long way in shaping youth development projects for both nations”.
Responding to concerns from members of the public last week, Charlene said her initiatives were "not politically motivated" but one aimed at elevating the youth.
"I know a lot of Kenyans have been asking what am doing since I'm going around counties. I'm not asking anyone for anyone to give me a position anywhere, I don't need to have a position to do what I'm doing that's why I decided to have my own initiative so that I can help the community and Kenyans and really to be a voice of our youth," she said in an interview with YouTuber Eve Mungai.
She added: "I feel there's a lot our president is doing internationally and nationally also our First Lady, our cabinet secretaries, ministries, county governors and that kind of thing but who is standing up for the youth and since our president loves the youth so much we already have a seat on the table but who is going to be the one to push for the youth, so I decided I'm going to be that person."
