President William Ruto defended his third-born daughter Charlene Chelagat Ruto on Wednesday, January 4 amid criticism of her unofficial office dubbed ‘office of the first daughter’.
Speaking in a joint media interview with five television stations at State House, the Head of State laughed off the matter saying the said office is non-existent and Charlene is just being a President's kid.
“Leave my daughter Charlene alone. These are kids, they are just being children. There is no office of the First Daughter. This is a girl who is being herself. She is just being the daughter of William Ruto,” he said.
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Office of the First Daughter
Late last year, Charlene sparked reaction when she announced that she was running the Office of the First Daughter, complete with members of staff.
Charlene Ruto introduced the members of her team while addressing delegates at the 2022 YouLead Summit held in Arusha, Tanzania, on Tuesday, December 13.
Addressing delegates during the event, she introduced two members of her team who she said work at "the Office of the First Daughter".
Among the staff, who accompanied her 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.
“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 on my team. And this is Jermaine Momanyi, he is the Head of Trade and Investments at the Office of the First Daughter," she said, arousing laughter and clapping from the audience.
She, however later clarified that the office is a private entity that is not funded by the taxpayer adding that the core mandate of the entity is to facilitate youth empowerment and climate change advocacy programs that she is currently engaged in.
"The Office of the First Daughter is a private entity. It is neither a constitutional office nor is it being funded by Kenyan taxpayers. The office runs to purely facilitate the activities of & any programs being run by Ms Charlene Ruto," Charlene said.
