Seven pledges Kenya Kwanza made in its campaign manifesto two years ago, which do not require any significant financial investment to fulfill, continue to haunt the William Ruto regime as Kenyans demand an end to abductions and assassination:

1. End police abuse, especially against urban youth, and create an ombudsman to monitor human rights violations.
2. End all forms of extra-judicial executions by security services, and establish the Coroner General’s Office.
3. Establish a Special Tribunal for Gross Human Rights Violations and Enforced Disappearances.
4. Ratify and domesticate the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances.
5. End all unauthorized evictions and property demolitions.
6. Determine, within 60 days, all judgments and orders against the Kenyan government, and create a plan to make sure that the government abides by all court rulings.
7. Establish, within 30 days, a quasi-judicial public inquiry to establish the extent of cronyism and state capture.

These are the basic irreducible minimums upon which the other grand schemes to subsidise fertilizer, upgrade airports, universalize healthcare and broaden the power grid will ride on. People first--because without people, there can be no development.

Given William Ruto’s record for compulsive mendacity during the Jubilee administration (“In six months’ time, the stadium in Kamariny will be complete”), it is hardly surprising that he has done the exact opposite of what he said he would.

If pledges in the Kenya Kwanza manifesto, which were made voluntarily even if with intent to deceive, are discarded with alacrity, what is to be the fate of those solemn oaths and promises that are peremptory?

One of the first things Ruto was required to do before taking office was to swear an oath of allegiance to the Republic of Kenya to protect and uphold the sovereignty, integrity and dignity of the people of Kenya, and to follow the Constitution.

There are no penalties for breach: And the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court have told us that the President cannot be sued.

Some background is called for. William Ruto hates the Constitution. Were it not for the necessity of swearing oath to take office, the words would have stuck in his craw.

He spent a significant portion of his personal fortune in 2010 telling Kenyans that we would all be placed under Sharia Law, that abortion would be walk-in affairs, and devolution would deepen inequality. He had pushed the parliamentary select committee on the constitution to adopt the presidential system of government, only to turn around and reject the whole document.

Since the defeat of the No campaign against the Constitution, Ruto has sworn to obey and uphold the Constitution at least four times--as MP for Eldoret North, twice as Deputy President and once as President. The courts are littered with decisions that provide evidence of his violation of these oaths: especially on how he has acquired land.

He is that loquacious uncle who repeats the same promises to take children on a trip that will never materialise. Calling him out neither embarrasses him nor slows him down.

Ruto has done a 180-degree about-turn on many positions he held two years ago. But he insists that he is right. All the time.

Kwamchetsi Makokha serves as a board member of the KHRC.