By Dr. Luchetu Likaka – Researcher and Political Analyst

The so-called Singapore narrative, as advanced by President Ruto, is a seductive story, but it is ultimately a mirage in the desert. It glitters from a distance, promising order, efficiency, and prosperity, yet it dissolves the moment one attempts to walk toward it.

Singapore is being invoked not as a serious development model grounded in context and sequencing, but as a rhetorical shortcut, an imported metaphor meant to anesthetize public anxiety while difficult questions are quietly swept under the carpet.

To begin with, development is not a cut-and-paste exercise. Singapore’s rise was the product of a very specific historical moment, a unique geopolitical position, disciplined state institutions, and an uncompromising social contract between the state and its citizens.

Kenya’s realities- its political economy, ethnic arithmetic, land question, informality, and regional inequalities are worlds apart.

Singapore Did Not Grow on Slogans

To pretend otherwise is to compare apples and oranges and then insist they taste the same. You cannot build a skyscraper on marshland and blame the bricks when it collapses.

Also Read: 14 Surprising Things You May Not Know About Singapore

Secondly, Singapore did not grow on slogans; it grew on institutions. Before asking citizens to tighten their belts, the Singaporean state first demonstrated frugality, competence, and zero tolerance for corruption.

In Kenya today, the reverse appears true. Citizens are being asked to sacrifice while public expenditure remains bloated, political patronage thrives, and accountability is selective.

That is putting the cart before the horse. A government cannot preach austerity with a forked tongue while feasting at the high table.

Moreover, Singapore’s social contract was underwritten by trust, trust that taxes would translate into services, that merit would trump connections, and that the rule of law would be blind. In Kenya, trust is the scarcest commodity.

When procurement scandals are routine, when policy U-turns are frequent, and when enforcement appears punitive rather than fair, asking citizens to buy into a Singaporean dream is akin to selling sand in the desert. People do not resist reform because they are lazy; they resist it because they have been burned before.

Kenya’s Current Trajectory Appears to Front-Load Pain While Postponing Protection

There is also a dangerous moral hazard in invoking Singapore to justify pain without protection. Singapore invested heavily in housing, healthcare, education, and social security before liberalizing its economy.

In contrast, Kenya’s current trajectory appears to front-load pain while postponing protection. Taxes are rising faster than incomes, subsidies are withdrawn faster than alternatives are created, and the informal sector, the backbone of the economy, is treated more as a nuisance than a partner. That is not tough love; it is policy recklessness dressed up as courage.

Also Read: What It Takes to Run Against Ruto in the 2027 Presidential Race

Additionally, leadership matters. Singapore’s transformation was driven by a leadership that led by example, spoke less, and delivered more. In Kenya, the Singapore narrative risks becoming a fig leaf for performative governance, more speeches than systems, more promises than plans.

When leadership becomes omnipresent in rhetoric but absent in results, the public eventually sees through the charade. You can fool some people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

In pragmatic terms, Kenya does not need a Singapore fantasy; it needs a Kenyan solution. One rooted in incremental reform, institutional strengthening, fiscal discipline that starts at the top, and an honest reckoning with inequality and unemployment.

Development is a marathon, not a sprint, and shortcuts often lead to dead ends. Borrowing metaphors is easy; building institutions is hard. But it is the hard work that counts.

In the final analysis, the Singapore narrative, as currently deployed, feels less like a roadmap and more like a lullaby, meant to soothe a restless nation into patience while structural contradictions deepen.

Until words are matched with discipline, sacrifice is shared equitably, and governance earns rather than demands trust, the Singapore story will remain what it is today: a well-polished tale, told with confidence, but carrying very little conviction.

Follow our WhatsApp Channel and WhatsApp Community for instant news updates

President William Ruto witnessed the signing of the KSh32 billion contract between the Bamburi Cement PLC and SINOMA-CBMI Construction Co. Ltd in Matuga, Kwale County. PHOTO/PCS.