Kenya’s President Reacts to Netizens Trolling ‘Office of The First Daughter’

Kenya’s Presdent William Ruto speaks during the opening of East African Community (EAC)- led Nairobi Process, the third peace talk on the eastern region of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in Nairobi on November 28, 2022Muhammad OsmanIn early December 2022, a video went viral showing Kenyan President William Ruto’s daughter, Charlene, presenting the team of her “Office of The First Daughter.” The video triggered a wave of satire and criticism of the daughter of the newly inaugurated Kenyan leader, as there is no such office under the country’s constitution.Kenya’s President William Ruto has responded to netizens on social media who have been trolling his daughter over the claimed “Office of the First Daughter,” saying, “Leave my daughter Charlene alone.”“These are kids, they are just being children. So you know very well that there’s no such office,” Ruto told reporters at the country’s State House on Wednesday in response to a question about the location of the Office of the First Daughter.Ruto said that the office was the idea of Charlene’s friends, and that his daughter was “just trying to be herself at her pace.”“She’s just being the daughter of William Ruto, and sometimes she doesn’t know the [difference] between the President and the father,” the president added.Under the title of the “First Daughter,” Charlene Ruto, the third-born daughter of the Kenyan leader, has held several high-profile events and meetings since her father’s inauguration in September 2022.In early December 2022, 25-year-old Charlene came under attack when she introduced her delegation to Tanzania as members of staff at the Office of the First Daughter.Besides netizens’ trolling of Charlene, critics questioned whether she was funding the activities of the so-called Office of the First Daughter with public money.“The Office of the First Daughter is a private entity. It is neither a constitutional office nor is it being funded by the Kenyan taxpayer,” Charlene responded to her critics, arguing, “I am out to empower the youth and I have no regrets for that.”

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