Osama Otero under fire for hosting Ruto on X Space

Popular social media influencer Osama Otero is this evening on the receiving end of the wrath from a section of Kenyans after he hosted President William Ruto on his X Space.

Otero had initially asked X users to boycott Ruto’s Space and instead join his parallel engagement on the same platform.

Ruto’s Space failed to launch properly after a few attempts.

The President then joined Otero’s Space alongside State House Spokesperson Hussein Mohammed.

A section of Kenyans on X turned the heat on Otero alleging that he had betrayed them.

“Osama si ilikuwa ahold a parallel space na Kimuzi to counter hiyo ya president?” Limo asked.

“Osama Otero, we will never forget,” Five People said.

“Osama Otero is actually the speaker on President William Ruto X Space,” another user said.

Kasmuel McOure added, “The gasp I gasped when I heard Ruto’s account saying, “Hebu accept Osama as co-host”.

In his defence, Otero said he hosted the President because X users had declined to be hosted by him.

“You guys wanted to host the President hamkuwa mnataka awahost (You did not want him to host you). I did exactly that,” he said.

The back-and-forth attracted the attention of Music Copyright Society of Kenya CEO Ezekiel Mutua who asked Gen Z to remain united.

Mutua said the youths should look at the gains they have achieved so far as a united front and plan even better strategies.

“I’m seeing some Gen Z champions using unprintable words on each other, accusing each other of betrayal and dishonesty. Please do not let anger and discontent kill your momentum,” Mutua said on X.

“Life is full of twists and turns and success does not come without moments of doubt, mistakes, anger, betrayal, uncertainty and even temporary defeat,” he added.

According to Mutua, spreading hate will not only cause harm to others but also destroy what has been achieved in a short while.

“Stooping too low to hate others and call them names is wrong. But we all make mistakes. Pick yourselves up and soldier on. You have achieved so much in a short time. Kenya is different because of you. You can’t afford to give up on the cause of liberation,” he said.

President Ruto engaged with the young generation on X Space where he fielded pressing questions from speakers.

Ruto said he gave in to withdrawing the Finance Bill, 2024 because Kenyans said they did not want it.

The President added that the Finance Bill was marred with “falsehood and propaganda”, and denied, for instance, that there was a section on increasing land rates and rents.

“Let me tell you, there is no single sentence in the Finance Bill that speaks to land rents and land issues,” he said.

Ruto also denied that there was proposed tax in the Bill on cancer patients.

“Let me tell you that in fact in this Finance Bill, we had put Sh2 million to pay for the people who have cancer, diabetes and hypertension under our Universal Health Programme,” the President said.

The Gen Z formed the majority of demonstrators who stormed streets to protest against the impugned Finance Bill.

The President gave in to pressure and declined to sign the Bill into Law and asked Parliament to delete all clauses.

by PERPETUA ETYANG