Nairobi, KENYA — President William Ruto has come under fire following public remarks suggesting that Nigerian-accented English is incomprehensible and requires a translator.
Addressing a gathering of the Kenyan diaspora in Italy, the President boasted that Kenyans speak “some of the best English in the world” while contrasting it with the cadence of Nigeria.
“If you listen to a Nigerian speaking, you don’t know what they are saying — you need a translator,” Ruto remarked, sparking laughter in the room.
Okay News reports that the comments have since triggered a volatile “cyber war” on social media, with Nigerians and other Africans accusing the Kenyan leader of displaying a “colonial conditioning” and an “inferiority complex.”
Former Nigerian Senator Shehu Sani led the rebuttal on X, reminding the Kenyan leader of Nigeria’s literary pedigree. “Ruto is mocking the English of the country with a Nobel Prize for literature winner. The Nation of Achebe and Chimamanda,” Sani posted.
Other critics, including Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chin’ono, argued that proficiency in a colonial language is not a measure of intelligence or national progress.
