Lawyer Willis Otieno has taken issue with President William Ruto’s remarks suggesting that Singapore used force to move citizens from slums into high-rise apartments.
In a sharp rebuttal shared on X, Otieno argued that Singapore’s success story was built on clean governance, not coercion.
President Ruto had told a gathering that Singapore’s leader once revealed the country relocated people from slums into modern flats using force, a move he said Kenya had avoided.
But Otieno dismissed the comparison as misleading, insisting that the Asian nation’s transformation was achieved through vision, integrity, and strategic planning.
“Singapore’s rise wasn’t a miracle of force; it was a triumph of vision, planning, and integrity,” Otieno wrote.
He explained that the Singaporean government, led by Lee Kuan Yew in 1959, built the Housing and Development Board (HDB) to ensure citizens had affordable, ready homes before any relocation.
According to the lawyer, the HDB program was funded transparently, corruption was non-existent, and even those displaced were compensated.
“They didn’t just ‘use force’; they used law, fairness, and results. The ‘force’ was institutional discipline and enforcement of good governance, not brutality.”
Otieno challenged Ruto to draw lessons from Singapore’s honesty and accountability instead of citing force as a driver of progress.
“If you want Singapore’s results, start by copying their honesty, not their excuses. Singapore didn’t weaponize poverty; they eradicated it,” he stated.
His remarks have fueled online debate over Kenya’s affordable housing agenda, a key plank of President Ruto’s administration.