Peter Lee Okoth

We are underway in Mombasa…

This is Kenyan President William Ruto boasting that Kenyans speak better English than Nigerians 🤣🤣🤣 He is confusing accent with diction. When African presidents boast that their citizens speak “better English” than others, they are not demonstrating a strong education system, as Ruto claims, they are showcasing a deep inferiority complex rooted in colonial conditioning. English is a colonial language, not a measure of intelligence, capability, or national progress. You can be fully fluent in a language and still have an accent that is difficult for some listeners to understand, as Nigerians do. Fluency means you have a strong command of vocabulary, grammar, and the ability to express ideas. Accent, on the other hand, relates to pronunciation, rhythm, and intonation, which are shaped by your first language and speech environment, which is what Ruto is confusing with good English. Has he ever had someone from Scotland, Liverpool, or Birmingham speak? Accents are a natural linguistic outcome, not a measure of education. They emerge from the influence of a person’s first language, the sounds and speech patterns they grow up with, and the environment in which they learn and use another language. Every language has its own phonetic structure, and when people speak a second language like English, those underlying patterns shape pronunciation, rhythm, and tone. That is why accents vary across regions and countries. They reflect history, identity, and exposure, not intellectual or educational superiority. I know that there is some kind of tension between Nigeria and Kenya, but such misleading statements undermine the confidence of young people. When they hear a president speak like that about how they speak, it erodes their self-belief, and that is not a good thing to come from a president.

" The Linda Mwananchi Rally in Kisumu will not happen under our watch"- MP Sam Atandi says!