Kenyan politicians trade accusations of 'goonism' as political violence rises ahead of 2027 election

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya's political word of the moment is “goonism,” frequently uttered by national leaders to convey annoyance at the gangs that intimidate those whose political activities they oppose.

Supporters of President William Ruto, who is seeking a second term in elections next year, use the phrase to describe the political violence that authorities will not tolerate. Opposition figures use it to condemn what they see as Ruto’s aggressive — and underhanded — campaign tactics.

At times it can seem as if goonism is up against goonism, an unwelcome turn of events in this East African nation where the contest for political power is becoming ever more vigorous and tinged with a sense of danger.

Many Kenyans doubt Ruto's commitment to the religious values he espoused before taking power in 2022.

Ruto vowed to raise a kind of born-again Christian nation, fearful of God and at peace with itself.

But as president, he appears to have benefited from the lawlessness that is now a national scourge as religious and political leaders warn that political violence threatens democratic gains. His critics charge that such chaos rises in part from Ruto’s uncompromising style of leadership.

“Goons, goons, goons,” yelled preacher Wilfred Lai during a recent Sunday sermon in which he lamented what had befallen Kenya. “Everyone who wants to rule this country by that kind of thing, I speak as a prophet of God: You shall fall.”

He added: “You can’t use goons and you are telling us that you are taking us into a better place. You are a liar and the truth is not in you.”

Although Lai, the pastor of a megachurch in the coastal city of Mombasa, didn't mention Ruto by name, many Kenyans suspect he had the president in mind when he gave that sermon, parts of which were shared online.

Lai is among evangelical preachers who embraced Ruto when he was vice president and seeking to replace President Uhuru Kenyatta, whose backing he didn't have. At the time, Ruto was widely seen as a pious politician.

Ruto said he was fighting for the downtrodden, for those whose manual labor put food on the table. The leader — nicknamed “Nabii,” Kiswahili for “God’s prophet” — said he had risen so high in politics by the grace of God, unlike rivals he depicted as the entitled sons of political dynasties. Ruto won a tight race.

For many of his supporters, however, Ruto changed as soon as he won the presidency.

Although he continued to go to church on Sundays, some noticed that he stopped carrying the Bible and no longer quoted it regularly. His decision to demolish a chapel within the compound of the statehouse — to be replaced by a modern facility — was criticized by some as self-aggrandizing. Others saw betrayal in Ruto’s aggressive income tax measures months after his inauguration.

Thousands of young people took to the streets of Nairobi, the capital, forcing authorities to withdraw some tax proposals but not quite cooling popular anger. Ruto later faced more protests triggered by the death in police custody of a blogger.

Although the protests failed to remove Ruto, they left him wounded and determined to show strength. While his position remains precarious ahead of next year’s vote, some of his adversaries admit he is cunning and still hard to defeat.

After protesters stormed the parliamentary building in 2024, Ruto vowed that such a thing would never happen again. Last year, facing protesters who held placards saying “Ruto must go,” the president urged the police to “break” the limbs of protesters and said he was going nowhere.

“If we go this route, we will not have a country,” Ruto said in a televised address. “The country belongs to all of us. And if there’s no country for William Ruto, there’s no country for you.”

Some saw that as a veiled threat, and some opposition figures suspect the gangs materializing at opposition events are sponsored by the state.

“We must say no, collectively, to the new specter, the new norm, of goonism,” Kalonzo Musyoka, a prominent opposition figure, told a local broadcaster. “The goons are very well-known. So for anybody to pretend that it is the work of united opposition, he really must be ashamed, even before God, that this is state-sponsored.”

Men armed with machetes and guns can break up political rallies or prevent them from commencing. While opposition figures accuse authorities of fomenting violence, Interior Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen recently warned goons that “since the politician won’t be with you when you commit the crime, we’ll come for you.”

Speaker Moses Wetang'ula, Ruto's ally, said last month that “the culture of goonism has no place in a democratic society.”

In a notable event last month, an opposition lawmaker from western Kenya was manhandled in a restaurant by men questioning his political views. Sen. Godfrey Osotsi’s injuries required hospitalization. The attack sparked protests in his home area and was condemned by religious leaders.

Ruto hasn't given up on church leaders — whose influence cuts across social networks — in his quest to retain power. His choice of where to pray on a given Sunday may be unpredictable. Sometimes church leaders, from Methodist to Pentecostal pastors, congregate near him at the statehouse.

Other religious leaders are critical, provoked most recently by insults traded between Ruto and his former deputy, Rigathi Gachagua, who fell out with the president, was impeached and now is the leader of the Wantam movement to make Ruto a one-term president.

Their exchanges can be venomous.

In March, after Gachagua called Ruto a thief who would steal a funeral home, the president called Gachagua a “cold-blooded pig” who stole from his brother.

Days later, the head of the local conference of Catholic primates, Archbishop Maurice Muhatia, rebuked Ruto and Gachagua at a gathering of bishops. “Disagreement is OK, but insulting each other in public is a disgrace,” Muhatia said. “Give us a break.”

Kenyan elections are often fractious affairs. There was a violent gang, known as Mungiki, that played a role in deadly violence that followed the 2007 election.

There is a pervasive sense this time that more is at stake, with a president who won’t back down. Some worry that Ruto is verging on authoritarianism, unlike his recent predecessors.

Kenyatta, Kenya’s fourth president, is a jolly man who tolerated internal opposition from Ruto while they served together. Mwai Kibaki, whom Kenyatta replaced, was a gentleman who once called a news conference to deny he had a second wife.

Kenya's current president is different, and goonism is “a product of gangster theology” of which Ruto is the high priest, said Christine Mungai, an independent writer based in Nairobi.

Ruto has mastered “how to perform public piety” while simultaneously working “to make life harder for everyone,” she said.

It isn't clear who Ruto's main election opponent will be. It could be Musyoka or Fred Matiang’i, a former cabinet secretary for the interior. While Gachagua is likely ineligible to seek the presidency after his impeachment, his support will be crucial for the opposition.

If Ruto and opposition figures don't tone down the rhetoric “the election is going to be very bloody,” said Karuti Kanyinga, a Kenyan development scholar who is a visiting professor at Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study in South Africa. “Everyone will have their own protection gangs.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Kenya's President William Ruto arrives to meet Sabastian Sawe who set the world record at the London Marathon, at State House in Nairobi, Kenya, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

FILE - Pro-government supporters throw stones towards protesters during a demonstration over the death of blogger Albert Ojwang in police custody, in downtown Nairobi, Kenya, Tuesday, June 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)

FILE - Kenyan presidential candidate William Ruto addresses supporters at his final electoral campaign rally at Nyayo stadium in Nairobi, Kenya Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

FILE - A suspected pro-government supporter is attacked by protesters during a demonstration over the death of blogger Albert Ojwang in police custody, in downtown Nairobi, Kenya, June 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)

FILE - Kenya's new president William Ruto holds up a ceremonial sword as he is sworn in to office at a ceremony held at Kasarani stadium in Nairobi, Kenya Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Nathan Eovaldi certainly has the New York Yankees' number — even if nobody else does lately.

The veteran right-hander cooled off Aaron Judge & Co. for the second time in eight days Wednesday night, pitching eight masterful innings for the Texas Rangers in their 6-1 victory.

“That’s the tough part, right? We don’t really do this very often, where we have to face that same team back-to-back starts," Eovaldi said. "Fortunately for me the last time it was a good one. I know I threw a lot of splitters and cutters. Today with the curveball being as effective as it was, it just allowed me to I guess rely on that pitch a little bit more, but also keep doing what was working before.”

Eovaldi threw 31 curveballs — his most in a game since 2019 with Boston, manager Skip Schumaker noted.

“The last two outings with Evo have been fantastic. I mean, today was exactly what we needed and hoped for against a really good lineup,” Schumaker said. “I thought there was a chance he'd go the distance, but I wasn't going to push him with a five-run lead.”

The 36-year-old Eovaldi, a two-time All-Star who pitched for the Yankees from 2015-16, struck out a season-best eight and walked none, firing 72 of his 101 pitches for strikes. He allowed just three hits — albeit against a lineup minus injured sluggers Ben Rice and Giancarlo Stanton — after tossing seven innings of four-hit ball in a 3-0 win over New York on April 29 at home.

"He was fooling ’em all night,” said catcher Kyle Higashioka, who spent 2017-23 with the Yankees. “He just uses all his pitches in a manner that just keeps people guessing, forcing them to commit hard or soft. I think it’s just, his stuff lends itself to really keeping guys off balance. He's always a tough at-bat and he really knows how to pitch. He’s got a great capacity for that. So I mean, it’s no surprise to me he shut ’em down twice.”

Each splendid performance snapped a three-game slide for Texas. In between, the American League-leading Yankees (25-12) scored 46 runs while going 5-0 against the Orioles and Rangers.

“You know how good that team is over there. Their game planning is elite, so you have to mix it up. You cannot get into patterns," Schumaker said. "I didn’t know what he was throwing, either. I mean, his game plan, he has such good feel for swings and what the hitters are trying to sit on. So, there’s a game plan but then he also goes out there and he can navigate a game on his own as good as anybody based on what he’s seeing. And that’s the part of the game that sometimes gets lost today, right?”

Eovaldi became the first Rangers pitcher to last longer than seven innings this year and improved to 5-2 with a 2.22 ERA in his last 11 starts against the Yankees since April 8, 2022.

“That’s the biggest thing for me is, I enjoy the challenge. I want to face the best teams, and I want to go out there and attack the zone as best I can,” Eovaldi said.

“I played here in Yankee Stadium enough to know like, how big the crowd plays into effect, how they can get the players going. It’s one of those things about being able to pitch on the road is just being able to try to take the crowd out of the game.”

New York had won eight in a row at home.

“They’re a good-hitting team, so they’re going to come out and learn from the last game, because he threw fantastic against them last week," Higashioka said. "They’re going to learn from that and they’re going to make adjustments, so we have to kind of figure out a way to mitigate that without straying too far from Evo’s strengths. So, he did a great job adjusting.”

Eovaldi thought he mixed his pitches well and said it helped that the Rangers scored early, building a 4-0 lead by the third behind homers from Corey Seager and Evan Carter.

That allowed Eovaldi to "just try to stay on the attack the whole time,” he said.

The only blip came when Judge hit his major league-best 15th homer with two outs in the sixth for the Yankees, who had won 15 of 17 overall. But that merely trimmed the margin to 6-1, and Eovaldi retired his final seven batters after that.

“It was an amazing outing," Schumaker said.

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Texas Rangers' Nathan Eovaldi pitches during the second inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Wednesday, May 6, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Yankees' Aaron Judge reacts after striking out during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers Wednesday, May 6, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Texas Rangers' Nathan Eovaldi pitches during the first inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Wednesday, May 6, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Texas Rangers' Nathan Eovaldi pitches during the first inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Wednesday, May 6, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)