Kenyan President William Ruto spent Tuesday trying to defuse a diplomatic row with Nigeria over comments he made mocking Nigerian English, insisting he was misquoted — then drawing fresh laughter by making a near-identical remark while walking it back.
The original remarks were made on April 23 when Ruto addressed Kenyans living in Italy, praising Kenya’s education system and declaring its English proficiency among the best in the world, before suggesting that understanding Nigerians speaking English required a translator. The comments were recorded and circulated widely online, triggering backlash across both countries.
Critics accused Ruto of demeaning a fellow African nation and reinforcing colonial-era attitudes toward language. Former Nigerian Senator Shehu Sani pushed back directly, noting that Nigeria is home to a Nobel Prize winner in literature.
Speaking on Tuesday at the Mining Investment Conference and Expo in Nairobi, Ruto sought to contain the damage while Nigerian Minister of Solid Minerals Development Henry Dele Alake sat in the audience.
“I was misquoted. I hope there will be no consequences,” Ruto said, drawing laughter and applause from delegates. He sent greetings to President Bola Tinubu and described Nigerians as his “in-laws,” before insisting the original remarks had been taken out of a private conversation and distorted.
“I was talking about how we in Africa speak good English, all of us. And in some countries like Nigeria, if you do not speak excellent English like the one we speak in Kenya, you might need a translator to understand it,” he said, again to laughter from the room.
Nigeria’s minister responded in kind. “The people of Nigeria have mandated me to inform you and assure you that Nigerians speak good English,” Alake said, to laughter from the conference floor.
The episode has a longer diplomatic thread. The controversy followed earlier remarks by President Tinubu, who urged Nigerians to be grateful for their economic situation and suggested they were better off than counterparts in other African countries, with an indirect reference to Kenya. Ruto’s Italy comments were widely seen as a pointed response.
Both Kenya and Nigeria use English as an official language, with each country’s distinct accent and expression reflecting its own cultural and linguistic identity.
