NAIROBI, Kenya Aug 28 – President William Ruto is once again on the spot for failing to honor a promise, this time to Kenya’s national football team, Harambee Stars.Ahead of the African Nations Championships (CHAN) that kicked off on August 2, 2025, President Ruto had dangled mouth-watering incentives to motivate the squad. During a surprise visit to their Kasarani training camp, he pledged Sh1 million to each player for every win, Sh500,000 for every draw, Sh60 million if the team reached the quarterfinals, Sh70 million bonus if the team were to make to the semi-finals and staggering Sh600 million if they were to clinch the title.The Stars did their part. They battled through the group stages, beating DR Congo, Morocco, and Zambia while drawing with Angola, before eventually bowing out in the quarterfinals against Madagascar on penalties. By President Ruto’s word, the team should have walked away with Sh60 million in reward money for reaching the quarterfinals on top of the per-match winnings.But on Thursday, August 28, when President Ruto hosted the players for a luncheon at State House, the President was conspicuously silent about the Sh60 million pledge. Instead, he offered them a different package altogether.A Sh1 million deposit toward a Sh2 million affordable housing unit for each player leaving them to source the other half. “The only free thing is this lunch at State House,” President Ruto quipped during his speech, making it clear there would be no outright cash reward for the team’s CHAN feat.President Ruto was categorical that the deal could not be converted into cash, insisting, “there is no room for exchanging the house for money.”That omission has left many questioning whether the promise was ever serious or just another in a long line of broken commitments.– A pattern of empty promises –This is not the first time President Ruto has walked back on football pledges. In October 2018, while serving as Deputy President, he promised Harambee Stars players Sh50 million if they qualified for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).Kenya did qualify, but no record of the payout has ever been made public.President Ruto’s political opponents have frequently accused him of making lofty promises that rarely translate into reality, whether on the campaign trail with economic pledges or in sports. The CHAN pledge fiasco now adds to that record.To be clear, the government did honour the match-based pledges. It awarded Sh1 million for the win against DR Congo, Sh500,000 for the draw against Angola, another Sh1 million for the victory over Morocco, and Sh2.5 million for defeating Zambia.Combined with a Sh500,000 bonus from former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, the players pocketed about Sh5.5 million each, plus allowances from the Football Kenya Federation (FKF). They also earned Sh58 million in prize money from CAF for reaching the quarterfinals.But the missing Sh60 million presidential pledge which President Ruto himself personally announced remains unaccounted for.As Kenyans celebrated the Stars’ impressive CHAN run, President Ruto’s silence on his pledge has reignited debate about whether his word can be trusted. Was the promise of Sh60 million a genuine reward plan, or just a populist stunt to drum up excitement before the tournament?For a President already dogged by accusations of broken campaign promises, Harambee Stars’ vanishing reward risks cementing an uncomfortable narrative: that when it comes to President Ruto’s pledges, the cheque is rarely in the mail.