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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) \u2014 Kenyans disaffected with President William Ruto<\/a> hold placards proclaiming \u201cWANTAM,\u201d a sensational slogan distilling their efforts to disgrace him as a \u201cone-term\u201d leader. They stick their index fingers in the air, saying Ruto must vacate the presidency when his term expires in 2027.<\/p>\n For others who want him gone only three years after he was elected<\/a>, even that’s a long time.<\/p>\n Kenya’s fifth president became a remarkably unpopular leader barely two years into his presidency after proposing aggressive tax measures that many saw as a betrayal of his campaign promise to support working-class people. Ruto said new taxes were necessary to keep the government running.<\/p>\n Protests intensify<\/p>\n Ruto survived the tax-protest movement last year as thousands of young people took to the streets in an unsuccessful attempt to force his resignation. In the most violent incident that left at least 22 people dead, protesters sacked and attempted to burn the parliamentary building<\/a> in the capital, Nairobi. Ruto said that would never happen again.<\/p>\n Ruto now faces a new wave of protests<\/a> provoked most recently by the death of a blogger in police custody<\/a>. Many Kenyans saw the incident as symptomatic of bad rule in Kenya, with the president firmly in control of the legislature and security apparatus.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has control of the institutions, but he doesn’t have control of the people,\u201d said Karuti Kanyinga, an analyst and professor of development studies at the University of Nairobi. He noted Ruto suffers such \u201ca low level of public confidence\u201d that he is probably the most hated man in Kenya.<\/p>\n Ruto likely will stay in power until 2027, but \u201cviolence will continue to deepen\u201d as young people, opposition politicians and others try to make an example of him in an escalating campaign to reform Kenya’s government, Kanyinga warned.<\/p>\n Public discontent<\/p>\n Protesters say they want to rid the government of corruption, marked by theft of public resources and the seemingly extravagant lifestyles of politicians. Some disparage Ruto as \u201cZakayo,\u201d referring to the biblical tax collector Zacchaeus, and others call him \u201cmwizi,” Kiswahili for thief.<\/p>\n The demonstrators also are inflamed by what they see as incessant deal-making under Ruto, who last year was forced to terminate an agreement worth an estimated $2 billion<\/a> that would have seen Kenya’s main airport controlled by the Indian conglomerate Adani Group.<\/p>\n That deal, which became public months after security forces violently quelled anti-tax protests, reignited public discontent and reinforced a view of Ruto as unrepentant and unwilling to listen to his people.<\/p>\n To a degree rare for an African leader, Ruto constantly speaks about efforts to expand the tax base. His negotiations for new debt with the International Monetary Fund have drawn criticism from those who say proposed reforms will hurt poor people while benefitting politicians and the business class.<\/p>\n Last year, he told Harvard Business School\u2019s Class of 2025 that he wasn\u2019t going to preside over \u201ca bankrupt country.\u201d<\/p>\n Protesters are \u201cnot feeling heard and there’s a sense that things have not really changed since the protests last year,\u201d said Meron Elias, an analyst in Kenya with the International Crisis Group. \u201cThere’s a lot of grief and bitterness from last year’s protest that is also feeding into current tensions.\u201d<\/p>\n Peter Kairu, a 21-year-old student, agreed, saying he didn’t expect the government to address issues of corruption and nepotism raised by the protesters.<\/p>\n \u201cUntil we ourselves become the change we want,” he said.<\/p>\n Eileen Muga, who is unemployed in Nairobi, expressed safety concerns about disappearing \u201cthe moment you say something about the government.”<\/p>\n After thousands of people marched in Nairobi last week<\/a> to mark the anniversary of the previous year’s anti-tax protests, Ruto said he was not going anywhere, warning if there was no Kenya for him, that also would be the case for others.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we go this route, we will not have a country,\u201d he said of the protest movement. \u201cYes, and the country does not belong to William Ruto. The country belongs to all of us. And if there’s no country for William Ruto, there’s no country for you.\u201d<\/p>\n The speech was characteristic of Ruto and underscored why many Kenyans are afraid of him even as they try to challenge him.<\/p>\n Kipchumba Murkomen, Ruto\u2019s interior minister, has also spoken forcefully against protesters, saying they will be dealt with harshly.<\/p>\n A history of political maneuvering<\/p>\n Years ago, as Kenya’s deputy president, Ruto outmaneuvered his predecessor, Uhuru Kenyatta<\/a>, in a bad-tempered power struggle that the president lost.<\/p>\n Photos sometimes showed Ruto glowering over Kenyatta. The local press reported an incident when Ruto was so angry with his boss that he felt he wanted to slap him. The two embodied a close, almost brotherly relationship in their first term but quickly fell out at the beginning of their second when Kenyatta tried to dismantle Ruto’s sway over the official bureaucracy.<\/p>\n