Ruto’s former classmate’s revelation has Kenyans laughing out loud and digging up old photos after a woman from his primary school days shared a cheeky story that caught fire online. The woman, who sat in the same class as President William Ruto at Kerotet Primary School, remembered everything like it happened last week. She said back in Standard 5 the young boy everyone called Wilberforce got into a proper scrap with a girl classmate.
They went at it hard until he lost one of his front teeth. No fancy details about what started the fight – maybe a stolen rubber or who got to the swing first – but the tooth was gone for good.
She laughed while telling it. “We used to call him Wilberforce then,” she said, shaking her head at the memory. “Not William. Just Wilberforce.” The name alone has people doing double takes.
It sounds straight out of an old church register, the kind of serious name parents gave kids in the villages around Eldoret in those days. Kerotet Primary was a simple rural school, with dust on the floors, kids walking long distances, and plenty of rough-and-tumble play during break time. Nobody there could have guessed one of their own would one day run the country.
Kenyans are having a field day with it. One guy posted an old black-and-white photo of a gap-toothed boy and wrote, “President Ruto before the presidential smile.”
Others made quick memes showing a cartoon kid with a missing tooth and the caption “Wilberforce vs the girl in STD 5″. Even serious political accounts joined in, saying stories like this remind us that leaders start as ordinary kids who make mistakes and learn from them.
It’s the kind of tale that softens the image people have of Ruto. These days he’s the no-nonsense president who talks tough on the economy and faces crowds without blinking.
But back then he was just another boy in shorts, fighting over nothing and paying the price with a front tooth. The woman classmate didn’t sound bitter or out to score points.
She told the story with warmth, like someone proud to have shared a classroom with him once upon a time. She even added that the whole class knew him as the one who never backed down, even from girls.
Social media reactions split between funny and thoughtful ones. Some older Kenyans who went to similar village schools wrote in saying fights like that were normal.
“We all lost a tooth or two growing up,” one comment read. Younger followers wanted to know more about the school. They asked if Kerotet still stands, what the classrooms look like now, and whether any teachers from that era are still alive to confirm the story. A few jokers wondered if the girl he fought was out there somewhere, watching the president on TV and smiling to herself.
This isn’t the first time old-school friends have popped up with Ruto stories. Over the years a handful of classmates have spoken about his determination even as a boy – walking to school barefoot some days, helping on the family farm, and always pushing ahead. But the tooth fight adds a new layer.
It paints a picture of a kid who wasn’t afraid to mix it up. And the Wilberforce name? It feels like a window into a simpler time before the world knew him as Ruto.
The video dropped at just the right moment too. With politics always hot and people looking for lighter stories between the big headlines, this one gave everyone a break.
No policy debates or scandals – just a primary school memory that makes the president seem a little more human. Some supporters say it shows his fighting spirit started early. Critics turned it into light teasing, asking if he still loses arguments the same way.
For now the woman hasn’t given her full name or done more interviews. She seems happy just sharing the memory and letting it spread on its own. The place that once saw a boy named Wilberforce lose a tooth is suddenly part of a national conversation.
It all circles back to the same point Kenyans keep coming to when these stories surface: leaders don’t drop from the sky. They come from dusty classrooms and village fights and have names their parents chose with hope.
Whether the STD 5 story is 100 per cent accurate or just one woman’s fond memory, it has done what good old tales always do – brought people together for a laugh and a quick trip down memory lane.
The president hasn’t responded yet, and he probably won’t. But somewhere in the State House he might hear about it and smile – or at least run his tongue over that fixed tooth and remember the girl who gave him the fight of his young life.
In a country that loves its leaders’ backstories, this former classmate tale of Ruto’s has already earned its spot in the collection. People will keep sharing it, adding their own twists, and for a little while everyone gets to see the man in charge as the boy he once was.
