In both his presidencies, especially in his second term in office, US President Donald John Trump has sought to project himself as a strong, tough leader. To him, this means he’s effective and is getting things done for Americans. To me, the strong, tough character he has displayed so far is more in the mould of a dictator. In fact, Trump is reminiscent of Kenya’s second president, Daniel arap Moi, who qualified to be called a dictator. Here’s how.

Loyalty, Above All Else

For his second term, Trump chose staff, a Cabinet and senior government officials who are loyal to him first. Competence and suitability do not matter. Being a Republican is not enough.

In his first term Trump appointed competent and suitable Republicans to key positions. They regularly disagreed with him on key policies and actions, at times in public.

Second time round, Trump is having none of it.

Similarly, during his heyday as president, Moi demanded unquestioning loyalty from his Cabinet and other senior government officials. The Cabinet and senior government officials were required to be fully paid-up life members of the sole political party, the Kenya African National Union.

To mark Moi’s 10 years in office, the Cabinet, senior government officials and legislators were all required to wear a lapel badge of his portrait, set in a gold circle. To keep them on their toes, Moi announced changes in government on the 1p.m. radio news bulletin, without warning those affected. The state-owned Voice of Kenya was the only radio station at the time.

The Great Leader’s Name, Everywhere

One thing Trump has done that is unusual, in the United States, is to rename institutions after himself. Generally, in the US, public institutions are named in honour of dead leaders. 

In December last year, Trump named the 61-year-old John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts and the 40-year-old United States Institute of Peace after himself.

The Kennedy Center, as it is commonly known, and the USIP were created by a law and the US Congress regularly allocates funding for them. Previously, these institutions were treated as non-partisan and operated autonomously. In the case of the Kennedy Center, Trump removed the chairperson, appointed himself the chair, and appointed a number of loyalists to the center’s board. This is the board that made the decision to rename the center, The Donald J Trump and John F Kennedy Memorial Center for Performing Arts.

Moi went overboard. 

During his 24-year tenure as president, Moi named after himself government stadia; a civilian airport; air force bases; government tea farms; a national government-owned bus service; a government-owned car manufacturer; a housing estate in Nairobi; blocks of flats in Nairobi; government hospital wards; a university and its teaching hospital; government high schools (the majority of them girls’ schools); and government primary schools.

The majority of these institutions and buildings are named Moi such as Moi International Sports Centre (commonly known as Kasarani stadium). A smaller group of government buildings and institutions are or were named Nyayo, one of Moi’s nicknames. The nickname is adapted from Moi’s comment soon after he first took office that he would fuata nyayo za Mzee, or follow in Jomo Kenyatta’s footsteps, when he became president after Kenyatta died in August 1978.

Media Control

In the run-up to the US presidential election of November 2024, Trump sued ABC News and CBS for coverage he thought was biased or slanderous. Weeks after he was declared the winner of that vote, ABC News settled their case with him, agreeing to contribute US$15 million towards Trump’s presidential library. CBS’s parent company, Paramount, settled with Trump, agreeing to pay US$16 million. This was despite the assessment of legal experts that Trump would have likely lost those cases.

Trump has also targeted media that is funded by the US government. His administration effectively closed the 83-year-old government-run Voice of America by ordering more than 1,000 staff members to go on paid leave. Trump officials argued that VOA should focus more on the administration’s work rather than simply report the news. VOA journalists sued the government and on March 17 a judge ordered the US government to reopen VOA, giving it a week to come up with a plan to return VOA back on air. The administration has said it will appeal the decision.

For the first decade of his presidency, Moi allowed only one broadcaster to exist, the state-owned Voice of Kenya. When the government decided to “open the airwaves”, it awarded Kenya Television Network Channel 62 the first license to be given to a private television station. KTN 62 was owned by KANU, with some investment by Robert Maxwell, at the time the owner of Britain’s Daily Mirror newspaper. Maxwell co-owned the Kenya Times newspaper with KANU through the Kenya Times Media Trust.

Seems like the dictator’s playbook is eternal.