Billionaire Ex-EBay CEO Meg Whitman Is Behind Biden’s Kenya Bet

Whitman, the US ambassador, is close to President William Ruto
Ruto’s crackdown on protesters has exposed risk in relations

Meg Whitman and William Ruto at the US Kenya Business Roadshow in San Francisco, California, on Sept. 15.Photographer: Kimberly White/Getty Images

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By Neil Munshi and David Herbling

June 28, 2024 at 8:08 AM EDT

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A month after Joe Biden treated William Ruto to the first state dinner for an African leader in a decade-and-a-half, the Kenyan president waged a brutal crackdown on largely peaceful anti-tax protesters that left almost two dozen people dead.

The chaos on the streets of Nairobi this week highlights the risky bet the Biden administration has made on the Kenyan leader, orchestrated largely by US Ambassador Meg Whitman, the billionaire former chief executive officer of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. and eBay Inc. who’s become a close Ruto adviser and his most important conduit to the international business community. Their ties have garnered criticism from former diplomats as well as opposition politicians.