Mr. Ruto enjoys a famously close relationship with the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, Meg Whitman, a former American business executive who last summer accompanied him on a tour of Silicon Valley that included visits to Google, Apple and Intel.

Ms. Whitman, a former C.E.O. at Hewlett-Packard and eBay, has become a vocal advocate for American businesses to set up in Kenya, a thriving hub of tech startups and innovation sometimes called Africa’s Silicon Savannah.

American and Kenyan officials say that Mr. Ruto and Ms. Whitman often speak informally on the phone, sometimes with little notice. Ms. Whitman has drawn strong criticism from Kenyan opposition leaders who say she shows Mr. Ruto excessive favor.

“I want to tell the rogue ambassador, leave Kenyans alone,” Raila Odinga, a veteran opposition leader who lost the contested 2022 election to Mr. Ruto, said last August.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5545268&forum_id=2/#47777118)