A dramatic spectacle unfolded in Migori County, western Kenya, on Sunday, when President William Ruto was struck on the arm by a flying shoe while addressing a rally.
Widely shared video clips show the footwear striking the president's left arm as he held it aloft while he was speaking.
This development has been regarded as a shocking security breach that has left the Kenyan government fuming, according to the BBC.
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A new camera angle of the Migori incident appears to show the moment the shoe was accidentally thrown and the President’s security springing into action and Ruto downplaying the situation to go on with his address. pic.twitter.com/57HVeOslFi
— Kenya West (@KinyanBoy) May 5, 2025
The government described the act as "shameful."
Reports indicated that three suspects have already been arrested, though the police are yet to officially confirm this.
The now-infamous moment has sparked nationwide debate, with some lawmakers calling it a disgrace and a grave security lapse.
Dennis Itumbi, a senior official in the president's office, has described the incident as a "moment that got out of hand" suggesting that it happened by accident.
On Facebook, he shared a video taken from a different angle, which he said showed a person lifting a shoe "in jest, pretending to be a camera" and another person slapping it away, "annoyed that the 'shoe-cam' blocked his view".
"Unfortunately, it flew forward… straight toward the president," he said.
The president was addressing a crowd at a public event in the western county of Migori as part of a three-day tour of the region where he has been launching and commissioning development projects.
While the views of some ordinary Kenyans chime with the feeling that the shoe-throwing was disrespectful, others have suggested that it reflected frustrations over the state of the economy.
An official video of the event shared by the president on X does not show the shoe incident, which appears to have happened off-camera.
However, commotion within the crowd is briefly seen. The president is heard asking his security officers, who may have been about to look for the culprit, to leave the people in the audience alone.
The screen then goes blank before and minutes later the video shows other people speaking at the rally.
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The shoe-throwing incident is coming just days after growing concerns over the safety of public officials.
Last week, an opposition MP was shot dead in the capital, Nairobi, by gunmen on a motorcycle in a suspected assassination.
Nelson Koech, an MP in the president's party, said Sunday's incident was an "affront to our democracy" adding that "we have taken a joke too far".
"You can imagine if that shoe was a bullet... people joke about the security of the president. It took a very bold step for someone to take their shoe and throw it at the president. We must secure the head of state," he told local station Citizen TV.
Migori is in a region considered to be a stronghold of veteran opposition politician Raila Odinga. Odinga ran against Ruto in the 2022 presidential election but has since made a deal with the president.
The agreement signed in March between Odinga and Ruto was "to help ease the prevailing tension in the country", following deadly anti-tax demonstrations last year.
Since he became president in 2022, Ruto has faced protests from Kenyans frustrated with the cost of living and increased taxes.
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