President William Ruto’s arrival in Addis Ababa for the Africa Climate Summit was expected to highlight Kenya’s voice in shaping the continent’s green future. Yet, a different detail caught attention, the plane he used.
Ruto touched down aboard a Gulfstream Aerospace GV, operated by Skymark Executive (SMB). Unlike the official presidential fleet, this aircraft is not usually associated with State House travel.
According to aviation tracker Ch Aviation, the GV is Skymark Executive’s first Africa-based jet, stationed at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to meet rising demand for VIP charters across the region.
The jet, tail number T7-VVV, is configured for up to 18 passengers; its cabin features leather seating and luxury fittings designed for maximum comfort.
Ruto vs Austerity
This is not the first time Ruto’s choice of air travel has raised eyebrows. In 2023, he faced public uproar for hiring a private jet (a chartered luxury Boeing 737-700 business jet) from Dubai at a cost reported to be tens of millions of shillings on his historic state visit to the United States of America.
Ruto defended himself, arguing the cost was far lower than claimed and that commercial flights were impractical for presidential security and scheduling, as well as famously saying it was more expensive to charter a Kenya Airways aircraft.
Still, the optics of chartering foreign jets while calling for austerity measures angered many Kenyans.
The Addis Ababa flight now adds fuel to an ongoing debate about executive travel expenditure.
The Controller of Budget, Margaret Nyakang’o, recently raised the alarm over what she termed “excessive executive travel”.
According to her report, the national government spent Ksh.25.46 billion on local and foreign travel between July 2024 and June 2025.
The figure represents only a marginal reduction of Ksh.1.7 billion, far short of the Ksh.11 billion cut Ruto pledged two years ago when he promised to slash government travel spending by half to free funds for development.
The issue is further complicated by past discussions in Parliament. National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah has previously floated the idea of upgrading Kenya’s official VIP jets, which he said were outdated and prone to technical challenges.
That suggestion sparked mixed reactions, with some MPs supporting the move for security reasons while others decried it as unnecessary extravagance.
With the Skymark GV now in the spotlight, the question lingers: should Kenya invest in modern state VIP aircraft to reduce reliance on expensive private charters, or should the president scale back on executive luxuries in line with his government’s austerity promises?
