By Prudence Minayo
Charlene Chelagat Ruto is the second born daughter of Kenya’s president elect Dr. William Ruto. His father started out as a chicken seller and went on to build a fortune thanks to his political connections and shrewdness in business. Charlene is seemingly following in her dad’s footsteps. She is a co-director-alongside her mother Rachel Ruto- at Matiny Limited.
WoK lists her shares and powerful position she holds in her father’s multi-billion investment.
Shareholding and Position
Matiny Ltd has minority shares at Weston Hotel where Charlene Ruto serves as the head of Public Relations and Branding. She owns 10,013 shares at the hotel. Nestled within Lang’ata, Weston Hotel is a 5-minute drive from Nairobi Central Business District and 15 minute drive from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
She is in charge of maintaining the image of the brand. The duties in this position include: organizing publicity strategies and campaigns, dealing with the media and press conferences, and looking at inquiries from the public. She has acted in this capacity since 2018.
Through Matiny, Charlene and her mother also own Sh20 million Woodley property.
Other Jobs:
Prior to her role at Westwood, she served as a Public Relations and Media Relations Officer at MODE- Mobile Decisioning Holding Limited from May 2015 to May 2017. Her responsibilities in this role included:
- Planning and implementing the PR and media relations strategies
- Maintaining and updating information on the website of the organization
- Liaising and answering inquiries from individuals, the media and other organizations
- Ensuring that the marketing PR budget is adhered to
- Monitoring, evaluating and reporting on PR market conditions
- Researching, writing and distributing press releases to targeted media.
She also worked as a PR and Media Relations Intern at Mobile Decisioning Africa Ltd.
Education
She pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Communication at Daystar University and a Master of Business Administration- Hospitality Administration/ Management at Les Roches Crans-Montana Global Hospitality. The Daystar alumni was also a Foreign Exchange student at Northwestern college from August 2012 to January 2013.
