It is a street business that started in Kenya in 2002 and which worked, if it was going well, for a few weeks every five years and at worst every ten. When the election result proclaimed a new president and did not confirm the mandate of the previous one.
This was the production and sale of portraits of the new president, already framed, to be hung in one's office or shop as required by law, established since Kenya's independence in 1963, with the portrait of the father of the fatherland Jomo Kenyatta replacing that of the recently deceased Queen Elizabeth II.
Street vendors of portraits of the president roamed around towns and cities and stood at the entrance of every business decked out like Christmas trees with the replicated face of the 'rais' instead of balls. Almost a metaphor. A few days after the new president took office, however, another parade would begin, that of police or government officials who would come by to check that the portrait had been changed and threaten heavy fines for those who did not comply (we all know how that almost always ended).
We are speaking in the past tense, because this year the portrait dealers on the streets have disappeared. Not so much out of habit, after Kenyatta's confirmation in 2017, but because the law is no longer clear.
Is it compulsory for everyone to keep the president's photo in plain view in a public place or will it only be in government offices? Do banks, insurance companies and other institutions that provide basic services have to post it or not?
Certainly all institutional settings, from police stations to hospitals and government offices will have to display the portrait of the new President William Ruto. This is why the government, the day after the swearing in of the nation's new leader, made it known what the official portrait to be used should be.

So, although the news is passing in the background and there are no vendors around, will it be compulsory for everyone to post President Ruto's portrait this year?

According to media reports, the government is thinking about it, because there is no real law stating that not only premises directly or indirectly connected with the state, but also companies and individuals open to the public must have it. To purchase it, meanwhile, the Ministry of Telecommunications has warned that the official one will be found in various government administrative offices in every district of the country for only Kes. 300.
Another bang for the hawkers' buck. In any case, even in this latest statement, there is no mention of an obligation for private individuals.
The last indication of this came in 2013 through the voice of then Telecommunications Minister Bitange Ndemo who announced: 'Government offices are obliged to display portraits. Those in the private sector can do so as they please."
During the disputed 2017 elections that were rerun and still enshrined President Kenyatta's second term in office and the defeat of Raila Odinga and consequently the 'no-change' of the portraits, the Ministry of Home Affairs had been forced to issue a notice warning traders not to remove Kenyatta's portraits in rebellion, following directives issued by Odinga's opposition.
A case had thus been raised: was simply removing the presidential portrait from a private business therefore a crime?

Government spokesman Manoah Esipisu finally declared that it was not compulsory for citizens to display the president's portrait, although everyone was advised to do so to maintain tradition. But even this is only a statement.

"Even in government offices, it is customary in democracies around the world to display the portrait of the sitting president. For others, there is no legal obligation to do so'. Said the governor of Makueni, Mutula Kilonzo.

Probably only Ruto's entourage or he himself will be able to remove the last doubt and decide whether to opt for a return 'to the old' or leave it to the individual citizens, without allowing anyone to take advantage of it. With good grace for the walking Christmas trees.