By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga
Worth Noting:
- It is worth noting that President Ruto and DP Gachagua ascended to power at a time when the country was facing five major challenges; dilapidated economy, the bitting drought rated as the worst in 40 years, Russian-Ukraine war, hefty foreign debts totaling to 9 trillion and when Kenya was recovering from the devastating effects of Covid-19 pandemic.
- President Ruto’s predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta had made numerous trips during the first term of his presidency.
- The opposition leaders resorted to faulting him. Uhuru is spending a huge chunk of public funds in these trips. Kenyans are not getting value for their monies.
President William is currently on a state visit in Saudi Arabia. This trip was long overdue.
Let me explain why? As the Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua observed recently, Dr Ruto is the father of this Nation. He was answering those faulting him for allegedly making so many foreign trips.
Gachagua noted: The total cost of this project that we are launching here today exceeds 2 billion. These monies are not coming from the public coffers.
The government of Kenya have successfully negotiated and secured the grant and funding from foreign development partners.
These are some of fruits we are reaping from the President’s trips.
Gachagua, who spoke in the presence of the head of state in Mombasa, urged Dr Ruto to continue making these trips.
You can make as many trips as you can. There are good for our country.
We know the intention of those faulting you. They do not want to see you succeeding in fulfilling the promises that you made to the people of Kenya during the campaigns.
It is worth noting that President Ruto and DP Gachagua ascended to power at a time when the country was facing five major challenges; dilapidated economy, the bitting drought rated as the worst in 40 years, Russian-Ukraine war, hefty foreign debts totaling to 9 trillion and when Kenya was recovering from the devastating effects of Covid-19 pandemic.
President Ruto’s predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta had made numerous trips during the first term of his presidency.
The opposition leaders resorted to faulting him. Uhuru is spending a huge chunk of public funds in these trips. Kenyans are not getting value for their monies.
This ‘noise’ disappeared during the second term after President agreed to shake hands with opposition leader Raila Odinga. At a time, Raila accompanied the President in these trips.
They are the same politicians who are today criticizing Dr Ruto. Do they expect Kenyans to believe them?
They were simply doing this because Ruto has refused to succumb to their blackmail and intimidation.
They initially thought that the street demonstrations would help them to have their way.
But Dr Ruto and his deputy stood their ground. We know you are pushing us to share the government with you.
You developed a bad habit. This time, forget ‘nusu mkate’ (half loaf). We defeated you at the ballot in a broad daylight. Stick to your lane of the opposition.
You are free to criticize us from morning to evening. You are however required to play your role in a structured and constructive matter.
For starters, Saudi Arabia is the world’s leading oil producer.
One of the measures that President Ruto had crafted to ease the burden he had inherited was to approach the top leadership of Saudi. The talks bore the fruits leading to the signing of the government-to-government agreement.
Saudi agreed to supply oil to Kenya for six months on credit. One of the clause stated. Kenya will use the KSH to clear the debts.
But reports later indicated that the Saudi government changed the mind. We now say no to Kenya shilling. When the time come, we want you to use the US dollars to pay the debts.
One can therefore understand why President Ruto’s latest trip to Saudi was long overdue. There was need to hold a bilateral talks with the King of Saudi.
For Dr Ruto, the main agenda is to sort out the grey areas in this oil deal. If the Saudi insists on dollar, then the question is. Would you give us more time to repay the debt? Would review the interest rate downward?
It is also worth noting that many Kenyans were working in Saudi Arabia. Infact, Saudi was arguably the leading foreign country offering jobs to Kenyans.
President Ruto had a few months earlier announced that Saudi had agreed to offer Kenya hundreds of thousands of jobs opportunities.
During the reigns of President Mwai Kibaki and his successor Uhuru Kenyatta, cases of Kenyans working there being mistreated had rose up. Most of the victims were those doing menial jobs more so house helps.
There were isolated cases of deaths resulting from assault, thorough beatings and rape.
After President Ruto assumed office, he immediately started to engage the Saudi government. His efforts bore the fruits. Lately, we have not been hearing such cases.
Just like the trips he has made to other countries mostly industrialized and developed ones, Kenya stands to reap big from Ruto’s latest trip. This is in terms of deepening and strengthening ties between Kenya and Saudi.
Besides oil deals and matters of employment, I’m sure president Ruto would take this opportunity to showcase Kenya’s potential in other sectors of our economy. He will invite Saudis to buy our coffee, tea and other farm produce.Β
Joseph Mutua Ndonga is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi
