Claims That Ruto Was Being Held Hostage By IMF And World Bank Were Borne Out Of Malice, In Bad Faith
The Mt Kenya Times 
Kenyan President William Ruto and Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), at the "New Global Financing Compact" summit in Paris on 22 June 2023. © Ammar Abd Rabbo/Abaca/Reuters
By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga
Worth Noting:
- As a way of fooling the masses, they would feature a photo of the Kenyan head of state and the President of IMF taken a long time ago.
- Ruto’s critics would further allege. Ruto said during the campaigns that his administration will never go for foreign loans.
- Today, he is doing the opposite. He had borrowed more than his predecessor. I would call this a big lie because they were yet to provide any documentary evidence. I would also have expected them to do a scientific and comparative analysis.
- I’m not holding brief for President Ruto but in my view he has not changed his position.
I have been hearing critics of President William Ruto claiming that he had surrendered his authority to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.
The country was being run by the two Bretton Wood Institutions, they would allege without providing an iota of evidence.
It is true IMF headquarter is in America and the President has made a number of trips to that country.
It is also true that President Ruto has been holding talks with the President of IMF.
You cannot however use this as a basis of making such claims.
The recent social media reports have been alleging that Dr Ruto has so far signed up foreign loans worth billions of shillings.
In most cases, the critics would come out of blue to publish these alarming claims.
They would not tell us where they got this information.
As a way of fooling the masses, they would feature a photo of the Kenyan head of state and the President of IMF taken a long time ago.
Ruto’s critics would further allege. Ruto said during the campaigns that his administration will never go for foreign loans.
Today, he is doing the opposite. He had borrowed more than his predecessor. I would call this a big lie because they were yet to provide any documentary evidence. I would also have expected them to do a scientific and comparative analysis.
I’m not holding brief for President Ruto but in my view he has not changed his position.
What meant during the campaign is that he will reduce in a big way the insatiable appetite for borrowing foreign loans that was the hallmark of the previous administration.
He has kept his word. The money that his administration has borrowed is a drop in the ocean.
It is worth noting that the IMF and World Bank have been partnering with many countries across the world.
In Kenya, the two institutions have been working together with the leaderships of the successive governments of Independent Kenya. This is on matters of resuscitation of economy and development.
They made the most memorable interventions during the era of President Daniel Arap Moi.
Upon realizing our economy was doing badly, they started to engage Moi and his administration.
This led to Bretton Wood unveiling Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs).
The public opinion was divided. Some supported the conditionalities and others argued they had been imposed terming them as a bitter pill.
At some point, the efforts started bearing the fruits. This prompted the doubting Thomases to drop their hardline stances.
President Moi had formed a team, dubbed the Dream Team, to coordinate and oversee the implementation of the SAPS. The team was led by Richard Leakey.
So, the lesson we learn here is that the pain of the IMF and World Bank prescriptions is for a while. The situation improves and get better thereafter.
Besides Moi, William Ruto’s predecessors Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta had also met and held talks with the President of the Bretton Wood Institutions.
Some of these meetings would take place in US.
The latter had made numerous trips to the USA. At one point, it dawned on President Uhuru that the economy was doing badly.
In the meantime, the Bretton Institutions were pilling pressure on him to allow them to intervene. He had no option but to succumb.
So, President Ruto took over at a time when the IMF and World Bank had already rolled out their prescriptions. His predecessor had signed them. It is therefore hard for Dr Ruto to get out. Uhuru is one who had been held hostage. Ruto is working hard to undo this.
He has so far made great strides towards rebuilding of our economy. He knows this is only way that can make them leave our country on their own volition.
Joseph Mutua Ndonga is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi
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