The Mt Kenya Times 
President William Ruto
By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga
Worth Noting:
- Reacting to the fears that budget statement presented by Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndungu cannot be altered, Ndindi Nyoro, the Kiharu MP, assured Kenyans that the statement is not cast on stone.
- We have heard you the people of Kenya. I want to assure you that we had retreated to review the Finance Bill 2024. So, we have considered your views and captured them in the final report which we will present on the floor of parliament.
- For instance, you wanted us to reinstate the school feeding programme and allocate enough funds of employing Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers on permanent and pensionable terms. We have already done that. You also wanted us to remove or reduce the VAT on bread.
I have been following with keen interest the debate surrounding the Finance Bill 2024. The critics of President William Ruto want Kenyans to believe that the proposed taxes were punitive.
They were being overtaxed because President Ruto was ‘no longer championing their interest’. He had instead caved in to pressure from the US and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Some critics would even allege the Bill had been drafted by IMF.
They would not provide an iota of evidence to support their claims even after being challenged to do so.
I’m not holding brief for the President but I want to make one thing clear. Dr Ruto is a hands-on President. Since he assumed office, he has been very vocal and firm when it comes to safeguarding the interest of all Kenyans.
The rules governing IMF barred the institution from interfering with budget making processes of a sovereign state. So, you would expect Dr Ruto to allow IMF officials to bend their own rules.
Besides, after discerning the Institution’s advisory opinions, he would reject conditionalities that were unpalatable.
Therefore, the narrative by Ruto’s critics that Kenyans were being overtaxed did not hold any water.
In Kenya, the tax was capped at 14 percent. This is unlike other countries in Africa where the tax ranges between 22 to 25 percent.
In Europe, the taxes were even higher. In France, for instance, the tax was capped at 45 percent.
In Kenya, the budget making process goes through numerous stages. One of them is public participation.
As I write this piece, Ndindi Nyoro led Budget and Appropriation and that of Finance and National Planning have already completed gathering the views of Kenyans.
Reacting to the fears that budget statement presented by Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndungu cannot be altered, Ndindi Nyoro, the Kiharu MP, assured Kenyans that the statement is not cast on stone.
We have heard you the people of Kenya. I want to assure you that we had retreated to review the Finance Bill 2024. So, we have considered your views and captured them in the final report which we will present on the floor of parliament.
For instance, you wanted us to reinstate the school feeding programme and allocate enough funds of employing Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers on permanent and pensionable terms. We have already done that. You also wanted us to remove or reduce the VAT on bread.
I had earlier written an article in this column touching on the same topic. The name of David Ndii, President William Ruto’s head of economic advisors, was always mentioned whenever the discourse surrounding the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) policies came up.
The comments posted on social media lately suggested that Ndii was misleading and mis-advising President William Ruto. This is in regard to what those attacking him term as tough economic conditions imposed on Kenyans by IMF and World Bank.
To them, the two Bretton Wood Institutions were working at the behest of the US government and pushing her economic agenda that is selfish and self centered.
I totally want to distance myself from these comments. I’m not doing this out of naivety and let no one misconstrue my position to mean holding brief for David Ndii and his team of economic advisors.
For starters, Ndii is a world renowned top notch economist.
So, President Ruto’s decision to appoint him to drive his economic agenda was wise and well informed.
Having interacted closely with him during the push for the new constitutional dispensation, I know Ndii’s knowledge and grasp of matters of resuscitating and reviving the economy is immeasurable.
It is worth noting that Kenya is not the only country that has been having engagements with IMF and World Bank.
Many countries across the world including the developed nations were also embracing these policies.
The critics wanted President Ruto to fail in terms of returning the economy back on track. Remember Dr Ruto had inherited a dilapidated economy.
Ndii has been very keen in terms of discerning IMF and World Bank conditions.
As such, he was advising the President to implement what is a good for the country.
Sometimes back, the Bretton Institutions had raised complaint after the Government of Kenya turned deaf ear to one of their conditiionalities.
Yes, people would feel the pinch but this was for a short time. Things were bound to get better and they would reap maximum benefits.
We all know that President Ruto’s position was very clear during the electioneering period.
Borrowing is not a bad idea. Even developed countries resort to borrowing to rebuild their economies.
It becomes a problem when you resort to reckless borrowing and eventually take loan money that exceeds or at par with Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
He always fingered the outgoing government of President Uhuru Kenyatta for having developed insatiable appetite for borrowing. This will never happen If I win the elections.
Dr Ruto has been walking the talk. This while noting this is one of the burden he inherited.
During Uhuru’s era, it dawned on IMF and World Bank that our economy was not doing well.
Left with no option, President Uhuru had to cave in to their pressure.
It is true we have been seeing President Ruto holding talks with the President of IMF. This is not something new. The other world leaders do the same.
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.
President Ruto has not changed his position.
What he 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 have borrowed so far is a drop in the ocean.
In Kenya, the two institutions have been partnering with 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 the introduction of 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.
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 have had engagements with Bretton Wood Institutions. This heralded in accepting the loans they offered and conditionalities attached.
Each administration would also prioritize on the issue of enhancing and expanding tax collection base. This is by drafting and enacting tax regime to fast track the process. President Kibaki is the one who had coined a slogan ‘Kulipa Ushuru Ni Kujitegemea’.
A day had been set aside to cerebrate and reward Kenyans who paid their full taxes on time, thus complying with tax laws and regulations. Just like Ruto, Kibaki and Uhuru would mince no in calling on tax man to pursue tax defaulters. Every Kenyan must pay their taxes.
Some of Uhuru’s meetings with Bretton Wood were held at their headquarters in US.
Dr Ruto 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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