Has Ruto Lived Up To His Promise To Reduce The High Cost Of Living?
The Mt Kenya Times 
President William Ruto
By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga
Worth Noting:
- Today the cost of 2kg packet of Unga has dropped from Sh230 to Sh120. He attributed this to appreciation of the Kenya shilling.
- We know that President William Ruto assumed office at a time when the disease ailing our economy was at advanced stage.
- In medical terms, the doctor would tell you. This is now an emergency case. The patient need to be immediately wheeled to Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
- The root cause of ailment was attributed to four main causes: The dilapidated economy; biting drought rated to be worst in 40 years; Heavy foreign debts; Russia-Ukraine war and at a time when the country was recovering from devastating effects of Covid-19 pandemic.
I have lately been listening to the narrative of the critics of President William Ruto. They would want Kenyans to believe that he has not lived up to his promise of bringing down the high cost of living.
I would call this cheap and baseless politics which were mainly informed by 2027 election battle.
As we know, the leaders of the opposition outfit Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition have been positioning themselves to elbow Dr Ruto out of power.
Wiper leader Kalonzo, who is perceived to be a front runner, is on record stating. Come 2027, we will teach President Ruto a big lesson.
We will send him home and make sure he goes down into annals of history as a one-term president.
The other day I heard a group of the ‘hustlers’ drawn from Mount Kenya saying. One does not need to be a rocket scientist to know that President Ruto has reduced the high cost of living.
This was before Dr Ruto waded into the same topic during his visit to Nyeri County where he attended a church service.
When I assumed office I promised you that I will walk the talk. You can now see that my efforts are bearing the fruits.
Today the cost of 2kg packet of Unga has dropped from Sh230 to Sh120. He attributed this to appreciation of the Kenya shilling.
We know that President William Ruto assumed office at a time when the disease ailing our economy was at advanced stage.
In medical terms, the doctor would tell you. This is now an emergency case. The patient need to be immediately wheeled to Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
The root cause of ailment was attributed to four main causes: The dilapidated economy; biting drought rated to be worst in 40 years; Heavy foreign debts; Russia-Ukraine war and at a time when the country was recovering from devastating effects of Covid-19 pandemic.
As a result, it dawned on President the situation was so bad than he anticipated.
He had fallen out with his boss, President Uhuru Kenyatta, and as such he remained in darkness. He would not get proper briefings from the state agencies touching on these matters.
Therefore, it is self-explanatory why he failed to fulfill some of the promises within the timelines he had set out.
Though Dr Ruto’s initial plan was to fix the economy within 6 months, he has since called on Kenyans to give him more time.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua while enumerating the strides his boss has taken in these endeavors, stated. My boss will only need one year to return the economy back on track.
For Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, this was likely to take a bit longer. He talked of two years.
The President knows the buck stops with him. So for him, he is committed to address this matter in shortest time possible.
The leadership of Azimio had taken advantage of this to launch a new battle front against President Ruto.
You can now see Dr Ruto took you for a ride. He had promised to fix the economy with six months.
Azimio would turn deaf ear to the projects and programmes he had rolled out within that period.
Besides, the coalition leaders would not tell us the miracles they would have used to turn around the economy if they won polls.
The high cost of Unga is one of the main issues that the Azimio leader Raila would use mobilize Kenyans to participate in his demonstrations that always turned chaotic, bloody and destructive. With due respect to him, this smacked of hypocrisy and dishonesty.
We know Raila was one of the core- principals of the ‘handshake government’ alongside President Uhuru Kenyatta.
During this period, the price of 2kg packet of Unga had shot to Sh230. This is while noting that the Unga, fuel, electricity subsidies were in place.
President Ruto removed the subsidy programme stating it was only benefiting a few super-rich corrupt riddled cartel.
At one point, President Ruto assured Kenyans the price is poised to come down to Sh150 and below in coming days.
God has blessed us with rain and as we know this is a planting season.
Our farmers have already planted maize and other food crops and are currently tilling their land.
So, God willing, we are expecting a bumper harvest in the next few weeks.
The prices will come down automatically.
Also, Raila capitalized in what he terms as skewed and ethnized appointments of the civil servants and state officers.
This government is only employing people from one or two communities yet Kenya has 45 tribes.
Politics aside, if you look at the list of those employed it represented the face of Kenya.
None of the community was left out.
However, I agree that certain tribes has more employees than others.
To me, this seems to a standard script read by all successive governments of independent Kenya.
Get me right. I’m not saying two wrongs can make a right.
But in my view Dr Ruto has tried to remedy this challenge.
However, allow me to say this. Raila should be the last person to fault Dr Ruto for this problem.
Before I explain, I hope many would agree. It is not possible to actualize this equality.
One example. The cabinet is comprised of 22 members. Kenya has 45 tribes.
Back to Raila, I was working with a Youth NGO when he was a prime minister in the grand coalition government.
Given the nature of my job, I visited his office several times.
I was also among those picked to attend meetings in office.
These meetings had been organized by top officials. He had instructed them to do so this after we registered reservations regarding the distribution of the funds allocated to support the youth.
There were fears these funds were being misappropriated and allocated to the old people.
This led to coining of a kiswahili mantra: Kazi kwa vijana, pesa kwa Wezee.
During these visits, one thing was clear. Majority of those employed there hailed from his community.
Ever since, many believe he has been reading the same script.
If you want to confirm this, just visit his Capitol Hills Office and ODM secretariat.
Joseph Mutua Ndonga is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi
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