President Ruto Meets With IMF Senior Representative For Africa In China

By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga

Worth Noting:

• In a meeting with the President of International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Africa, President Ruto reportedly briefed him about his efforts to return the Kenyan economy back on track.
• My administration is being guided by some of the good ideas that you had given us.
• Notably, the talks came hot on the heels of a strong-worded statement that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) had released a few days earlier.
• The Bretton Wood institutions vehemently denounced the damning accusations of reckless lending to Kenya.
• We have over the years had engagements with the Government of Kenya. Our terms of lending have not changed.

President William Ruto is currently in China where he is attending Forum On China-Africa Cooperation.

Apart from holding bilateral talks with his host, President Xi Jinping, the Kenyan head of state has met a number of world leaders  explore areas of cooperation with Kenya.

This is in regard to identifying and laying roadmaps of tackling issues of mutual interest and benefit to their peoples.

Matters of trade, infrastructural development and security took the center stage.

Taking note that that the summit was being attended by Africa heads of state and government, the President seized this opportunity to campaign for Raila Odinga’s bid for chairmanship of Africa Union Commission.

The former Prime Minister was also there to showcase and present his credentials.

In a meeting with the President of International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Africa, President Ruto reportedly briefed him about his efforts to return the Kenyan economy back on track.

My administration is being guided by some of the good ideas that you had given us.

Notably, the talks came hot on the heels of a strong-worded statement that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) had released a few days earlier.

The Bretton Wood institutions vehemently denounced the damning accusations of reckless lending to Kenya.

We have over the years had engagements with the Government of Kenya. Our terms of lending have not changed.

The approval of the respective loans is hinged on due diligence.

Our core business is to jumpstart the economies of the countries which had been run down.

The statement by IMF and World Bank coincided with audit report released by Kenya’s Auditor General

It also came at a time when two Kenyan politicians namely Okiya Omtata and Jimmy Wanjigi had taken their claims a notch higher.

The duo wanted Kenyans to believe that a huge chunk of loan monies had been diverted to bankroll the pockets of corrupt individuals in government and their accomplices.

The two politicians, who were known to be fierce critics of President William Ruto, would not however provide tangible evidence to support their claims.

The Auditor General’s report on the other hand mainly highlighted allocations made during the reign of Ruto’s predecessor, President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The timelines for the projects being implemented by the current government have not lapsed. One can therefore understand why the Auditor gave little attention on these projects.

I’m persuaded to believe that the statement by Bretton Wood Institutions was also prompted by my earlier article in this column.

In the wake of GenZees protests, I argued that reports indicated that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had fuelled the recent Generation-Z protests.

This comes just a few days after the new National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi held talks with visiting IMF top official.

The agenda focussed on the board meeting between IMF and the government of Kenya scheduled to be held in September.

CS Mbadi had some days earlier announced that he has set up a team to review the controversial Finance Bill 2024.

President William Ruto did not reject this Bill because it was bad. But as you know the political temperature had been polluted by toxic politics.

Gen-zees had been made to believe that the Bill was punitive and oppressive and that it had been ‘drafted by the IMF’.

One thing remained clear. Those inciting them would not furnish them with tangible evidence. They would only want the young people to believe that President Ruto was being held hostage by IMF.

According to Mbadi, his team will draft a new financial blueprint that contains non-controversial and non-contentious proposals.

As you know, the government needs money to implement a raft of development projects and programmes.

If the Finance Bill 2024 sailed through, we intended to raise Sh346 billion more.

We are going to find a way of bridging this gap.

So, Mbadi reaffirmed that the National Treasury will present the revised Bill to parliament for consideration and we are hopeful that the members will approve it.

At this juncture, allow me to ask this question. Did IMF fuelled the Generation-Z protests?

I disagree. Allow me to explain why. Bretton Wood institutions do not invite themselves into a country.

Failure to live up to the terms of agreement is the main reason why many African countries have been grappling with the conditionalities.

During their respective tenures, Presidents Daniel Arap Moi, Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta faced public back-rashes.

For President Ruto, he has been assuring Kenyans that his main goal was to safe guard their economic interests.

Therefore, we are not going to embrace these conditionalities blindly.

We will only implement what is good for our country in terms of uplifting the living standards of our people. He is walking the talk.

Being a global financial institution, IMF engages both the developing countries and developed/industrialized nations.

For me, GenZ protests were a blessing in disguise for President William Ruto.

The writing was already on wall that the President was uncomfortable with several things that were happening in the country.

To avoid a political back rash, he knew that he needed to undertake some of these reforms with caution.

Gen-Z protests were timely trigger. Going by his latest pronouncements, President Ruto is committed to address this recurring problem.

In the initial stages the protests were peaceful. The President was happy to see young people coming out in big numbers to speak their mind. He in particular admired these protests because they were tribe less and party less.

Their message is clear. Kenya belongs to all of us. As your President, I have been reiterating this. So, when he dissolved  the entire cabinet, he minced no word in stating.

As he promised, President Ruto has since unveiled a new-look cabinet that is broad based, all-inclusive and composed of experts.

On IMF prescriptions, there was no doubt that he was opposed to some of them.

On reconstitution of his cabinet, the President had earlier read several riot acts to his cabinet secretaries (CSs).

In the eyes of the public, your performance is below expectation.

Some of you are totally clueless about what you are supposed to do.

I even know more than you regarding the mandate of your respective ministries.

So, I don’t see the point of having you in my cabinet.

With this, the President had drawn the line and it was only a matter of time before the he cracked the whip and sent them home.

As per the constitution, the prerogative to hire and fire members of the cabinet lies squarely with the President. The role bestowed on them is delegated. The President is the CEO of Kenya and he hires them to help him discharge the constitutional mandate of his office.

Since he assumed office, the President curves a niche of being a strong believer in the tenet of democracy and rule of law.

President Ruto followed the footsteps of former President Mwai Kibaki.

In the aftermath of 2007/2008 post election violence, Kibaki caved in to pressure and agreed to form a unity government with ODM leader Raila Odinga.

The only difference at the time was that the pressure came from the international community.

For President Ruto, he has so far managed to use his wisdom to contain pockets of violence and prevent Kenya from sliding into a full blown anarchy.

The other key demand raised by Generation-Z and millennials touched on reconstitution of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

A few days ago, the President signed the IEBC Bill into law paving the way for the recruitment of the commissioners.

The Bill emanated from the talks held at the Bomas of Kenya.

The 10-member national dialogue committee (NADCO) was co-chaired by national assembly majority leader Kimani Ichungwah and Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka.

The President was flanked opposition leaders led by Raila Odinga during the signing ceremony held at KICC.

The new law to reform the IEBC is a product of the views and memoranda presented by the people of Kenya during the public hearings.

So, we have no reason to doubt that this process will lead to formation of a truly independent commission.

We want to assure Kenyans that the commissioners will conduct a free, fair and credible polls in 2027, the opposition leaders reiterated.

Majority of Kenyans abhor use of unconstitutional means to remove a democratically government from power.

Joseph Mutua Ndonga is a Writer and Political Analyst based in Nairobi

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About the Author

Joseph Mutua Ndonga

Joseph Mutua Ndonga is a Writer and Political Analyst based in Nairobi

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