Ruto’s Decision To Roll Out Austerity Measures Timely, Well Thought Out
The Mt Kenya Times 
President William Ruto
By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga
Worth Noting:
- In default, Kenya would be blacklisted and isolated by the international development partners and lenders. This explains why President Ruto did not take the matter lightly.
- He has so far lived up to his word. This is in terms of ensuring the repayments were being done on time.
- This, however, does not mean that we are out of wood yet. It is worth noting that six in 10 shillings collected as taxes goes towards servicing the foreign loans. President reiterated this recently when he attended a church service in Meru.
- We are left with a paltry Sh4 shillings and this is what we spend for development and recurrent expenditures.
President William Ruto assumed office at a time when the country was facing five main challenges: Dilapidated economy, hefty foreign debts, drought rated to be the worst in 40 years, Russian-Ukraine war and in early stages of recovery from Covid-19 pandemic.
Noting that he was now behind the steering wheel, Dr Ruto immediately started to pull up his socks as he did not want to let Kenyans down.
He embarked on an ambitious process of laying out a strong foundation and to build on it.
His main goal was to ensure that his administration has made great and enormous progress in addressing these challenges within the shortest time possible.
But as it turned out, the going ahead was tough than he had anticipated.
The ‘handshake’ government led by President Uhuru Kenyatta and his partner Raila Odinga had left the economy in a very bad shape.
The Uhuru regime had borrowed more than Sh9 trillion from the foreign lenders. Dr Ruto had no option but to start repaying the loans which started maturing immediately after he took over.
He knew the consequences of failing to abide by the terms of the repayment agreements were dire.
In default, Kenya would be blacklisted and isolated by the international development partners and lenders.
This explains why President Ruto did not take the matter lightly.
He has so far lived up to his word. This is in terms of ensuring the repayments were being done on time.
This, however, does not mean that we are out of wood yet. It is worth noting that six in 10 shillings collected as taxes goes towards servicing the foreign loans. President reiterated this recently when he attended a church service in Meru.
We are left with a paltry Sh4 shillings and this is what we spend for development and recurrent expenditures.
This is showed our economy is still not doing well.
But President Ruto has been leaving nothing to chance. He is working day and night in order to ensure our economy is back on track.
He took a drastic move a few days ago when he unveiled a raft of austerity measures.
In a circular released by the Head of Public Service Felix Koskei, the head of state banned the senior government officials from making unnecessary travels abroad.
The travels banned include those meant for benchmarking, training symposium and exhibitions.
The travels which are necessary will be approved by his office, he stated. He also reduced the number of the staff accompanying the officer on travel.
For cabinet secretary, one or two persons. For the others, one or travel alone.
The President issued this directive after it came to his attention that these travels were consuming a huge chunk of tax payers’ monies.
During his tenure, former President Uhuru Kenyatta had rolled out some austerity measures. I’m sure Dr Ruto, who at the time was the deputy President, learn some big lessons.
Unlike Kenyatta, we know Dr Ruto is a hand-on President.
Given this scenario, I have no reason to doubt Ruto’s commitment to ensure a strict adherence to the austerity measures.
For the officers who will make luxurious travels, there will be no reimbursements and per diems. They will have to cater for all the expenses from their own pockets.
As for the necessary and approved travels, the officers will not enjoy the luxury and comfort as it used to be.
The budgets for air tickets, accommodations and allowances have been drastically cut.
They will no longer use the Aeroplane’s First Class.
While in the host countries, they will stay in less expensive hotels.
President Ruto is setting a good example. He has been avoiding attending unnecessary foreign travels.
He would only make trips that he knew would bore the fruits for Kenya. Kenyans would reap big and become the biggest beneficiary. When Dr Ruto visited the US recently, he came back with goodies amounting to billions of shillings.
Joseph Mutua Ndonga is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi
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