Inside Ruto’s plan to curb high cost of living

President William Ruto ON monday during the 59th jamuhuri day celebrations took on the opposition over alleged incitement against state programmes, as he outlined plans to address the high cost of living.

In the wake of an onslaught by Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition led by its leader Raila Odinga, coupled with threats of mass action over failure by the government to reduce prices of basic commodities, the Head of State reiterated his commitment to ensuring Kenyans put food on the table.

Addressing kenyans at the Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi during the 59th Jamhuri Day celebrations , the head of state announced a three-phase approach to tackling the high cost of living.

according to the president The first phase involves ensuring farmers get access to affordable fertilisers to enhance their productivity…in this the president has time and again reterate the need to susidize farm inputs saying this and this was one of his campaign tool .

the second the head of state said “Our second agenda is that we are going to import 10 million bags of different assorted types of food, including maize, so that we can close the gap temporarily because of the harvest that was limited in this year’s agricultural season occasioned by climate change and failure of rain,”

The third intervention is the importation by government and the private sector of 300,000 tonnes (six million bags) of fertiliser before the next planting season as The government continues to subsidise the price of fertiliser and farmers will buy it at Sh3,500 a bag.

earlier raila Odinga, the opposition chief, had given the President a New Year’s Day ultimatum to address the high cost of living.

During an opposition rally at Nairobi’s Kamukunji grounds last week, Mr Odinga outlined nine key issues that he said must be addressed to ease the economic burden on Kenyans, failure to which citizens would apply their sovereign powers to engage the government directly through public protests and civil disobedience.

The Orange Democratic Movement leader called on the President to, among other things, restore flour, fuel, school fees and electricity subsidies by 2023, restore and enhance cash transfer to the elderly and vulnerable, enhance the Linda Mama programme to protect pregnant mothers and institute discipline, order and clarity in Cabinet ministers’ policy declarations.

However, the Head of State remained bullish, insisting he was in charge and would deliver on all his campaign pledges.askingh the opposition leaders to be civil and not to incite the public.Specifically, he lashed out at the opposition over attempts to derail the government’s Hustler Fund programme, which, he said is a noble cause to save Kenyans from predatory interest rates charged by shylocks.The Hustler Fund, he noted, has accumulated savings of close to Sh400 million in 12 days and was “well on track to [reach] a billion shillings in the next few days

Azimio leaders had urged Kenyans to borrow the money and not to repay, insisting that, during the campaigns, the President promised that it would not attract any interest.

Through a sound and innovative policy framework, efficient infrastructure and climate-change mitigation mechanisms, Dr Ruto said, the government could uplift the well-being of all Kenyans.

The government will also invest in the clothing and textile industry to revive cotton production.

The government, he said, continues to push to intensify national connectivity through road, rail and fibre-optic infrastructure to support production and innovation in every part of the country.