President William Ruto’s administration is seemingly different from that of his predecessor, retired President Uhuru Kenyatta
He continues to pile sleepless nights to his perceived opponents by laying down strategies that will see him make ten years unseated
Top of the agendas is migrating from relying on unpredictable rain fed agriculture to an irrigation fed agricultural hub
President William Ruto’s Professorial leadership versus competitor’s political rhetorics is now coming to play in his first administrative approaches
As Thomas Paine’s argued that it was absurd for an Island to rule a continent, that London was too far from America to rule it. Ruto’s unprecedented move to revamp, empower, fund agricultural and business sector hence borrowing and buying locally to sustain economy instead of relying donor funding from abroad likens Thomas Paine’s common sense of upwards or bottom-up thinking in 1776
It has been evidently seen in the past few days since he took over the baton of leadership from former President Uhuru Kenyatta at Kasarani Stadium when he appointed six bench judges rejected by his predecessor for the last two years or so
The six were Weldon Korir, Aggrey Muchelule, George Odunga, Prof Joel Ngugi who joined appellate court. They, alongside two others Evans Makori and Judith Elizabeth Cheruiyot of the High Court had been left in the cold, them too joined Environment and Land Court
Ruto, having considered the negative effects made to Mombasa businesses which was orchestrated by systematic-rich-class transfer of port of Mombasa to an Inland Container Deport in Naivasha, he revoked Uhuru’s 2018 directive that had relocated port operations to Naivasha
This was bottom-up thinking economy to benefit that ordinary man from common or ordinary family who depends or dependent on the opportunities and privileges from the operations of Mombasa port, when cargoes are cleared
But, according to Uhuru’s administration, Naivasha’s ICDs would be used as an economic hub to surrounding counties and make it convenient for neighbouring countries to clear their cargo from a central place away from coastal beehiving activities.
However, this, would pose more challenges and political hostilities especially to the residents of Mombasa for majority of local busines and workers lost their bread winning sources, piling pressure that the plan was to make central people richer
Today, residents, county government and the local companies operated under the ports have all reasons to smile after President Ruto gave back their backbone source of bread, sources of revenue and income generating source
On President Ruto’s tour to commission the Ksh 7 billion Thiba Dam at Kirinyaga on Saturday 15th October, he vowed to teach his competitors agrie-economics lessons by investing in irrigation fed agriculture than subsidising imported foods
“Our competitors must know that we’ve a different approach, them, they are subsidising consumption, us we are going to invest in production, it’s world of two different approaches and we are going to teach them agrie-economics lessons, wataelewa,” Ruto’s agribusiness take.
He insisted that his administration has a robust sustainable development plan differently from his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta for addressing the high cost of living against the devastating effects of economy
“Instead of using Ksh 8 billion per month to subsidize unga that didn’t reach to common mwananchi, we will use same amount to subsidise six million bags to help farmers produce more to caution high prices of cereals and food shortage in our country,” Ruto’s lecture points.
Ruto responded Raila Odinga’s criticism of his government and high cost of living, defending his approach on addressing high cost of living saying the focus is on long-term development strategies towards large scale based agriculture farming than expensive short-terms gains
The President also said the Hustler Fund promised during his campaign trial made to empower the vulnerable families and small scall business will be launched and available on December, 2022. This will be geared towards addressing the huge existing poverty gap between the haves and have nots
In Kirinyaga and Embu Counties, Thiba Dam will boost rice farming in the two counties to maximise the rice supply in the country as well as government’s measures through National Cereals and Produce Board, to buy off the produce from the local farmers and feed the nation
He added that the sorry state of Kenya’s economy was the result of Uhuru’s overspending on unpopular projects such as Building Bridges Initiatives, unbudgeted foreign trips and decorating of some public facilities without public participation
On his take, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua faulted Raila Odinga for not criticising the previous administration that has led Kenyans to a dilapidated economic status
“The solution we have as a country is to move from rain fed agriculture to an irrigation fed agriculture and that’s what we are doing,” Majority Leader Kimani Ichang’wa emphasised