Ruto Defends Decision to Scrap Subsidies on Fuel, Food and Electricity

President Ruto has assured Kenyans of his administration’s commitment to building a strong, sustainable, and self-reliant economy.

In his New Year’s address, Ruto defended the government’s decision to suspend subsidies on fuel, electricity, school fees and food, saying it was necessary for the country’s progress.

He argued that the introduction of subsidies by the previous administration was driven by political expediency rather than the needs of the economy.

“We have to do away with those subsidies or they would cost our economy big time. We did away with the subsidies in August and I am happy that we have saved our economy a huge amount of money and we are now well on the way to making sure that we are investing in areas that will drive our economy in a sustainable way,” said Ruto.

“These are important issues. We must tell each other the truth, not short political gimmicks but solid economic policies that will take us far.”

Ruto pointed out that the tough decisions his government has made will lead to the country’s annual income growing from Sh2 trillion to Sh3 trillion in five years’ time and reduce Kenya’s reliance on foreign debt.

“I am very confident that we have now laid a foundation that will take our economy away from dependence on debt to dependence on revenues that are raised by taxpayers. We cannot drive this economy on borrowings,” he added.

The president also announced plans to hire 30,000 teachers and 3,000 tutors in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions in January.

“We are also going to hire tutors to take care of our TVET institutions because in TVETs, we have the best human capital that is tailored towards science and mathematics and the areas that are going to lead us to engineering because that is the future we are looking for,” he said.

Ruto commended the uptake of the Hustler Fund by Kenyans, saying Sh20 billion has been loaned out since the launch of the financial inclusion program on November 30th.

“We will increase the fund every month to ensure that the person who started by borrowing Sh500 is able to borrow up to Sh50,000 in no time at all,” he noted.

He also noted that the national government in partnership with county governments intends to construct more than 20,000 affordable houses for Kenyans this year in a bid to address the housing deficit.