Deputy President William Ruto has asked politicians to stop insulting ordinary Kenyans.
He said it is the millions of Kenyans at the base of the wealth pyramid that drive the country’s economy through their small businesses.
Ruto noted that Kenya’s politics was shifting to a new path that was keen on the economy “and some politicians are finding it hard to adjust in the strange territory”.
“They are used to talking about leaders, positions, power and the change of the Constitution. That is why they are now engaging in abusing Hustlers,” Ruto said.
He was speaking on Friday when he met grassroot leaders from Kiambu at his Karen Residence.
MPs present were Kimani Ichung’wa (Kikuyu), George Koimburi (Juja), John Wanjiku (Kiambaa), John Mutunga (Tigania West), Jayne Kihara (Naivasha), Irungu Kang’ata (Murang’a), John Kiarie (Dagoretti South) and George Kariuki (Ndia).
But even with the insults directed at Mama mbogas, matatu operators, among others, Ruto said he was determined to advance the conversation on the economic empowerment of Kenyans.
“It is possible to conduct the politics that unites our country. Let us join hands and salvage our country from the altar of tribal politics,” he explained.
Ichung’wa noted that the bottom-up economic model was not sloganeering but an epic engagement that “will give us a new Kenya”.
“It will revolutionalise our country economically, hence tame poverty and generate jobs,” he said.
Earlier, ODM leader Raila Odinga unveiled his plan for growing local investments, trashing Ruto’s ‘bottom-up’ plan as ineffectual.
In a conversation that has elicited a heated debate in the wake of contestations by the DPs’ side, Raila says he’d work to cut businessmen the slack of repressive taxes.
The ODM leader, who has kept giving signals he’d be on the race, said he’d work to reverse some of the tax policies that are currently chocking businesses in the country.
Raila in a meeting with businessmen from Kiambu at businessman Nginyo Kariuki’s home on Thursday decried the many regulations and bureaucracies businesses are presently subjected to.
“We will change the way business is done in this country. We will start by promoting and protecting local investments,” he said.
Edited by CM
