The National Treasury is working on innovative ways to raise the Sh346 billion that would have been raised through the impugned Finance Bill, of 2024.
President William Ruto said on Thursday that the government is having conversations with different partners on how to recoup the funds through alternative means.
“I now have a new minister, John Mbadi, who is a seasoned accountant and somebody who has clarity on where we want to go,” Ruto said.
"So we are going to be innovative on how we are going to look for those resources, and my team at Treasury is working around the clock."
The President reiterated that the impugned Finance Bill had many positive issues that would have helped the country move forward.
He, however, exuded confidence that all was not lost even after he gave in to public pressure and declined to assent to the piece of legislation on June 26.
“He (Mbadi) is working with the Treasury team, they have given me the initial proposal and I’m very confident that we can turn things around once we consolidate our position and then engage stakeholders in that space,” he said.
Ruto said the conversation will also involve members of Parliament once a final framework is drawn by the economists at the Treasury.
“Because the current situation is not tenable; we have to find resources to deal with issues – we have roads that are stalled, we have water projects, we have teachers that we have to pay and all those require resources so we are going to be innovative,” the President said.
He said the Finance Bill is something the whole country needs to think about as it affects a wide array of issues that affect each one of them.
Ruto on June 26 asked the Parliament to delete all clauses in the Finance Bill after a series of street protests turned bloody on June 25 resulting in several deaths and injuries.
He later, on July 11, dismissed his entire cabinet save for one and reconstituted a new one comprising 10 new faces among the four Opposition members in what he termed as broad-based government.
Political observers see Ruto's sudden embrace of town hall meetings as a way of seeking to connect at a personal level with the people by listening to their issues to avert a fresh uprising from a population that took to the streets for feeling neglected by the government.
