President William Ruto has explained why the Hustler Fund is free of corruption.
Speaking during the launch of Kenya’s 5th Open Government Partnership Action Plan in Nairobi, Ruto said this is because it is technology-based.
The President said technology has enabled insulation of the project and also made it seamless and transparent.
He insisted that the situation would have been different if the Hustler Funds were being disbursed by the committee.
The Head of State said his administration has so far invested about Sh12 billion into the Hustler Fund project.
He said over 22 million Kenyans have benefited from the fund and as it stands, over two million Kenyans borrow money from the fund daily.
“We rolled out the Hustler Fund, Sh12 billion in it already 22 million Kenyans are beneficiaries and today we have 2 million Kenyans every day borrowing from the Hustler Fund. It is delivered on a technology platform.
“It is the single government project that has no corruption because technology has provided a framework to make sure we insulate it. Just imagine if we were giving out the Hustler Fund using committees from every location. It would be chaos. Technology has made it seamless, transparent and easy,” Ruto said.
The President gave the Hustler Fund as one of the ways the government is leveraging technology for the benefit of the people.
He insisted that technology, despite some of its challenges, provides good opportunities to the people.
“Technology to Artificial Intelligence gives us great opportunities but also has a good measure of challenges and I will give you two examples of how we are taking advantage of technology,” he said.
Ruto said the other way the government is using technology is through the Means Testing Instrument, which has helped on the new University Funding model.
The model has been a source of contention between parents, students and the state.
University managements, however, insist the model is good.
