Recently, political detractors have been working overdrive to create a narrative that seeks to misrepresent the situation in our country. It is common knowledge that when the fifth administration came into office, things were not in a good position.
In fact, many people thought we wouldn’t make it as a country. It was predicted that whoever would take over as President would have no country to run. Thanks be to God, Kenya is going strong against all odds under the leadeship of President William Ruto.
Looking at the situation, Ruto was the best placed person to take over the reins of leadership at this point in time. For a man who rose from relative obscurity, in a family where he had to sell chicken to make a living, then going to university and reluctantly joining politics, Ruto beat all odds by being elected Member of Parliament at only 31 years of age.
He has never lost any elections of his own and went ahead to break the record as a sitting Deputy President who transitioned into the Presidency in an election that was pitted against him.
The then President, Uhuru Kenyatta, teamed up with Raila Odinga to oppose him vehemently, yet he was able to beat the odds.
This is not the first time he has succeeded. President Ruto was able to become the de facto leader in Rift Valley, when other people from the Daniel Moi regime looked likely to do so.
Even in the ICC matters, many people had written him off, yet he was able to come out strong in that very daunting ordeal.
When Ruto became a deputy minister, he used to attend Cabinet meetings due to his usefulness. Clearly, he was being prepared for the leadership of the country - now as the chairman of the Cabinet - and having also served in various portfolios including Higher education and Agriculture.
The lasting legacy being the issue of doing away with the two-year wait for students joining university. In the Agriculture sector, the President has been able to use his expertise in turning around the dairy, sugar and coffee industries to the benefit of the common farmer.
He is in the process of doing the same for the whole livestock value chain, which accounts for 12 per cent of the country’s GDP and 50 per cent of the agricultural sector.
Only last week, farmers received a sugar bonus of Sh150 million. It is evidently clear that doing away with the Sh117 billion debt that had accumulated for over 40 years was the right decision, in order to revive the fortunes for farmers who have gone ahead to produce over 832,000 tonnes of sugar, sufficient to meet our domestic demand and also for export purposes.
President Ruto’s economic interventions saw to it that the country failed to default from the Eurobond payment amounting to Sh280 billion, with our currency gaining over Sh36 against the dollar from a high of 165 to the current 129, thus bringing down the public debt stock by over Sh800 billion.
As a result, the earlier credit classification by Moody’s as negative has been reviewed to positive due to these robust reforms. It follows that had we defaulted on our debt obligations, the shilling would have nosedived up to Sh 220 to the dollar.
As a result, our start-up capital injection has seen Kenya lead in Africa for two years consecutively - ahead of countries such as South Africa and Nigeria that have bigger populations and more diversified economies.
Between 2023-24, the country has been able to attract $800 million and $638 million (Sh186,940 billion) respectively, making Kenya the best hub for investment in Africa.
In the political field, President Ruto has confounded both friend and foe by creating a rapprochement with his erstwhile political nemesis Raila Odinga.
The head of state has gone ahead to vigorously campaign for Raila to become the next chairman of the African Union Commission.
Using his leadership as the champion for reforms, he has rallied other heads of states in having a common position on climate justice, leading to the first ever Africa Climate Summit in the year 2023.
President Ruto’s energy, time keeping trait, multi-tasking ability and consensus building skills are legendary. He left the Americans astounded as to how he was able to put up with an intense four-day state visit to their country, the first in 20 years by an African head of state.
When he was faced by the Gen Z protests in June and July last year, Ruto was able to wither the storm and institute further fiscal reforms that have reduced wastage to a great extent in the government.
One of the most outstanding attributes is that he doesn’t give up easily and goes ahead to push anything that he sets his sights on towards success.
The writer is the
Government
Spokesperson
