Ruto's Diary: Leisurely schedule, inspects Kibera affordable housing project

After a week-long busy schedule in China, President William Ruto returned to the country last Sunday to a quiet reception, with minimal activities planned for the week.

On Monday, he inspected the ongoing construction of the affordable housing project in Kibera and later held talks with senior officials from the Ministries of Education and Interior.

During the meeting, Ruto was briefed on the Hillside Academy fire tragedy and the steps being taken to ensure the safety of children.

He urged security agencies to speed up investigations on the tragic fire incident that claimed the lives of 21 pupils at the school including in all other affected institutions.

According to the Head of State, compliance with government regulations on curbing fire accidents in learning institutions is not negotiable.

"This is the only insurance we have to effectively prevent the loss of life and limb in schools," he stated.

Those in attendance were Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos and Principal Secretaries Belio Kipsang, Beatrice Inyangala and Raymond Omollo.

The Kibera Soweto East Affordable Housing Project (AHP) is a 4,054-unit project.

The Kenya Kwanza administration, Ruto emphasised, is determined to eliminate slums from our cities and towns to ensure Kenyans live in decent, dignified homes with guaranteed social amenities through the programme.

He also announced that the construction of the 15,000-unit phase II project will commence before the end of the year with phase III for 20,000 units set to start in January 2025.

Currently, there are similar AHPs ongoing across the country.

"We will also build 40, 000 units to accommodate families that were moved from riparian reserves in Nairobi County," he said.

Tuesday

He received a brief on the Climate WorX Initiative that will involve the youth in all 47 counties.

It replaces the Kazi Kwa Vijana programme which was abolished.

Under this new government initiative, the Climate Resilience Services Programme is set to provide the solution to climate challenges facing our country, he said.

Ruto pointed out that through the programme, they intend to rehabilitate riparian reserves around the country while also providing alternative housing to affected communities through the AHP.

Wednesday

The president was at State House to witness the handover of public assets worth Sh28 billion recovered by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission over the past five years.

The assets, including cash and immovable property, belong to various public institutions, both at the county and national levels.

“I am encouraged that the EACC is pursuing the forfeiture of unexplained wealth valued at Sh59 billion through ongoing court proceedings against individuals whose assets and interests significantly exceed their known legitimate sources of income,” he said.

He noted that EACC intervened to prevent the loss of public funds estimated at Sh41 billion by deploying various strategies to disrupt corruption networks.

The recovered properties include land parcels in Nairobi, Uasin Gishu, Bungoma, Kisii, Kisumu and Nakuru counties.

Thursday

He presided over the launch of the Fifth National Action Plan on Open Government Partnership.

Speaking during the event, the president stated that they are working with partners to make the government more open and for citizens to be more informed to strengthen public participation, improve governance and boost service delivery.

"We are also implementing a regulatory regime that forestalls the abuse of new technologies, including artificial intelligence, which leads to disinformation that threatens our democracy," he said.

Later on, he launched the Nairobi River regeneration project which involves the rehabilitation of the Nairobi River catchment basin.

It also includes the construction of new houses for families living on river banks.

The event was held at the Korogocho-Kariobangi/Lucky Summer area.

The cleaning exercise, he said, will be done in phases, with the first phase set to begin on October 1 and employing 20,000 youth.

It will also be expanded to other major cities.

"Building on this foundation we will extend the program to the four major cities. Kisumu, Mombasa, Eldoret and Nakuru within one month. And an additional 40,000 will be engaged with 10,000 of them allocated to other areas of Nairobi starting early November," he said.

Ruto is scheduled to fly out to Germany for an official visit.