By John Mutiso
President William Ruto has defended the difficult economic decisions taken by his administration, saying they were necessary to ensure Kenya did not default on its national debts and fall into financial crisis.
Speaking on Tuesday while receiving the Jukwaa la Usalama report at State House, Ruto said he takes the responsibility Kenyans entrusted him seriously and feels obliged to be transparent about the country’s economic challenges.
“There is a job you people gave me to be the President of Kenya, and that work, I want to address you about it. When someone is given work, they must do the work. I take my job very seriously. That is why sometimes it is good to hear from the horse’s mouth,” he said.
He recalled the state of the economy when he assumed office, noting high inflation, dwindling foreign reserves and a weakening shilling. The President said he was forced to make unpopular but crucial decisions, including removing fuel and flour subsidies and delaying some debt payments to stabilise the economy.
“I had to make very difficult decisions, and we removed subsidies; we removed the fuel subsidy, the flour subsidy, and I was forced to stop paying some debts so that we did not falter. I did all these, but they were difficult and very sad decisions,” Ruto said.
“We had debts, inflation was 9.6 per cent, the dollar had gone to 167, and our foreign reserves had gone down to 5.7 billion dollars.”
He stressed that these measures reflected his sense of duty.
The President added that the actions he undertook prevented Kenya from joining the majority of African countries that defaulted on sovereign debt last year.
“During that time, it was said that six countries would find it hard to pay their debts. Out of those six, five defaulted, but Kenya did not,” he said.
He also recounted a conversation with United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, who asked what Kenya would do if it reached a point where it could not pay its debts.
“I told him Kenya will not be defeated. I came back and sat in my office, and we said we cannot be the country that is going to go to shame and default on our debts,” he said.
The Head of State emphasised that the economy is now stabilising and on “sound footing,” thanks to the sacrifices made.
“Today, I can confidently tell you that our economy is on a sound footing. If I had not made those hard decisions, we would have been put to shame. I must do things that might not be popular or easy at the moment, but the long-term benefits outweigh the short-term difficulties,” he said.
He welcomed the Jukwaa la Usalama forum, noting that such gatherings, often mistaken for political rallies, were intended to allow citizens to raise real security concerns.
“Ordinarily, these gatherings are for politics, but we said we wanted a gathering of Kenyans to talk about issues of security. I thank you for coming out and talking to us without any barriers,” he said.
