President William Ruto reiterated Wednesday that the livelihoods of the majority of Kenyans are improving courtesy of strategies put in place by his administration.
Addressing the media on the third day of the 2nd National Executive Retreat in Naivasha, Nakuru County, the President who was flanked by his deputy Rigathi Gachagua and members of the Treasury led by the Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndungu and Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo noted that the interventions made have particularly eased the economic burden that was being felt by Kenyans.
“The strategy we have put in place over the last one year has seen the cost of living come down. Whether you talk about the cost of food or inflation,” he said
These interventions, he said, have been deliberate in areas that have ensured that the cost of food will begin to go down.
“On our shelves, we had prices of unga (Maize Flour) at Ksh 230, Ksh 240, today we have prices of Ksh. 140 or thereabout, a whole Ksh100 difference. There are ripple effects in all food items,” he told the Press Conference
Among other measures, he said his administration made a deliberate intention to deal with imports highlighting the current importation of Ksh.500 billion worth of food items every year in the country from sugar, wheat, rice, maize, edible oils, and many others.
“The discussion in the meeting here is on the relevant value chains to align our budget to ensure that the gains we made last year in bringing down the cost of food by enhancing productivity and supply of food items continue,” he said
“We now have a clearer plan on sunflower, cotton, palm oil, coffee, tea, and sugarcane, because it is an investment that we are going to make in these areas to enhance productivity that is going to reduce the resources we use to import these food items externally,” he explained
The head of state said the Ksh 500 billion spent every year to import food into Kenya will only go down the day the country starts producing sufficient volumes of food. “That is the step we are making, and we have committed a government that we want to reduce imports by 50 percent in the next five years and by 100 percent cent in 10 years.” He said
