President William Ruto reversed the fuel subsidy programs, claiming they added burden to taxpayers, with no impact. He did this immediately he was declared the President.
He said: “The interventions in place have not borne any fruit. On fuel subsidy alone, the taxpayers have spent a total of Ksh. 144 billion, a whooping Ksh. 60 billion in the last 4 months.”
William Ruto warned that if fuel subsidy was to continue until the end of the year, it will accumulate into unexpected figures.
He said: “If the subsidy continues to the end of the financial year, it will cost the taxpayer Ksh 280 billion, equivalent to the entire national government development budget.”
President Ruto also discouraged former President Uhuru’s subsidy on unga. He claimed that subsidy of food programs create uncertainty in the market.
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“There was an attempt to subsidize Unga in the run up to the election, a program that gobbled up Ksh 7 billion in one month, with no impact.”
“consumption subsidy interventions are prone to abuse, they distort markets and create uncertainty, including artificial shortages of the very products being subsidized.” The Commander of the Armed Forces said.
Different from uhuru’s plans to solve the problem, President Ruto will reduce the cost of production. Ruto cited that increased input costs as the main cause of decreased production of food produce.
According to President Ruto, maize harvest per year reduced from usual 40 million bags to 30 million bags.
To encounter this, William Ruto directed for the reduction of cost of fertilizer that will come into effect by next week.
He said: “Our priority intervention therefore, is to make fertilizer, good-quality seeds and other agricultural inputs affordable and available.”
“For the short rain season, we have already made arrangements to make 1.4 million bags of fertilizer available at Ksh 3,500 for a 50 kg bag down from the current Ksh. 6,500.”
Not only maize farmers will benefit from the reduced cost of fertilizers but also tea farmers. William Ruto promised to make arrangements with KTDA on how tea farmers will access the fertilizers.
In addition, President William Ruto assured to be aware of droughts in some countries and claimed his government has plans for the same.
“We are determined to ensure that no county slips into the emergency phase and will coordinate with county governments, which are the first line of response. We are mobilizing resources to reverse this situation.”
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