Time for hard choices, President Ruto tells Kenyans

President William Ruto has said his administration is caught between a rock and a hard place as it strives to deliver on promises made to Kenyans amidst tough economic times.

Addressing Kenyans during the State of the Nation address in Parliament, Dr Ruto urged Kenyans to tighten their belts.

“We began the implementation of our mandate to transform Kenya's economy from the bottom up under extremely difficult circumstances, not to excuse failure or justify inability or omission to do the necessary work.

"Rather, we do it to emphasise the significance of our progress, underscore the possibility of transformation under daunting conditions and express well-founded confidence that when sufficient progress is made, we shall do much more and go much farther in delivering the Kenya,” Dr Ruto said.

He said the implementation of the Bottom-Up Economic Model was still on course and his administration would see through the current challenges to create a prosperous country.

Dr Ruto said the government had identified external shocks, fiscal pressures and structural imbalances as the major challenges facing the economy and had embarked on a journey to address them.

While acknowledging that the rising cost of living is a concern for Kenyans, Dr Ruto said his government has focused on reducing the cost of living by lowering the cost of agricultural inputs.

“The cost of living is not an abstract phenomenon. It is a reality experienced by all households, which can be addressed through practical action and effective measures. One of the most salient interventions in addressing the high cost of living is the strategy to support agricultural production throughout the sector's range of food and cash crops as well as livestock value chains,” he added.

As a result of the interventions, Dr Ruto argued that the cost of a 2kg packet of maize flour had come down to between Sh145-Sh175 while the price of a 1kg of maize had come down to between Sh60-Sh75.