President William Ruto explained why his government had not embarked on the development projects he promised during his campaign six months into office.
Speaking on Al Jazeera on Sunday, February 19, Ruto explained that the drought situation in the country caused the state to divert funds to address the calamity.
He revealed that the state has spent an average of Ksh5 billion monthly to mitigate the effects of drought.
“We are re-routing and reorganizing our budget. We have already spent close to Ksh30 billion on feeding, accessing food for livestock, and water tracking, and we will reorganize our budget further.
“We are re-assigning resources meant for development, schools, hospitals to feed people, livestock, and this year we are going to have failed rains,” Ruto stated.
The figures given by the Head of State indicated that his administration spent an average of Ksh166 million per day to counter the effects of drought.
Ruto further pointed out that the high cost of development loans in international financial systems, especially for African countries, made it expensive for Kenya to access funds.
“We are accessing development 100 times more expensively than they do which is not fair. The current financial setup is rigged against those in the global south especially those in Africa,” he pointed out.
The president maintained his call for international monetary institutions to review their rates to have African countries enjoy low loan rates as other sovereign states.
“Kenya and most African states are paying anywhere around 10 per cent while our friends in the global north are paying between 0.05 to 0.1 per cent. Those who pollute get development finance cheaper than those who do not,” he lamented.
Ruto further clarified why Kenya was the only country from the East African Community (EAC) which deployed military troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
He explained that all countries were supposed to deploy troops guided by a matrix and cause of action agreed to by EAC presidents.
Source: kENYANS.CO.KE