President Ruto is feeding Kenyans false hope, says Azimio
President William Ruto and other Kenya Kwanza leaders during Environment Cabinet Secretary Soipan Tuya’s thanksgiving ceremony in Leshuta, Narok West, yesterday.
President William Ruto is on the spot over fresh promises to Kenyans despite not fulfilling most of his campaign pledges, nine months since taking office.
Opposition outfit Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party has faulted the President for “adding insult to injury” by coming up with “more weird promises in the midst of a serious gloom,” over unfulfilled pledges and high cost of living, saying, he is “feeding Kenyans false hope.”
During celebrations to mark the country’s 60th Madaraka Day in Embu town last Thursday, the Head of State pledged to give boda boda operators electric motorcycles in September to bring down the cost of transport.
“With this intervention, owning and operating a boda boda will become affordable, secure and profitable,” the President said.
The President had also promised to lower the cost of cooking gas by the beginning of this month. But, addressing journalists from different media houses during a joint televised interview at State House last Month, the Head of State said plans to remove taxes on gas did not succeed in the supplementary budget and it will take longer to reduce its cost.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s pledge that the government would address the challenges facing milk and coffee production in Central region by last month and ensure elimination of brokers to stabilise prices is yet to be accomplished.
Yesterday, National Assembly Minority leader Opiyo Wandayi accused the government of “living in a make-believe world” as “it is clear they are unable to fulfil their promises.”
The Head of State had promised that, within his first 100 days in office, he would review the pay and terms of service for all officers in the security sector to align them with the cost of living. This is yet to be realised.
The President also pledged to join hands with health workers and county governments to find a solution to the crisis facing the sector. Health workers, however, continue to face numerous job-related challenges, with some even downing their tools.
President Ruto’s pledge to establish, within 30 days, a quasi-judicial public inquiry to establish the extent of cronyism and State capture and make recommendations has equally not been attained.
This is also true of a pledge to complete the transfer of all functions constitutionally earmarked for counties within six months and double the allocation to the school feeding programme to raise the number of beneficiaries from two million to four million.
It was also to provide conditional grants to county governments to extend the programme and raise the numbers to eight million in primary and Early Child Development (ECD) schools.
The president had also pledged to immediately operationalise a National Health Information System for Electronic Health Records to standardise and ensure the portability of patient data.
Last Thursday, he said the government would reform the National Health Insurance Fund to cater to Kenyans at the bottom of the pyramid.
