Lobbyists have faulted President William Ruto for saying Kenya is headed in the right direction in his recent speeches, including the State of the Nation address, yet the lived reality of Kenyans, according to them, is not as rosy.
The activists, under the banner of Kongamano la Mageuzi (KLM), on Sunday said the Kenya Kwanza regime’s two-year tenure has been marked by policies that worsened economic inequality, deepened corruption, and stifled democratic space.
The group said the Ruto-led administration had particularly failed to deliver meaningful relief to Kenyans despite the president’s claims of “reduced inflation and a stabilised shilling”.
“Millions of households continue to struggle with skyrocketing food prices , exorbitant fuel costs and unaffordable housing,” Sungu Oyoo, KLM’s national spokesperson, said.
Though the government announced stringent fiscal austerity measures, the activists said, the State has ignored widespread corruption as evidenced by scandals— including the fake fertiliser scam, which they said showed the government only prioritises elites’ interests over the needs of ordinary citizens.
To fix the economic mismanagement, Mr Oyoo called on the Kenya Kwanza regime to repeal punitive taxes and introduce a tax system that reduces the burden on low-income earners.
Establishing transparent oversight mechanisms that will ensure public funds are directed to critical sectors— including healthcare, education and infrastructure— will also go a long way in fixing the situation, they said.
They spoke as Dr Ruto reiterated that the government's plans to revive the country's economy were materialising.
Speaking in Taita Taveta County on Sunday, the president continued to address his critics, claiming they are intent on seeing the nation decline for their own selfish reasons.
"We must stop the spirit of negativity in our country. We cannot allow falsehoods and propaganda to tarnish our nation. This country will not fail. I sympathise with the naysayers and negative individuals who wish to see the nation fall. I urge Kenyans to reject slander, gossip, and propaganda from those who do not want the country to move forward. We will transform this nation," he said.
President Ruto made these remarks at Soul Harvest Church in Taveta where he attended a service accompanied by the County Woman Representative Lydia Haika, Taveta MP John Bwire, and Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) Chairperson John Mruttu.
“The government’s failure to pass critical legislation like the Conflict of Interest Bill further underscores its lack of will to address governance failures,” Mr Oyoo said.
On this front, the lobbyists want the government to ensure justice for victims of police brutality and enforced disappearances by reforming the security sector and holding offenders accountable.
To commemorate the lives of those who died during the Gen Z protests against the Finance Bill 2024 in June, they said they would organise a nationwide candle-lighting event in places of worship and the streets on Christmas Day.
“I urge all religious leaders, be it Catholic, Anglican, Seventh Day Adventist, mosques and all other denominations to allow their members carry the light during the Christmas mass in honour of the fallen heroes,” Sheik Khan, a KLM member said.
They also want the Commander-in-Chief to restore public participation and strengthen constitutional mechanisms for civic engagement.
The lobby groups were also critical of the reforms introduced in the education system, including the changes in the funding model for universities as well as the rollout of the Competency-Based-Curriculum.
The implementation of these reforms, the activists said, was wanting and locked out marginalised communities because the cost of higher education shot up.
One way of addressing this problem, they said, would be the government committing to fully funding public education and abolishing school-related levies.
“The government should expand teacher recruitment to address shortages and improve quality of education in underserved regions as well as establish a participatory review of CBC to align with Kenya’s socio-economic realities,” Booker Omole, a member of KLM as well as the Deputy Chairperson of the Communist Party of Kenya said.
The group criticised the government’s labour migration schemes and reliance on the Hustler Fund as solutions to the challenge of youth unemployment saying these measures do not address the structural challenges of youth joblessness.
Instead of publicising the need for youth to go work outside the country, KLM wants the state to invest in local job creation through public works programmes, manufacturing and sustainable agriculture.
They also want the government to provide interest-free capital and technical support to youth entrepreneurs even as it expands the digital infrastructure and training programmes to empower youth in the digital economy.
Lastly, KLM said President Ruto's insistence that the agriculture sector was flourishing did not paint the true picture of the local farmers who still lack access to affordable inputs and exploitative markets. This problem they said is occasioned by the government’s focus on large-scale interventions that ignore the plight of the smallholder farmers.
As such, they called on the government to subsidise agricultural inputs for small-scale farmers, strengthen farmers’ cooperatives to counter exploitative middlemen and diversify agricultural investments to include climate-resilient crops and sustainable farming practices.
