DP Ruto Blames the Government Over the High Cost of Living in Kenya

William Ruto, the deputy president, has criticized the high cost of living that has caused the prices of necessities to soar.

Ruto highlighted his displeasure with the nation’s out-of-control inflation in a tweet on his Twitter account.

“A packet of Unga is now retailing at a historic price of more than Sh200. It is sad. Millions of Kenyans are burdened by the high cost of living because of failure to put in place interventions such as farm inputs subsidy that could allow farmers to produce enough to eat and surplus for sale,” he said.

In June 2022, the cost of cooking oil had nearly reached Sh500 per litre, while the cost of gasoline was Sh159.

A household may only purchase a bar of soap, a 2kg container of sugar, a 2kg packet of maize flour, and a litre of cooking oil with a Sh1,000 note; not even enough to fill a shopping bag.

The UDA presidential candidate announced on Tuesday that he intended to create a revolving fund to assist low-income households during the Nairobi Economic Forum in Karen, which was organized by civic society.

“As Kenya Kwanza, we will work with Sh30 billion, a quarter of what they proposed to use, we will target 2 million households that are today in food deficit. We have done the calculations. We just need between Ksh15,000 – Ksh18,000 to be able to provide enough input for one acre,” he said.

In comparison to his competitor Raila Odinga’s proposal to offer cash transfers, Ruto said his approach of reducing the cost of living and empowering low-income households was superior.

“Every Kenyan spends 52% of their income on food according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics report, if we bring that down to 35% or 40% even by 10%, we will do a lot of saving for us to spend in other areas,” he said.