President William Ruto has stated that the Kenya Kwanza government has stabilized the country’s economy despite criticism from his detractors that the economic outlook has worsened during his regime.
President William Ruto has pointed out that his government has moved away from sponsoring the current financial year's budget through borrowing and is focused on funding the budget through taxes.
Speaking in an interview with Inoro Television on Sunday, the Head of State stated that the government is focused on funding the budget through taxes imposed on Kenyans.
“We have stabilized the economy of the people of Kenya. We must build this country on a solid foundation not on a foundation of debt. The economy is now stabilized,” said Ruto.
Further, he said the government has made plans to settle foreign debts before maturity to ensure the nation is not caught off guard due to a relentless crisis.
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President Ruto expressed that failure to initiate early plans to repay the foreign loans would have risked the country to default on the loan.
“We sat down and planned and said that we won’t wait until next year June. Those rogue credit rating agencies, those who are used to use fishy ways to increase debt have now written to us questioning why we are paying the loan early,” said Ruto.
In addition, he has defended the government’s tax collection measures to fund the budget, asserting it’s implemented successfully during President Mwai Kibaki’s regime.
Ruto expressed confidence that his administration’s tax collection measures will increase revenue collection and cut debt borrowing, which he says is unsustainable.
“When Kibaki was the President, we used to collect Kes 200 billion in revenue. He helped the country until we collected up to Kes 900 billion, almost Kes 1 trillion. Will I now loose track when Mzee Kibaki has already showed us that the nation is built on taxes and not debts. That’s where we are,” said Ruto.
