Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has defended President William Ruto's multiple foreign visits and Kenya's Kwanza tax policy during a period when the country is experiencing rapidly rising living expenses.

Nearing the end of the Mt Kenya Golf Festival competition on Saturday at the Nyeri Golf Club, Gachagua spoke to lawmakers, professionals, and businesses.

He said that rather than being "holidays" or "picnics," Ruto's "journeys to all manner of countries" were important resource mobilization missions from Kenya's bilateral partners.



"The president has travelled to all manners of countries ... and I saw Press people criticising those journeys," Gachagua stated on Saturday.

"Those journeys are not for holiday, they are not for picnic, it serious resource mobilisation, as we try to look for cheap financing from our bilateral partners, China, the US and others."

"A good agreement with the World Bank and the IMF" is already in place, according to Gachagua, and the administration will look to raise "some money, if not for anything else, to complete stalled road projects" around the nation.

He declared that the government is dedicated to fulfilling its financial duties, even though some of the debts the administration is trying to pay back were accrued by the previous administration.


"Many people thought we were going to default, but we have no intention of defaulting; we are honorable people," he added. 

'Despite the situation we found ourselves in, we have managed to pay our loans on time; even earlier this year, public service salaries were delayed because we chose to pay a loan that had matured."

According to the deputy president, the Kenya Kwanza administration has tightened tax collection to fulfill its financial responsibilities.

"From the taxes we have been collecting, we have managed to pay some contractors a small amount so that they can resume work," he stated.