Nairobi, Kenya, Sept 4-President-Elect William Ruto has now said that his Government will work with the county government administration over the next 1-2 months to reduce the cost of seedlings and fertilizer as part of his elaborate plan to reduce the rising cost of living in the country.
Ruto, who spoke on Sunday at a church service in Nakuru, said that if confirmed as the legitimate President by the Supreme Court on Monday, his Government will invest heavily in agriculture to allow farmers to produce more food.
“We have already engaged all those involved in this issue, even as we await the ruling because reducing the cost of living is critical for every Kenyan,” he said.
He called on all the farmers across the country to ready themselves to “save” Kenyans from the effects of the high cost of living, saying they are the key to resolving the current food crisis in the country.
During the campaigns, Ruto widely blamed the handshake deal between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Azimio Presidential candidate Raila Odinga who is challenging his victory for his cost of living in the country.
On September 4, Ruto said while outlining the Kenya kwanza Alliance manifesto at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa that the handshake deal between the two leaders made it impossible for the outgoing Government to implement the Big 4 Agenda, a plan he said would have cushioned Kenyans from the current challenging economic situation.
“The whole big 4 plan was shelved, and we went on a tangent because of the handshake equation and BBI. We didn’t get the time to do what we had promised the people of Kenya we would do,” he said.
The United Democratic Alliance presidential candidate said that his attempts to engage the Head of State on the implementation of the Big 4 agenda bored no fruit, saying President Kenyatta decided to assemble a different group of people to deliver on his legacy projects who ended up failing to deliver.
“We find ourselves at this spot because there are some things we did not do right; we had a big 4 plan because we foresaw this situation,” he said.
DP Ruto said that the real solution to the high cost of living is dealing with the cost of food.
He noted that to increase agricultural productivity, the Government must ensure farmers have access to inputs, provide them with the necessary capital to do farming, and grant them access to markets.
