Editor's Review

The president said he was unapologetic for hosting ordinary citizens at the State House.

President William Ruto seems to have finally joined the economic empowerment programmes advanced by his allies.

For months, Ruto's personal assistant, Farouk Kibet, Deputy President Kithure Kindiki and a host of other Kenya Kwanza-allied politicians have been traversing the country with monies to empower small-scale entreprises.

On Saturday, August 9, the president hosted thousands of Nairobi residents at State House to empower them with merchandise to start their income generating ventures.

The president issued motorbikes, water tanks, sewing machines, gaming computers, kitchenware, and poshomills, among others.

Hundreds of motorbikes at President Ruto's empowerment programme.

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Ruto told off the naysayers who are against such programmes, saying he was living up to his promise to uplift the lowly Kenyans.

He was also unapologetic for hosting the ordinary Kenyans at State House.

"There are those who said I am downgrading the standard of State House by interacting with Kenyans. I have only uplifted the standard of Kenyans to also walk at State House. who thought I was joking when I said I wanted to empower and uplift Kenyans," he said.

Sewing machines at President Ruto's empowerment programme State House, Nairobi.

The president vowed to undertake such programmes despite the naysaying from his political detractors, who argued that those are short-term interventions that can't sustain Kenyans for long.

He restated the value he claimed the Hustler Fund has had close to three years since it was launched.

Ruto enumerated the benefits the fund has accorded those who subscribe to it.

Empowerment materials paraded at State House, Nairobi.

He harshly lashed out at the naysayers, appreciating that many had improved their lives through enterprises they started using the Hustler Fund.

Ruto took the chance to rally the youth to enlist in the Social Health Authority (SHA) programme to take care of their health care needs.

He noted that since its rollout last October, SHA had recorded a tremendous success.

The president appreciated that the new health scheme had weeded out fraudulent healthcare centres that had benefitted from the defunct National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).