President Ruto Predicts When Kenya Will Stop Taking Loans

President William Ruto says he intends to develop Kenya's economy and make it self-reliant away from local and external lenders.

Speaking in Siaya County on Sunday, August 31, while gracing an interdenominational service, the president observed that Kenya has the potential develop its economy to compete with the other known ones across the globe.

He likened Kenya to Asian countries like Korea, China and Singapore which have grown to performing world economies in a short period of time.

According to Ruto, such successes can only be realised with political stability, thanking ODM leader Raila Odinga for embracing the Kenya Kwanza regime to create an enabling environment for growth.

"We are citizens of a great nation called Kenya, and it is our responsbility and up to us to change the destiny of this nation. What we have done to bring together people and assemble the broad-based government, is because it is necessary for the unity of this nation so that we can prosecute the important agenda of developing this nation and its transformation," he said.

According to Ruto, Kenya's undoing is the lack of goodwill to implement transformation.

He noted that the country has the resources and viable plans but fail at the implementation level due to unpatriotic holders of power and positions of influence.

"There is no shortage of resources and plans in this country. What stands between the greatness of the country and the present is a focused, patriotic and courageous leadership. I am confident about the future of this country. Like the Korean, Chinese and Singapore transformed their countries, we can also change this Kenya in our lifetime and make it go to the first world. Singapore was on same level as Kenya 60 years ago, today they are in the first world as we still struggle in the third world," he said.

The president noted that there were indicators for a transformed economy under his regime.

According to him, in less than 20 years, Kenya will undertake development projects without having to rely on external debts.

He explained that Kenya has the resources and minds to effect change.

The president cited the apparent success of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), which he noted avails a pool of funds for investiment at the expense of external loans.

Reducing importation of basic commodities is also an indication of a thriving economy.

"Look at what we have done with the NSSF. In three years, we have double our savings. We had Ksh 320 billion, now we have Ksh 640 billion. What is going to happen in five, or ten or 20 years? We will not be borrowing money from outside but locally because we will be having enough savings. Look at what we have done in agriculture; we have cut down the importation of sugar by 70%, cut the importation of maize by 70%, because we have invested resources in production," Ruto said.

Ruto's sentiments mirrored the model the government has lately developed in funding infrastructural development.

To reduce the reliance on debts, for instance, the government opted for the partnership between the NSSF and the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) for the expansion and dualling of the 175-kilometre Nairobi–Rironi–Mau Summit Highway.

Also, to raise the monies for the particular road's maintenance, the government intends to introduce tolling, collecting revenue from motorists in place of loans.

Kenya's national debt currently stands at upward of Ksh 11 trillion, with Ruto committing to repay them within his tenure in the presidency.

Much of the loans were procured during former president Uhuru Kenyatta's regime and was used in the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) and the Nairobi Expressway.