By Samuel Owino.
On Sunday evening, December 17, at statehouse various media stations held a joint media interview with the president of Kenya His Excellency, Dr. William Ruto.
This media interview comes one month after the president gave a state of the nation address in parliament. During the state of the nation address the president did not comment many topics that affected Kenyans at the time such as the fuel prices, a sore topic then for many Kenyans.
During the interview, Dr. Ruto said that the price of fuel is not controlled by the Kenyan government but by the producers. He also stated that the price of fuel was the same all across East Africa because it is bought from the same producers.
“There is no miracle that is going to happen. We live in a global economy. The price of fuel is not controlled by the Kenyan government. It is controlled by the producers.”
The president also mentioned that the cause of the shilling free fall against the dollar is because the Federal Reserve had increased the rate to 5.25%, the highest in history.
He mentioned that his promise to control the freefall is not yet fulfilled because of the external factors that keep changing, “if things remain constant, I would have fulfilled my promise.”
On privatization of state owned companies, the president explained that he was not “selling” the companies but looking for strategic investments to maximize generation of revenue.
“The value in what privatization does. So let us accept as Kenyans, a company like Kenya Pipeline we can privatize. It will give us money, it will give us revenue… what have other countries done, so that we can reduce the pressure on taxes because we can raise more revenue by sweating the assets that we have.”
The president also pointed out that most hotels in Kenya have been closed or are struggling because of the lack of conference facilities and in turn affecting the tourism industry.
The head of state further stated that he is not only looking for strategic investors for KICC but he is also looking for strategic investors for the Bomas of Kenya. He says that this will even improve the tourism industry.
The interview ended with the president assuring Kenyans that, “we are going to change Kenya and I have every intention to do it.”