•On Thursday, the DP went back to where it all began and engaged the 'hustling' chicken sellers.
•The chicken auction raised Sh6 million.
Image: COURTESY
Deputy President William Ruto on Thursday visited 'Kambi ya Kuku' in Uasin Gishu County to help poultry farmers auction their products.
Ruto said he decided to launch the auction, in the area where he earned the nickname 'hustler', to boost poultry businesses by youth and women's groups.
Every life story has a beginning and the value of the tale is how far and how wide one goes from this starting point.
This contrast is typically used to define success and for Ruto, the beginning was a difficult one.
He spent his days selling chicken to motorists at Kambi ya Kuku, a makeshift marketplace built around the bumps along Eldoret-Malava road.
On Thursday, the DP went back to where it all began and engaged the 'hustling' chicken sellers.
He listened to their stories and launched an auction for them to sell their chicken at better prices.
In 2018 April, Ruto joined the farmers in a similar auction, bringing together small-scale poultry farmers from Jua Kali, Turbo and their environs, with a total of 5,000 chickens sold at Sh1,200 each.
The activity raised Sh6 million.
Ruto told the business people that the county government will help poultry farmers to form cooperative societies. This is so that middlemen, who exploit them by buying the chicken at lower prices, are eliminated.
The Deputy President noted poultry farming will lift women and youths out of poverty and improve their living standards.
“Even the richest man on earth, Bill Gates, agrees that it is through poultry keeping that we can eliminate poverty."