• DP to sign instructions on how Mombasa Port operations would be handled. Uhuru .
•To establish an Education Reform Taskforce to review CBC.
Image: ANDREW KASUKU
President William Ruto has promised a radical overhaul of some policies and programmes which anchored former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s legacy.
They include reverting clearing operations to the Port of Mombasa, reviewing the CBC curriculum, limiting or eventually ending subsidies of food and fuel as unaffordable and lifting the limit on reporting financial transactions of more than Sh1 million.
Moments after his swearing in on Tuesday, Ruto pledged to review the Competency Based Curriculum, popularly known as CBC, as he had promised in his manifesto. It has been praised for its objectives but also criticised as confusing and burdensome on parents.
The new President also promised to revert port operations and clearing back to Mombasa.
The incoming Ruto administration also signalled it was not keen on continuing with fuel and unga subsidies that former President Kenyatta has been using to contain of inflation.
He also plans to revise the policies Uhuru initiated to curb money laundering.
The President seeks to review the directive requiring one states the source of transactions more than Sh1 million.
Ruto said the changes he wants stem from complaints by traders about the burden involved in cash transactions exceeding Sh1 million.
“Many have reverted to storing money under their mattresses at great risk, which is clearly not the intention of the anti-money laundering regulations," Ruto said.
“While we remain fully committed to mitigating this risk, we believe there is scope to make compliance less burdensome on genuine business transactions,” the new President said.
He revealed his government is in talks with the Central Bank of Kenya on how to handle the matter without exposing the country to risks of money laundering.
“I have been assured by the Central Bank that the work on how to ease this burden without compromising the security of the financial system is underway,” Ruto said.
On Mombasa port, the President said he would issue instructions on how the clearing of goods would be handled going forward.
“I will be issuing instructions for clearing of all goods and other attendant operational issues to revert to the Port of Mombasa. This will restore thousands of jobs in the city of Mombasa,” he said.
On the CBC, Ruto said he would establish an Education Reform Taskforce in the Presidency to be launched in coming weeks.
“It will collect views from all key players in line with the constitutional demand of public participation,” the President said.
He said he was aware of the fears by parents whose children are transitioning from the 8-4-4 system to the CBC system.
“I am aware of the anxieties on the twin transitions of the last 8-4-4 class and the first CBC class in January next year. I assure there will be a solution to the matter before then,” Ruto said.
On subsidies, Ruto said they have not borne any fruit and have put additional strain on the already-exhausted exchequer.
He said the fuel subsidy alone has cost taxpayers Sh144 billion, including Sh60 billion in the past four months.
“If the subsidy continues to the end of the financial year, it will cost the taxpayer Sh280 billion, equivalent to the entire national government development budget," the President said.
He said the unga subsidy also consumed Sh7 billion in one month, with no positive impact.
“In addition to being very costly, consumption subsidy interventions are prone to abuse, they distort markets and create uncertainty, including artificial shortages of the very products being subsidised,” Ruto said.
(Edited by V. Graham)