• The President boasted that the as a result of his manifesto mechanism, Kenya increased its production of maize by 40 per cent
• He noted that Kenya Kwanza has ensured they are getting foreign exchange into Kenya by connecting Kenyans to opportunities outside Kenya.
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President William Ruto has said that his administration has laid out three ways in which they can strengthen the Kenyan currency.
Speaking on Sunday during a media roundatbel at State House, the Head of State pointed out that he introduced the importation levy on some items.
"There are things we are importing today which we should not be importing (cement, steel, furniture) when we can manufacture locally. We shouldn't be there but we are spending huge amounts of money to import when we can manufacture them locally," Ruto said.
"That is the reason why we have put a levy on the import of these unnecessary imports of products into Kenya. So that we can stem the export of our foreign currency and manufacture those items locally," he added.
Secondly, the President said the Kenyan shilling was weakened because the government had not paid attention to the agriculture sector.
Ruto revealed that Kenya was importing Sh500 billion worth of food commodities annually.
"We are the only country that imports that much food. Why? Because we haven't paid as much attention to agriculture," he said.
The UDA party leader said his government chose to pay attention to agriculture hence they have invested in fulfilling his manifesto on agriculture modernization mechanization.
"I decided that I'm going to do what we have to do to change the trajectory on our staple food. Today, we are producing more in terms of maize, which is our staple food, in fact, my plan is that by next year, we shouldn't be importing maize into Kenya, we should be producing enough," Ruto said.
The President boasted that as a result of his manifesto mechanism, Kenya increased its production of maize by 40 per cent this year.
Lastly, President Ruto also stated that to address the weakening shilling, his administration has focused on employment.
He noted that Kenya Kwanza has ensured they are getting foreign exchange into Kenya by connecting Kenyans to opportunities outside Kenya.
"I'm working to ensure more Kenyans are working for foreign countries while in Kenya and ensuring that we connect more Kenyans to jobs abroad," Ruto explained.
He disputed Kenya Federation of Employers (FKE) statistics that 70,000 Kenyans have lost their jobs over the last one year due to bad economy.
"Those are their figures, I can only vouch for what I know," he said.
"I have signed bilateral labour agreements with United Arab Emirates, Germany and Canada and 10,000 Kenyans will be leaving in January to go and work abroad to support their families and Kenya," he added.