President William Ruto has reassured Kenyans to his administration's commitment to fully delivering on the promises made despite the concerns being raised by some critics.
Ruto said while the government’s reform agenda is ambitious, he is confident of it being achieved.
Speaking on Thursday during the official opening of the third national executive retreat in Karen, Nairobi, the President dismissed claims that his government overpromised during the campaign period.
"This administration was elected on a platform of transformation, reforms, and doing things differently," he said.
"The accusation I often get is that we overpromised. But I want to tell you, we did not overpromise. We promised what is doable.”
He stated that all his priorities are documented in the manifesto, and they intend to deliver every bit of it to "earn the correct marks" by the end of its term.
"I have no intention whatsoever of escaping the commitments we made. We intend to keep them because that is how we are going to transform Kenya," he added.
Ruto also criticised the culture of political convenience that has delayed reforms, saying Kenya cannot afford to keep postponing the tough but necessary decisions.
"I have had occasions where people tell me you have picked up too many difficult things, you should have waited for your second term.”
“But you ask yourself why waste the nation's time waiting when we can fix them now? If we do the right things today, we create space for more progress tomorrow."
He stated: “If there is second term there are plenty of things to be done and if it can be done now why wait for 10 years...we haven't made progress as a nation because we make decisions not on the basis of how we know that they are right but how is it convenient for me to remain politically relevant.”
The two-day retreat brings together Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and senior government officials to review the administration’s performance and track the implementation of key national priorities.
The main focus is on the progress made in the Kenya Kwanza's Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA).
The agenda focuses on six strategic areas of lowering the cost of living, eliminating hunger, creating jobs, widening the tax base, improving foreign exchange balance and promoting inclusive growth.
These objectives are being implemented through targeted investments in five key sectors of agriculture, health, MSMEs, digital superhighway and creative economy and housing.
