Why Ruto's 12 months in office has been disastrous - Raila

Azimio Leader Raila Odinga has claimed that President William has increased the government's public expenditure by Sh400 billion over the last year.

Raila who termed the Kenya Kwanza's leadership over the last 12 months as disastrous for the country, accused the government of unbridled spending and borrowing.

The opposition leader said that President Ruto was doing completely the opposite of the promises he made to the country during the campaign period.

Raila said that while Kenyans would have expected that Kenya Kwanza would cut down on expenditure and borrowing, the government has increased expenditure.

''Kenya Kwanza increased spending by Sh400 billion; spending money it does not have and raising it by extorting more taxes from suffering Kenyans,'' the Azimio leader said.

In a statement evaluating Ruto's performance over the last year, Raila accused the President of resorting to punitive taxes to bridge the budget hole occasioned by uncontrolled expenditures.

"The taxes rose at a time the overall economy has been contracting. In the second quarter of 2022, which is the first era of Kenya Kwanza regime leading into 2023, the economy grew by only 5.2 per cent. In a similar period in 2021, it grew by 11. 0 per cent," Raila said.

The opposition leader said Rut's regime has resorted to more borrowing, ignoring the warnings that the country is in debt distress and at risk of debt default.

"Without blinking an eye, the regime went against its promise to reduce borrowing and did the complete opposite," he said.

According to Raila, Ruto's administration is also driving bank interest rates high through increased borrowing from the domestic market.

This coupled with high taxes has hurt small businesses trying to find footing amid high interest rates.

"Only the government can now afford to borrow at the astronomical rate of 17 per cent or more, from the domestic market," Raila said.

Raila said that the result has been that micro and small businesses are struggling, defaulting and folding up while the larger private sector is at best, stagnating or equally folding up.

He said that in the last year, the proportion of micro and small businesses defaulting on loans has increased by 17 per cent.

"Today, 6 out of ten micro and small businesses are either paying late, paying only a part of their instalments or are unable to pay," he said.

Raila's statement came after the opposition leader chaired Azimio's top decision making organ-the summit- at the SKM centre on Friday.