Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has maintained that the government is putting in place strategies that will bring cost of living come down in the near future.
Although key indicators towards economic recovery and sustainability take different approaches, Mudavadi says Kenyans should be optimistic that the country is on the right path.
He urged Kenyans to desist from misinterpreting the position Government has given, saying resuscitation of the economy is not like instant coffee but takes steps to be on the right trajectory.
“We need to admit as Kenyans that there is some relief as some indicators have started showing, the economy is recovering gradually. We subsidized fertilizer and focused on production and now it is evident the cost of Unga has gone down as one of the indicators within the cost of food bracket,” said Mudavadi.
“What Kenyans should desist from is misconceptualization of information being shared by key government officials and entities on where we are now, since different aspects of economic revitalization play out differently.” warned Mudavadi.
Mudavadi says Kenyans have misunderstood President William Ruto because they have not been keen to know that he has been majorly focusing on debt distress.
He said the country is steadily recovering from the debt burden owing to strategies that the Government has put in place.
“The President’s message simply means we are on the right track, slowly by slowly, steadily and with the right measures being put in place, we will win over the debt issue and other economic recovery indicators will begin to manifest positive progress,” said Mudavadi.
Mudavadi who was speaking Thursday during a joint radio and television interview said the good relationship that President Ruto’s administration has kept with International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank as key financial institutions and lenders is what has kept Kenya abreast in its journey to stabilize the economy.
He urged Kenyans to reflect on what the country went through in early 1990s when its relationship with the IMF and World Bank were strained leading to a more than two years negotiation to bring normalcy in the economic sector of the country.
“Kenyans should remember that we are members within the Bretton Woods agreement and keeping good financial relationships with the IMF and World Bank gives us an upper hand in accessing financial credit at much lower interest rates through the concessionary loans arrangements.” he stated.
Adding: “If we could maintain the trend that our predecessors adopted of going for commercial loans that accrue high interest rates with a shorter repayment period, Kenya could be on its knees now economically.”
Mudavadi lauded the approaches for achieving a shared goal, while working with IMF and World Bank saying the move has been a relief for some sectors thus an indication that Kenya’s economy will bounce back and big.
Mudavadi urged Kenyans to be patriotic and optimistic since what is happening is stabilization to ensure that key indicators that drive the economy are working then focus to shift on areas of interest in manufacturing, production, business and trade, industry among other which directly create job opportunities.
“We need to appreciate that disruption of supply chain globally as a result of what is happening in places like Gaza and the Russia-Ukraine war, leads to delay and shortages in the supply of commodities like oil and fertilizer to regions like ours thus this also affects the growth of the economy.” he explained.
He pointed out strategies like the European Union Economic partnership agreement that Kenya signed recently as one of the areas the government is exploring to ensure we get market for our exports and open doors for businesses with countries that will help in injecting foreign exchange to our economy.
“This is a good example since now we have an agreement with 27 countries across Europe. We will be able to do business with them tariff free and with no quotas. Opportunities that will at the long run benefit our people, since more jobs will also be created locally and this is how we shall achieve economic stability,” said Mudavadi.
Mudavadi says the main focus by the Ruto administration to avoid reckless borrowing that will again further plunge the country into an economic turmoil.