During yesterday's presidential roundtable at Statehouse, His Excellency William Ruto finally changed his stance. He admitted that there was a significant failure in effectively communicating to the people of Kenya about the various clauses in the controversial finance bill. This lack of communication has resulted in widespread loss of lives and destruction of properties due to protest
William Ruto, while continuing to rally support for the rejected Finance Bill 2024, emphasized that the purpose of the Bill was to uplift Kenya from extreme poverty. However, he criticized his communication team for failing to clarify the Bill's provisions to the people of Kenya. Ruto clarified that contrary to rumors, the finance bill did not involve matters of land. He pointed out that it was evident that Kenyans did not have sufficient opportunity to review the bill before it was rejected outright.
The president lamented that the rejection of the bill has set Kenya back by almost two years. He also maintained that if the bill had been accepted, Kenya would have been able to finance its budget adequately over the next three years without needing loans to cover funding gaps.
The head of state, however, expressed his intention to "consider carefully" the concerns raised by young people who opposed the Finance Bill 2024. He acknowledged that with the bill now out, some operations would need to be suspended, indicating that the government might need to borrow approximately 1.1 trillion to sustain its operations.
The recent two-week protests began peacefully but escalated into violence, resulting in a section of parliament being burnt down, with 'Occupy Everywhere' demonstrations scheduled to take place on Tuesday and Thursday respectively