President Ruto defends GMO imports, says no quick fixes to high cost of living

President William Ruto and journalists at State House during the State of the Nation Address. [PSS]

President William Ruto yesterday ruled out any quick fixes to the high cost of living, and defended the decision to lift the ban on genetically modified organisms.

In a live interview on TV channels last evening, Ruto sarcastically chided those who opposed GMO foods, dismissing claims they pose adverse health effects.

“All the food we import is GMO, to some percentage. The Kenya Bureau of Standards requires the percentage to be one. But that leaves us paying 30 to 40 per cent more for our imports,” he said, claiming that Kenya’s scientists agreed that GM foods posed no health challenges.

“South Africa and the USA are 100 per cent GMO. Have you heard of anyone growing horns because of consuming GMO?” he posed, arguing that GMOs would help address perennial food shortage.

“I am a scientist... I would not endanger the lives of those who elected me,” Ruto said. 

Ruto reiterated that lowering the high cost of living depended on increasing food production, stating that it would not happen overnight.

The president would also explain his recent directive on the flopped Galana/Kulalu project, claiming it had been sabotaged by the former administration. “Instead of using the land in the intended way by putting it under irrigation, they were subdividing it into settlement schemes,” Ruto said.

On Tuesday, he cancelled the planned subdivision of parcels of land for settlement in the Galana/Kulalu area, ordering the National Irrigation Authority to work on 10,000 acres of land under a public-private partnership.

“The next 10,000 acres be prepared for production in six months under PPP. GOK (Government of Kenya) to construct a dam beginning April to bring another 350,000 acres under food production,” he posted on his social media handles.

Ruto said his government’s efforts to lower the cost of living were already bearing fruit, saying that the price of unga had reduced since he took office. He said that he has been successful in eliminating “cartels” who had been responsible for inflating unga prices.

“Last year, the price of unga was Sh230, a record that has never been seen before... the average cost is currently Sh190,” the president said.

Food prices

Much like his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta, Ruto has faced the criticism over the ballooning cost of living, characterised by high food and energy prices. His campaign last year was almost solely based on fixing the ailing economy, lowering the cost of food and create employment.

But he would abolish subsidies put in place by Uhuru on unga, electricity and fuel. The effect has been a much higher cost of living that has seen Kenyans struggle more in the few months of his tenure than they did in Uhuru’s last months in office. He has said the subsidies were unsustainable as advised by the International Monetary Fund.

And although Ruto has dismissed talk of harsher times being in the offing, the return of transaction costs in bank-to-mobile money transfers and, more critically, higher school fees, will squeeze Kenyans harder.

Further, the National Treasury said it would introduce new tax policies aimed at increasing revenue, which means more burden for mwananchi.

The president promises better days ahead, saying he would turn the country’s economy from one based on debt to one based on revenue. “That is the kind of sure footing we are looking for,” he said on Sunday, stating that he planned to leave a legacy of prosperity.

He recently said he plans to triple revenue collection to nearly Sh5 trillion in the next five years, which he hopes to achieve by widening the tax base and closing spending leakages.

A short-term plan to ease the cost of living includes fertiliser subsidies to increase agricultural production and eventually resulting in lower food prices.

In October last year, he sought one year to reduce the cost of unga. On Tuesday, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi said unga and rice prices would drop next month, even as the government imports the two products.

“We are conducting a whole review of tariffs of all our energy requirements,” the president said on Sunday, adding that the tariffs would be sensitive to the vulnerable. He said that electricity prices would not go up.

Climate change

In addition, the president has led a tree-planting effort that he hopes will, in the long run, help reverse the adverse effects of climate change, such as Kenya’s worst drought in 40 years.

Ruto’s economic masterplan also includes offering “cheap credit” to Kenyans, through his flagship Hustler Fund programme that targeted small and medium enterprises. Through it, individual borrowers can access Sh500 to Sh50,000. The government says that Kenyans have borrowed more than Sh20 billion since the Sh50 billion fund was launched at the end of November last year.

The President said Kenyans had saved close to Sh700 million through the fund, which would be invested in government securities. He maintained that the Hustler Fund had been lawfully implemented and would be presented to Parliament next month for ratification.

Since he was elected, Ruto has been vocal about reforming education. Such reforms include higher education funding, a proposal to abolish the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) and set up the National Skill and Funding Council. Ruto stated that the plan was to have one body in charge of higher education funding, which would increase from Sh1 billion to Sh22 billion and eliminate interests on Helb loans.

An equally important change in primary and secondary school education by reforming the Competency Based Curriculum, based on recommendations of the Presidential Working Party on Education Reform.

Ruto has also expressed his intention to have a presence on the regional front, pledging to support peace efforts in Somalia, Ethiopia and the DR Congo. When he took over the presidency, he retained Uhuru as a peace envoy to the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa, letting the former president continue to chair regional peace efforts.