Editor's Review

Ruto said with the new move, the government will no longer have to worry about the dollar shortage.


President William Ruto has lauded his economic advisory team led by David Ndii for steering the country in the right direction at a time when it was facing a dollar crisis. 

Speaking during the release of the Report on Evaluation of the Performance of Ministries, State Corporations, and Tertiary Institutions for the 2021/2022 Financial Year on Tuesday, Ruto said the country no longer needs dollars to purchase fuel.

"My economic advisors led by David Ndii have done something phenomenal; they have managed to put together a programme that has taken us away from looking for $500M every month to buy our fuel needs, which was slowly into a crisis. Today we can buy fuel in Kenya shillings," he said.

Economist David Ndii. PHOTO | COURTESY

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The function was attended by DP Rigathi Gachagua, Prime CS Musalia Mudavadi and various cabinet secretaries.

Ruto said with the new move, the government will no longer have to worry about the dollar shortage.

The President said going forward, he is certain the demand for the dollar will decline and as result, the exchange rate will soon hit Sh115.

The statement by the president comes barely a day after Ndii described the government as wasteful.

Speaking during an interview with Citizen TV, Ndii said he has on several occasions been angered by wastages in government saying several attempts to contain them have failed.

"Government is extremely wasteful, there is not a single day that I am not exasperated by not just how wasteful it is but by how deliberate it is and how unbothered people are," he said.

"It's not just this government, governments are very wasteful."

Ndii added that the independent institutions in the country are unable to salvage the current situation.

"The independent institutions (Auditor General, Controller of budget, Investigative bodies) in the country are totally helpless and are unable to solve the current situation of wastage," he added.

The Economist said the government needs to put more systems in place to have more value for money. He noted that automation around procurements could help the government to be more cost-effective.