Government Spokesperson Isaac Mwaura on Saturday, June 22, pointed fingers to the West for the anti-government protests being witnessed across the country.
During a press briefing, Mwaura alleged that there were certain powerful international players financing Gen-Z protests against the Finance Bill.
He remarked that this was likely due to President William Ruto’s support of Russia during the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
It is not clear which Russia support Mwaura was alluding to as the President has been unequivocal in supporting Ukraine's efforts to end the war.
Mwaura further remarked that some powers were not happy with Ruto’s efforts to end reliance on the United States dollar as the main currency for international trade.
“Gen Z please listen to me, there are genuine people who are asking genuine questions but there is a group somewhere if I look keenly from afar there could be a foreign hand into this issue,” he spoke of the Finance Bill demonstrations.
“This is because our president has spoken many things about us internationally. He has said that we must counter climate change and rallied the whole of Africa together and maybe some people are not happy.”
Citing the recent El Nino and heavy downpours witnessed in the country, Mwaura remarked that President Ruto would continue taking the climate change conversation to the global level.
Mwaura further remarked that some international players were not happy that Ruto had stated Kenya was being affected by the Russian conflict.
“The other day he spoke about Russia's invasion. He stated that it is affecting us even though we cannot receive wheat flour from Russia because we do not produce enough here in Kenya. There are people with problems with that,” he alleged.
A fact-check by Kenyans.co.ke shows that during the Ukraine Peace Summit held in Switzerland, on June 16, Ruto had offered his support to Ukraine even agreeing to set up grain hubs in the Port of Mombasa for agricultural produce from the nation.
Mwaura further remarked that the West was not happy with Ruto’s plan to reduce over-reliance on the United States dollar.
“Also look at the de-dollarisation. If the dollar is strong, it affects our economy negatively. He (Ruto) said we find new finance infrastructure internationally,” the government spokesperson stated.
Mwaura explained that when an African country takes a loan from international financial institutions, the payment is 8 times higher than when a developed country takes the same loan.
“That makes it extremely difficult to pay those loans. That is why we are in a death trap. We take 48 per cent of what we collect and pay those people. They would not want us to get out of that slavery,” he alleged.
