David Ndii Details Ruto's Plan to Create 250K Street Businesses Paying Ksh2,500 Rent

Economist David Ndii at the Sarova Stanley Hotel in Nairobi on December 8, 2015.
Economist David Ndii at the Sarova Stanley Hotel in Nairobi on December 8, 2015.
Daily Nation

Economist David Ndii on Saturday, October 22, shared a master plan detailing how Deputy President William Ruto's bottom-up economic approach will work to eradicate poverty.

Through his official social media pages, Ndii shared some of the projects that will be undertaken once the DP ascends to power, with the complete rehabilitation of Nairobi River taking priority.

He shared photography of what the Nairobi River would look like after complete rehabilitation, noting the project alone would cost the government only 10 percent of what the Nairobi Expressway cost, or an equivalent of Ksh7.2 billion.

An image of Nairobi River
A file image of the heavily polluted Nairobi River.
Daily Nation

After the river is rehabilitated, Ndii revealed a jaw-dropping plan to create a riverfront real estate. The project will be developed on the riparian land of the rehabilitated river.

"Our goal is to create secure public 'real estate' for 250,000 street businesses. The Nairobi Riverfront Development is one of our key projects for that," he revealed.

"Each of the 250,000 business pays Ksh2,500 rent per month and the annual rent income will be Ksh7.5 billion. This cost incurred by the Nairobi County in the rehabilitation project will be recovered in just one year," he explained.

According to Ndii, the riverfront project will result in a 5 percent turnover in taxes, coming from the rent collected, which translates to Ksh18 billion tax revenue annually.

The Nairobi Expressway, a pilot project of the present-day government, is now contractually valued at Ksh72.8 billion, after an increment of Ksh7.6 billion from the initial budget figure of Ksh65.2 billion.

The bottom-up economic model by the DP Ruto intends to empower Kenyans financially in a bid to generate taxes to spur economic growth.

The model targets to upscale the economy by promoting investment in 15 million jobless Kenyans through job creation.

Ndii rubbished the Azimio La Umoja initiative by Raila Odinga, who proposed that if elected, low-income families would receive a monthly stipend of Ksh6,000 on the claim that it will cost Kenyans taxpayers more money to sustain compared to the bottom-up model which will empower the families financially.

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ODM leader Raila Odinga speaks during the Mashujaa Day celebrations held in Kirinyaga County, on Wednesday, October 20, 2021
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