Former Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani on Thursday, October 27, countered claims by President William Ruto's administration that they had inherited a dilapidated economy from the former regime.
Speaking at Treasury on Thursday, Yatani reckoned that under his watch, the country's gross domestic product (GDP) has hit a record high - a fete he termed as a joint effort with the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).
"Treasury worked very hard to ensure that there is liquidity in the economy by working on the dynamic of interest rates with the CBK governor.
"We managed to keep the economy afloat and grow it. For the first time in 11,12 years, we registered among the highest economic growth at 7.5 GDP," he remarked.
Ruto and his deputy Rigathi have repeatedly stated that they inherited a ravaged economy, from President emeritus Uhuru Kenyatta.
“We are inheriting a dilapidated country with Sh10 trillion debt. Let all those who were against join us in building the nation,” Gachagua stated before.
The pioneer governor of Marsabit County who also served as Labour CS further defended the Kazi mtaani program which was abolished by President Ruto.
Yatani stated that the project provided a cushion to Kenyans who lost their jobs and were facing difficult times.
He pointed out that the project also helped salvage the economy amid global crises whose impact could not be addressed by the government.
"We came up with a number of interventions, reforms, programmes and policies that went a long way in supporting the economy at a critical time.
"We cut down taxes to create disposable income and introduced Kazi mtaani to create jobs for people who had money cash transfers to support the very vulnerable people," the former CS stated.
On October 25, Ruto abolished Kazi mtaani noting that it was redundant. He argued that the employment opportunities it created did not match with his job creation plan.
"Kazi Mtaani is outdated. The 500 youths per ward hired under the programme will be absorbed in the construction of these homes," the President declared.
The government intends to construct two million houses across all counties, and the head of state envisaged that more jobs will be created.
