President William Ruto ran on a campaign promise of bettering the lives of Kenyans by lowering the cost of living.
During campaigns and days after being sworn in, Ruto pledged that he would narrow the gap between the poor commonly known as 'hustlers' and the rich.
This was through his bottom-up economic model that sought to empower Kenyans in different sectors.
Kenyans.co.ke compiled six promises the President made that have been deferred or negated altogether.
Gas cylinders
The President on Thursday, March 2, promised Kenyans that by June 2023, gas cylinders would retail between Ksh500 and Ksh300.
"We will allocate funds to reduce the cost of cooking gas, a six kg cylinder that is being sold at Ksh2,500, 2,800, will be reduced to Ksh500 or Ksh300," he promised then.
During a media interview on Sunday, May 14, the President revealed that his government would not be able to live up to the June promise.
Ruto revealed that the gas cylinder promises would be lowered if the parliamentarians approved the proposed Finance Bill, 2023.
''If we had succeeded to have that in the supplementary budgetary budget, then that would have happened from June 1,'' he explained why his promise would not come to pass.
County allocation
While on the campaign trail, the President revealed that one way to empower people was to support devolved units.
On January 24, 2022, Ruto promised to amend the Budget Policy Statement in order to increase county allocations to 35 per cent of national revenue.
“This increment will increase resources to finance service delivery at the real bottom of the social-economic pyramid,” he stated then.
On April 20, 2023, the senate voted for the proposal by the national government to allocate counties Ksh385 billion instead of Ksh425 billion that had been recommended by the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA).
Electricity prices
In December 2022, Ruto dismissed reports that his government was planning to increase electricity prices.
“I want to assure the country that there will be no additional charges today or going into the future on electricity bills to the people of Kenya,” the President promised.
Despite assurance to the nation, the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) announced an increase on electricity prices on March 24, 2023.
In the revised prices, consumers using 30 units and below were to pay Ksh12 per unit from Ksh10 while those using between 11 and 100 units were to pay Ksh15.80 per unit from Ksh10.
Fuel
On March 2023, Ruto announced that the government had inked a deal to import oil on credit from three international oil-producing companies in a move that was to see lower fuel prices.
Despite Kenya welcoming ships carrying fuel from the Middle East through the new deal, fuel prices have continued to rise steadily.
On Sunday, May 14, EPRA announced that prices of Super Petrol, Diesel and Kerosene increased by Kshs3.40 per litre, Kshs6.40 per litre and Kshs15.19 per litre respectively.
Maize Flour
While campaigning for the Presidency, Ruto promised Kenyans that should he get elected, a 2-kilogram packet of maize flour would retail at Ksh100.
Ruto later deferred on that promise noting that price reduction would be gradual and not instantaneous as earlier promised.
The President on Friday, April 14, remarked that he was limiting the importation of maize to protect local farmers something that was making flour prices not go lower as expected.
“We have to make sure the maize we are importing does not hurt our farmers because it is from farmers in other countries,” he explained the gradual reduction of maize flour prices.
Tax friendly eco-system
The Head of State after being sworn in promised a tax-friendly system where no Kenyan would be hurt by harsh revenue collection.
“We are committed to instituting a comprehensive culture change at the KRA to make it much more supportive of taxpayers and make it a people-friendly customer-centric organization that facilitates taxpayer compliance as a co-tax administration strategy,” Ruto remarked on October 28, 2022.
His government instead has proposed a raft of deductions and levies in the Finance Bill 2023, which will put a strain on Kenyans.
