The Chairman of the Presidential Council of Economic Advisors David Ndii, on Friday, laughed at a section of Kenyans who demanded an apology from the government for promising to stabilise the shilling.
Ndii mocked Kenyans who believed in Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua's remarks hinting at the shilling gaining strength against the dollar in the government-to-government oil deal with Saudi Arabia.
His response was specifically directed to a tweet that asked senior government officials to seek atonement for what he claimed was misleading Kenyans to offload their dollars at the onset of the deal set to end in December this year.
"David Ndii, Rigathi Gachagua and Cleophas Malala repent for fleecing and mocking Kenyans," the Kenyan commented.
“You Believed him?” Ndii contemptuously commented.
In the video recorded during a press briefing in April last year, Gachagua asked Kenyans hoarding dollars in fear of the shilling devaluing to revert to consider their financial decisions.
“I would ask all Kenyans, business people and investors who have been hoarding dollars for speculation purposes, to offload your dollars to the market today," the DP noted.
"We do not want Kenyans to lose money so those who have been hoarding dollars everywhere with the hope that it will continue going up, will go down. So if you have a few dollars still hoarding please let them go to the market and you will thank me later, please."
Gachagua also stated that the country was using a lot of dollars to purchase fuel, and thus the demand for the dollar would go down.
"It is very honest advice from a truthful man, but with what has happened, freeing 500 million US dollars to purchase fuel every month, the demand for the dollar would come down and the shilling would gain," Gachagua remarked.
The G2G deal which was launched by President William Ruto in April 2023, was aimed at stabilising the Shilling against the Dollar as Kenya purchased oil on credit.
The oil deal was signed between Kenya and four Saudi Arabian companies including Aramco Trading Fujairah FZE (ARAMCO), Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) Global Trading Ltd and Emirates National Company (Singapore) Private Ltd (ENOC).
However, that has not been the case with the shilling having dropped to a staggering 160 mars against the dollar. Kenya, in January this year, confirmed that the deal will end in December. However, it refuted reports that the termination was linked to frustration witnessed in the exchange market.
