Deputy President William Ruto has said that after winning the August 9, 2022 general election, his UDA government will allocate Sh150M in each constituency for mama mbogas, boda boda operators, and other SMEs to be able to access low-interest loans.
Speaking in Tongaren, Bungoma county, Ruto said the allocation will be similar to the CDF in that when the CDF is budgeted for, the micro and small medium-sized enterprises are also budgeted for.
“President Uhuru Kenyatta and I built technical training institutes, connected households to electricity, and built roads in the first five years. Following the 2017 general election, we were to implement the Big Four Agenda, which included housing, value addition, and agro-processing,” he said.
Ruto stated that they planned to create job opportunities for the youth in order for them to create their own wealth as part of value addition.
He stated that they intended to eliminate cartels and brokers so that farmers could receive fair prices for their produce, subsidized fertilizers, and seedlings as part of agro-processing
“However, Raila Odinga intervened with the BBI in 2018. He stated that we should first stop creating job opportunities for the youth, providing universal health care coverage as well as creating an enabling environment for our farmers to grow their crops,” Ruto said.
He said ODM party leader Raila Odinga wanted to first change the constitution, create leadership positions in the government such as prime minister and deputy prime minister, and give the presidency more powers.
“However, due to the fact that we serve a living God, the BBI reggae was stopped after four years and the Big Four Agenda failed. We were unable to create job opportunities for our youth, while farmers continued to suffer. When we form the government next year, we will be able to accomplish what we were unable to do in the big four agenda,” he said.
According to Ruto, his first priority will be to put the bottom-up economic model into action by investing Sh100 billion in projects that will provide job opportunities for young people.
He said that in every homestead in Kenya, graduates with degrees, certificates, and diplomas were unemployed leading to depression and engaging in criminal activity.
“Small Medium and Micro Enterprises account for 80% of all businesses in Kenya. Mama mbogas and boda boda operators are among them. We will allocate Sh50 billion to the micro and small medium-sized enterprise sector once we form the next government next year,” he said.
Ruto said that if mama mbogas and boda boda operators were not affected by the rain, they were affected by the scorching sun, if they were not affected by the scorching sun, they were harassed by the Kanjo and if they were not harassed by the Kanjo, they were bothered by the CRB, Shylock, and Fuliza because they were unable to pay their loans.
“The third agenda will be to assist our farmers by subsidizing the cost of seedlings and fertilizer to fetch good prices for our farmers. We will eliminate cartels and brokers known as the Middlemen, lowering the selling price of our foodstuffs in the market and allowing citizens to purchase foodstuffs at a lower cost,” he said.
Ruto said that citizens must unite in order to form the next government. He urged all citizens to join the UDA party.
