President William Ruto Address to the 13th Parliament

 

H.E. President William Samoei Ruto

H.E. President William Ruto on Thursday afternoon at around 3pm gave his first address to the 13th Parliament that comprised both the Senate and the National Assembly.

The President began his address by lauding the record number of members who had been re-elected in the National Assembly; 193 members, 50 more than in 2017 with 17 senators being re-elected. He also lauded the belief the women leadership by the electorate that had elected 29 female Members of Parliament up from 23 in 2017.

It was not all serious talk though, with President Ruto jokingly referring to his candidature in August as being the opposition candidate despite being the Deputy President, eventually winning and relegating the sitting President into opposition.

Ruto reiterated his commitment to lead, and serve all without political affiliations, calling on bi-partisan support of his administrative agenda.

While promising to respect the autonomy and oversight role of Parliament, the President tasked the members of Parliament with the responsibility of revising the standing orders to facilitate the probing of Cabinet Secretaries to improve transparency, and accountability in the running of government.

On the Judiciary, the President sought additional funds for the institution to support the "bottom-up scaling of Justice". The President reiterated that the additional funds would help in facilitating the judiciary in adjudicating matters of national importance such as corruption cases more efficiently and expeditiously.

On access to credit facilities, the President decried the current blacklisting by the CRB as "zero-sum" and "punitive". He instead proposed a credit-scoring system that allows lenders to apply customer segmentation and end the stigma of blacklisting. He further reported on the new reduced rates on Fuliza loans he had worked on a day earlier. 

The President went further, committing to allocating resources to the "Hustler Fund" from which micro, small and medium enterprises could access affordable credit to start and expand their businesses.

On health, the President sought the restructuring of the primary health system to put more resources into promotive, preventive and early diagnosis. He also called on the restructuring of the National Health Insurance Fund, a key player in health industry, to improve efficiency and turn it into a "fit for purpose" social insurance scheme that caters for all.

The President committed not to continue the borrowing spree to finance recurrent expenditure. With the collection standing at Kshs. 2.1 trillion annually; the amount that can only be used to finance the debts and pay salaries - the President instructed Treasury to work with ministries to reduce the budget by Kshs. 300 billion in the current financial year. The trend being continued until the government attains a recurrent-budget surplus.

The President also called on the restructuring of the tax system to the needs of the economy. An equitable, efficiency and customer-friendly tax system is envisioned by the President. He seeks to introduce a wealth tax in addition to consumption tax, income tax and tax on trade. The restructuring of the tax system is aimed at over-taxing wealth and under-taxing trade. 

The President further proposed the renaming of the Kenya Revenue Authority to Kenya Revenue Service to make it a "people-friendly, customer-centric" organization.

The President proposed more changes to the social security and pension systems. The President committed to proposing a "National Savings Drive" to encourage those in the informal sector to set-up retirement savings plan with savings up-to Kshs. 6,000 a-year attracting Kshs. 1 from the government for every Kshs. 2.

The President while underlining the importance of Constituency Development Fund (CDF) tasked the Parliament with finding way of ensuring that CDF which had previously been declared unconstitutional meets the tenets of the Constitution. 

The Senate-Oversight fund was also proposed by the President as he concluded his address.