President William Ruto has placed his broad-based coalition with the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) at the centre of his administration’s development agenda, saying the partnership is delivering results in healthcare, education, housing, agriculture and infrastructure.
Speaking in Karachuonyo, Homa Bay County, on Thursday, Ruto said the UDA-ODM arrangement was focused on improving the lives of Kenyans instead of encouraging tribal divisions and hatred.
“The only political formation with a demonstrable, practical and transformative agenda for Kenya is the broad-based coalition,” he said. “We are implementing this agenda through markets, affordable housing, education, universal healthcare, agriculture and infrastructure.”
Ruto said the government had made healthcare more accessible through the Social Health Authority (SHA), with 33 million Kenyans having registered under the programme.
“NHIF, for 30 years, had only 8 million Kenyans because it was meant for the privileged. Today, we are making healthcare universal,” he said.
He said Kenyans should not have to stop farming, keeping livestock or engaging in other economic activities simply to raise money for medical treatment.
“We want the cost of healthcare to be taken care of by SHA so that every Kenyan can access healthcare,” he said.
The President also highlighted education reforms, saying his administration had taken steps to deal with challenges it inherited in 2022.
Among the issues he cited were teacher shortages, inadequate classrooms, difficulties surrounding the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) and challenges linked to the higher education funding model.
“We have sorted out the teacher shortage. We have hired 100,000 teachers. We are hiring another 20,000 teachers this year to make sure that we have enough teachers to teach our children,” he said.
Ruto added that the government had constructed 23,000 classrooms and introduced a new higher education funding model that would support students from January.
In Homa Bay, the President said work was also progressing on affordable housing, markets, hostels and roads.
He said stalled road projects had been revived, while another 400 kilometres of roads had been started across the county.
Ruto used the development projects to challenge residents to make a choice between his administration’s focus on development and what he described as politics driven by tribalism and hatred.
“Do you want development and work, or do you want people who will bring tribalism and hatred?” he asked.
He also criticised rival political formations, accusing them of lacking a clear direction and saying they had “no plan”, “no agenda” and “no mission”.
“They have no plan. They are clueless, planless and visionless,” he said.
Ruto made the remarks on the final day of his development tour of Luo Nyanza, where he launched, commissioned and inspected a range of projects covering roads, markets, water, housing and other infrastructure.
His programme included visits to Economic Stimulus Programme markets in Misambi, Kendu Bay and Kijabe, alongside inspections of road projects in Homa Bay and Suba South.