Africa-Press – Kenya. National Assembly Majority leader Kimani Ichung’wah has attributed the country’s economic recovery to President William Ruto’s painful and unpopular policy decisions.
He attributed the economic resumption to the drop in fuel price and the strengthening of the Shilling among other issues.
The Kikuyu legislature said it was important for Kenyans to endure short-term pain for long term gain.
“Kenya Kwanza made strategic, bold and unpopular decisions to drive the country’s economic revival. This, in total contrast to the populist choice of consumer subsidies,” the MP said.
He said subsidies had proven too costly and favoured merchants over consumers.
“Although Kenya Kwanza’s decision was initially unpopular and caused short-term discomfort, it is now yielding positive results.”
His sentiments came just a day after fuel prices dropped drastically followed with an announcement that the cost of electricity would also be slashed as a result of the decrease in fuel prices.
President William Ruto on Sunday said he will continue to make ‘painful’ decisions for Kenyans as it was the right thing for him not to make populist decisions that won’t pay off.
“Today, unga, which was almost Sh200 is now about Sh100,” he said.
In 2022, Ruto opposed the push to subsidise unga and instead opted to subsidise production by supplying subsidised fertiliser to registered farmers.
He cited the strengthening of the Shilling against the dollar and other major world currencies as some of the successes.
Months ago, the Shilling exchanged against the dollar at about Sh160. It had dropped to about Sh127 as of Monday, Central Bank of Kenya cited.
The country has also witnessed sharp reduction in pump prices.
The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority reduced fuel prices by up to Sh18 in this month’s review.
Epra said a litre of Super petrol decreased by Sh5.31 per litre, diesel by Sh10 per while Kerosene has gone down by Sh18.68 per litre.
EPRA also slashed electricity cost per unit by Sh3.3 in the latest tariff update for this month.
The new rates will see the lowest spenders, customers consuming less than 30 units per month (Domestic Customer 1), pay Sh20.96 for a unit.
It is a 13.7 per cent reduction compared to the previous month when KPLC allocated a single unit to this segment at Sh24.3.
Customer segment consuming between 31-100 units per month (Domestic Customer 2), will purchase a unit at Sh26.23 compared to the previous month of Sh29.55.
The last segment of consumers using more than 100 units of power a month (Domestic Customer 3), will part away with Sh31.06 for a unit as compared to the previous month where they were paying Sh34.39.
EPRA attributed the decrease to the strengthening of the Kenya Shilling which consequently resulted in a reduction in the cost of fuel that is used to generate electricity.
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