TWO million Kenyan households that are feeling the pinch caused by the high cost of living will each receive KSh6,000 ($50.61) within three weeks of Azimio la Umoja – a coalition of 26 parties – winning the presidential election on August 9.
The bold offer of this KSh12 billion (about $101 million) sweetener came from Raila Odinga’s Azimio running mate, Martha Karua, during the Deputy Presidential Debate between her and Rigathi Gachagua, the running mate of Deputy President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza coalition on Tuesday night.
She said during the televised event in Nairobi: ‘While we wait to reboot the economy, for you who are unable to put food on the table, rescue is on the way.
‘Within three weeks, [if] you put an Azimio government in place, we are going to send to the two million families that do not have any means of survival a KSh6,000 package.’
Karua said that this would also act as a ‘stimulus to the economy because it gives purchasing power to two million families [or] eight million people in the country’.
She added: ‘Rescue is on the way.’
Asked by Africa Briefing whether this huge amount of money would be available to be disbursed, a senior staffer in the Karua campaign team said: ‘We’ve done the calculations and worked out the possibilities with the Treasury budget. It is feasible.’
Karua said during the debate that Kenya did not have a problem with revenue collection, which was almost KSh2 trillion in 2020/2021.
She said the problem was with expenditure, which could be curbed by cutting out non-priority spending.
Even then, Karua said the funds that were available were being pocketed through corrupt practices.
She argued: ‘The country can’t breathe.
‘We cannot get the services that people do require because monies intended for pubic services are going into the pockets of corrupt cartels who then become instant millionaires with huge bank balances.
‘We intend to help this country; to help citizens get back their country, and all the resources of the country will be utilised in the best interests of the entire nation, not a select few,’ Karua added.
Kenya Kwanza’s Gachagua equally tried to appeal to ordinary Kenyans who have long lost faith in their political leaders.
He tried to be upbeat: “I like to look at life with a positive perspective. I always look at a glass that is half full rather than half empty
‘The focus is to revive the fortunes of Kenyans who are in a state of helplessness.
‘We have listened extensively to what the people of Kenya want us to do for them,’ Gachagua added.
He said that this was clearly captured in his party’s manifesto.
On the issue of running the country, Gachagua said: ‘I have a fairly good idea of what to do to help [Ruto] in the management of the affairs of the country’
Karua, on the other hand, was more forthcoming on the role she would play if she became Deputy President under Odinga.
‘I will be a Deputy President who is respectful of the Constitution and the people of Kenya,’ she said, adding that she ‘will obey the rule of law and do the best to support my captain to deliver for this country’.
Karua added: ‘The Oath of Office dictates that the interests of the public are paramount in everything the government does.
‘I will help my captain to stick to the rule of law, to ensure that what is in the Constitution is fulfilled.
‘I will, therefore, serve with honesty.’
Karua said her track record spoke of her integrity, pointing out that she resigned from the government of President Mwai Kibaki in 2009 due to being frustrated in her job.
She said that ‘sticking in office without executing your duties is disrespectful to the public you’re serving’ while receiving salary and privileges when she was not allowed to perform her job.
During the d
ebate, Gachagua, a combative politician, was surprisingly less so.
He could have been disarmed by Karua who turned up with three of her grandchildren as she focused on the family-friendly
nature of Azimio.
Gachagua, however, approached the debate to sway voters that apparently do not attend political rallies.
He was able to paint a clear picture of Kenya Kwanza’s vision.
However. Gachagua could have alienated some people by regularly referring to Ruto as a winner and a candidate who could not be defeated.
For Karua, her mode of delivery showed she is well versed in the country’s affairs, like when she pointed out that financing expenditure in the Azimio government’s first 100 days in office would be sourced from the current budget.
This appeared to have been lost on Gachagua who admitted he was not privy to this, in spite of him being one of the sitting MPs who approved the 2022/2023 budget presented by the Treasury.
On the whole Karua appeared to have disabused the minds of many Kenyans who believe that she and Odinga are being manipulated by President Uhuru Kenyatta, as the press has been implying.
They were for the people of Kenya, she stressed.
.
