Highlights from Ruto's State of the Nation Address

President William Ruto arrives at Parliament Building, Nairobi

Prime CS Musalia Mudavadi says President William Ruto will address the country honestly and candidly

Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna stated that he will not attend President William Ruto's State of the Nation Address.

President Ruto says Kenya is on the right track to economic transformation;

President Ruto: It’s important to point out that we begun the implementation of our mandate to transform Kenya’s economy from the bottom-up under extreme difficult circumstances, not to excuse failure… we do it to emphasise the significance of our progress.

President Ruto: We must never defined by our problems and Kenya’s destiny must never be derailed by our challenges.

President Ruto: It was under conditions of difficulty that Kenyans entrusted us, to solve problems and undertake long term solutions to the economy

President Ruto: Our farmers are the best people to speak on the success of the subsidized fertilizers... Samuel Chacha graphically painted a picture of the success of subsidizes with the phrase shamba yangu ina meta meta.

President Ruto: Fertilizer subsidy program has availed 5.5 million bags to farmers across the country. A 2kg packet of maize flour now costs as low as Sh145 and a high of Sh175. Gorogoro of maize is now selling at a range of Sh60 to Sh75.

President Ruto: Next month, we will be able to settle the first 300 million USD installment, of the USD 2B eurobond debt that forms due next year. We will and we shall pay the debt that has become source of concern

President Ruto: We must admit, that as a country we had been living large and way beyond our means. Time has come to retire the false comforts and illusionary benefits of wasteful expenditure.

President Ruto: The increase in affordable housing units is a strategic intervention for not only supply affordable dwelling to Kenyans but to also lower the cost of living.

President Ruto: On Hustler Fund, we have disbursed Sh36.6 billion with Sh3.3 billion of savings at a repayment rate of 73%

President Ruto: We have deployed 100,000 community health promoters....in the last month CHPs have attended to 1.2 million households

President Ruto: We are constructing 400 markets across Kenya, complete with water and electricity, to provide ‘Mama Mboga’ with a dignified working environment.

President Ruto: Yesterday I called Harrison Kenga, a Tuk Tuk operator in Mombasa who has accessed 714,000 from the Hustler Fund. He suggested to me to find a way to have the fund provide asset financing so that he could buy himself a tuk-tuk.

President Ruto: Our education system must develop a formidable reservoir of skill, talent, and highly competitive and innovative human capital to support our vision of an economically transformed Kenya

President Ruto: In keeping with our commitment, 56,750 new teachers have been employed while 8,200 primary school teachers were retrained to equip them with the capacity to effectively deliver learning and teaching at junior school level

President Ruto: The new model of financial support is student-centred and deploys a rigorous, impartial means testing instrument to establish the level of need of every student, which then becomes the primary consideration in allocating scholarships and loans

President Ruto: It would be remiss of me not to mention the ongoing bipartisan process of national dialogue that has enabled our leaders to find common ground on many of the issues whose resolution will accelerate our transformation. I thank Kalonzo Musyoka and Kimani Ichung’wah for doing a wonderful job

President Ruto: Cases of misconduct and corruption shall be dealt with ruthlessly, expeditiously and with finality