President William Ruto has blamed shadowy personalities whom he referred to as “brokers” and “conmen” for allegedly derailing industrialisation in the country during the last regime headed by retired president Uhuru Kenyatta where president Ruto served as the then Deputy President.
The president spoke earlier today during the official commissioning a Sh30billion Devki Steel Mills in Kwale County.
“In the last five years, conmen middlemen, brokers have ensured that government policy is twisted to favour imported products, because they’re making little monies, and they have frustrated industrialisation in Kenya. Sixteen steel milling companies in Kenya have closed down because brokers have changed the policy to favour products that are imported. (Kwa miaka mitano, tumerudisha chini percentage ya industrialization kutoka 9 per cent mpaka seven per cent ya GDP….na ni kwa sababu ya sera ambayo haifai. Watu wachache wanafanya urafiki na wafanyakazi wa serikali, wanapindua sera ili kusaidia brokers, middlemen kuhangaisha viwanda zetu. Nataka niwahakikishie kwamba). We are going to reverse the trend.” President Ruto said.
This, he said, was done by these unnamed individuals reportedly pushing for a change in government policy so as to enhance import of products in order to receive kickbacks as opposed to local manufacturing, thereby frustrating Kenyan industries.
The President has pledged to introduce a framework that promotes the industrialisation sector, creates jobs for the country’s citizens and saves the foreign exchange.
He added: “I want to tell our industry that we’re going to make sure that we put in place a policy framework that favours production, manufacture, and favours our industry…so that we can grow our jobs and save on our foreign exchange by making sure that products that we can produce locally are not imported by middlemen and brokers.”