MPs chant 'two term' as Ruto cherry-picks data hiding pain of a troubled nation

President William Ruto did not disappoint yesterday when he delivered his third State of the Nation Address—liberally laced with polished statistics, selective truths and yet another wave of grand promises.

In the 90-minute speech that opposition leaders dismissed as self-congratulatory, the President flaunted an upbeat report card while skirting the troubled areas that matter most to Kenyans.

As is now customary, MPs—whose duty is to provide oversight—rose in choreographed applause, chanting “two terms” even before interrogating the contents of his address or the reports laid before them, a spectacle detached from the country’s economic and social realities.

Ruto laid out a detailed blueprint for an economic turnaround to propel the country to a first-world economy, creating jobs and ensuring self-sufficiency through infrastructure development, while simultaneously calling for a new era of political unity.

His wide-ranging proposals delivered to a joint session of Parliament included the attainment of domestic electrification through the construction of 250 mega and medium dams across the country, a significant push for agricultural self-sufficiency amid global instability, ensuring an efficient transport and logistics system and the conversion of the country from a net importer to a net exporter of goods.

Necessary projects

“These four projects are our national imperatives; commitments we must embrace without hesitation. Not because they are easy. Not because they are cheap. But because they are absolutely necessary. Because they are worthy. This is the assignment of our generation; this is the purpose of this administration and this parliament, the 13th Parliament, and this is the moment we must rise up to,” stated Ruto.

The President submitted to the House his vision of accelerating national development by dualing 2,500 highways for and tarmacking 28,000km of roads in the next 10 years.

The Head of State said he will launch the dualling of the 170-kilometre Rironi–Naivasha–Nakuru–Mau Summit road and the 58-kilometre Rironi–Maai Mahiu–Naivasha road next week. 

The Mau summit dualling has been a subject of controversy with various groups such as the Motorist Association of Kenya (MAK) expressing it dissatisfaction over the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement to expand the Rironi–Nakuru–Mau Summit Highway.

The association argued the privatisation deal of the project is a scheme to deceive Kenyan motorists and taxpayers by benefiting foreign parties through the proposed toll charges along the mega road.

He also told of plans to modernise the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Mombasa and Lamu ports, and sort out the challenges facing Kenya Airways by next year, through private-public partnerships. This will bring back memories of the botched modernisation of the airport by the impugned Adani company from India 

The President talked of extending the Standard Gauge Railway from Naivasha to Kisumu and eventually to Malaba, a project that would commence in January next year.

Ruto also sought an economic re-stitching only achieved through deliberate efforts to turn the country from a net importer to a net exporter of products, goods and services, with preference being given to agricultural goods.

Fifty mega dams

To achieve this, he cautioned against over-reliance on rain-fed agriculture and proposed the building of 50 mega dams nationwide, alongside 200 additional medium and small dams and thousands of micro dams, to collect and store water, not only to secure our supply, but also to bring at least 2.5 million acres under irrigation within the next five to seven years.

“We can no longer allow the clouds to determine whether our people eat or not. If we are to produce enough for domestic consumption and exports, expanded modern irrigation is now necessary and the only path forward,” emphasised Ruto.

“With dams, we can transform our arid and semi-arid areas into hubs of agricultural production, even in the absence of rainfall. We must never give up on the potential of these regions simply because they receive little rain, and we must never confuse the lack of rain with the lack of water,” he added.

The feasibility of building the dams is, however, in question given previous attempts that were marred by graft and consequently failed to take off. In the case of the multi-billion shilling dams in Arror and Kimwarer in Elgeyo Marakwet County, which were downgraded in 2019, President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration was embroiled in graft allegations.

Health, however, remains a sensitive pressure point. Ruto assured the nation that the new Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) would end decades of corruption and inefficiency at NHIF. But he glossed over the system’s chaotic rollout, with hospitals reporting delayed reimbursements, county governments decrying underfunding, and healthcare workers warning that facilities are on the brink of paralysis.

Patients across the country still face drug shortages, understaffed clinics, and long waiting times—contradicting the rosy picture painted in Parliament.

On education, the President highlighted an expanded sector budget—from Sh490 billion in 2021 to over Sh700 billion today—meant to support infrastructure, teacher recruitment and reforms under the Competency-Based Curriculum.

Yet universities remain crippled by unpaid lecturers and multi-billion-shilling deficits, while public primary and secondary schools struggle without predictable capitation. Parents continue to shoulder hidden levies despite official directives. None of these daily frustrations earned mention in his triumphant narrative.

The economy, arguably the nation’s most urgent concern, received an optimistic gloss. Ruto insisted that inflation had stabilised and growth was recovering, citing improvements in agriculture and manufacturing.

However, he offered little comfort to households battered by high fuel prices, surging electricity bills, shrinking purchasing power, and a labour market where joblessness and underemployment remain widespread. SMEs—responsible for most employment—have been suffocated by reduced credit access and aggressive tax enforcement.

President Ruto’s other agenda was the generation of an additional 10,000 MW in the next 7 years, so as to ensure domestic electrification, industrial manufacturing, e-mobility, green industrialisation, digital expansion, and a technology-enabled future.

He told of his administration’s plans to tap into geothermal, solar, hydro, wind and nuclear energy to foster large-scale value addition, agro-processing, manufacturing and industrialisation.

Further, he highlighted the need to invest in the people through education, skills development, scientific training, and innovation capacity.

“We must promote a culture of enterprise so that Kenyan companies can cross borders. The example of Safaricom and M-Pesa, growing from a local solution into a global financial platform serving more than 70 million customers in 170 countries, demonstrates the possibilities we can unlock.”

Funding these mega projects will cost the country an estimated Sh5 trillion – an undertaking that Ruto vowed to commence on without instituting new taxes or debts.

Consequently, the President announced the establishment of a National Infrastructure Fund and a Sovereign Wealth Fund, which he said will provide innovative financing for the projects.

“We cannot continue funding essential infrastructure through unsustainable borrowing or burdening taxpayers with additional taxes. But neither can we afford to postpone these imperatives without risking our future,” he said.

He said the infrastructure fund—anchored on reforms in the recently enacted Government-Owned Enterprises Bill—will allow the government to prudently use existing resources while leveraging capital markets, privatisation, and public-private partnerships to attract private investment.

“When ownership shifts to the private sector for efficiency, the benefits to the public will not diminish; they will multiply,” stated Ruto.

In the same breadth, Ruto also announced the establishment of a Sovereign Wealth Fund to promote intergenerational equity.  A portion of royalties from natural resources and proceeds from privatisation will be channelled into the fund, which will operate under three pillars: savings, stabilisation, and strategic investment.

The President concluded by saying he had consulted political leaders, including the late Raila Odinga and former President Uhuru Kenyatta, both of whom emphasised the importance of sustained investment in infrastructure.

“That is the scale of our national ambition, and this is the blueprint for financing it prudently and responsibly,” he added.