While fielding questions during his four-day visit to China, President William Ruto sought to explain why Kenyan traders consider local goods expensive compared to neighbouring markets.

“The difference between us and our neighbours is that Kenya is in the middle-income category. Our neighbours, Tanzania, Uganda and the rest, are the least developed countries,” he explained in a video that was seen online.

In the session, Kenyans raised concerns about how the business environment is suffocating industrialisation, and that the focus has now moved to Tanzania and Uganda. Kenyan traders are now buying goods from these two countries to ship them to China.