Just two months after his September 13 inauguration, Dr. Ruto has already undone at least 16 significant policies, orders, and initiatives from his predecessor.
26 alcoholic beverage production companies that had been closed by the previous administration due to tax disagreements were reopened last week under the supervision of President Ruto’s administration.
“That factory (Africa Spirits Limited) was making monthly tax payments of roughly Sh50 million. At a Kenya Association of Manufacturers event, deputy president Rigathi Gachagua said, “They sent officers there, shut it down, arrested Humphrey Kariuki, a very entrepreneurial Kenyan, an honorable man, a man who has worked through his life, and locked him up for four days with regular criminals.
Paul Wainaina, vice chancellor of Kenyatta University, and the university council have both been reinstated by the government. After refusing to turn over 410 acres of the university’s land to the government for redevelopment, Prof. Wainaina was fired in August.
After the parties to the issue agreed to drop their legal actions against him, he is claimed to have returned.
After being inaugurated in, the President immediately began asserting his authority by appointing the six justices whom President Kenyatta had rejected due to purported integrity difficulties. Additionally, he pledged to increase financing for the judiciary, which had previously been underfunded by the previous administration, by Sh3 billion per year for five years.
The next step was to move cargo clearance and port operations back to the port of Mombasa. In order to increase the use of the railway and pay off the construction loan, the previous administration, in which he served as Deputy President, had ordered that all onward cargo arriving at the port be transported via the Standard Gauge Railway to the inland container depots (ICDs) in Embakasi and Naivasha.
The ability to clear goods at the port or ICDs and move them by road or rail is now available to importers.
The administration of President Ruto, including his Cabinet, have heeded the advice and made a number of adjustments.
Following Ruto’s directive, KPA resumes port services in Mombasa.
The SGR financial deal between Kenya and China was made public on Sunday by Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen, which the previous administration had refused to do despite a court injunction and a public promise made on live television by President Kenyatta.
The President has also returned Kenya Railways, the Kenya Ports Authority, and Kenya Pipeline Company to the Transport Ministry and the Energy Ministry, respectively. The three had been placed under the Kenya Transport and Logistics Network by President Kenyatta by an executive order from 2020.
President Ruto, whose platform included lowering living expenses, promptly abolished the gasoline and maize flour (unga) subsidies put in place by President Kenyatta’s administration.
