President William Ruto expressed frustration on Tuesday over the actions of individuals he claims are attempting to sabotage government projects.
While presiding over the groundbreaking ceremony for the DEVKI Iron Processing Project in Manga, Taita Taveta County, the president stated that some unnamed individuals are on a mission to obstruct every development project initiated by his administration without any justifiable reason.
“Sometimes when we have patriots, the people who believe in Kenya, who want to invest in our country and who want to help us build our nation, such people we sabotage them and profile them as enemies. Yet the people who don’t believe and sabotage our country and who don’t want to invest anything in Kenya, we glorify them as if they were anything,” said the president
The head of state cited the recent decision to halt Adani’s airport and energy projects in the country, stating that these individuals are maligning investors eager to contribute to Kenya’s economy for the nation’s benefit.
“Niliona watu wengine wanajaribu kuglorify eti airport imesimamishwa, sasa eti wale wamesimamisha ujenzi wa airport ni mashujaa. Ni mashujaa wa kufanya kitu gani?,” he posed charging that those who pushed for the withdrawal of the deals have nothing to gain.
He insisted that the country’s main airport is in poor condition and needs modernization.
“Airport pale (JKIA) inavuja, na iko na tents, nchi zingine zinajenga airport zao, yetu hapa Kenya sijui ni ya haina gani, halafu kuna watu wanaongea hapo, oooh tumeshinda sana, sasa tumesimamisha kujenga airport,”
“What gain do you get when you stop building of an airport in your country? Na huna mpango mbadala. You have no ideas of how to build any airport and have no clue how it’s going to be built. Wale wanapinga airport hata hawajawahi kukanyaga kwa airport, wanapinga tu,” he added
Despite this perceived onslaught, Ruto promised to ensure that the planned development of airports and energy projects continues as intended.
“I want to assure you, we will build a new airport. We are going to establish a new framework and work with people who believe in this country to build a new airport for us because that is how the future will look,” he stated.
“We are going to build a new airport in Kenya. We may have stopped Adani from doing it. I was confident he was going to build our airport and that he would do a good job, but because of the law that bars us from engaging with people who have cases, we stopped it; but that does not mean we are not going to build the airport,” he said.
Ruto vowed to ensure that his critics do not succeed in halting the execution of his pledges to Kenyans made during the 2022 presidential campaign.
“The naysayers—the people who sabotage Kenya, who hate our country, and who don’t believe in Kenya—will not succeed. We are going to change this country because we believe in it,” he concluded.
