Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto has told off ODM leader Raila Odinga for constantly talking about the bottom-up economic model.
Speaking when he hosted a delegation of grassroots, political and religious leaders from Makueni at his Karen residence in Nairobi, the DP challenged Raila to focus on selling his economic solution to Kenyans instead of wasting time trying to criticise his bottom-up economic model.
“You can as well tell us the complexity of the Orange if you wish instead of being obsessed with the simplicity of the wheelbarrow,” Ruto said in an apparent attack against Raila Odinga.
The deputy president said his critics including Raila Odinga are wasting too much time trying to criticise his bottom-up economic model which seeks to uplift the common Kenyan who he says has been neglected by the trickle-down (top-down) economic model.
“Our plan is to start empowering those who have nothing. For instance, a person who has no job, we start from there, by planning their wellbeing or we empower that small-scale trader by giving them say a wheelbarrow but if you (his critics) have a different model, tell Kenyans (instead of focusing on our plan),” he said.
The former Agriculture Minister further said that the bottom-up economic plan will not only put money in ordinary people’s pockets but also widen the country’s tax base and reduce over-reliance on foreign loans for development.
“The bottom-up economic model we are advancing is an appreciation of the fact that we must fix the basics that will form the foundation of sustainable economic growth,” he added.
On Tuesday, September 7, opposition chief Raila Odinga took a veiled jibe at William Ruto’s hustler narrative terming it as retrogressive.
In his lecture at the University of Nairobi, the former Lang’ata Member of Parliament said Ruto’s hustler narrative is unrealistic as it promised youth jobs of yesteryears in a fast-changing world.
“People who were promised digital jobs, who were promised knowledge-based economy, who were promised double-digit economic growth, are now being offered wheelbarrows and being told Kazi ni Kazi,” Odinga said in an apparent reference to William Ruto’s campaign approach which seeks to appeal to the ordinary Kenyan.
