President William Ruto has publicly denied media reports claiming that his government has reinstated the fuel subsidy.
Speaking during the opening of the Devolution Conference in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County, on Wednesday, Dr Ruto faulted the Nation newspaper run by Nation Media Group(NMG) for misinforming the public. The President stated that his government has not reversed its decision to eliminate the fuel subsidy.
“I saw some story today in one of the dailies which said we have gone back to subsidies on oil products. Let me tell the country; we will not go back to subsidies of any nature that distorts things and causes us a lot of unnecessary leakage,” said Ruto.
Ruto, appearing visibly irked by the media reports, castigated the local publication accusing it of spreading negative reports about his Kenya Kwanza administration instead of praising it for using the Petroleum Development Fund (PDF) to compensate oil marketing companies.
“If the Nation newspaper would bother to understand the facts, we are making prudent and proper use of the Petroleum Development Levy that is provided for in the law, it is meant to develop the petroleum industry and to stabilize prices whenever we have unintended hikes,” Ruto explained.
“Instead of the Nation commending us for using the PDF as provided for in the law, they have decided to be negative. And that is how we suffer as a country. All the positive things that are made by our friends are destroyed by the very negative things that we say about our country,” the president added.
“I hope that the Nation newspaper has learnt something from what Meg(US Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman) said and that they will stop this tirade against the people of Kenya and the government of Kenya. Unless they have another country that they belong to. I’m told that they are owned by some people who don’t live in Kenya maybe that’s why they don’t give a damn about what happens to our country,” President Ruto stated.
