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Deputy President William Ruto has defended the bottom-up economic model he has been advocating for saying he was pleased it was now the focus of national conversation.

“Trickle down failed for aiding patronage and cronyism, breeding cartels and monopolies that benefit a few,” Ruto said in a tweet.

Reacting to criticism that his model has faced in the last one week, Ruto dismissed the approach propagated by opposition leader Raila Odinga saying it would create monopolies that benefit only a few people.

According to the DP, the bottom-up approach will promote millions of people who are unemployed and small scale business people.

Read the tweet: “It is the economy. Trickle-down failed for aiding patronage and cronyism, breeding cartels and monopolies that benefits few.

Bottom-up is anchored on deliberately promoting investments & financial instruments targeting the millions, who are unemployed, hustler enterprises/farmer groups.”

Opposition leaders including, Raila, Musalia Mudavadi (ANC) and Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper Party) have dismissed it as not workable.

The DP and his allies have defended the model saying by injecting money in small businesses will be the perfect way to build the economy.

They say that the current system only benefits a few people who are at the top of the food chain.

Mudavadi, who has been involved in an exchange of words with Ruto over the matter, argues that what is required to resuscitate the economy is to address the debt issue.

“Without addressing the escalating debt issue we will not address the problems at hand. We are talking about money which is not in our hands,” Musalia said at the weekend.

Ruto critics also say good infrastructure and favourable policies were more urgent than handouts.

Raila says he will push for the rule of law backed by efficient government structures that can withstand pressure.

Jubilee Party Secretary General Raphael Tuju on Tuesday caused a storm following disparaging remarks about Ruto’s approach.

Speaking at a musicians fete in Gatanga, Murang’a County, Tuju made a tongue-in-cheek remark wondering whether ‘bottom-up’ refers to a person’s backside or the economy.

Ruto’s allies have dismissed Tuju’s remarks as derogatory, especially coming from a person of his status.