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Deputy President William Ruto has taken a swipe at President Uhuru Kenyatta over the newly launched gun factory situated in Ruiru.

Speaking during the launch of his manifesto held at Kasarani stadium, the Kenya kwanza leader questioned the sense of the idea of the factory that he says cost Ksh4 billion.

In an attack seemingly veiled on the Head of State, Ruto stated that it would have been better for the government to construct garment factories since it’s cheaper.

Giving a comparison of the two, the DP opined that the Kitui county government established a garment factory that created 600 jobs at a cost of Ksh168 million.

This he said was equivalent to Ksh280,000 per job compared to the gun factory which he says was equivalent to Ksh40 million per job.

“We have recently inaugurated a firearms factory that costs Ksh4 billion and created 100 jobs. Kitui county created a garment manufacturing industry. They spent Ksh168 million and created 600 jobs.

“If you do the math, it means it cost Kitui county Ksh280,000 to create one job. That tells you that If we had invested in the garment industry like the one in Kitui, that Ksh4 billion would have created 14,000 jobs,” Ruto stated.

Ruto further stated that economic choices were not necessarily determined by the amount of money available but by the policy choices made for investments.

This he said was the difference between the trickle-down economic model and the bottom-up economic model.

Gun factory launched by Uhuru

In April last year, President Kenyatta launched the gun factory in Ruiru.

At the time, Uhuru stated that the factory will lower the cost of acquiring weapons for the country’s security agencies.

He also noted that the investment would establish a sustainable national security industrial base that creates employment opportunities.