President William Ruto is this afternoon expected in Parliament to make his maiden address to the nation since ascending to power last year.

The speech comes at a time when almost the entire nation is immersed in extreme despair.
Food prices are at an all-time high, levels of unemployment have been steadily rising and despite several recent mega-pronouncements from the government, millions of Kenyans remain discontented with the state of affairs.

Amidst nationwide concern over the rising prices that have put food and other basic commodities out of reach for many Kenyans, President Ruto and his team have only continued to offer empty promises.

The Kenya Kwanza administration has been on a spending spree especially on travel. Riding on a Huslter wave fuelled by discontent with high cost of living under the Jubilee government, Ruto fashioned a manifesto dubbed ‘The Plan’.

He billed it as the panacea to all the mess created before he landed in town.
In the manifesto were quick wins, such as reducing the high cost of living, ending dictatorship, addressing the weakening shilling and spiralling insecurity in various parts of the country.

Once in power, Ruto swiftly honoured few of his pledges, such as appointing the six judges his predecessor had refused to swear into office, creating the Judiciary Fund and granting the National Police Service financial autonomy.

Projecting himself as a hands-on President determined to bring Kenya back on economic and development recovery paths, Ruto immediately appeared to embark on an avenue that has won him more enemies than admirers.

But appearing to choose a completely different route from the picture he had painted of himself while on the campaign trail, Ruto’s government sponsored the controversial Finance Bill 2023 that slapped

Kenyans with higher taxes, including the deadly 16 per cent Value Added Tax on fuel.
Public frustrations over Kenya Kwanza’s failed promises came to bare in recent incidents in which the President was booed.

It is on this basis that Kenyans are waiting, with bated breath, for Ruto’s address today to establish whether it would not only restore the lost hope, but also decisively address the sky-rocketing cost of living.