President William Ruto has clapped back at his critics, stating that his Bottom-Up Economic Agenda (BETA) was not a political slogan but a developmental plan.

Speaking during the Kimalel Goat Auction in Baringo on Monday, December 22, 2025, he emphasised that the economic agenda that helped him win over 7.2 million votes in 2022 was not empty rhetoric but a deliberate plan to transform Kenya from its current status as a third-world country to a first-world economy.

He dismissed critics who claim that, upon realising that his BETA plan was not working, he had resorted to the “Singapore Dream” to sway Kenyans with visions of a first-world economic status.

“Bottom up is not a slogan; it was not empty talk; it was a plan, to lift kenya from a third-world country to a first-world country. there are people saying that we have ditched our bottom-up economic agenda for first-world economic status. let them go and read the Kenya Kwanza manifesto,” Ruto said

President Ruto clarified that page 10 of the BETA Plan already contains a vision of elevating the Kenyan economy to first-world status.

He also defended the recent approval of the National Infrastructure Fund (NIF) by the Cabinet, stating that it is part of this journey toward the “Singapore Dream” and was entrenched in his manifesto, not a later addition.

According to the president, everything he is currently implementing was included in his manifesto. He stressed that the Bottom-Up Economic Agenda, which served as his rallying call during the 2022 elections, aligns seamlessly with his vision of transforming Kenya into a Singapore-like economy and is a core part of the Bottom-Up strategy.

“There is nothing that we are implementing that was not in our plan; their is nothing that we are implementing that was not part of the manifesto that we sold to the people of Kenya, and they voted for it. page 10 of the Kenya Kwanza manifesto has the national infrastructure plan; we didn’t parachute it from elsewhere – it was in the manifesto.”

Kagwanja’s rebuttal

This comes days after Professor Peter Kagwanja told President Ruto to admit that he has failed to deliver on his promises to the hustlers during his 2022 campaigns.

“And we must learn to tell our people the truth, and the truth is the only one that will save us. We have failed to deliver to the hustlers,” he stated.

He criticised the president’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation agenda, stating that it has not delivered the expected results, and suggested that the government should consider shifting to a top-down economic approach.