I do not wish to speak for the government, nor have I been paid to do so. Let’s give every cloud its silver lining for once. As Nathanael asked in John 1:46, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Indeed. Despite the massive negativity shrouding the efforts put forth by the current government to spur development, we can admit that something good and significant may come out of this hard-working Kenya Kwanza government. Despite the burden of taxation and the allegedly bad policies that may have been implemented by this government, there are other commendable achievements worthy of praise.

President Ruto’s administration has faced significant criticism. Any tangible move towards development often receives backlash—a phenomenon, I believe, perfected by sceptics! It is disheartening to look at the glass as half empty rather than half full. Most Kenyans have consistently cast opinions on the government’s plans, with which I fundamentally disagree.

It is a fact that when Ruto took office, a kilo of sugar was retailing at about Sh250, and a 2kg packet of maize flour at about Sh200. This is not forgetting that dealers were being paid billions in taxpayers’ money to subsidise these commodities. Probably, without subsidies, the prices could have been double these figures. Ruto also cancelled the subsidies and reduced the prices of several basic commodities. Today, the price of sugar and unga is almost half what it was before September 2022. Yet, some of us have decided not to acknowledge this reality.

President Ruto’s administration has made significant progress across multiple sectors. For instance, 243,000 Kenyans secured international jobs, 200,000 jobs were created through the Affordable Housing Programme, 124,000 housing units are under construction, 20,855 government services have been digitised, 107,000 community health promoters have been recruited, 11 million Kenyans have been registered for the Taifa Care health programme, 56,000 teachers have been hired, with plans to hire 20,000 more, Sh60 billion has been disbursed through the Hustler Fund, 95 million bags of maize have been produced, 690,000 Kenyans have been trained in digital skills, and 180,000 have been linked to online jobs.

These milestones reflect the administration’s commitment to improving livelihoods and advancing Kenya’s development agenda. Any reasonable individual would think twice before being the first to cast a negative tweet, post, or word against these progressive efforts by the government of the day. In the last couple of weeks, the reality of transformative infrastructure projects in Northern Kenya came into the limelight during the President’s tour of the region.

Instead of appreciating the achievements, we started complaining that the projects belonged to Kibaki or Uhuru, depending on our varying levels of strategic ignorance or genuine cluelessness. Somehow, this line of lamentations lost traction even among its most obstinate proponents. They took to editing the roads and posting photoshopped images of dilapidated tracks, just to deny the reality! After unmasking their eyes, the denialists still find the same projects and many others across the country ongoing or completed.

The negative information and messages depicting Ruto’s administration in a bad light, in the blogosphere and social media spaces, more often delude right-thinking Kenyans into believing that Kenya is stuck in the mud of underdevelopment. Pessimists have often averred that Kenya is under-developing; however, when you observe our surroundings, it is clear that the dozens of developments are all-over.

— The writer is a communication Lecturer and Researcher