Inside Ruto, Raila campaign pledges: Will they deliver or it’s all empty talk?

ODM leader Raila Odinga and Deputy President William Ruto. [File, Standard]

With about four months to elections, the political paradigms between the two top presidential aspirants Deputy President William Ruto and ODM leader Raila Odinga are beginning to take shape.

Through their speeches at their parties’ National Delegates Congress (NDC) and the talks at Chatham House, Dr Ruto and Mr Odinga continue to give a sneak preview of what should be expected of them if elected.

While each has their own unique vision for the country, the two have concentrated on youth affairs, the economy, agriculture and the quest for peace to sell their candidature. Each of them, however, is pledging to continue with some of the policies of the government.

Dr Ruto believes that Jubilee got it right with the Big 4 agenda, which focused on universal healthcare, manufacturing, affordable housing and food security.

Dr Ruto’s pledges touch on investing in agriculture to increase productivity and make the country food secure.

Mr Odinga, on the other hand, wants to take advantage of the massive infrastructural investments of the Jubilee administration to spur industrialisation and access to quality education.

The former prime minister has also released a document containing the 10-point agenda that will drive his administration.

Central to Dr Ruto’s candidature is economic inclusion, reforming the economy from trickle-down economics to bottom-up, which he says should make the people on the bottom rung of the economic ladder participate and contribute effectively.

This pledge to prioritise the mama mbogas and boda bodas has drawn backlash and accusations of stoking a class war, which Ruto has denied.

Mr Odinga has promised Sh6,000 per month to two million needy families, a version of the Inua Jamii programme. He also has plans to scale up the Universal Health Coverage programme to the rest of the country.

Other pledges include job creation programmes, investing in the critical jua kali sector and other macro-and microeconomic stimulation schemes, unlocking access to financing for women-led businesses and providing support for women on other enabling factors such as access to assets for production, land tenure, and proportional representation at all Government levels.

Notably, whereas Ruto has indicated that he will depart from the Uhurunomics (with the exception of the Big Four agenda), Raila has indicated that he will continue with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s agenda that is heavy on infrastructural development.

Mr Odinga’s move is a departure from his previous position that he has been pushing for socio-economic empowerment and adopting capitalist model of infrastructural and industrial development, switching places with Dr Ruto who has taken inversely similar moves and now espousing a socialist model.