NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 9- Deputy President William Ruto has reiterated that his Hustler Movement’s Bottom-Up economic model is the new paradigm that will free the country from ethnic politics and conversation that is only centered on positions.
In a statement, the DP who met with leaders, professionals and stakeholders drawn from 6 counties in Nyanza region says he is focused on having new engagement of people-centred issues with tangible live changing results.
“This is a departure from the trickle down model that has over the years excluded millions of Kenyans from economic mainstream denying them the opportunity to realize their full potential,” Ruto told the leaders Monday during the meeting held in Gilgil, Nakuru County.
He pointed out that the ongoing Hustler Nation discourse puts issues of ordinary people at the center of the country’s political conversation.
Ruto says that his engagements will progressively cover all counties with the aim of empowering small businesses.
“This conversation will culminate in a national economic charter that embodies aspirations of, and our commitments to Kenyans at the grassroots and especially the hustlers at the fringes of our economic life,” the DP added.
The DP has time and again defended his bottom- up economic model and told off his political opponents from the Opposition groupings and some of the officials in government who has termed it “wishful thinking.”
Ruto has made it clear that he is positioning himself for the top job in next year’s General Elections when he hopes to succeed his boss President Uhuru Kenyatta with whom they fell out in March 2020 when the latter shook hands with Opposition chief Raila Odinga.
Raila is also keen for the seat and he lately enjoys support from the government, with frequent meetings with the president even as Ruto remains shoved aside and his allies targeted.
On Monday, Ruto said the leaders who are keen on facing off with him have no agenda for the country and their only plan is to compete with him, a plan he said was bound to fail.
“Their main plan is to compete with me. They have no plan, agenda or manifesto. I am telling them, we are ready. We have a party called United Democratic Alliance (UDA), we have an agenda and we have Kenyans who are ready to work and move forward with us. If your only agenda is to compete with me, you will be stuck,” Ruto said two weeks ago while on a tour of Rurii Ward, Nyandarua County.
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