NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 6 – Businessman Jimi Wanjigi has maintained economic revolution is needed to help Kenya deal with the skyrocketing public debt.
Wanjigi said that the country needs a liberation movement to lift Kenyans to a new economic frontier.
“They spoke the other day about the economy. But, what we see and feel is contradictory. Up ahead, there are very weighty issues. The economy is in the ICU,” said Wanjigi who is eying the presidency on an Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) ticket.
He faulted President Uhuru Kenyatta’s state of the nation address, noting that it lacked facts on the true state of the country especially the national economy, needed in order for Kenyans to truly enjoy a level of life where they can comfortably feed their families, access quality healthcare, education among others.
“We are in a deep hole. For every Sh900 you make, you have a debt of Sh1, 100. The exchange rate, petrol prices, electricity, food, and kerosene prices have only gone up,” he noted, “For every Ksh500, you pay in tokens, Sh200 goes into tax. By the end of next year, Sh300 of every Sh500 will be going to tax because our economic crisis is only worsening. In this type of crisis, where will wheelbarrows and Sh6, 000 handouts take you? Can they be an answer.?”
Speaking at the St ACK St Paul Karen West where he attended a church service, Wanjigi said Kenyans’ only hope for a better future lies in “voting out the current crop of leaders.”
He urged Kenyans to support his rallying call for an economic revolution that he said will ease the burden caused by poor leadership under the Jubilee administration.
Wanjigi said poor leadership was to blame for the current high cost of living.
“We should be very careful with the choices next year because there are people who have been around for thirty years and more and are now hoodwinking voters. Up ahead, there are very weighty issues,” said Wanjigi.
Kenyans, according to the businessman, are entitled to free health, food, and adequate decent housing among others.
These, he said, are the things he will pursue and implement if elected president.