President Ruto’s advisor David Ndii: This administration has itchy feet problem
The chairperson of the Economic Advisory Council David Ndii has called out President William Ruto’s government for spending Sh14 billion on travel in the nine months that ended in March.
This amount, that President Ruto has spent is the highest government spending on travel in a similar period in at least five years.
Business Daily reported that the latest Controller of Budget (CoB) data showed that travel perks for foreign and local trips jumped by Sh1.62 billion from Sh12.4 billion.
“The National Assembly recorded the highest domestic travel at Sh2.85 billion while Foreign Affairs recorded the most increased foreign travel at Sh1.43 billion,” said CoB Margaret Nyakang’o in the report.
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Their high travel spending comes as Kenyans grapple with issues of high cost of living and unemployment especially among the youths.
An advocate of the High Court identified as Edwin Mikel enquired from the advisor whether the travels had the best interests of mama mboga.
“@DavidNdii we want to believe the travels are in the best interest of mama mboga even if it’s traveling for a meeting that would be held via Zoom,” he said.
In response, Ndii said: “Government is wasteful. And this administration has an itchy feet problem.”
Government is wasteful. And this administration has an itchy feet problem. https://t.co/uuEhD4SVid
— David Ndii (@DavidNdii) June 17, 2023
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This is not the first time Ndii has criticized President Ruto’s government. In April during a live interview on Citizen TV, Ndii said the Kenya Kwanza government is extremely wasteful.
He said the National Treasury lack of funds to pay government employees and disburse funds to the counties could be attributed to the government’s unwise use of revenue earned from taxes.
“The government is very wasteful. There is no single day that I am not irritated by not just how wasteful it is, but also how deliberate and unbothered people [in the government] are in wasting the funds. There is nothing anyone can do [currently] to stop the wastage,”Ndii said.
“No institution or administration can help change the situation, but what can be done is come up with systems that can try and put value for money, and also strengthen the Auditor-General’s office so that it can do more on value for money,” he went on.
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