Call me Zakayo but I will do the right thing for Kenya - Ruto

President William Ruto has maintained that he will not relent in his push for taxation as a means to develop the country while reducing government borrowing.

During a Wednesday address to Kenyans living in Japan, which Ruto held in the capital Tokyo, the president said Kenya will only be built by its revenue and taxes, not aid and debt.

“If we have to develop our country, Kenyans must roll up their sleeves. Our country is not going to be developed by others, by aid or by debt. It is going to be developed by us. Japan is built by the Japanese using their own taxes. Kenya will be built by Kenyans using our own revenue and taxes,” the president told Kenyans in the East Asian country.

Ruto has since assuming office in September 2022 introduced a raft of taxes and hiked old ones, putting him on the receiving end of criticism by Kenyans who accuse him of backtracking on his election campaign promises.

Ruto wooed voters on a platform of championing the welfare of average struggling Kenyans, whom he dubbed ‘hustlers’.

The president on Wednesday pledged to ensure the taxes his government is collecting won’t be embezzled, telling Kenyans in the diaspora: “The one thing I have committed myself to do is provide a guarantee that every Kenyan who pays taxes, their money will not be stolen. So long as we collect whatever tax we are collecting and use it to grow our country, it is going to benefit us eventually.”

Kenyans have since christened Ruto 'Zakayo', Swahili for Zacchaeus, the biblical figure who is portrayed as a greedy tax collector who climbed a tree to see Jesus.

In social media posts, they have been calling on him to ‘climb down’ like Jesus is said to have told the tax collector, referring to him relaxing his government’s tax regime.

But Ruto said he does not mind being called names, arguing that his concise is clear and he is determined to do “the right thing” for Kenya.

“What I will not do as president is say there will be free lunch, that the country is going to be developed by borrowing money from other people and that it is going to cost us nothing to develop our country,” said Ruto on Wednesday.

“That is why I don’t mind people calling me names. You see when you are doing the right thing, your concise is clear. I will do the right thing for our country irrespective of what names people call me, including Zakayo.”

Ruto has previously acknowledged that the taxes are "painful" but worth the sacrifice. During his Jamhuri Day speech on December 12 last year, he said the sacrifices the nation was making "would make our freedom fighters proud".