'Dismal failure, whining everywhere,' Martha Karua gives verdict on President Ruto's first year in office

Azimio la Umoja co-principal Martha Karua has given a damning assessment of President William Ruto's first year in office branding it a 'dismal failure'.

Speaking in an interview on Citizen TV on Thursday, the Narc-Kenya frontman faulted President Ruto's regime of persistently complaining and inculpating former President Uhuru Kenyatta for the nation's dire economic state.

"Dismal failure, whining everywhere, complaining and blaming Uhuru Kenyatta in a government that Ruto was. Most of the cronies he is with were also in that government," said Karua.

Reflecting on the past, Karua recalled her tenure under the late President Mwai Kibaki in 2003, emphasising that despite inheriting a troubled treasury and economy neither the president nor his ministers abstained from duty due to the failings of the previous administration.

"When we came in as a government under President Kibaki in 2003, we found the coffers empty. Not once did I ever hear President Kibaki or his ministers saying because we found empty coffers we cannot work," she said.

"We were so busy trying to put things together, trying to bring up the economy. We concentrated on the job that we had persuaded Kenyans to give us and there were results which came almost immediately. The Kenya Kwanza rogue-regime has been whining and continues to whine even today."

To reinforce her argument, Karua referenced the roof leakage incident at JKIA in November and the negative effects of the El-Nino rains, issues she seemingly acknowledged could have been prevented if the Kenya Kwanza government had been fulfilling its responsibilities.

"Recently there was a leak at the airport and I heard them blame the Uhuru regime. A year later you want to tell us you didn't hear the structure had a leak? They might as well tell us that the deaths of El-Nino were caused by the regime that left. They had been warned of El-Nino and yet Ruto announced that there would be no rains," she said.

"The elements are not under him; they only relate to themselves. So El-Nino has come and the results have been disastrous. I would say the one year is calamity upon Kenyans. I haven't seen anything positive."

When asked whether the Kenya Kwanza government deserves to be given some slack since it inherited a troubled economy exacerbated by the Kenyan shilling's depreciation against the dollar, Karua underscored that the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance was ready to assume Kenya's leadership despite its challenges.

"We wished to inherit the country as it was, as Azimio because we had ideas on how to do it. We do not have a revenue problem, we have an expenditure problem so the first stop is not to whine about yesterday, it is to cut all unnecessary spending, prioritise essential services to the people and servicing of debt, not prioritising robbing Peter to pay Paul," Karua told interviewer Sam Gituku.  host

"Ruto has gone on a borrowing spree, within a year he has borrowed more than his predecessor borrowed within a year so he can't talk about the ills if he has borrowed more. There is nothing to show for it (borrowing) because nothing has been accomplished. All that this regime has done in the first year is to enrich themselves."