Kenya has gained more from President Ruto's travels abroad - MP Adan Keynan

According to Maalim, President Ruto's travels have enabled the country to leverage direct engagements and diplomatic ties with international economic powerhouses.

Speaking on Thursday's Daybreak programme on Citizen TV, the lawmaker maintained that Kenyans should welcome the President's apparent excessive travels rather than criticising him since they will benefit the country.

"The President is the chief diplomat of Kenya and whatever he does is done for the best interest of the people of Kenya," he stated.

"In all these visits the underlying issue is economic gains and if we were to quantify and magnify you will realise that we have gained more than what this headline is alluding to," he was responding to an article published on Thursday.

According to the story, President Ruto has made 38 trips to foreign countries since taking office in September 2022.

Ruto is said to have visited 45 cities in 38 countries over the course of 83 days.

This was in stark contrast to his predecessor, Uhuru Kenyatta, who is said to have visited 53 countries during his 10-year tenure.

Vihiga Governor Godfrey Osotsi, who appeared on the same show, argued that Ruto should only travel when necessary and leave the rest to his cabinet secretaries to represent him.

He even claimed that some of Ruto's government-to-government deals in foreign countries, such as the fuel deal with Saudi Arabia, have not benefited Kenyans but have instead increased the cost of living.

"Maybe a few of these trips are yielding fruits as they say but he doesn't need to travel. He has a foreign minister and a minister for trade who can travel to some of these things," Osotsi noted. 

"The recent travel to Saudi Arabia, I looked at it and thought that would be done by the Minister for Foreign Affairs Musalia Mudavadi."

Some of the countries the Head of State has travelled to include Belgium, Comoros, Germany, Saudi Arabia, China, United States, Israel and Netherlands.

Others are United Kingdom, France, Mozambique, Egypt, Eritrea, Rwanda, South Korea, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.