'I'm not a tourist, I travel with a plan': President Ruto defends his foreign trips

President William Ruto has continued to clarify his much-questioned frequent foreign trips that have attracted ridicule from a section of Kenyans.

While attending a church service in Kimende, Kiambu County on Sunday, Ruto reiterated that his numerous State visits are for the benefit of Kenya's growth and should not be misinterpreted as luxury excursions.

"You have heard that I have toured many parts of the world and I have travelled with a plan, I am not a tourist. Because for this country to change it has to be changed and that is done by thoughts and plans," he said. 

"As we speak our CS for Labour (Florence Bore) is in Saudi Arabia because we want to plan how our youth will get jobs everywhere."

Ruto added that the trips will now see more Kenyans leaving to work abroad due to the bilateral agreements he has managed to ink, a move he believes will cure the ballooning unemployment levels in the nation.

"There are some who will stay here in Rukuma and get jobs through the housing project, others will work in the ICT hub and others will board planes the go work outside the nation. Didn't we agree that kazi ni kazi?" Posed the President.

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and Government Spokesperson Isaac Mwaura have, in the recent past, also defended the Head of State's trips, reiterating that they are set to yield tangible benefits for the nation.

Gachagua has urged his boss to continue making the trips until a remedy to the nation's ailing economy has been found.

"Continue going anywhere in the world, anywhere you will find many benefits for Kenyans," he said. 

Mwaura, on his part, intimated that the international trips have given Kenya Ksh.2 trillion worth of benefits, these include deals signed with foreign superpowers like the United Kingdom, the United States and China.

Some of the investments Mwaura cited include the recent signing of a Ksh.8.7 billion ($60 million) agreement with the Unites States’ Millennium Change Corporation (MCC) to finance the acquisition of electric buses for Line 2 of Nairobi’s Bus Rapid Transit system.

He also noted that Kenya has bagged $75 million in green investment to boost its climate action efforts, adding, that the President has also had talks with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky to have a grain hub in Mombasa.

Other achievements he cited are Kenya’s embassy in Senegal, the establishment of the Kenya-Djibouti Council and China’s recent cancelling of visa application appointments for Kenyans.