Kenya’s Ruto at Chatham House: verifying the deputy president’s London speech

The British think tank prides itself on its ability to draw high-profile speakers. It hosted Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta in April 2018 and Kirinyaga county governor Anne Waiguru three months later.

Ruto made a number of claims at the event on 8 February 2019. Here we put nine under the microscope.

CLAIM

“In fact, the diaspora is the largest contributor [to] our foreign exchange.”

Africa Check contacted David Mugonyi, Ruto’s spokesperson, for the source the deputy president’s information. He is yet to get back to us.

But are diaspora remittances – which Kenya’s central bank defines as “money sent by a person in a foreign land to his or her home country” – the country’s biggest source of foreign currency, asRuto said?

Kenya’s major foreign exchange earners have over the years included tea, horticulture, apparel and coffee exports, according to the national statistics bureau.

But the 2018 economic survey shows that remittances now contribute more. In 2017 they earned Kenya KSh203 billion in foreign exchange.

SOURCE: 2018 Economic Survey, KNBS

CLAIM

“It is a constitutional requirement… that when the president is away, the deputy president must be in the country.”

Ruto apologised to Kenyans living in London that he was unable to meet them, saying he had to rush back to Nairobi as President Uhuru Kenyatta was due to travel to Ethiopia.

In Kenyan law the two leaders could not be out of the country at the same time, he said. “It is a constitutional requirement which you passed that when the president is away, the deputy president must be in the country.”

Kenya’s constitution states: “When the President is absent or is temporarily incapacitated, and during any other period that the President decides, the Deputy President shall act as the President.”

Dr Luis Franceschi, dean of the Strathmore Law School in Nairobi, confirmed this interpretation of the law. “It is clear to me that the intention of the drafters was that the president and the deputy president should not be away (from the country) at the same time,” he told Africa Check.

(Note: On 26 February 2014, both leaders were away. State House said Kenyatta was unable to postpone a trip to South Sudan due to the “extraordinary nature” of the conflict there.)

CLAIM

“We have built a standard-gauge railway [of] 600 kilometres… in the last five years.”

To improve its economy, Kenya is building a rail line that can carry both higher-speed trains and heavier cargo.

The first phase of the standard-gauge railway (SGR) from the coastal city of Mombasa to the capital Nairobi has already been built. But several sources have recently put the length at 472 kilometres.

These include the president’s delivery unit, State House, the China Road and Bridge Corporation – the Chinese firm that built it – and the Kenya Institute for Public Policy and Research Analysis, a government think tank.

The Kenya Railways Corporation puts the “route length” at 472 km and the  “track length” at 609 km – closer to the deputy president’s figure.

The main line is 472 km and the total track built 607.4 km, the SGR office told Africa Check. The difference is because there are areas on the main line with multiple tracks. These include two main stations and seven intermediate stations.

In total 33 stations account for the difference in rail length, the office said. The second phase of the railway, from Nairobi to the town of Naivasha, will measure 120.5 km for the main line and 132 km in total track length, it added.

CLAIM

“For 50 years only 2.3 million Kenyans were connected to electricity.”

In 2013, on the 50th anniversary of Kenya’s independence, 2.33 million were connected to the power grid. Africa Check established this when fact-checking the 2017/18 budget speech and the2017 State of the Nation Address.

Africa Check also continuously tracks this metric on our promise tracker.

CLAIM

“The number of people on health insurance [has increased] from 3 million to 7 million in a record five years.”

The National Hospital Insurance Fund had 3.79 million principal members in June 2013, according to the national statistics office’s 2018 economic survey.

Membership had grown to 6.8 million by June 2017, and to 7.66 million by June 2018. But to benefit from this insurance, members have to be up to date with their monthly payments.

SOURCE:https://africacheck.org/