War’s no excuse for Kenya food crisis

Bloomberg

Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto dismissed comments by his boss that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is partly to blame for higher living costs, vowing to boost farming if he wins the presidency in August.
Ruto pledged to invest at least 500 billion shillings ($4.2 billion) in agriculture and small businesses over five years. That investment would include providing animal feed and seeds to boost yields. Farming stood out in Ruto’s manifesto as a significant part of his so-called Bottom-Up economic model — where he seeks to channel government resources to sectors that can create the most jobs.
The answer to addressing the “cost of living is increasing agricultural productivity, period. This whole story about Ukraine and all this is a lost cause,” Ruto said at a rally at the Kasarani Stadium in the capital, Nairobi.
The country with East Africa’s largest economy will hold a general election on Aug. 9 to vote for a new president, governors and lawmakers. Ruto’s main rival, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, is slightly ahead in the most-recent opinion polls.
Ruto’s remarks on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine come weeks after President Uhuru Kenyatta blamed the rising cost of living on factors including those he said are out of his control like the war — prices of everything from gasoline to fertilizer, corn and milk have surged. Kenyatta fell out with his deputy and is backing Odinga to replace him.
“If we had not withdrawn the fertilizer subsidy” and “stuck to the plan on food security,” Ruto said, “we wouldn’t be in the crisis we are in today.”
Ruto, 55, pledged to also boost investment in housing, health care, manufacturing, services and information and communication technology. He spent almost two hours explaining a plan he said followed town-hall meetings in the country’s 47 counties and consultations with groups of farmers, women, health care workers, youths and business people.
Ruto said his administration will ramp up the production of key commodities, including milk, edible oils and rice. To do this, he plans to provide capital at competitive rates to farmers. If voted in, he said his government will expand Kenya’s agricultural extension services.
“Our agricultural productivity has not matched our population growth,” Ruto said. “We are spending 360 billion shillings to import food and food items.”
Whoever wins the election will have the task of steering an economy projected to slow this year, a growing debt burden, inflation that’s breached the upper limit of the central bank’s target range and high unemployment.