Senate Speaker Amason Kingi on Sunday, November 9, 2025, told Kenyans to brace for tough and painful times now that President William Ruto is committed to implementing a robust plan that would propel the country to first-world status.

Kingi urged Kenyans to fasten their belts in preparation to handle tough times ahead since the ruling administration will go to the extent of privatising certain assets in the country to get the Ksh4 trillion it requires to facilitate the nation’s first-world status.

Kingi added that the country’s economy is likely not going to change unless the difficult measures are taken.

“We are facing difficult times at a time when our economy is doing badly because of the level we are at as a country.

“The situation will change if we trust the president’s plan and support him to actualise it, “Kingi said, adding that Kenyans must brace themselves for some hard times.

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Kingi, while speaking in Uranga during a fund drive in aid of the Absolute Grace Time Ministry church expansion, said if Kenyans hear the president is going to privatise certain assets in the country, they need to understand him in that context.

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Ruto does not require the resources to gamble but to invest in bigger assets with better returns.

“We want to invest in assets that will accelerate our economic growth, for we need to raise Ksh4 trillion for the country to move to the first world level,” he added.

If the Kenyans reject President Ruto, be sure that Ruto will end his tenure, and a new president will be elected, but the country’s situation will just remain the same.

“The only thing Kenya will do is to change presidents, but will never change their situation unless we embrace the vision he has put on the table.

He likened the tough decision to a father who is growing old and has not seen the grandchild, yet he has not allowed her daughter to be married.

“We need to make the tough decision so that we will be called grandfathers, and that’s the clarity our president has brought in terms of vision, and I want to ask Kenyans to rally behind him.

“And it could take us two, two and a half years to see the downturn,” he said. The country to attain the first-class status

The plan has outlined that Kenya needs about Ksh1.5 trillion for roads, railways, and airports and another Ksh1.5 trillion for agriculture and irrigation, which brings 2 million acres under cultivation.

Kingi, who was accompanied by County Secretary Joseph Ogutu, Gem MP Elisha Odhiambo and his Alego/Usonga counterpart, Samuel Atandi, noted that for the country to realise first-class status, it requires uninterrupted energy that sustains many industries.

It’s so unfortunate that the ruling administration has been wooing investors who fail to invest in the country due to energy inadequacy.

“The investors have been demanding constant allocation of megawatts, which is a challenge, so it’s up to us to fix our energy sector, and it requires a lot of money in millions of dollars.”

He added that the country’s energy is less expensive, such that industries cannot come and put their investments here and compete with another Country with Cheap electricity.

The massive capital required is what we need to have a discussion.

To put 80 per cent of Kenyan land on farming so that we save Ksh 500 billion spent on food imports, we must not depend on rain-fed agriculture.

“We need to turn our lands through irrigation and that demands us to have many dams, hence requiring massive capital-intensive ventures, “he added.

Kingi said the Ksh 4 trillion required cannot be tapped through tax collection, we need to turn around the existing resources to get capital for fixing the energy.”