Ruto: Under my reign the cost of living, inflation has gone down
Ruto said his regime has stabilised inflation, reducing it from an average of nine per cent in 2022 to the lows of four, a level below the statutory midpoint target of 5.0 per cent.
President William Ruto has defended his administration’s handling of the economy, noting that the cost of living has eased markedly since he took office.
In his State of the Nation address on Thursday, Ruto said his regime has stabilised inflation, reducing it from an average of nine per cent in 2022 to the lows of four, a level below the statutory midpoint target of 5.0 per cent.
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“Inflation, which stood at 9.6 per cent in 2022, has steadily declined to 4.6 per cent as of last month, bringing much-needed relief to households,” Ruto said.
He attributed this to a raft of policy and administrative steps his administration has taken to stabilise the cost of food.
Emphasising that agriculture had to be placed at the centre of the transformation agenda, Ruto said the government rolled out a digital farmer registration system, growing the database from fewer than 300,000 farmers in 2022 to over 7.1 million today.
This was to enhance the visibility of farmers to enable effective targeted interventions while cutting out extortionists, brokers, cartels and middlemen.
With this system in place, Ruto said the fertiliser subsidy programme has expanded significantly, allowing the distribution of more than 21 million bags of affordable fertiliser and saving farmers an estimated Sh105 billion.
“This year alone, we delivered seven million bags of fertiliser and 35 million kilos of certified seed, and in 2026, we will distribute 12.5 million bags across all 1,450 wards, ensuring every farmer has access to affordable inputs,” Ruto said.
He added that these interventions have already boosted productivity, citing rising national maize harvests, from 44 million bags in 2022 to 67 million in 2024, with a projected 70 million bags this year.
“The results are visible in markets and homes. The price of a 2kg packet of flour has fallen from Sh250 in 2022 to as low as Sh130 today. For millions of households, this is meaningful, daily relief.”
Official data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) appears to support this trend.
The agency shows that the inflation rate has generally declined since Ruto assumed office, sliding from 9.2 per cent in September 2022 to 4.6 per cent last month.
The downward run, however, has not been without interruptions.
After steady easing through 2022 and most of 2023, inflation closed December last year at 2.99 per cent, marking its lowest point over the period.
But the pace began shifting again at the start of this year as various pressures re-emerged.
Throughout 2025, the monthly inflation rate has inched upward, climbing from 3.3 per cent in January to 4.6 per cent in October.
It dipped just once, in May.
Still, the President maintains that the broader picture remains positive.
By his assessment, the decline from the pressures of 2022 to current levels demonstrates that his administration has delivered stability and prevented further erosion of household purchasing power.
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