Gachagua’s One-Man-One-Shilling Campaign Laughed Off By Ruto’s CEA David Ndii

Gachagua’s One-Man-One-Shilling Campaign Laughed Off By Ruto’s CEA David Ndii

More than a week after Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua publicly advocated for the one-man, one-vote, one-shilling policy, President William Ruto’s Chief Economic Advisor David Ndii has spoken out against it.

In a series of X posts on Sunday, Ndii argued that other regions, including the Coast, generate more taxable money for the state than the populous Mt Kenya region.

The economic consultant based his argument on Base Titanium, claiming that the company based in Kwale County (and set to quit the Kenyan market by the end of the year) paid Ksh7 billion in taxes and royalties in the fiscal year ending in June 2023.

“Base Titanium in Kwale paid Ksh7 billion taxes in 2023. Add all the taxes paid by hotels in Diani and Devki Steel Mill among other large taxpayers in Kwale. I challenge the one-man one-shilling (Mt Kenya) supremacists to list the comparable taxpayers in central,” challenged Ndii.

I dont know which Kenya Gikuyu supremacists are living in. Ive spent last 18 months structuring and pitching billion $ + PPP infrastructure projects (energy, transport, irrigation) to investors. There is not a single one in central Kenya. Examples:

— David Ndii (@DavidNdii) May 19, 2024

On Monday of last week, the deputy president told a congregation that the policy was the only way to ensure that the government shared resources equally.

Gachagua had argued that Mt Kenya was one of the most populous regions in the country, with the most votes.

“In matters of revenue sharing, I firmly believe in one-man-one-vote-one-shilling. It’s a straightforward concept: the more people there are in an area, and the more taxes they contribute, the more funding they deserve to receive,” Gachagua stated at the time.

“The push for this formula is not just about our region’s high population but because it is the right thing to do. We are committed to ensuring fairness in the sharing of national revenue.”

However, Ndii stated that the Mt Kenya region is occupied by agricultural land, which generates little tax revenue for the government.

He went on to say that as an advisor, he spent 18 months promoting public-private partnership initiatives worth billions of shillings, yet none of the targeted companies were headquartered in Mt Kenya, making the strategy ineffective.

The projects in question include a 20.0000-megawatt wind power plant in Marsabit, the Lamu Port South Sudan Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor, the Tana-Galana Kulalu irrigation scheme, and the Turkwel Turkana irrigation scheme.

Public Service CS Moses Kuria had also criticized the policy, claiming that the Mt Kenya region was properly represented in the government’s upper echelons.

In reality, he announced that more than nine leaders had been recruited to Cabinet and parliamentary leadership posts, putting them in a better position to oversee the policy’s implementation.

Gachagua’s One-Man-One-Shilling Campaign Laughed Off By Ruto’s CEA David Ndii