Ruto claims farming revolution as election season dawns

With August 2027 eleven months away, the president is making agriculture the centrepiece of his re-election pitch — but the numbers will face scrutiny

By Anita Njeri

President William Ruto yesterday told 10,000 agricultural stakeholders gathered at the Jamhuri ASK Showground in Nairobi that his government has doubled Kenya’s maize production and slashed fertiliser prices by nearly 75 per cent since 2022 — figures he is now positioning as the foundation of his re-election case.

Addressing the Agriculture and Food Security Transformation Summit, Ruto said fertiliser subsidies had reduced the price per bag from KSh7,500 to KSh2,000, with more than 38 million bags distributed since he took office. The results, he said, were measurable: maize production rose from 34.3 million bags in 2022 to 71 million in 2025, while cotton yields climbed from 177 kilogrammes to 378 kilogrammes per acre.

“These are some examples of the phenomenal transformation taking place across the agriculture sector as a result of four years of sustained reforms and investment,” Ruto said.

He announced plans to expand irrigation coverage to 2.5 million acres and construct mega, medium, and micro dams nationwide under the National Infrastructure Fund.

The timing is as political as it is agricultural. With eleven months to the August 2027 ballot and an opposition consolidating around economic grievances, Ruto is building a record-based campaign anchored on food security — a message with direct resonance in rural Kenya where farming households form the largest single voting bloc.

Whether the numbers survive independent scrutiny will determine how far that message travels.

Some of the moments as captured in pictures

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