Data Point: Fact-checking President Ruto’s State of the Nation address

President William Ruto, in his State of the Nation address to Parliament on Thursday, noted how badly the economy was doing when he came into office in 2022, boasting about how he has since managed to steer a turnaround in the right direction.

The Head of State, in the slightly more than an hour speech, also cited major sectoral reforms, and outlined an ambitious new roadmap to transform Kenya into a developed country modelled after the Asian Tigers nations of Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia; a plan he said will require at least Ksh.5 trillion.

Some of the figures he cited, however, were inconsistent with those contained in the 2025 Economic Survey Report by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), featuring the latest full-year data of 2024, the official government data source, while others were unverifiable.

Here's a fact check of his claims:

October 2024 – 160,000

November 2024 – 164,000

December 2024 – 200,000

March 2025 – 244,232

August 2025 – 320,000

November 2025 – 428,000

Verdict: Unverifiable

Source: President Ruto

SUGAR IMPORTS

Ruto's Claim: Imports – 70% down

Fact - 44% down

2023 – 608,200 MT

2024 – 339,300 MT

Source: KNBS

Verdict: Inconsistent

MAIZE PRODUCTION

Claim: 67 million bags in 2024

Fact: 44.7 million bags produced

Source: KNBS

Verdict: Inconsistent

TVET ENROLLMENT

Claim: 718,000

Fact: 709,885

Verdict: Inconsistent

Source: KNBS

PAVED ROADS

Claim – 22,000 km

Fact – 24,868 km

Source: KNBS - 2025

Verdict: Inconsistent

MILK PRODUCTION

Claim – 5.3 billion litres

Fact – 5.3 billion litres

Verdict: Consistent

Source: KNBS

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

Claim: From 60 billion (2021) to Ksh.195 billion (2024)

Fact: From 268.4 billion (2021) to Ksh.428.8 billion (2024)

Verdict: Inconsistent