Kenya’s president didn’t say his country was getting rid of the U.S. dollar

A recent Instagram post claims that Kenyan President William Ruto said he will get rid of the U.S. dollar, a currency used in the country to buy imported goods. But that’s wrong, and takes his comments out of context. 

"For the people who work numbers, I am giving you free advice, that those of you who are holding dollars you shortly might go into losses. You better, you better do what you must do because this market is going to be different in a couple of weeks," Ruto says in a video clip in the March 27 post. 

Text appearing over the video says: "Kenyan President to get rid of U.S. dollar."

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On March 22, rather than saying that he was getting rid of the U.S. dollar, Ruto reassured Kenyans that the dollar will become more available in coming weeks.

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His remarks came after a dollar shortage in Kenya that caused fuel and oil importers to claim they were hobbled because they couldn’t access the currency. Imports such as medicine and food were also affected, German news outlet Deutsche Welle reported.

Ruto said, "Dollar availability in the next couple of weeks is going to be very different because our fuel companies will now be paying for fuel in Kenya shillings. They do not have to look for dollars every month because we have done what we must do as government to ensure we ease the burden on people who want to realize their returns in dollars."

So, Ruto wasn’t saying that dollars would become worthless because he was getting rid of them. He was saying that the surge in demand for dollars would wane because of the plan to buy fuel with shillings, freeing more U.S. dollars for circulation. 

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