Hits, misses of Jubilee promises as Uhuru seeks re-election

President Uhuru Kenyatta addressing delegates when they endorsed his Presidential Candidature for the August polls at Nyayo Stadium.

President Uhuru Kenyatta presents his nomination papers today as Kenyans take stock of his achievements in the past five years.

Jubilee’s plan of action is to be found in its manifesto. Therefore, it is time to look at what was promised and delivered... and what was not.

Tucked inside the colourful 72-page Jubilee manifesto are four signatures of the three men and one woman who brought their parties together to form a coalition that has morphed into what we know today as the Jubilee Party.

The four were Uhuru Kenyatta (The National Alliance), William Ruto (United Republican Party), Charity Ngilu (National Rainbow Coalition- Narc) and Najib Balala (Mombasa Republican Party).

Even with the yoke of international crimes around Uhuru and Ruto’s necks, the quartet pledged to take Kenya to the Promised Land. The cases have since been terminated.

“What we propose is something of a revolution in Kenya,” the quartet promised in the manifesto.

They said “at its most basic”, they would “put food and clean water on every Kenyan’s table; ensure that every child in Kenya gets quality education”.

They also promised to create wealth; ensure that every Kenyan got quality and affordable healthcare. Kenyan women would be empowered to take their rightful place in developing this country. Kenya would be kept safe and secure both internally and externally. A cogent foreign relations and trade policy for Kenya would also be put in place.

Keen to project a record of development, the Jubilee government is racing to commission one of its flagship infrastructure projects. Tomorrow, the President will be in Mombasa to launch the cargo freight services of the Standard Gauge Railway.

And on Wednesday, State House says “the President, and hundreds of Kenyans from all walks of life, diplomats and Chinese envoys and special guests, will ride the first train launching services on the SGR from Mombasa to Nairobi.”

At Syokimau in Nairobi County, the President “will make a major speech,” State House announced Sunday suggesting he is keen to milk political capital out of the development.

In their campaign rallies, they promised to deal with corruption and provide laptop computers to Standard One children. In the mix were also five new sports stadia.

To top it all, they vowed to grow the economy at between seven and 10 per cent in the first two years, in order to create a million jobs for the youth.

On April 9, 2013, over a month after the elections, they took over. It was a buoyant spirit back then. They had defeated the foreign plea to Kenyans not to elect suspects of crimes against humanity and won the election.

Within two years, they said, the economy would grow at between 7 and 10 per cent, creating a million jobs, so that by now, there would be five million new jobs created under the Jubilee government.

Data from the National Treasury shows that the economy grew at an average of 5.7 per cent, and projections from the Government are that it will slow down in the final year.

Were five million jobs created? No. Only 2.5 million jobs were created and 2.2 million of them in the informal sector, while the decent vacancies in government and private sector account for the remaining 300,000.

Did they build the five stadia in Kisumu, Mombasa, Nakuru, Eldoret and Garissa? Unfortunately, that did not happen. The president acknowledged that during the launch of the delivery portal, and called it “work in progress”.

Did Standard One pupils of 2014 get laptops. They waited and never saw the gadgets, thanks to procurement imbroglio and the need to make the process above board. The 2015 class also waited, got nothing. When the children who were promised the laptops got to Standard Three, in 2016, the Government delivered — wait for it— tablets, not laptops, for those in Standard One.

Today, the latest government