Practical steps crucial in attaining the status of a developed country

Recently, I saw a video clip of an Arab man from the United Arab Emirates in which he was saying that what Kenya lacks is not resources, but dedicated leadership. I couldn’t agree more. He gave the example of the UAE, a country with limited resources compared to Kenya, but today enjoying one of the highest Gross Domestic Products and an economy several times larger than ours.

I am beginning to cast doubt on whether we really need democracy. Remember countries like the UAE are not democratic, they are led by monarchs who have no tolerance for anything democratic.

As former President Daniel Moi said, we don’t eat democracy. We have been considering ourselves a democratic country since 1992, but most Kenyans still languish in absolute poverty. Our undoing is not even corruption.

Yes, corruption is evil and has very negative consequences. But corruption is a global phenomenon. Many of the countries that now are developed have their own challenges of corruption. What Kenya seems to lack is leadership, at the top and the middle levels.

Kenya is a fortunate country; blessed, because many development partners have so much affection for it. But we fail to appreciate these blessings.

A good example is the investment by the World Bank in the northern parts of Kenya.

The Bank has allocated close to $2 billion for infrastructure but more than two years down the line, these projects have not commenced. These are loans negotiated at very favourable rates.

Development Initiative

The planned road from Isiolo to Mandera would have significantly improved the economy of the northern parts of Kenya. For more than 50 years, this region has lagged behind in development because of lack of meaningful investment from the national government. 

The Government’s economic blueprint relegated the northern parts of Kenya to a second class region. This, despite having more than 65 per cent of the Kenyan land mass. However, this region is going to be Kenya’s new frontier economically. Most of the Vision 2030 development flagships are expected to be implemented in the Frontier Counties. The oil discovery in Turkana and discoveries of gas in other parts of what was formerly referred to as the Northern Frontier District means infrastructure is required to increase the accessibility to those region.

The World Bank project dubbed the North Northeastern Development Initiative (NEDI), has come at the right time. But the implementation pace requires urgent intervention.

The line ministries are not moving at the speed President Uhuru Kenyatta expected. He only has three more years in office and if these projects do not commence before his term ends, then it would be for him a lost opportunity.

Project implementation

The regime of his father and subsequent governments had neglected this region. Uhuru Kenyatta has an opportunity to correct this exclusion of northern Kenya by turning these projects to be his legacy projects as he exits the politic scene, this being his last term.

Fortunately, Deputy President William Ruto has in the past few weeks taken interest in making sure these projects are started. The NEDI project lacked ownership at the highest political level, but establishment of a secretariat by the deputy president’s office might help.

In the last two meetings held at his Karen office, no single Cabinet Secretary attended the consultative forum.

There were only a few principal secretaries, but those with close proximity to the Treasury and office of the President were missing. While listening to presentation from the officials from the line ministries, one detail caught my eye.

Most of the people present were from a single ethnic group. Not a single person from the beneficiary counties sits at the highest level of the Project Implementation Units. This could partly contribute to the slow nature of the project implementation.

A central command under a capable Government official from Northern Kenya under the guidance of the office of the deputy president could make it easier to implement this crucial project.

I guess our poverty is not due to lack of resources but due to lack of political commitment.

I believe we can achieve the status of a middle income and industrialised country within a few years if we have the political will to take practical steps like the deputy president is doing.

Mr Guleid is the Executive Director of the Frontier Counties Development Council