Budget 2023: Rubber meets the road as fresh pain visits Kenyans
There could be public discontent in a way that favours an opposition struggling to keep up with Kenya Kwanza's highly disciplined populism
By Dennis Kabaara 5 months ago
Budget 2023: Rubber meets the road as fresh pain visits Kenyans
Premium
The Sh210b back story largely ignored in this year's budget
The Budget 2023 has run for 217 days, or 31 weeks, since the process was launched by the Treasury CS on Thursday, November 10, 2022.
By Dennis Kabaara 5 months ago
The Sh210b back story largely ignored in this year's budget
Get ready for intriguing figures, roles and noisy budget making
This noisier-than-usual budget season has offered Kenyans a civic education moment on "bread and butter issues" beyond complexities like the Constitution or BBI.
By Dennis Kabaara 5 months ago
Get ready for intriguing figures, roles and noisy budget making
Premium
Use the budget season to show Kenyans how to revive economy
What we need is explanation of the debt management strategy, realistic revenue plan and programmatic spending plan
By Dennis Kabaara 6 months ago
Use the budget season to show Kenyans how to revive economy
Premium
Tricky balance: Why 'maandamano' is Ruto's leadership test moment
Azimio has demonstrated that they can shut down anything up to a third of the economy in next to no time. Ruto needs to take charge. In case he doesn't get it, he is the President.
By Dennis Kabaara 7 months ago
Tricky balance: Why 'maandamano' is Ruto's leadership test moment
Premium
The real cost of Azimio protests is more than Sh10 billion a day
For the government to deliver on its mandate, we only need the leader. All else is detail. This administration is facing a much larger task than they anticipated on the campaign trail.
By Dennis Kabaara 8 months ago
The real cost of Azimio protests is more than Sh10 billion a day
Premium
Kenya Kwanza is operating as if it will be first-ever one term deal
The policy thinking that their campaign manifesto offered has now been reduced to transactions. It remains beyond comprehension that we actively and passively refuse to address public spending.
By Dennis Kabaara 8 months ago
Kenya Kwanza is operating as if it will be first-ever one term deal
Premium
Kenya needs BBI back on the table not handshake to solve issues
But we cannot afford another handshake if we wish for a truly democratic and accountable state. The current divide does not represent our long-term aspirations to be a true and proper nation.
By Dennis Kabaara 8 months ago
Kenya needs BBI back on the table not handshake to solve issues
Premium
What data tells us about Kenya as a company
Much of what we have heard over the past six months from Kenya Kwanza is plenty of moaning. When we get to the food poverty count the tables dramatically turn.
By Dennis Kabaara 9 months ago
What data tells us about Kenya as a company
Premium
DP's utterances show Kenya Kwanza wants nation to remain in poll mode
Gachagua has shown one of his key roles as being to protect and promote those who voted for the Kenya Kwanza as priority preference shareholders in our national schema of development.
By Dennis Kabaara 9 months ago
DP's utterances show Kenya Kwanza wants nation to remain in poll mode
Premium
Parliament must look at State's plans first, then budgets follow
Nobody wants to consider the irony that every CDF activity is a response to wider institutional failure. I've never understood how Parliament approves budgets without considering underlying plans.
By Dennis Kabaara 9 months ago
Parliament must look at State's plans first, then budgets follow
Premium
Privatisation talk: The devil is in the detail
Between 2003 and 2008, privatisation happened in six entities, comprising four IPOs. The law is a good start, back-up policy might help but it is implementation that will matter.
By Dennis Kabaara 9 months ago
Privatisation talk: The devil is in the detail
Premium
Ensuring equity, fairness best starting point for our tax regime
In the technical long-term that is government, debt represents future taxes, so a past decade of borrowing had sadly left us busy "kicking the can down the road".
By Dennis Kabaara 9 months ago
Ensuring equity, fairness best starting point for our tax regime
Premium
A better take at Huduma Namba is not short-term fix for Kenyans
Ruto has a responsibility to build on what has worked in the past, and fix what failed, or is failing. A view that takes us from Huduma Namba to Umoja Kenya does a couple of interesting things.
By Dennis Kabaara 10 months ago
A better take at Huduma Namba is not short-term fix for Kenyans
Premium
Bottom-up: Reality check in Kenya Kwanza's first budget policy plan
The real question for Kenyans is not if, but how, the "bottom-up" platform has translated into actionable policies, plans, programmes and projects that precede the budget and its implementation.
By Dennis Kabaara 10 months ago
Bottom-up: Reality check in Kenya Kwanza's first budget policy plan
Premium
No need to light many fires, Kenya's problem isn't economic, it's societal
At an advanced level in the future, we might progress from storytelling to scenario building. Let's try this with the picture that KNBS is painting for us.
By Dennis Kabaara 10 months ago
No need to light many fires, Kenya's problem isn't economic, it's societal
Premium
Changes for IEBC are about next elections not our next generation
If our political leadership offers fantastically contrasting views on the 2022 presidential elections, we are not in LA Law territory - we are watching Vioja Mahakamani.
By Dennis Kabaara 10 months ago
Changes for IEBC are about next elections not our next generation
Premium
Taxation: Why Kenyan goose should be plucked gently
The conversation about taxes is not a conversation about government, but one about citizens and businesses as taxpayers.
By Dennis Kabaara 10 months ago
Taxation: Why Kenyan goose should be plucked gently
Premium
We need an 'all hands on deck' moment to build Kenya we want
Why all of this stuff we stress ourselves about on economic recovery, bottom-up hustlers, universal incomes and health and the like really matter?
By Dennis Kabaara 10 months ago
We need an 'all hands on deck' moment to build Kenya we want
Premium
Issues to ponder over as mid-term budget hearings are held this week
Dennis Kabaara asks pertinent questions as mid-term budget hearings start.
By Denis Kabaara, Dennis Kabaara 10 months ago
Issues to ponder over as mid-term budget hearings are held this week
Premium
New Budget: Where the rubber meets the road for Ruto projects
The best and finest policies and plans have always met "earth is hard" reality at budget stage.
By Dennis Kabaara 10 months ago
New Budget: Where the rubber meets the road for Ruto projects
Premium
Analysis: To fix the economy, Ruto should first fix his government
President Ruto doesn't decide society, and he only indirectly runs the economy through policy action
By Dennis Kabaara 10 months ago
Analysis: To fix the economy, Ruto should first fix his government
2023: This is the language that will build a new Kenya
Some of these words or phrases/buzz phrases will be familiar to readers in one form or another, but others are completely original imaginations and word combinations.
By Dennis Kabaara 11 months ago
2023: This is the language that will build a new Kenya
Premium
Time to ask: Has devolution era contributed to better outcomes?
There is an added complication around political parties, particularly for independents, but also for "minority" governors facing "opposing" county assembly majorities.
By Dennis Kabaara 11 months ago
Time to ask: Has devolution era contributed to better outcomes?
100 days is too short a time to gauge the Ruto administration
We still do not have a publicly known economic, and fiscal, framework 100 days into office. I still insist, for the record, that this 100-day metric is an irritating false flag.
By Dennis Kabaara 11 months ago
100 days is too short a time to gauge the Ruto administration
Premium
With soaring inflation, Kenyans deserve more than 'sweet' words
A visitor from Mars would be forgiven for wondering if Kenya is now a parallel universe in which, on the one hand, something is happening, or, on the other, nothing has started.
By Dennis Kabaara 11 months ago
With soaring inflation, Kenyans deserve more than 'sweet' words
Media meets digital, what then is the future of journalism in Kenya?
What is the future of news, and views? These are tough questions in a fast-changing news climate increasingly driven towards a technology-focused bottom-line.
By Dennis Kabaara 11 months ago
Media meets digital, what then is the future of journalism in Kenya?
International days offer Kenyans a chance for national reflection
At national level, these events offer multiple opportunities to enhance citizen awareness and reflection on international moments, decisions and commitments.
By Dennis Kabaara 11 months ago
International days offer Kenyans a chance for national reflection
If the economy is run by national government, where is devolution?
Isn't the national economy a matrix of in-county and cross-county economic activity; or more politely, shouldn't shared and inclusive economic prosperity begin at the bottom, not top?
By Dennis Kabaara 1 year ago
If the economy is run by national government, where is devolution?
Premium
Lessons from NARC: After all the noise, Ruto's Plan needs a pathway
Every person looking forward to predictable "business as usual" from President William Ruto's Kenya Kwanza administration needs to smell the coffee.
By Dennis Kabaara 1 year ago
Lessons from NARC: After all the noise, Ruto's Plan needs a pathway
Premium
Why justice reform agenda should be more systematic than episodic
Outside of executive fiat - much of what we have seen from Kenya Kwanza so far is speeches and declarations.
By Dennis Kabaara 1 year ago
Why justice reform agenda should be more systematic than episodic
Premium
For his policies to succeed, Ruto should focus on finance reforms
Bringing MSMEs to the centre of economic policy without running down existing trade and industry makes eminent sense
By Dennis Kabaara 1 year ago
For his policies to succeed, Ruto should focus on finance reforms
Premium
Advice to Ruto: Get public finance management working. Simple
President Ruto's Kenya Kwanza administration must focus on init must begin with public finance management reform in order to get its policy promises to work.
By Dennis Kabaara 1 year ago
Advice to Ruto: Get public finance management working. Simple
Premium
Kenya Kwanza finding its footing but seems suspicious of opposition
Going by what we have been hearing this far, Kenya Kwanza hasn't quite gotten to its own sense of "what it doesn't know that it doesn't know" yet.
By Dennis Kabaara 1 year ago
Kenya Kwanza finding its footing but seems suspicious of opposition
Premium
William Ruto's Executive signals shift to presidency that is more engaged
Executive Office comprises three offices of the President, his deputy and Prime Cabinet Secretary. The executive order allows us to reflect on how line ministries are set out in a performance context
By Dennis Kabaara 1 year ago
William Ruto's Executive signals shift to presidency that is more engaged
Premium
Why we should be realistic about Kenya Kwanza's first 100 days
Following his inauguration on September 13, President Ruto announced his Cabinet nominees a fortnight later, on September 27.
By Dennis Kabaara 1 year ago
Why we should be realistic about Kenya Kwanza's first 100 days
Premium
Could Ruto lead charge in Africa to rescue much delayed SDGs?
There is an attractiveness to the global SDGs agenda that lends itself to Dr William Ruto's fine-tuning of his domestic and foreign, agendas.
By Dennis Kabaara 1 year ago
Could Ruto lead charge in Africa to rescue much delayed SDGs?
Premium
UDA should start work with a fiscal truth
That government began the financial year in July with a balance of Sh616 million, collected tax and non-tax revenues of Sh283 billion and raised about Sh100 billion in loans and grants.
By Dennis Kabaara 1 year ago
UDA should start work with a fiscal truth
Premium
Analysis: This is William Ruto's headache
President William Ruto's agenda for the country seems to have a hard part and a smart one. Kenya's fix must be about creating an effective policy regime that solves problems.
By Dennis Kabaara 1 year ago
Analysis: This is William Ruto's headache
Premium
Let hits, misses in polls lead to finer processes and outcomes
We vote manually after being identified digitally. It's counted manually, despite the tech of public portals.
By Dennis Kabaara 1 year ago
Let hits, misses in polls lead to finer processes and outcomes