New regime should focus on real change

By Jasper Mbiuki

Thirteen years after exiting from the White House, Bill Clinton remains one of the most admired and respected American statesmen of recent times.

He is fondly remembered for navigating America through trying economic times and introducing public spending reforms that reversed America’s largest deficit ever (at that point) into America’s largest ever surplus. He achieved this despite opposition from a Republican Party that reflexively opposed his every move.

The Republican dislike for Clinton stemmed from the fact that he had consigned President George H Bush to being a one-term President. Clinton’s successful 1992 presidential campaign against the much fancied incumbent Bush was grounded on his focus on economics during a time when America was in recession. The Clinton campaign coined the catch phrase “It’s the economy, stupid” to illustrate that their platform was based on a solid economic agenda rather than the obscure social policy divisions that the Republicans sought made the defining issues. 

Clinton won that election easily and his eight years in office were a study in sustained economic policy making. This is why despite his private affairs intruding stubbornly into the public sphere, his presidency was never under any serious threat and to this day Americans look back with longing to his presidency.

Kenyan politics needs to mature beyond the pointless shenanigans orchestrated by political dinosaurs that are long on words but short on action. Kenyans crave a real and credible political discourse firmly based on competing visions on the best way to improve the lives of the ordinary Kenyans by socially and economically empowering them.

Public finance reform will dominate the Jubilee economic agenda for the next five years. I have no doubt that President Uhuru will continue with the measures he introduced as Finance Minister, which were targeted at reducing extravagance and waste in Government.

Deputy President William Ruto during his tenure as Minister for Agriculture was lauded for implementing commonsense initiatives that brought real improvements to the prospects of farmers in Kenya. With this dynamic duo at the helm, Kenyans are right to expect record and sustained economic growth.

Jubilee’s representatives and Senators have committed themselves to implementing the economic agenda of the coalition that was outlined in its manifesto. The public should therefore expect a raft of legislation that will change Kenya’s economic landscape. These pieces of legislation will not be the piecemeal and eclectic reviews of the past but rather part of a considered, comprehensive and systemic review of Kenya’s economic and social policies in order to create a harmonized and consistent development platform across all social and economic sectors.

In formulating this development platform the pivotal role of the counties cannot be gainsaid. Devolution represents Kenya’s best hope for igniting economic growth in marginalised areas and in under-developed economic sectors. Targeted economic solutions specific to particular counties will only be developed and implemented in consultation with and concurrence of that county government.

We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shift our politics to something better. We can begin a conversation on how to improve the lot of every Kenyan and bring real change to all our lives. What is the good of politics if it does not end up with real increases in the amount of money in your pocket increases in the health and education levels of your family and improved roads, hospitals and social services for them? Kenya’s politics is no longer about personalities and principals but rather policies and principles.