Spirited attempts have been made to disparage the government even when it is doing its best to improve the lives of Kenyans. Political detractors have conspired with a section of the media in an unholy alliance that seeks to sweep all the good that the government has done deep under the carpet.
Listening to this camp of doomsayers, you would think the Jubilee administration is getting everything wrong and has not done anything worth writing home about.
Kenyans look around. Certainly some things have changed. Granted, the change has not happened at the pace we had anticipated but what has been achieved is sufficient enough to inspire hope and optimism. These reforms and development point to a government that is seriously matching its words with deeds as stated in its mantra, kusema na kutenda. We have remained true to our vision and happily it is panning out quite fine.
Even some of our harshest critics agree that President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto have reined in insecurity, restoring order and rooting out incessant terrorist attacks that were witnessed before. This has not come by accident but a concerted effort by all government security agencies, putting the right people in the right places as well as improving the welfare of those charged with watching over us.
From equipment, better intelligence sharing and insurance, Jubilee has restored the dignity of our men and women in the sector and the prospects even look better. The rapid expansion of electricity connection in rural areas and general price reductions is stimulating lives in unprecedented ways. Start-ups are emerging in little towns while business operation hours have been extended because there is light. Learning in schools has also been tremendously improved with about 90 per cent of public schools connected to the national grid.
These exciting success stories are hardly told in the cities and the big media outlets.
The key motivation of the 5,000 plus megawatts increase in capacity is actually to bring down the cost of electricity, already reality. Another benefit of this is better street lighting which supports a 24-hour economy.
Before Uhuru became President, manufacturers had been rightfully complaining that their Achilles heel was inadequate, expensive and unreliable power. Realising that our transformation agenda would amount to nothing if we did not fix this problem, we swiftly swung into action and increased the electricity generation capacity.
And in stepping up power generation, we took cognizance of the importance of clean energy. This is why the additional power loaded on the grid is mainly from geothermal. This fits in snugly with the global push to cut down on carbon emission in a bid to curb global warming. Other than the SGR, (the Standard Gauge railway) that is 67 per cent complete, an ambitious undertaking that will open up the country for trade, more subsidised fertiliser to farmers, increased capitation for the Free Primary Education the Jubilee government is finally ready to undertake the 10,000km tarmac road that President Kenyatta will be launching this month. This just but to mention a few.
In investing heavily in big projects, Jubilee is not re-inventing the wheel of economic imperatives. It is using a universal template that has been tried and tested and found workable across the globe. Jubilee’s agenda is taking a concrete shape and no amount of lies will reverse this.
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