Pull out all the stops to revive ailing economy

Alice Wambui a vegetable vendor at the Nyeri Wakulima Market in Nyeri reacts after she qualified for the famlous 'hustler fund' loan. [Phares Mutembei, Standard]

The just-published Economic Survey 2023 shows an economy that is wobbly and in dire need of intervention to get it up and on a firm growth path. The survey shows that nearly all sector experienced a slower growth rate last year compared to 2021. Worse, was the performance by agriculture - the mainstay for Kenya's economy, which contracted for the second year running.

While the argument advanced was that the economy grew at higher rates in 2021 as it was coming from a low base in 2020 when everything had stalled, the numbers paint a picture of an economy that is in need of some boost.