It's not all doom and gloom for Uhuru administration agenda

The Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) freight train. The SGR is one of Uhuru's milestone projects. [File, Standard]

President Uhuru Kenyatta's administration has made significant progress in healthcare and education.

Borrowing from his predecessor, Mwai Kibak, who rode to power in 2002 on a free primary education pledge, the Uhuru Kenyatta came up with free secondary education as part of his package of goodies pledged for his second term.

This included a Sh5 billion allocation to refurbish secondary schools in preparation for the increased enrolment and increasing allocation for each student by Sh9,300 starting this year.

A direct-to-schools book distribution policy was also instituted under Fred Matiang'i's tenure at the helm of the Education Ministry. The policy, endorsed by Uhuru, aimed to achieve a one-pupil-one-textbook target.

Uhuru's other major focus of improving access to health was included in a universal health coverage plan.

A major step under the health agenda is the Linda Mama programme that expanded an earlier free maternity plan that facilitated pregnant women to get access to healthcare through the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF).

Under Linda Mama, women can easily get access to health services in almost every facility accredited by NHIF at no cost. The programme has been expanded to include newborns and elapses when the child turns three months.

There are plans to increase subscription to NHIF from the current 16.8 million to 25 million by 2022.

On infrastructure, the Standard Gauge Railway is undoubtedly the most treasured project under the Uhuru-Ruto-led government.

The Sh327 billion project was launched on May 31, 2017.

The project has also been expanded to include freight services.

Other infrastructure projects include commissioning of various roads. Most of these projects cost billions of shillings.