It’s a mixed bag as some Jubilee promises honoured, others unmet

Madaraka Express Inter-County Service train flagged off by Transport CS James Macharia at SGR Nairobi Terminus [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

In 2013 amid pomp Jubilee launched an ambitious manifesto based on three pillars it called Umoja (Unity), Uchumi (Economy) and Uwazi (Openness).

The pillars zeroed in on Youth Empowerment; Women’s Empowerment Social Protection; National Cohesion; Security; Trade and Foreign Affairs; Sports and Culture; Healthcare and Education.

Now,as President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta is inaugurated,  a quick look at look at promise and delivery, the list being not exhaustive.

The Economy

 The promise was a 7 to 10 per cent growth rate in the first two years while creating a million jobs besides doing away with wastage, fighting graft and instituting prudence and austerity.

Reality: The World Bank projects a Medium-term GDP growth should rebound to 5.8 per cent in 2018 and 6.1 percent in 2019 respectively.   

 The promise to reduce the public deficit so that the government spends more money on services instead of paying off Kenya’s debts, to put it mildly was in the realm of pipe dreams.

Recently, wrote a respected columnist “Treasury secretary Henry Rotich disclosed that Kenya has no choice than to issue a Eurobond to repay a $750 million (Sh77 billion) loan, which the government contracted from a syndicate of banks in October 2015. We are in a situation where the government has now resorted to borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.”

He continued: “In total, we are borrowing a massive $10 billion from the Chinese to fund the railway from Mombasa to Malaba. That amount is nearly 15 per cent of our gross domestic product.”

But, the government has argued that SGR was a long-term project whose benefits will enjoyed in decades, offsetting the short term disadvantages.  

Agriculture

Before the current rains people were starving in many parts of the country signifying the failure massive irrigation projects and the billions sunk in them.

Ethnicity

The big promise was to eliminate this social evil by deliberately skewing certain opportunities in favour of marginalised communities and groups.

This has worked to a certain extent with a percentage of contracts being reserved for the youth, women and disadvantaged groups. There are, however, cases where the groups have failed to meet the requirements for the funding or, have won the contracts only to sell them to the well-heeled.

Corruption has also taken its toll compelling the President to fire big names from running the youth kitty.

Jubilee promised 30 per cent of all appointees to public bodies and parastatals would be female while appointing young people, the disabled and marginalised groups to public positions.

This has partially worked but there has been hue and cry as aging political rejects are rewarded with parastatal appointments undermining the drive for youth-driven efficiency and equity.

Sports and youth

The promise to establish youth development centres in the 47 counties while putting up five national sports stadia in Kisumu, Mombasa, Nakuru, Eldoret and Garissa did materialise.

The pledge to support the Kenya Motorsport Federation to ensure the return of the Safari Rally to the WRC (World Rally Championships) calendar has remained just that: a promise.

Health

Another mixed bag. A doctors', nurses and clinical officers’ strikes have resulted in untold suffering for patients with the government unable to honor collective bargaining deals and therefore a cycle of strikes.

But it is not all gloom. In 2013, there were only 44 dialysis machines in public health institutions – including at the Kenyatta National Hospital and Eldoret Referral Hospital. Today the figure is over 300.

 Ultrasound machines have increased tenfold to 100 from 10 in 2013 when Jubilee came into power.

One of Jubilee’s most touted achievements is the doubling of the number of mothers’ access to affordable maternal healthcare to 1.2 million from up from 600,000 in 2013.

Education

A major blotch on Jubilee’s loftiest promise was the failure to provide laptops to all Class One pupils. In the pledge the party had obviously punched above its weight considering the complexities of identifying qualified suppliers, developing specialised software, loading in the curriculum, training teachers and provision of electrical power. The project took off last year.

But when it comes to the management of national exams, Jubilee takes the biscuit with the Ministry of education having cut exam cheating to negligible levels.  

Another notable achievement is the connection of almost all the 26,000 public primary schools to electrical power.