NAIROBI: The turn of a new year always offers a huge opportunity for sober reflection on the past 12 months and provides an opening for redefining goals and objectives for the year ahead. Today is the second day of 2016 and millions of Kenyans will have huge expectations about what they want to see happen in the next 12 months. This sense of hope was captured by the celebrations across the breadth of the country when the clock struck midnight on Thursday. It was also captured by the Christians who thronged worship places for overnight vigils to pray for a better tomorrow.
As President Uhuru Kenyatta noted in his End of Year Message on Thursday evening, many Kenyans will be hoping to see major changes — they will want to see a moderation of ethnic suspicions, even as they work with greater purpose to forge unity.
The President urged Kenyans to restore our national pride and love for one another. This way we will stand up for Kenya and be wary of those who seek to divide us to achieve their selfish goals.
To promote greater unity in 2016, the year preceding the General Election, there should be more pointed efforts to engender inclusivity in government — far too many Kenyans believe they have been left in the periphery, far away from the decision-making activities that help shape their destiny. The Jubilee government must reach out to these individuals and groups.
Political temperatures will almost certainly rise ahead of the 2017 General Election. Let’s try and do a better job at managing our political and electoral processes. Will we be expecting too much from our leaders if we want to see decorum in political engagements? Will we be expecting too much if we asked that political rhetoric be issued based without unnecessary confrontations?
We must state unequivocally that leaders who incite others to violence must be held accountable. There have been far too few sanctions imposed on those who violate the law and incite communities against each other.
Kenyans will also look out for the fulfillment of pledges made by the President during his close of the year address; they will want to see two hospitals in each of the 47 counties fully equipped with modern apparatus. Medical bills have been a heavy burden on many families largely because most hospitals are too poorly equipped to handle complicated medical conditions. This has forced many patients to seek treatment overseas.
The President also pledged to enhance security and tackle radicalisation. Even though he publicly owned the process, this is an exercise that will require the contribution of every Kenyan as part of the community policing effort. Let us be our brother’s keeper.
The government pledged to tarmac 8,000 kilometres of new roads and connect some one million households to the national electricity grid. This will open up remote areas to development and raise the standards of living for millions of Kenyans.
The education reforms the President outlined should see our children learning in a better, more modern environment. The curriculum review he brought up has been long awaited, but the sticky issues that dogged 2015 – the teachers’ strikes, exam irregularities and high dropout rates – do not have to wait for Executive intervention. They must be handled by the stakeholders of this important sector.
Even as we applaud the President’s renewed commitment to step up the war on graft in 2016, we would like to see a similar commitment from the Judiciary, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the National Police Service. They must win the confidence of all Kenyans by holding to account transgressors of the law.
Let us support the President’s agenda for 2016 and play our individual roles better for a more prosperous New Year.
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