Sunday, June 24, 2012

ODM, UDF take political competition to manifestos


ODM, UDF take political competition to manifestos
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Updated Saturday, June 23 2012 at 21:00 GMT+3
Political competition is expected to rise when parties subject their manifestos to scrutiny with some already coming up with radical proposals.
The next poll promises to be a break from the past, where presidential election campaign will be nothing more than character assassination as opposed to ideology and issues. On the basis of the election manifestos, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and the United Democratic Forum (UDF) are tirelessly working behind the scenes to outdo each other.
The statutes of United Republican Party (URP), The National Alliance (TNA) and Narc remain in abeyance over the candidature of the party leaders, while that of Narc- Kenya is in progress.
Narc chief executive Fidelis Nguli, whose party leader, Water Minister Charity Ngilu, who may be locked out of Parliament and presidential race on account of lacking a university degree, did not give details on status of party manifesto, although he said it is ready.
The URP and TNA manifestos are said to be under construction, despite ICC cases hanging on the heads of their presumptive presidential candidates Eldoret MP William Ruto and Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta respectively.
In the past three polls, top on the agenda of most political parties was constitutional and institutional reforms, a feat that was accomplished in 2010 when Kenyans voted overwhelmingly in a referendum for new laws, now in implementation stage.
Sectorial reforms
The battle for supremacy is narrowing down to Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s ODM and his former ally, Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi, who has set his eyes on reversing privatisation in the energy sector to inject competitiveness in the manufacturing and knowledge sectors.
In a draft document seen by The Standard On Sunday, Mudavadi intends to take the risk of reversing the privatisation of strategic State corporations.
While Laikipia West MP Murithi Nderitu, says the UDF manifesto focuses on cheap energy to spur the manufacturing sector, Gwasi MP says Raila will be looking to entrench the new laws, deemed critical for creation of a humane and just society.
“The capacity to develop power must first be underwritten by the State. The economies of the Asian Tigers (North and South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore) are powered by cheap energy. An efficient economy must create demand and supply. This can only happen when the economy can create employment and our target is make this possible by providing cheap energy with the positive effect being felt in the labour market,” says Mr Nderitu, Industrialisation assistant minister.
The former employee of the World Bank blames past regimes for embracing Bretton Woods institutions prescriptions blindly. In what is billed as a revolutionary move UDF proposes to reduce the cost of power from the current Sh15-22 kilowatt per hour to Sh4.5 to spur manufacturing.
“A command-and-control economic model would enable the Government apply sufficiently long term financing options and price power accordingly.  This would currently be Sh4.25 per kilowatt hour compared to Sh15-22 that emergency supplies have been costing over the last three years,” according to the manifesto.
Mbadi says the ODM manifesto, now under revision, will be unveiled during the party’s national delegates conference planned for end of the year, the party’s focus will be implementation of the new Constitution.
Reverse the privatisation
“The party leader’s heart is with devolution and grassroots empowerment. The Prime Minister wanted a three-tier governance system, which he must now make work,” says Mr Mbadi.
The PM has already underlined sectorial reforms –  security, judicial and financial – as critical to realising 10 per cent economic growth as the country prepares for a leap into the new industrialised nations in less than a decade.
UDF and ODM have invested heavily in expertise, with the former keen to counter the latter’s personalised attacks with ideas and in the process steer its agenda towards ‘hygienic’ politics.
UDF agenda, expected to be launched soon, focuses on affordable energy production to spur industrial growth and generate more than two million jobs in the first year. The document blames economic stagnation on wrong prescription by donors. Referred to as “command-and-control” economic model, the radical proposals will undoubtedly elicit intense scrutiny from economists opposed to State competing with the private sector for business.
The decision to reverse the privatisation of Kenya Power Company, Kenya Power Generation Company and Kenya Power Transmission Company borrows from the British model, which is at present working on reversing the privatisation of the energy sector and water services.
“We aim to reverse the privatisation of the Kenya Power Company, where the law relating to receivership, bankruptcy and liquidation is not a practical option for curing commercial failure, where the Government cannot stand aside and see Gitaru, Kindaruma or Sondu Miriu becoming disposed of under the auctioneers hammer, because the operators have gone bankrupt or where the profits are secured not through risk-taking but periodical upward revision of the applicable cess, then private shareholding in such public assets is unethical because it puts the Treasury in an inbuilt bail-out bind since liquidation will not be allowed to work in case of commercial failure,” it says.
Mbadi says ODM’s election campaign flagship will be infrastructure development in line with delegation of Executive authority to county governments.

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