Tough agenda for the next government

By Kipchumba Some

Nairobi,KENYA: With the General Election over and decided, the focus now shifts to the pressing national issues that confront the regime that comes after President Kibaki retires.

Admittedly, parties had their manifestoes outlining their visions. Some of these are short term, some of the plans are longterm. But this is the condition of the country the new regime is taking over. 

Economy

For the last ten years, the economy has grown at healthy pace, averaging 4 per cent according to the World Bank. It reached an all-time high of 8.4 per cent in September of 2005 before dropping to almost zero per cent after the 2007 post-election chaos.

From the ashes of that crisis, the economy has gradually picked up, posting an appreciable growth rate of about 4.5 per cent last year. The World Bank forecasts an improved five per cent growth rate this year barring any uncertainities brought about by general election.

The challenge for the incoming government is to increase this growth rate to higher levels, perhaps even to double digits. The Vision 2030 blueprint is a guiding light in this regard.  With the discovery of natural resources such as oil and coal, and backed by a highly educated workforce, the country is poised for an economic take-off, the economic shift herald’s major economic growth.

But there is also a pressing need to diversify the economy. The country needs to acquire higher and advanced techonologies to enable us to produced export goods which will help balance of payments.

At 10.3 per cent, the manufucturing sector was ranked the third major contributor to the GDP over the last five years from 2007 to 2012, according the ministry of Planning. It was bested by transport and communication sector and whoseland and retail trade.

But the manufacturing is the single greatest contributor to GDP in many develeoped countries. The next government needs to stimulate this sector further through a mix of incentives such as selective tax exemptions and modest protection from external competition from developed countries.

Alongside this, the next government needs to dedicate more funds to research and development.  This leads to innovations which is basically the engine of the manufacturing sector.

In addition, the government needs to put mechanisms to cushion the country, especially the poor against the rising fuel prices. These increaases, however marginal they might seem affect the poor in profound ways.

Food Security

No meaningful development can take place when the nations’ workers are hungry.  Yet Kenya like, most developing countries is a net importer of food. This should should not be the case.

We are blessed with fertile lands and favourable weather patterns. As several studies conducted whenever famine strikes have proven beyond doubt,  poor planning has been our bane.

Agriculture contributes between 24 to 27 per cent to the GDP, acording to Agricultural Research Insstitute. The sector should be streamlined and strengthened.  

The next  government should pay more than lip service to promises to  put much of the fertile but dry arid lands under irrigation. The volumes of policy documents on the subject should be actualised by putting money to these irrigation projects.

The Tana Delta project and several irrigation projects in Turkana  have shown that irrigation works. And if replicated at large scale, the country can easily become a net exporter of food in no time.

Infrastructure

Perhaps the greatest legacy of President Kibaki’s 10 years at the helm is the massive investment in infrastructure. Recognising that no meaningful development can take place when majority of roads in the country were like cattle tracks,  Kibaki’s government poured billions of shillinsgs towards the development and improvement of infrastructure in the country.

Roads have been opened up across the country making travel easy. This development has benefited businessmen and even farmers who can now access markets much more easily and cheaply than before. 

The challenge ahead for the next government is to not only expand these networks but also begin work on diversifying  the transport system in the country.

The colonial railway system in place today ought to be overhauled and its place put a more efficient public mass transport system. This will ease traffic jams and reduced manhours wasted in gridlocks.

Unemployment

Official unemployment rate in Kenya stands at more than 40 per cent, according to the World Bank. A worrying report released by the institution last year indicated that out of 800,000 jobseekers, only 50,000 can get employed.

 Idle youth are a danger to the security of any government, as the Arab governments painfully learned when their unemployed, demoralised youth rose against them in what is popularly known as the Arab Spring.

The same can easily happen in Kenya. Thanks to an expanding education sector, thousands, possibly millions of Kenyans are graduating from institutions of higher learning.

Sadly these bright men and women are wasting away the most productive periods of their lives without meaningful employment. If they are lucky, they find menial jobs ill-suited their levels of training and expertise.

Most of those who are not lucky  find themselves in the world of crime which breeds even more social problems, manifested in increased crime rate and drug and substance abuse.

Security

Kenyans continue to bear the brunt of insecurity. This has manifested itself in many ways: deadly  robberies, carjackings, murder, rape, cyber attacks and even increased attacks on security forces.

In this regard, the new government should  bring the police operations to the 21 Century by  prioritising the acquisition of new forensics lab for the police force to help fight crime more effectively.

The killing of police officers in particular police officers portend a worrying trend for our national security. Over the past one year the police service has lost more officers than ever before. 

These attacks equals attacks on the laws of the country and should be dealt with decisively.

The Kenya Defence Forces has done  well to neutralise the external threat from Somalia’s Al Shabab militant group. But the enemy is constantly plotting and as indicated by the group’s sporadic attacks on civilians and security forces.

National Cohesion

The next president comes in to office with this fact in mind: that he was not voted for by roughly half of the voters who turned out. More worrying, the vote was cast along tribal lines as it was in the last general elections.

Despite this fact, it is imperative that the president shows in deed that he is a leader of and for  all Kenyans irrespective of their party affiliations and tribal orientations.

The trend in the past is that the leaders excluded those who did not vote for them when sharing the national cake. As a result some places of this country have remained backward due to deliberate neglect by the government in power.

But this should not be the case. Voters should not be punished for exercising their democratic rights. Under the laws of the land, every tax payer should have a slice of the cake through improved social services.

But above all the president should pursue a policy of inclusiveness that will reduce ethnic tensions in the country. The president should take the “prodigal son” approach- investing more time and resources towards the people who did not vote for him as opposed to those who voted for him.