Is 2021 the year Kenyatta gets Kenya's priorities right?
Kenya faces a myriad of challenges even as the politicos push for a political contest to amend the Constitution
Welcome to the first edition of the Weekly Perspective in 2021 that poses the question whether Kenya, a country facing a myriad of challenges while pushing for a politically charged referendum in the middle of a pandemic, can get its priorities right.
Today, January 3, 2021, a letter by Senate Minority Leader Irungu Kanga’ta to President Uhuru Kenyatta has left many tongues wagging. In his letter, the Murang’a Senator uses many words to tell Uhuru that the expected Building Bridges Initiative is very unpopular especially in the President’s backyard. A well-known reggae music fan, Kang’ata has been one of those that have been singing that ‘nobody can stop reggae’ but his letter points to the very likelihood of it.
It is the first time in a long while that someone loyal to the President and a supporter of the BBI has come forward to boldly tell him what it actually happening. Though the Senator says that his ‘survey’ on the BBI is unscientific, it mirrors others that have been conducted by both state and non-state intelligence gatherers. Most of them show that the BBI proposed changes have the support of less than 20 per cent of the population.
With the Jubilee proponents led by Uhuru and opposition leader Raila Odinga chest-thumped through 2020 on its popularity, 2021 may be the year for them to sit back and re-evaluate. It could be the year that Uhuru and Raila sought to build a bridge with Deputy President William Ruto who is seen as the key opponent of the BBI proposals. Ruto and his allies have constantly said that the proposed changes to the Constitution were not a priority and many Kenyans agree with them. One, therefore, does not need any scientific research to actually conclude why Kang’ata found that the proposed BBI referendum is unpopular.
As we speak, the BBI process has already cost the country hundreds of millions of shillings since the process started in 2018. In December 2020, the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani released Sh93 million to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission for the verification of the BBI signatures. It was also around the same time that Education CS George Magoha said that teachers should “be innovative” and even “teach under trees” once schools re-open on Monday, January 4, 2021.
We have seen the cost of a classroom holding 40 students being estimated at around Sh700,000. One would then assume that if the Sh93 million was available by the time the government was ordering desks, then we would have at least 130 new classrooms. It is therefore clear that Kenya does not have its priorities right. Since March 2020 when the first Covid-19 case was reported in the country and schools closed, the government knew that students would resume learning at some point and thus telling them to learn under trees should not be something that we are hearing.
In his end of year address, the President reiterated that the country was facing a Constitutional moment that would usher in the first amendments to the 2010 Constitution. According to the President, the amendments are key to enhancing the country’s prosperity into the future though many Kenyans question how. The President’s rhetoric is unconvincing as he appears to have abandoned his legacy project of the Big Four - Affordable Housing, Universal Healthcare, Food Security and Manufacturing. The four did not even get a mention in his end of year address yet the so-called constitutional moment did.
In his address, the President said that 2021 was the year to “build back better”. If this is the case, Covid-19 exposed inequalities and the disproportionate impact on the various groupings in society and Kenya’s recovery plan in 2021 should be aimed at addressing this. While seeking to push the changes to the Constitution he desires, the President should not forget that the triple threat of 2020 (locusts, Covid-19 and floods) is set to evolve. In 2021, the threats are clear - famine, locusts and Covid-19 - and how the government prioritises the response will be key to winning the war.
No one actually says that Kenyan laws, led by the Constitution, do not need improvement. However, the question is whether the laws and policies that exist can be used to push the country’s priorities in the right direction. For instance, what are the mitigation factors put in place to deal with the forecasted La Nina that is to hit the country this year? In the midst of a pandemic, how is the country preparing to deal with the drought expected? As we speak, the nurses' strike enters its fifth week on Monday with no resolution in sight yet. Health remains a critical sector of the Kenyan society that cannot remain unaddressed especially if the government is to successfully roll out the universal healthcare programme.
For a country that had is unemployed workforce double in 2020, Kenya should be using 2021 to rebuild and create more jobs. Instead, we are seeing a raft of new business taxes and an extension of a curfew that continues to hurt businesses than fight the spread of Covid-19. According to the World Bank, Covid-19 pushed another two million Kenyans into poverty but we are yet to see a clear plan by the government on how to mitigate this.
Over the last couple of years, the government’s priorities have remained unrealistic to the expectations of many Kenyans. Senator Kang’ata should not, therefore, be surprised by how unpopular the BBI referendum quest is. Kenyans know the priorities and that is what they want to see addressed.