Ready for take off: Finally, Kenya has a blueprint to be an economic powerhouse

The new law provides a better framework for effecting Vision 2030 to put Kenya in the league prosperous countries

The newly ratified Constitution offers Kenya the best chance ever of achieving prosperity in the league of Botswana, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Many of its checks and balances put public servants, including politicians, on a tight leash in the management of public institutions.

Several of its provisions have the potential of making Kenya one of the world’s best managed countries. Key among them is Chapter 6 on Leadership and Integrity, which has clear provisions on public officials’ conduct, gifts, offshore banking, moonlighting and restrictions on retirees’ engagements.

Most of these provisions will make public service only attractive to those driven by a genuine desire to serve. The public service will no longer be a gravy train for the greedy.

The new Constitution has been crafted with all the key ingredients that rational local and international investors consider. Some of the attractive indicators include a premium being placed on the rule of law with a strong and clean Judiciary, clear enforcement mechanisms for property rights, as well as equitable infrastructural development through the devolution of 15 per cent of the national Budget.

The devolution of infrastructure has the potential of spreading investments to rural areas beyond Nairobi and other major towns.
This will be reinforced by the Equalisation Fund, which sets aside 0.5 per of the Budget for traditionally marginalised areas.

However, it is important that the devolution of funds is not considered as a new distribution channel but as a real spur to sustainable and equitable development; not as money to spend but to invest for the future.

Prudent management of the funds will ensure that they serve their intended purpose.
The new Constitution provides a better framework for the implementation of the development blueprint Vision 2030 that will put Kenya in the league of prosperous countries.

These countries have shown how effective management of public institutions can turn around an economy and vastly increase well-being of a people.
For instance, between 1966 and 1997, Botswana registered an annual growth of 9.2 per cent, leading the World Bank to rank it as the fastest growing economy in the world. This can be attributed to the fact that Botswana is the only African country that has maintained constitutional order without interruption since independence.

Parliament has oversight powers

For Kenya, it has no more excuse given such benchmarks. Article 204 of the new Constitution puts its leaders in a straight jacket by guaranteeing stability and predictability with elaborate transfer of power unlike the mess the country experienced in 2008.

The loophole of the Executive sitting in Parliament, thereby undermining the principle of checks and balances, has been sealed through the adoption of a pure Presidential system like America’s.

In turn, Parliament has been given a lot of oversight powers to check the excesses of the Executive in the implementation of government programmes. The Judiciary has also been recreated into a non-corrupt, efficient, firm and fair institution that has no place for impunity.

It will no longer be valid to say: “Why hire a lawyer if you can buy the judge?”
The economic success of Singapore, and that of its public service, is driven by a government heavily involved in a number of key sectors, such as housing, education and industry through its bureaucracy, adjudged one of the least corrupt in the world.

For us, the question of corruption and cynical musical chairs of discredited public officials being moved from one institution to another will be a thing of the past. The fate of those who are dismissed from public office has been sealed.

The policy choices that Singapore has made, the institutional arrangements it has put in place, and its investment decisions, have allowed it to be an island of excellence.