Deputy President restates Jubilee commitment

The Jubilee government has promised to roll out new programmes in the new year as well as give old pledges such as fighting hunger and insecurity fresh impetus.

In a message to Kenyans, Deputy President William Ruto also appealed for higher national ideals to be able to overcome some of the challenges that have beset the country in 2013.

More elderly people would benefit from a fund to support their daily needs, with the government saying the number of beneficiaries would increase three-fold from 150,000 to 450,000.

The DP restated government pledge to irrigate one million acres to boost food production saying no society ever claimed its rightful station of honour while weighed down by hunger.

There were also plans to fix country’s power generation capacity from 1,600 MW to 5,000 by 2017, the initial steps of expansion have been taken, says Mr Ruto while outlining government’s new plans for the new year.

The government would also speed up the acquisition of modern surveillance and deterrent equipment and technology and ensure every police station gets a patrol vehicle.

EXISTING AND EMERGING CHALLENGES

“This will ensure our good plans and projects we intend to install find a peaceful atmosphere across the country,” he said.

Women and youth would also not be left behind and would immediately begin benefitting from the Uwezo fund loans in the New Year and enjoy the 30 percent government contracts as directed by the government, says the DP.

He said the measures had been secured in the last eight months that the Jubilee administration has been in power.

Stressing the needs for reforms in the public sector and change in the national psyche to tackle emerging and old challenges, Mr Ruto appealed to Kenyans not to repeat the mistakes that have pulled them backwards.

“We cannot afford to keep walking into the same pitfalls, snares and mazes that have denied us our rightful destiny and possible primacy of place in the community of world nations,” he said.

Mr Ruto said 2014 would be a year of moving beyond promises to real frontiers, saying the government during the eight month period had laid, in earnest, the architecture of the country in the next 50 years.

He also challenged Kenyans saying they should dream of a better future and remain open to the possibilities and potential of transforming the economy and the lives of the people.

“As a country, we have lost the true meaning of dreaming. The rhetoric of dreaming over the last 50 years has been an increasingly sonorous chorus to which only a few paid real attention,” he said urging Kenyans to look into the future with optimism.