From land reforms to laptops, it has been a tough year

President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto Wednesday marked exactly one year since they were sworn into office at the Kasarani Stadium.

Already, all Cabinet secretaries have issued scorecards from their self-assessments, but the picture might not be as rosy when measured against the promises outlined in the Jubilee campaign manifesto.

They put on positive spin on a first year that may have been marked more by myriad challenges and distractions rather than solid achievement.

Notable challenges range from terrorist attacks and general insecurity; distractions such as the ICC trials; failure on delivery of key campaign promises such as the free laptops for primary school children; little evidence of economic recovery and job creation; and perceptions that grand corruption is making an aggressive return as seen through the laptops and new Mombasa-Malaba railway line procurements.

The Jubilee manifesto that propelled President Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto to State House was an extensive document with proposals touching on all facets of national life. It offered solutions to issues ranging from economic growth, health, education and social services, youth unemployment, corruption, governance, land policy, and public service reform.

Some were detailed policy prescriptions. Others were populist ‘‘quick-fix’’ doses that clearly have had to be tempered by the realities of the gulf between running a government and making good on campaign promises. One year down the road, Daily Nation’s Managing Editor for Special Projects MACHARIA GAITHO recalls the

Jubilee Coalition election campaign promises from which Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto might have appraised themselves on going into a second year in office. An earlier version of this article was published Online ahead of President Kenyatta’s State of the Nation address in Parliament towards the end of last month.

LAND POLICY: The Jubilee manifesto pledged repossession of all illegally occupied public land without compensation, and the prosecution of land grabbers. Also much was made of the promise to accelerate issuance of title deeds.

This was ironical because during the election campaigns, the Jubilee team was mercilessly skewered on the land issue by the rival Cord coalition of ODM’s Raila Odinga and Wiper Party’s Kalonzo Musyoka.

Jubilee was depicted as the team led by beneficiaries of vast land-grabs of previous regimes, and therefore unlikely to offer much in reforms and addressing inequalities and old injustices in regard to access to land.

The campaign cost Jubilee dearly at the Coast where land issues remain a powder keg. There were early moves to issue title deeds at the Coast and in Nairobi’s expansive Kibera slums, the latter a political move given that it is Mr Odinga’s political bastion, but otherwise Mr Kenyatta might have little positive to report. Most of the news from the land sector has been about the power struggle between Lands minister Charity Ngilu and National Land Commission boss Mohammed Swazuri that has slowed down reforms and programmes.

EDUCATION, FREE LAPTOPS AND SCHOOL MILK: The fiasco of free laptops promised for every primary school child in Kenya must be one of Jubilee’s worst nightmares. Economic reality had already forced scaling down of the project from all primary school pupils to just Class One pupils and then only to a few schools in a pilot programme, before a botched procurement halted award of the tender. It might be tied down by lawsuits for a considerable time.

The Jubilee campaign also promised free milk for every primary school-going child. Nothing so far. Substantive promises included massive recruitment to increase the student-teacher ratio to one teacher for every 40 students; and a progressive increase in the education budget to 32 per cent of government spending by 2018. Nothing to report on that score yet.

SECURITY: The State of the Nation address was delivered just a few days after a terrorist attack at a Mombasa church killed six people, and with memories of last year’s devastating raid on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall still fresh in the mind.

In the wake of the Mombasa attack, President Kenyatta issued a stern warning that those out to harm innocent Kenyans would face the full force of the law, but that only provoked a storm on social media where commentators recalled previous tough warnings but no tangible results.

The President will need to convince sceptical Kenyans that his are not empty warnings.

On wider security issues, runaway violent crime in both urban and rural areas; unchecked banditry, cattle rustling and ethnic conflict marginalised parts of the country, are just some of the concerns that need to be addressed.

The Jubilee campaign promised improved pay and conditions of service for police officers, recruitment of 15,000 officers to increase the police-citizen ratio from the present 1:1,150 to 1:800 within five years. There was also a promise to provide each of the 1,450 electoral wards across the country with at least two police vehicles, alongside general improvements, in accommodation, training, and equipment.

There has been a well-publicised purchase of police cars, but not to the numbers promised, with some county governments stepping in to take up the slack. Pay, equipment, transport and the headcount still present severe constraints to effective policing, while the public sees police reform stymied by the very public bureaucratic turf wars between Inspector-General David Kimaiyo and the the Police Service Commission boss Johnson Kavuludi.

ARTS, YOUTH, SPORTS AND CULTURE: Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto campaigned as the dynamic, youthful duo. And to that measure they pledged to establish youth development centres in all counties with fully-equipped libraries, ICT hubs, social halls and facilities for football, swimming, basketball, netball and volleyball.

They promised to build five new national sports stadiums in Kisumu, Mombasa, Nakuru, Eldoret and Garissa, and ensure that the Kenya Safari Rally gets back a slot in the World Rally Championships calendar.

Other than establishment of the Sh6 billion Youth Enterprise fund, the President might have little to report.

HEALTHCARE: The Jubilee team moved swiftly on assuming office to make good on the promise of free maternity care in public health facilities. The healthcare sector has, however been dominated more by strikes from medics demanding better pay and working conditions, as well as the complications coming with the transition to devolved health services.

The campaign had pledged to achieve free primary healthcare for all and increase health financing from six per cent to 15 per cent of national budget.