It's a borrowed extract, Jubilee says of Nasa manifesto

The Jubilee Party has termed the National Super Alliance’s manifesto as a "borrowed extract" from its policy blueprint.

Nasa’s plan, Jubilee leaders told the Nation on Wednesday, is not meant for implementation but just as a campaign tool.

'HURRIED'

Kiambu Senator Kimani Wamatangi said the opposition principals hurriedly compiled the document to boost their vote chase.

“It is a hurriedly compiled and borrowed extract from the Jubilee blueprint with a few additions that are not intended for implementation but for campaign window dressing,” he said.

Senate Majority Leader Kithure Kindiki welcomed the manifesto but noted there was nothing tangible or revolutionary in its content.

“I only saw a photocopy of what Jubilee unveiled, especially in terms of what we offered to deliver on free secondary education,” he said.

He added: “There was nothing extraordinary in the whole thing. No timelines and no key performance indicators to ensure that things happen or are implemented as they should be.”

AGENDA

Prof Kindiki said Nasa's manifesto lacks a superior agenda that would have made the Raila Odinga-led outfit the better option.

He specifically criticised the opposition for saying that it would open up National Cereals and Produce Board centres to collect and store maize, saying there is no maize to be collected.

Collection of maize, he also argued, is not the solution for food security.

He held that the hunger problem was not well thought out as the solution offered hardly addresses the root cause of maize shortage in the market.

“For Jubilee, we have traced the problem from its root cause and given very clear measures on how to tackle it along the value addition chain,” Prof Kindiki said.

He further faulted the Nasa manifesto, saying it did not extensively address the issue of infrastructure and energy, which he said are critical in spurring the manufacturing sector and eventual industrial take-off.

SPECIFICS

“The manufacturing sector can only thrive as long as there are good roads, railways, airports and proper supply of power,” he said.

“This are what creates conditions for industrial take-off.”

Kiharu MP Irungu Kang'ata said the manifesto failed to provide specifics on how it will achieve the pledges.

On the opposition proposal that it will change the Constitution to allow for the selection of ministers from among MPs, the Kiharu lawmaker said that would go against the spirit of the 2010 law that sought to make Cabinet secretaries technocrats.

'LAW BREACH'

“The manifesto failed to address how it would tackle food shortage. It did not mention irrigation, which is one known way of alleviating food problems in the country,” Mr Kang’ata said.

Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung'wa did not have kind works for Nasa: “A document long on empty rhetoric and short of any specific deliverables to the people of Kenya.”

He added: “It has contradictory pronouncements that run counter to the Constitution.”

Kajiado North MP Joseph Manje said the opposition concentrated more on the country’s problems instead of the solutions.

“They kept on saying they would do this and that….but they failed to tell Kenyans how they would do it.”

THE PAST

Mr Manje said on issues of food security, education and security, the opposition heavily borrowed from the Jubilee manifesto.

“Jubilee has been talking about free education and the deputy President retaliated that on Monday. The opposition just repeated the same things on free education,” Mr Manje.

The lawmaker also faulted the opposition for playing a video showing Kenya’s dark past.

“It is not good to keep reminding people of the dark past but the focus should be on the bright future that we are building,” he said.