President keeps ministers on their toes with tough targets

What you need to know:

  • The targets, outlined in a “Programme Based Budget” for the 2015/2016 financial year, will be monitored and evaluated by the new Presidential Delivery Unit, headed by a former Safaricom director, Mr Nzioka Waita.
  • The Ministry of Health has the task of ensuring that half of Kenyan women are screened for cervical cancer and eight million HIV patients receive one viral load test per year.
  • The State Department for Planning in the Devolution ministry is tasked with ensuring that 33,660 people access Huduma centres.
  • The National Youth Service, for its part, must build 48,600 dams and 38,470 roads by the end of the financial year.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has set tough targets for each ministry and state department over the next one year as he seeks to implement his government’s flagship projects by June 2016.

The targets, outlined in a “Programme Based Budget” for the 2015/2016 financial year, will be monitored and evaluated by the new Presidential Delivery Unit, headed by a former Safaricom director, Mr Nzioka Waita.

In a departure from the past when the government simply allocated monies to ministries and state departments to finance their recurrent and development expenditure, Mr Kenyatta has pegged this year’s allocations to delivery of set targets by June 2016.

PROVIDE A LAPTOP

The Ministry of Education, for example, is tasked with providing 400,000 pupils with laptops this financial year.

The ministry is also required to provide a laptop each to 21,000 schools while ensuring that 6,000 teachers are trained on information communication technology.

The Kenya National Examinations Council is expected to enrol 814,630 Standard Eight pupils for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination this year.

It is also tasked with ensuring that 453,481 students sit for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination at the end of the year.
The ministry should also ensure that 750,175 learners benefit from the school feeding programme by June 2016.

The police service will be required to reduce crime from 180 to 170 cases per 100,000 people and to ensure that 100 closed circuit television cameras are installed in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and Nakuru by June next year.

It is also tasked with training 6,000 officers and buying 2,500 new vehicles to boost security.

The Administration Police and General Service Unit are separately expected to train 4,000 officers at their colleges during the financial year.

The Agriculture ministry is tasked with ensuring there are six million 90-kilogramme bags of maize, 800,000 90-kg bags of beans and 13,000 90-kg bags of rice in the Strategic Food Reserves.

HALF OF KENYAN WOMEN

The Ministry of Health has the task of ensuring that half of Kenyan women are screened for cervical cancer and eight million HIV patients receive one viral load test per year. It should also ensure that 755,000 HIV patients are put on ARV treatment besides ensuring that 10 million patients access public hospitals by June 2016.

The Infrastructure Department is under strict instructions to build 1,072km of new major roads, another 2,278km of new “other” roads and to repair 113km of major roads and 121km of “other” roads.

The Transport ministry is tasked with constructing a 95km railway line and rehabilitating and maintaining 90 airstrips.

The State Department for Planning in the Devolution ministry is tasked with ensuring that 33,660 people access Huduma centres.

The National Youth Service, for its part, must build 48,600 dams and 38,470 roads by the end of the financial year.

The department should also ensure that 321,488 women are financially supported and 150,000 are trained in various fields.

Under the Youth Empowerment Programme, the ministry should ensure that 7,000 youth secure jobs while 46,000 are trained in business skills.

The Immigration Department will be expected to issue 100,000 passports, 26,000 alien cards, 24,000 work permits and 111,244 visas during the financial year. It is also tasked with repatriating 54,000 refugees.

The Prisons department is to ensure 6,000 offenders get formal education.

The Office of the Deputy President’s spouse is expected to train 3,000 women in table banking in every county while 500 women per county are trained on public procurement every three months.

It should also train 1,000 women per county on entrepreneurship.