How we are tackling our national challenges

Our deliberations were motivated chiefly by our desire to prudently manage our nation’s resources. 

We assembled to gather our thoughts, and to chart the course for our future – all in a spirit of frankness and unity. 

I made it clear that this is one government, serving one nation.  There can be no division in our aims, and none in our resolve.  If one succeeds, so do we all.  If one fails, the reproach is collective. 

Our unity of purpose was stirred by what we chose to call a whole-government approach – a new practice, which demands closer understanding between and within the ministries of government.

The great tests of our new practice came in the forthright assessments we undertook of each other’s progress, and in our planning for the future, most immediately in discussion of the national budget for Financial Year 2014/2015.

This, you will remember, is my administration’s first budget, wholly of our own making.  I have resolved to reform the process of making the national budget. 

In the past, priorities were set largely by the President, with his Minister of Finance. 

UNITY OF PURPOSE

In the present, Cabinet Secretaries, for the first time, negotiated their requests in unity.  This is not innovation for novelty’s sake: it rather respects the high duty of inclusion laid down by our constitution. 

My Cabinet Secretaries rose to the task. 

They have my full confidence. At the beginning of its tenure, my government pledged to transform the state and society of this nation.  That commitment was expressed in three basic principles: Umoja, Uchumi and Uwazi.  Let me review with you some of our achievements under those heads.

In the security sector, after a far-reaching review, we discovered that it had been fifteen years since we invested anywhere near the quantum of the funds that we required to effectively confront our security challenges. 

Nothing we do to transform our country will matter if we do not get our security right.  In light of the presentations made, and the discussion that followed, we resolved, together, to initiate a significant scaling up of investment in the security sector.

We cannot be secure if we do not protect our protectors.  That is why we are improving the conditions of policemen across the country: we will supply each police station across the country with a motor vehicle; we will provide each policeman with life insurance; and in due course, the pilot police housing scheme will be rolled out in all the 47 of Kenya’s counties.  

No sooner was our inauguration complete than we had begun to offer free maternal care.  Our hopes were realised, and exceeded: 66 per cent of deliveries are now in our health facilities from 44 per cent in the past. 

Remarkable improvements in our management of child and maternal health have followed: if I were allowed just one example, I would mention our vastly improved ability to monitor the health of HIV positive mothers, and to intervene early, to prevent transmission to children.

INTER-LINKED GOALS

Our goals were linked, one to another.  If we invested in the health of our mothers, we did not forget the education of our children. 

You will remember, then, that we long ago promised every child entering Standard One a laptop.  

Some of our fiercest critics objected: how could the program succeed if not every school had electricity?  

Our answer is brief, and is blunt.  As my Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum announced yesterday, we intend to ensure that every primary school in the republic will have electricity by the end of the next financial year.

On the transport front, we agreed a necessity to diversify our transport portfolio.  

That is why I am glad to report that our flagship transport projects remain on course. 

Our determination to link our roads and rail, and our region, into a seamless network is undiminished.
In our manifesto, we paid special attention to the pressing matter of food security.  

Our flagship project here is the Galana-Kulalu irrigation project, though we will continue to support other irrigation schemes. 

The Galana project promises much: when it comes off, we expect to double our maize yield in one stroke.

The Attorney General was able to report that he had embarked on the most extensive reform of this country’s company law since independence – the legislation is already before parliament.

We have also just begun the transformation the National Social Security Fund: the gains in management and monitoring of the assets held by the pension fund will, in time, open up investment opportunities we have only begun to explore – interesting proposals emerged here regarding the use of the fund to support a low-cost housing initiative.

These activities will be underpinned by the digitisation of government. From the presentation of my Cabinet Secretary for Information, Communication and Technology, we have in place plans for a master database of government information which we describe as a single source of truth for the nation.  The direct gains in improved governance should be evident.

And we are on schedule to open bidding for the Lamu-Lokichar pipeline, which will go to South Sudan and Uganda.  I expect it to be ready for first oil in 2016.

ADDITIONAL MEASURES

After long reflection here in Nanyuki, I am glad to announce the following additional measures, which demonstrate our firm resolve to prudently manage the funds which Kenyans have entrusted to us:

1 First: Mindful of the rising public wage bill, my deputy and I will take a 20 per cent pay cut and our Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries have accepted a 10 per cent pay cut, with immediate effect

2 Second: We will draft a new international travel policy, which will restrict foreign journeys to none but the most essential

3 Third, prudent governance structures and rules will be enforced; wastage in my government will be significantly reduced

4 Fourth and lastly, my Government will rationalise the recurrent expenditure that add no value to public service delivery 

5 This together with our commitment to good governance will release additional resources for our transformation agenda.