President Kenyatta to give State of the Nation speech

President Kenyatta will go to the National Assembly on Thursday afternoon to deliver his second State of the Nation address.

The speech comes against the backdrop of rising corruption, waste in the public sector and insecurity.

Thursday’s event comes a year after Mr Kenyatta promised to rid the country of corruption, address insecurity, contain the public wage bill and oversee the growth of the economy in his maiden state of the nation address.

But widespread cases of corruption, including the “Chickengate” scandal and rampant insecurity in the second half of 2014 — the massacre of dozens of Kenyans in Lamu, Mandera, Baringo and Kapedo, among other areas — have seriously dented the government’s anti-corruption and war-on-insecurity credentials.

The address also comes in the wake of concerns that corruption has extended to parliamentary committees.

The National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee and the Agriculture Committee are some of the committees grappling with graft allegations among its members.

The corruption claims have dented the image of the Legislature, one of the formerly respected arms of the government.

Mr Kenyatta will also be hard-pressed to explain cases of massive waste of public funds, with the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) currently investigating reports that government ministries are losing Sh600 million every month to “ghost” workers. The commission has been embroiled in internal rows.

The public wage bill still remains alarmingly high, while the projected 6 per cent economic growth during the current financial year is unlikely to be realised.

In his address to both houses of Parliament on March 27 last year, Mr Kenyatta spoke at length about the government’s commitment to tackling insecurity, and outlined a raft of measures to achieve the goal.