Deputy President William Ruto on Thursday, June 30, launched his manifesto that was anchored on seven pillars aimed at transforming the country's economy using his bottom-up model.
Here is the breakdown of the full manifesto.
OVERVIEW
Kenya’s economic challenges require immediate attention. One of the first priorities of the next government is to navigate the economy in a post COVID-19 era while, at the same time, making a decisive break from the business-as-usual economic policies and carry out bold economic reforms in a coherent fashion, so as to accelerate job creation and leave no one behind in the empowerment process.
Among the key challenges that will confront the new administration include: an unemployment rate that is estimated at over 50 per cent; an economy highly dependent on low productive agriculture (around 30 per cent of GDP) with high susceptibility to drought; rising energy and food prices that are now beyond the reach of many Kenyans; and about half of Kenyans now living below the poverty line (2019 estimate) worsened by the pandemic. In addition, managing and making devolution effectively, fostering national unity and meeting the elevated expectation of citizens under a newly elected president who signifies a change from a top-down economic regime structure to bottom-up. This will have important implications for Kenya’s future economic and social conditions.
Proposed Plan – Why the Bottom-Up economic Model
Kenya Kwanza’s plan is a bold step in transforming our economy, and the aim is to achieve durable growth, while maintaining macroeconomic stability and empowerment of the people at the bottom of the pyramid—the “hustlers.” So, why Bottom-up and not trickle-down economic model:
⦁ Trickle down economics does not work because the “free market” is not free, or fair;
⦁ It is rigged for the privileged, captured and monopolized by cartels;
⦁ It rewards capital more than labour, big business more than small ones, and incumbents more than start ups;
⦁ Triple down economic model has failed because personal interests override the public interest where selective interest in policy and legislations supersedes the common good;
⦁ It is based on an assumption that the market is properly governed and regulated. But most often, the market is captured by cartels driving it to monopolistic and duopolistic tendencies.
The bottom-up economic model, therefore is a people-driven, a deliberately inclusive, participatory process where citizen participation is at the core of policies, strategies, programmes and projects.
By ensuring a consultative and a participatory process involving citizens in identifying their key socio-economic priorities, it ensures that government work meets people's needs and that public policy is relevant and that government works for the people. It should make markets work for everyone.
In a properly functioning environment, the market and supply forces are suppose to be working perfectly where the Government is expected to be an even-handed referee and there is equitable provision of public goods and deliberate promotion and efforts on some sectoral areas. Market failure that leads to monopolistic and duopolistic tendencies brings about unnecessary barriers such as over regulations, prohibitive levies and fees and criminalization of some sectors through biased legislations – like counterfeits.
Who is at the Bottom of the pyramid?
⦁ The un- and underemployed. 1.4m openly unemployed, 3.7m underemployed, 5.1m total, 68% under 35 (2016 figures, the numbers have undoubtedly increased post-Covid)—could be as many as 7 million.
⦁ 10 million informal sector workers, categorized by KNBS as “unlicensed”. These are the mama mbogas, bodaboda riders, roving hawkers, mkokoteni pushers and many others whose livelihoods are often criminalized. The vast majority of the underemployed are in this category. According to a KNBS 2016 Survey their average earnings are Ksh3,500 a month —not surprising if you are playing hide and seek with county askaris half the time.
⦁ 2.5 million Subsistence farm households are “hard core poor” i.e. their total earnings (production + labour “kibarua” income) is not enough to meet their food needs.
⦁ These groups are being swelled by smallholder farmers and small business owners who are bearing the brunt of predation by cartels e.g. coffee farmers and Nyamakima traders whose imported consignments were impounded and burned in the name of protecting the domestic industry.
During our bottom-up economic dialogue in the 47 counties, that brought to the fore the sufferings of Kenyans as a result of high cost of food, high level of unemployment, especially among the youthful population, and the high cost of health services, we were able to anchor our interventions around five pillars:
⦁ Agriculture and Food Security
⦁ MSMEs and Financing
⦁ Housing
⦁ Health access
⦁ ICT and Creative Economy
A: Agriculture and Food Security
Agriculture is the largest sector of the economy, contributing half of Kenya’s GDP, a quarter directly and another quarter indirectly. Two-thirds of Kenyans derive all or part of their incomes from agriculture. Agriculture thus remains the foundation of the economy.
Many of the challenges that Kenya is experiencing can be traced to agriculture either directly or indirectly. The case for investing in agriculture as the sector that will lead the rapid economic recovery is predicated on seven factors:
Quick turn around: First, agriculture offers the quickest payback period for investments. This is because, in many cases, there is no new capital investment required. Increasing production only requires addressing the cost, quality and access of inputs (animal feeds, seeds, fertilizers, pesticides etc), and providing farmers with the working capital to buy adequate supply of the inputs. The biggest challenge most dairy farmers are facing now is the cost of animal feeds. An investment of Ksh8.8 billion would revitalize the sector and see Kenya produce excess milk to not only meet the local demand, but also an extra one billion litres for export.
Cost of living: The high cost of living in Kenya can only be resolved by raising agricultural productivity. This will increase farmers earnings per acre and an excess product in the market will lead to an immediate impact on the pricing to the consumer.
Foreign exchange: As noted, our dependence on food imports has grown considerably in recent years. Edible oils, palm oil is primarily our second largest import after petroleum, on which we spend Sh60b a year ($600m) before the recent price surge, which pushed the import bill to over Sh90b ($800m).
Our rice deficit is about 600,000MT, costing Ksh25 billion ($230m), equivalent to our coffee export earnings. Three food commodities, edible oils, wheat and rice, are consuming an equivalent of 25 percent of our merchandise (goods) export earnings. We have the capacity to produce a bigger share of our consumption of both edible oils and rice competitively. Agriculture is also the sector that we are most globally competitive especially in traditional exports such as tea, coffee, cut flowers and vegetables as well as emerging export crops such as avocado and macadamia nuts.
Coffee production has fallen to below 40,000MT from a peak of 130,000MT, against an estimated potential of 200,000MT. This has the potential to increase coffee export earnings five-fold. We have several export crops that have collapsed, notably pyrethrum. Kenya was once the world’s leading producer with over 90 percent of world market share. Others are cashew nuts and bixa.
Jobs Agriculture has the highest employment multiplier effect i.e. agricultural growth creates more jobs in other sectors than any other due to its strong linkages to other sectors of the economy.
Incomes: As noted, two thirds of Kenyans derive all or part of their incomes from agriculture. Thus agriculture led growth will put money in more people’s pockets directly than any other source. This also means that agricultural incomes have the highest multiplier effect. When farmers have money, they buy consumer goods and services from other sectors. Moreover, given the large share of food in household expenditures, savings on food costs have a very large multiplier effect on other sectors.
Ending poverty: Extreme poverty and vulnerability is also an agricultural phenomenon. An estimated two million households, one in six, are food poor and are unable to meet daily food nutritional requirements. The vast majority of the people are in rural areas and more often farmers. They have land, but lack the resources to raise productivity to meet their subsistence needs.
Government’s cash transfers to these household consumption needs are now at Ksh12.5 billion annually. Kenya Kwanza believes that this money would be better spent supporting farmers to raise productivity. By doing so, the farmers would not only able to feed themselves, but also generate a surplus that would contribute to national food security and the economy.
Industrialization: Our manufacturing sector is largely agriculture-based, with food processing and beverage manufacturing contributing 40 per cent and 48 per cent of manufacturing jobs and GDP respectively. Adding value to our agricultural exports is a more viable route to grow our manufactured exports than industries that are heavily dependent on imported machinery and raw materials.
The Kenya Kwanza Commitment
⦁ Provide adequate affordable working capital to farmers through better governed and revitalized cooperative societies.
⦁ Deployment of modern agricultural risk management instruments that ensure farming is profitable and income is predictable through a well-defined Guaranteed Minimum Returns (GMR) Scheme.
⦁ Transform 2m poor farmers from food deficit to surplus producers through input finance and intensive agricultural extension support, with a target minimum productivity revenues per acre.
⦁ Raise productivity of key value food chains (maize 8 -15bags/acre, dairy 2.5kg- 7.5kg per cow/day, beef carcass weight from 110kg - 150kg).
⦁ Reduce dependence on basic food imports by 30% (domestic oil crops production from 5% to 25%, rice from 18% to 40%) through Government-supported programs in cereal (rice and maize), oil crops (soya beans, sunflower and canola) and the pulses.
⦁ Revamp underperforming & collapsed export agricultural products, expand emerging ones (coffee, cashew nuts, pyrethrum, avocado, cotton, macadamia nuts, fish, beef, and leather).
⦁ Revamp the tea value chain (blending & branding), leading to higher returns for farmers through improved efficiency.
⦁ Increase the supply of quality seeds, including hybrid and high-yielding varieties, with continued investment in research and technological adoption for all key agricultural value chains
Financial Commitment
An investment of not less than KSh250 billion in FY2023 - FY2027, arising from budget reorganization and restructuring, to be more pro-production oriented and reduce huge capital consuming infrastructural financing. The expenditure policies will also be reorganized to cut wastage and promote value for money.
Of significance is the introduction of zero-based budgeting to ensure justification of all expenditure items in the budget and thus insulate it from low-value and State captured spending programs. The public-private partnerships will be accelerated to lessen the burden on the budget, especially in value addition and agro-processing.
B: Transforming the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) Economy
The MSME sub-sector contributes 85 per cent of non-farm jobs which today translates into 15 million of the 18 million workforces. Presently, it is absorbing 9 out of 10 of the young people joining the workforce, 750,000 on average, while the formal corporate wage economy barely absorbs 50,000. An estimated 10 million informal MSME operators and workers earn less than KSh5,000 a month on average, which is below the living wage. This is a reflection of the hostile environment that they operate in, criminalisation of their enterprises (e.g. hawkers).
These 10 million people, who represent half of Kenya’s workforce, are the country’s biggest opportunity but remain the most underutilized resource. Our estimates show that if these workers were as productive as those in established SMEs, they would be generating KSh6 trillion a year, which is 60 per cent of GDP i.e., the economy would be 60 percent larger.
The Kenya Kwanza Commitment
End criminalization of work: We will enact right laws, making trading licenses and provision of trading locations a right to every citizen who applies. We will work with county governments to provide one street trading premises for every 50 urban residents, with a view to increasing average daily income of informal traders by Ksh200.
Regressive taxation, bureaucracy, and regulatory compliance costs: We will review and rationalize all business licenses, cap total licenses in relation to individual turnover, and enact a law that would ensure no business spends more than 4 person hours a month on tax and regulatory compliance.
Access to finance: We will commit Ksh50 billion a year to provide MSMEs with not only reliable access but also affordable source of finance through SACCOs, and other forms of aggregations.
Infrastructure & Capacity Building. We will establish MSME Business Development Centre anchored to vocational training facilities in every ward, and industrial park and business incubation centres in every TVET institution.
Financial Commitment
Ksh250 billion FY2022/23 - FY2026/27 that contributes directly to supporting a revolving hustler fund and business development services for the registered SMEs. The funds will enhance the affirmative funds whose continued existence will be guided by their competitiveness and efficiency.
C: Housing and Settlement
Urban housing
The requirement for new urban housing deficit is estimated at 250,000 units a year, against a production of 50,000 units, translating to deficit of 200,000 units. The cumulative deficit is estimated at two million units.
As a result, more than 60 per cent of urban Kenyans are living in slums and other low-quality housing without adequate sanitation, undermining their dignity and exposing them to health hazards. Our rapid urbanization rate at 4.4 per cent, equivalent to 500,000 new city dwellers a year, means that the housing supply is a moving target.
The Kenya Kwanza Commitment
The Kenya Kwanza housing commitment is to turn the housing deficit into an economic opportunity. Next to agriculture, we see housing production as the sector that will create employment for over 100,000 young Kenyans that are graduating from TVETs every year directly in the construction sector. We will:
⦁ Through public private partnership, ensure an increase in housing to 250,000 a year. This will be achieved through structuring an affordable long-term housing finance scheme that will guarantee the offtake of houses from developers.
⦁ Grow the number of mortgages from 30,000 to 1,000,000 by enabling low-cost mortgages.
⦁ Strengthen jua kali industry to produce high quality construction productions through industrial parks domiciled around TVETs.
⦁ Giving developers/investors incentives to build more affordable housing.
Rural housing and settlement
The right to housing as enshrined by the Constitution is not limited to urban settlements, especially because a vast majority of Kenyans live in their rural homes. That said, landlessness, insecure land tenure, and notably the historical squatter problem in the Coast region has contributed to severely affecting most food insecure households. This is because the country has considerable unused and underutilized agricultural land.
Kenya Kwanza Commitment
Kenya Kwanza commits to establish a Settlement Fund, similar to the one that was used to acquire land from settler farmers after independence, to resettle up to one million desperate landless families at the Coast and other parts of the country. To avoid excessive subdivision of land, the land bought under these schemes will be subject to land use planning where beneficiaries will own transferable residential plots in planned settlement, and a right to lease non-transferable agricultural land.
Financial commitment
Ksh250 billion FY2022/23 - FY2026/27 of which the budget commitment is Ksh50 billion and the rest will be financed by pension funds and partnership with the private sector.
D: Health Care
The Kenya Health Sector Strategic Plan 2018-2023 Mid-Term Review Synthesis Report showed that the number of outpatient visits a person per year marginally increased from one visit in 2017/18 to 2 visits in 2019/20 per person per year, but below a target of 3.
The percentage of health facilities with essential medicines was at 62.3 per cent in 2019/20 against a target of 95 per cent for 2020/21; no county had met the minimum threshold of 23 HCW per 10,000 people as per the WHO recommendation; counties experienced delays in the flows of funds (equitable share), subsequently contributing to frequent health care workers industrial action; although maternal mortality has improved, the 2030 SDG global target of less than 70 per 100,000 live births is unlikely to be achieved from the current projections; and the proportion of the population covered by the NHIF is still low at 19.9 per cent.
To ensure accessible and quality service delivery in health, a number of factors need serious consideration: Healthcare Leadership and Governance; Health Services Delivery; Human Resources for Health (HRH); Health Financing; Commodity Supply; Health Infrastructure; Information, Communication and Technology; and Monitoring and Evaluation of Health Services.
The most recent assessment shows that our total health expenditure (THE) stands at Ksh550 billion a year, financed by government (63 per cent), households’ “out of pocket” (27 percent) and the balance of 10 per cent through insurance schemes. The out of pocket share of THE translates to Ksh150 billion per year, which is a big burden to households. This is the reason that one in three families is at risk of falling into poverty courtesy of one serious illness. The number is growing daily as the non-communicable disease burden grows.
The Kenya Kwanza Coalition is fully cognizant of the challenges that continue to bedevil the health sector and through its wide ranging consultations with the public and key stakeholders, it has come up with recommendations that would see it implement Afya Bora Mashinani - The Kenya Kwanza “Bottom-up” Approach to Health Services.
Kenya Kwanza Commitment
We are committed and determined to provide Kenyans constitutional right to health in the shortest time possible by delivering a Universal Health Coverage (UHC) system on three pillars built.
⦁ Fully publicly financed primary healthcare (preventive, promotive, outpatient & basic diagnostic services), that gives patients choice between public, faith based and private providers based on a regulated tariff.
⦁ Universal seamless health insurance system comprising a mandatory national insurance (NHIF) and private insurance as complementary covers, with NHIF as the primary and private as secondary cover.
⦁ National fund for chronic and catastrophic illness and injury costs not covered (or with very restrictive cover) by insurance (cancer, diabetes, strokes & accident rehabilitation, pandemics) to be funded by a combination of insurance levy and Government
Other critical areas of commitment in structuring a successful Afya Bora Mashinani and, as presented by stakeholders, includes:
⦁ Afya Bora Mashinani will be a primary health care-based approach that will give priority to preventative and promotive services mashinani. We will establish Multi-Disciplinary Teams to take primary health care services to the grassroots as envisioned in our bottom-up health care model.
⦁ Provide capacity to level 5 hospitals to be centers of excellence in the provision of specialized care and equipped with modern state of the art treatment and diagnostic technology. Enhance health services through establishment of level 6 hospitals in 6 new sites to ease the pressure on the existing facilities. These are: Kakamega, Embu, Mombasa, Bomet, Garissa and Machakos) .
⦁ Work with counties to train sufficient community health workers and ensure regular monthly payments.
⦁ Under the tertiary healthcare tier, we shall incorporate an emergency medical treatment.
⦁ Give priority to employment of an initial 20,000 health care workers (doctors, nurses, lab technologists, clinical officers, etc.) to bridge the gap as per the WHO recommendations that require 23 HCW per 10,000 people.
⦁ Integrate information communication and technology systems and immediately operationalise a national health information system for electronic health records (EHR) to standardise and boost the portability of patient data and enhance telemedicine and health management information systems.
⦁ Streamline commodities supply to ensure competitive pricing and availability of healthcare products and technologies beyond the existing structures where KEMSA is a monopoly.
⦁ Work to increase budgetary allocation to health from 4 per cent to 15 per cent of the total annual government budget.
⦁ Work on mechanisms that will promote domestic manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and non-pharmaceutical commodities.
⦁ Set up centres of excellence to act as training, mentorship, and research centres. Based on specific criteria such as local epidemiology, population, and estimated catchment areas, we will support county governments to upgrade health facilities.
⦁ We need to review and come up with a framework for professional development and specialization for various health professionals as part of career progression with a possibility of setting up a National Health Commission.
E: ICT & CREATIVE ECONOMY
Kenya has invested heavily in ICT infrastructure and services over the last two decades. This infrastructure include six submarine fibre optic cables offering broadband connectivity, 9000km of terrestrial fibre optic cable connecting virtually all county headquarters, and geographical and population mobile broadband coverage of 56 per cent of the 96 per cent respectively.
Mobile telephone penetration and innovation has increased from 25 per cent to over 80 per cent of the population in less than two decades, making Kenya one of the world’s best users of mobile payments. The COVID19 crisis demonstrated just how critical digital penetration is in business continuity. It enabled many essential services to proceed with minimum interruption during the lockdowns.
Still, important economic benefits expected have yet to materialise. Notably, there was high hope that the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry would become a leading export and employment creating sector. Kenya was ranked together with The Phillipines, which exports $30 billion worth an estimated 1.3 million people, The industry has yet to take off. The Konza Technopolis has been in the works for two decades, and seems no closer to becoming a reality than it was a decade ago.
Areas where digital transformation could have delivered huge gains, such as in public procurement, is yet to be felt.
Kenya Kwanza commitment
⦁ We shall increase and enhance broadband connectivity across the country through the construction of 100,000km of fiber optic connectivity network to accelerate the development of Konza Technopolis.
⦁ Economic transformation of rural economy through digitization via investing in the digital economy by rolling out 100,000km of fibre to counties, villages, schools, over 24,000 businesses and homes expected to speed up innovation and entrepreneurship.
⦁ Enhance government service delivery through digitization and automation of all government critical processes and make 80 per cent of government services available online.
⦁ Establish Africa Regional Hub and promote development of Software for export.
⦁ The implementation of the Digital Master Plan will adhere to environmental agreements to which Kenya is a signatory.
Creative Economy
Kenya Kwanza Commitment
⦁ Enabling Environment. This is the primary and most important responsibility of the State. The key elements of an enabling environment for creativity is first, freedom of expression and second, protection of intellectual property rights.
⦁ Arts and culture infrastructure (theatres, music halls, art galleries). These are part of public infrastructure such as roads and sports facilities. The potential of the creative economy gives added impetus for the state to put more resources in cultural infrastructure.
⦁ Incentives and subsidies for cultural production. Whether the State should subsidize cultural production is the subject of perennial debate globally. The case against subsidies was always predicated on the presumption that cultural productions—theatre for example—is a consumption good for the rich. But cultural production is the wellspring of the creative economy—it is the engine.
But cultural production does not capture all the socio-economic benefits that accrue from it. In economics, it has positive externalities, i.e. it creates more value than it is paid for.
There is, therefore, less of it produced than is socially desirable. The converse also holds—more goods with negative externalities (e.g. polluters) are produced than are socially desirable. Therefore, the production of negative externalities should be discouraged by taxation. By the same token, the production of positive externalities should be encouraged with subsidies.
Infrastructure
Water
Water is a constitutional right (Art. 43) and a key enabler of agriculture. Two-thirds of Kenya’s agricultural land requires irrigation, against only 4% that is irrigated. Irrigation is the single most important game changer in agriculture. Current policy on water is centered on domestic use, and thus construction of large dams.
Kenya Kwanza commitment
Kenya Kwanza pledges to meet the constitutional right to water by 2027. Apart from completing ongoing water projects, we will shift focus from large dams to household/community water projects, with emphasis on harvesting and recycling.
Where large reservoirs are viable, we will adopt PPP model (using IPP model); develop Turkana aquifers using PPP model (potential to irrigate one million acres of land), and deploy climate smart agriculture technologies (micro-irrigation, precision irrigation, hydro & aquaponic technologies).
Roads
Roads are arguably the country’s most important infrastructure. The Jubilee Government has pursued an ambitious road building programme that has increased paved roads from 2,000 Km to 11,000 Km. This has been achieved by adopting the Low Volume Sealed Roads (LVSR) programme 6,000 km with another 3,800 km under construction.
Kenya Kwanza commitment
⦁ Complete all roads under construction.
⦁ Prioritize
⦁ Upgrading and maintenance of rural access roads and improvement of infrastucture in urban informal settlements.
⦁ Critical national and regional trunk roads mainly under PPP — Nairobi-Nakuru- Mau Summit, Malindi-Kilifi-Mombasa-Lunga Lunga.
⦁ Initiate the construction of the 700km target along the Isiolo-Kula, Mawe-Modogashe-Samatar-Wajir-Kutulo-Elwak-Ramu corridor under the Northern Kenya Transport Improvement Project (NETIP
Financial Commitment
Ksh200 billion (current MTEF commitment), PPP and securitization of the Road Levy
Manufacturing
Our manufacturing sector is headed in the wrong direction. At a time when we should be industrializing, the manufacturing share of the economy is declining. It has fallen from 9.3 per cent to 7.6 per cent in five years (2016-2020). Paradoxically, manufacturing has borne the brunt of the infrastructure investment drive that is meant to spur industrialization, it has crowded out of the credit market by government, and lately, by the external debt service pressure on foreign exchange that has seen the government resort to rationing foreign exchange for the first time since the market was liberalised in 1993.
Kenya Kwanza is committed to help our manufacturers weather this storm. Our economic turn-around strategy is meant to put the challenges behind us as quickly as possible.
Kenya Kwanza is confident that transformation of manufacturing through the bottom up approach is a win win for the industry, for the people and for the government. The value chain approach that we have adopted enables us to analyze our economy from a competitiveness angle and to address the bottlenecks that impede growth in a deliberate manner. The value chains highlighted below are examples of this approach and are by no means the only ones. Other value chains given priority by Kenya Kwanza include edible oil processing, rice, coffee, dairy, and plastic waste.
Leather: Potential $1b (Ksh120 billion) industry and could create100, 000 jobs. Key challenges are low recovery and quality of hides & skins and skills. Hides recovery and quality improvement to be addressed through feedlot facilities. Leverage public procurement to build capability to make shoes for uniformed services and schools. Build leather industry clusters (Athi River, Narok, Isiolo/Wajir) and secure linkages with and technical support from markets (Italy) and use TVETs and technical universities to build local capacity.
Building products: They are already one of Kenya’s leading manufactured exports to neighbouring landlocked countries (mabati, building steel etc). Potential to leverage on housing programme to scale up and broaden the range of products. Establish fitting standards to enable Jua Kali sub-sector to mass produce fittings e.g windows, doors etc in constituency based industrial parks.
Pharmaceuticals and medical supplies: Pharmaceuticals and consumable medical supplies account for an estimated 20 per cent of total health expenditures currently at Ksh550 billion which translates to a domestic market worth Ksh110 billion. Pharmaceutical imports in 2020 totaled Ksh76 billion (70 per cent of the Ksh110 billion estimated market) meaning that when other imported supplies are factored in, domestic production supplies are less than 20 per cent.
Domestic pharmaceutical manufacturers have capacity to manufacture a bigger share competitively but are hampered by high cost of doing business and tax regime (to the extent of shifting manufacturing to neighboring EAC countries and exporting to Kenya). We will (a) work with the pharmaceutical industry to address the tax regime and cost of doing business (b) leverage on UHC to identify and scale up manufacturing of essential supplies competitively (c) leverage on our quality and efficient human capital to work towards a regional pharmaceutical manufacturing hub.
Garments and textiles: This is a huge entry industry for export-led industrialization that has propelled South East Asia. We have pursued this strategy since the early 90s, with limited success. Although garment exports are now our third largest export at $500m, employing 50,000, it pales in significance compared to a South Asian country’s $35 billion exports employing 4 million people, and accounting for 90 per cent plus of exports.
This is partly because of comparative advantage—in labour rich/resource poor, with population density of 1265 people per sq. km, 13 times that of Kenya (94 people/sq.km) (b) has high agricultural productivity which makes food cheap, and in effect cost of living low, hence workers can live on much less than Kenya.
The original terms of AGOA required Kenya to integrate the garment export industry backwards i.e. to use locally manufactured textiles made with locally grown cotton. To date, Kenya has been unable to meet this—the industry is still importing over 90 per cent of the raw materials from Asia. We must produce and convert cotton into fabric competitively. Much hope is pegged on BT cotton. Pilot projects over the last two years show good results with irrigation, but high vulnerability to drought.
Kenya Kwanza government will work with the apparel export industry to develop a viable cotton raw material supply chain
Education
Universal primary education was achieved through FPE, but education outcomes remain highly inequitable. Considerable progress has been made towards universal secondary education, but the tiered system, because boarding costs, put equipped national schools out of the poor’s reach. The cost of joining a boarding secondary school is now Ksh80,000 which, even for working Kenyans is a big sacrifice. While bursaries mitigate some of this bias, they are far from adequate.
Kenya Kwanza Commitment
The Kenya Kwanza government commits to address inequities in our education system to level the playing field for all children irrespective of their background. In education, we commit to equitable universal basic education defined as 12 years of schooling.
Kenya Kwanza government will:
⦁ Pay for in-service teacher training initiated by government.
⦁ Bridge current teacher shortage gap of 116,000 within two financial years.
⦁ Introduce a Special Service Tariff for all learning institutions for basic utilities to facilitate lower prices for goods and services such as electricity and food.
⦁ Review the current exam-based system of academic progression, which has excluded millions of learners based on basic education exit exams, by implementing alternative entry criteria.
⦁ Improve capacity of day secondary schools to guarantee access to quality education and reduce the cost of education.
⦁ Establish a National Skill and Funding Council that amalgamates HELB, TVET and University Funding Board and increase funding to bridge the current 45 per cent gap.
⦁ Have fully equipped technical training and vocational education training institutions (TVET) in the remaining 52 constituencies within the first two years;
⦁ Set up a National Open University to increase access and reduce the cost of university education while making 100 per cent transition to higher education a reality;
⦁ Establish a one year paid National Internship Programme for all students graduating from teachers’ technical, medical colleges and universities, by collaborating with industry players.
⦁ Increase funding to research and development institutions from the current 0.8 per cent to 2 per cent of GDP in accordance with the Science and Technology Innovation (ST&I) Act 2013 and according to the bottom-up economic agenda. Additionally, incentivize will be given to the private sector to contribute towards research.
⦁ Double the amount of money allocated to the school feeding programme to immediately raise the number of beneficiaries from two million to four million; and to provide conditional grants to county governments to raise the numbers to 8 million.
Women agenda
Participation of women in the key sectors of our economy is minimal, and a vast majority of women remain in low income jobs or enterprises and endure poor working conditions. Women remain largely excluded from participation and decision making in our governance and political institutions.
Millions of women and girls continue to suffer from sexual and gender-based violence; health services remain inadequate, inaccessible and unaffordable to millions of women in our country. Environmental degradation impacts more women, increases their responsibilities in unpaid care work, at the farms and in the community thus accelerating poverty, early marriages, childhood pregnancies and other adverse consequences.
Kenya Kwanza Commitment
Provide financial and capacity building support for women through the Hustler Fund for women-led co-operative societies, chamas, merry-go-rounds and table banking initiatives and protect them from predatory interest rates charged by unscrupulous money lenders;
⦁ Realization of the two-thirds gender rule in elective and appointive positions in the public sector, within 12 months following election including 50% cabinet positions for women.
⦁ Increase the number of personnel at, gender desks at police stations as well as increase funding for the Anti-Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Board and fully implement the Anti FGM law;
⦁ Establish a social welfare fund for women working abroad to provide a safety net for distressed Diaspora citizens.
⦁ Ensure deployment of adequate numbers of skilled community health workers on a regular stipend paid through a cost-sharing framework between the National Government and county governments.
⦁ Ensure availability of clean, safe, environmentally friendly and affordable cooking fuels. Provide free sanitary towels in all schools and public washrooms easily accessible to economically disadvantaged women.
⦁ Take administrative measures to ensure 100 per cent enforcement of the spousal consent legal provisions in land transactions to cushion women and children from dispossession of family land
Governance
Our Governance Pledge
The Kenya Kwanza Alliance pledges to the people of Kenya to complete and consolidate the implementation of the Constitution, by strengthening constitutionalism, entrenching the rule of law, improving access to justice and enhancing respect for human rights.
The Kenya Kwanza Alliance commits to completing the full implementation of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 and to promote the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 16, on peace, justice and strong institutions.
To do this, KKA pledges to:
Strengthen and professionalise the Office of the Attorney General to end the AG’s inability to defend public interest and constitutional values before the courts, in legislative development, and during treaty and contract negotiations, among others;
Conduct an audit, within its first three months, of the Government of Kenya’s judicial liabilities and shortcomings with respect to all cases that challenge constitutionality of parliamentary enactments or Executive action and recommend means for their prosecution by the AG, all judgments and decrees against Kenya government and develop a framework for ensuring government sustainably complies with judicial decisions.
Kenya’s treaty commitments against the Constitution, national interest and foreign policy in light of article 2(6),
all contracts entered into by Kenya over the last 10 years against constitutional values, prudential financial principles and national interest and propose means of protecting the public interest.
Strengthen the capacity of State Law Offices at national and county levels in contract negotiation and implementation to minimize the exposure of the government to unnecessary litigation and punitive costs.
Strengthen the fiscal and technical capacity of Chapter 15 institutions and their independence to ensure they are fit for purpose and capable of defending the sovereignty of the people and the national interest.
Strengthen police oversight (IPOA and NPSC) and appoint an Ombudsman to focus on human rights violations of youth, in particular with abuses of urban youth and police misconduct.
Appoint all judges nominated by JSC for appointment to the Court of Appeal within seven days, and progressively strengthen internal judicial accountability systems.
Operationalise the Public Benefits Organizations Act and expand space for government-NGO partnerships and collaborations, while still maintaining their independences.
Decriminalise poverty by fully implementing and funding the Legal Aid Act of 2016 and the Alternative Justice Systems Policy, promoting the Diversion Policy, and reviewing Sentencing Guidelines for petty offences, ensuring the equal protection of the law for mama mboga, boda boda and all poor people in conflict with the law.
Enhance the rehabilitation and reintegration prisons, by providing greater pycho-social support and educational and technical training opportunities.
Legislate an Affirmative Action Framework to implement Article 56 of the Constitution regarding minorities and marginalized groups.
Institutionalise human rights approaches to counter-terrorism, including strengthening the Special CT Courts to ensure speedy and fair trials.
End All Forms of Extra-Judicial Killings, and establish the Coroner General’s Office as per the National Coroner’s Service Act of 2017.
End All Illegal Evictions and Demolitions of Property, which do not conform with due process and adequate notice and compensation where required.
a. Establish a Special Tribunal for Gross Human Rights Violations and Enforced Disappearances (including by police and military actors in northern Kenya), and ratify and domesticate the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances; and
The Kenya Kwanza Alliance pledges to the people of Kenya to deepen devolution and improve the Public Service.
The Kenya Kwanza Alliance commits to devolving government power and resources and improving public service delivery at all levels.
To do this, KKA pledges to:
Complete the transfer of all functions constitutionally earmarked as devolved functions to counties within 6 months and ensure that the funding follows function principle is complied with, in addition to aligning mandates and the structures of State owned enterprises implementing devolved or shared functions with the principles and system of devolved governance.
Strengthen existing inter-governmental relations and coordination mechanisms (National Coordination Summit, IBEC) with a renewed emphasis on cooperation and collaboration to make devolution work and have a strategic focus on service delivery performance.
Ensure timely and predictable transfer of sharable revenue to counties in line with the law;
Review the framework governing the Equalization Fund to place counties at the centre of decisions on project identification and governance.
Enhance the capacity of counties in raising its own sources of revenue to eliminate over-reliance on national government transfers.
Continue harmonization of salaries and other benefits and terms of work in Public Service with due consideration to Universal Health coverage, Civil service Housing Scheme, Civil Service Car Scheme, and a Civil Service Education Scheme.
Public Service
As government is increasingly called upon to address complex and inter-connected challenges, their need for leaders, managers, technical experts, and front-line workers in the right jobs with the right skills at the right time has never been greater.
Yet government continues to struggle to build a Public Service workforce that can meet the unique demands of our time due to laborious and time-consuming hiring practices, limited salary flexibilities, and promotion rules that value longevity over expertise and performance. Public managers and employees are also struggling to adapt to the rapidly changing nature of work.
For all these reasons, we face a significant risk that many public institutions will not have the capacity necessary to achieve their critical missions and provide services to the public.
Kenya Kwanza Commitments.
⦁ Building a highly-skilled, agile, and responsive public sector workforce with appropriate roles for civil servants and other service providers.
⦁ Develop strategic foresight mechanisms to anticipate and address changing workforce requirements.
⦁ Ensure long-term institutional knowledge capacity amidst the retirement wave.
⦁ Design new human capital systems consistent with merit-system principles, including modernizing policies and practices for recruitment, retention, training, and development.
Security Services
The security sector is critical to long-term sustainable development and poverty alleviation, by ensuring that safe and fair systems enable people to work and business to operate. Underdevelopment fuels criminalisation and insecurity, and vice versa.
Despite steps towards reform, many challenges still exist in effective implementation of reforms as is evident in continued cases of political interference; poor leadership and performance management; corruption; excessive use of force and torture; extrajudicial killings; and a lack of effective oversight and accountability.
Critically, independent and fair policing is vital for the protection of human rights, particularly the rights of the most vulnerable and the poor, who often suffer disproportionately from insecurity. The Kenya Kwanza Alliance acknowledges that democratic policing and respect for the rule of law is vital to development by ensuring safe, secure and fair environments for people to work, travel, invest, participate in national affairs and to enjoy their lives.
Kenya Kwanza Commitment
⦁ Contributory benevolent fund for families of fallen and terminal ill officers, including mental health illness.
⦁ Harmonization of affordable housing mortgage (similar to that of the Judiciary and Parliament).
⦁ Horizontal transfer of service to the rest of civil service.
⦁ Insurance cover for loss of life on duty (similar to that of the military).
⦁ Lower cadre officers (sergeant and below) to be given the option of serving in their home counties from the age of 50 (or where they chose to retire) .
⦁ Political will - Security sector reform is good for everyone and police reform efforts must not be wound back.
⦁ Review and consider improvement of renumeration and terms of service for all officers in the security sector
Foreign Policy
Kenya's significance in world affairs is demonstrated by the fact that it is considered an anchor State in the Eastern African region. It is the only country that hosts UN headquarters in the Global South, serves as a hub for international corporations and organizations and is a key player in peace and security initiatives in the region.
The Kenya Kwanza government will see to it that the country is respected and valued abroad. It will promote friendly relations with our neighbors, play a leading role in regional and pan-African affairs, collaborate with our international partners and uphold our commitments to the international community.
Kenya Kwanza Commitment.
A creative and robust foreign policy. Pillars:
⦁ Economic and commercial diplomacy, which entails leveraging our international engagements to create opportunities for our citizens, businesses, and investors. In particular, we aim to expand the market for our products and services by taking advantage of our membership in regional organizations like the East African Community, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA), and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).
⦁ Using Kenya's role as an anchor State to strengthen its voice in local, continental, and global affairs. We will continue to lead efforts to advance regional stability and peace, aid global initiatives to counteract violent extremism, and cooperate with other countries as a reliable ally or neighbor.
⦁ Diaspora engagement, which aims to unlock the full potential of Kenyans living overseas. Since they generate most of our foreign revenue ($3.7 billion in 2021), we will facilitate their investment locally and include them in the development and execution of policy.
⦁ Global citizenship, which entails supporting the work and decisions of international organizations that Kenya has joined or ratified. These include the African Union, the East African Community, and the United Nations and its affiliates.
Our foreign policy will be global in scope, but it will have a more pan-Africanist stance, placing more focus on causes that improve the situation of Africans worldwide. We will not only deepen our bonds with our long-standing international and bilateral partners, including the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, China, and India, but we will also extend our friendship to anyone with whom we believe has a mutually beneficial relationship.