On Monday, the government responded to an earlier survey carried out by Infotrak, which revealed that the majority of Kenyans were of the opinion that the country was on the wrong trajectory.
Government spokesperson Col (Rtd) Cyrus Oguna blasted the polls, insisting that the government does not rely on opinions polls, rather has its own structures in place that help to analyse their progress.
“You mentioned Infotrak as an opinion poll, but we as the government, we have programs and policies which we pursue. We do not have to respond to opinion polls. The programs and policies we have right now are being implemented very well,” Oguna defended during an interview with KTN News.
According to Oguna, the policies are structured in a way that will enable the economy to scale in an upward trajectory.
“The big four agenda is aimed at empowering Kenyans and to ensure every Kenyan has something on the table at the end of the day. When we implement Big 4 agendas, specifically the affordable housing, every Kenyan will have a key to his or her house. We also projected that each housing unit will be able to generate three direct and three indirect jobs. If we multiply that with all the houses to be constructed, we are talking about so many jobs,” Oguna detailed the government’s response to the poll.
However, despite government projections, several factors have been detrimental to the government's plans and progression.
“We had projected the economy to grow, but it has not picked and grown as fast as we asserted. This is because of a variety of issues. We had elections which have impacted negatively on the growth of the economy. We also have a very unstable environment in the Horn of Africa and the general global recession,” the retired colonel emphasized.
The research and consulting firm revealed that a staggering 48% of Kenyans expressed their concern about the direction the country was headed.
“After the handshake, 55 percent of Kenyans felt that the country was going in the right direction. There was so much hope that things would change but as of June, this year 48 percent of us feel we are headed to the wrong direction," Infotrak Chief Executive Officer, Angela Ambitho revealed.
Interestingly, 26% of the sample size laid the blame squarely on President Uhuru Kenyatta as per the results shared by Infotrak.
When quizzed on who was responsible for the country heading into the wrong direction, the majority pointed at the president, with all politicians coming in at second place with 15 percent.
