The Key Message

At the moment, given the current economic environment, the 10% economic growth target envisaged in Vision 2030 appears to be unachievable in the medium term. Notably, the country is grappling with insecurity and a persistent election mood since the 2013 polls which have slowed down economic activity and are likely to adversely affect investor confidence. For this country to achieve a higher growth rate there is need to go back to productive engagement focusing on efficiency in implementation of the budget as a tool to achieving higher growth.

In the 2014/15 financial year and the medium term, the budget is facing a hard financial constraint and it is likely that the country won’t be able to mobilize additional resources as the baseline for resource mobilization is not feasible. Currently, there is so much focus on resource mobilization but not on efficiency gains in terms of budget implementation. Our focus should be on reducing non-priority expenditure and focusing on efficiency in the utilization of resources as a way of promoting growth while keeping deficit spending in check.

On the other hand, even as Kenya targets to achieve some key milestones under Vision 2030, the MDG goals appear off-track and with less than 200 days to go, it is highly unlikely that they will be achieved by 2015. Despite significant efforts made to achieve universal primary education and more recently, to improve maternal health through provision of free maternal healthcare, the country appears to be far from achieving most of the other MDGs. Poverty, hunger, disease prevalence, child and maternal mortality remain high.

The recent introduction of free maternal healthcare by the Government should not be construed to mean, “go ye forth and reproduce.” The country must work hard to control the high population growth rate which if left unchecked, will continue to put a strain on health services and education provision.

Already, despite free primary education, the country’s education policy appears to be off target amid quality concerns. High primary school enrolment rates mean that teacher-pupil ratios have worsened and the quality of education in primary schools appears to be deteriorating. Furthermore, education in tertiary institutions is biased towards white collar jobs at the expense of technical, industrial based qualifications. 2014/15 should be the year where major emphasis is on efficiency and effectiveness. This country has a potential to attain a two digit growth rate through efficiency in utilization of available resources. The focus should be, “Fanya Kazi, Tenda Wema na Mungu atakubariki.”