Kibaki’s Vision 2030 is shortsighted
cc Vision 2030 may be a good blueprint for Kenya’s development, but the government must remember that people are more important than plans, Mars Group writes. As politicians shilly-shally in parliament without implementing promised reforms – from civil liberties to the resettlement of IDPs – desperation is setting in among Kenyans too hungry to wait until 2030 for food and jobs.
It is well and good that Vision 2030 remains our blueprint, but it would be wrong to assume that the plan is more important than the people whose lives the plan is meant to improve. Discussions with our fellow Kenyans and particularly the youth tell us that 2030 as a vision is unreal to them. They look for news and plans for today – 2009 – and tomorrow and the day after that. They cannot wait until 2030 to have jobs or to eat, let alone until the end of this year.
Desperation is setting in as Kenyans see a political elite consumed by its own power struggles and personal comfort. They look at the ostentatious consumption of their elected representatives, and watch them aghast on live television – for those who have television – or listen to the radio broadcasts and hear members of parliament waste days at a time on nothing meaningful, such as who will be the leader of government business. Last week Kenyans watched members of parliament for three days argue about this point and fail to establish a house business committee.
Kenyans are telling their members of parliament that the first two sessions of the tenth parliament are regarded to have been wasted. Agenda 1 was to restore civil and political liberties to the people, to disarm militia, to stop intra-citizen violence, and to end official repression. What the people are saying to parliament is that this did not happen.
Kenyans will need to see concrete action taken during this session to ensure that militia and gang activity is curtailed and law and order re-established. In the mathira massacre, we also saw that the police was condoning the establishment of vigilante armed groups, which it appears have also turned rogue. It is incidents such as these, where law enforcers turn a blind eye to criminal activity, which give the country the image of an insecure country and which affect our economy.
But having said all that, this country and the grand coalition government have not addressed the issues raised by the UN special rapporteur on extra judicial killings, Dr Philip Alston. They have not embarked on any serious investigation of the murders of two prominent human rights defenders, Oscar Kingara and GPO Oulu, or indeed hundreds of other suspicious deaths and disappearances related to police activity.
There can be no hope of economic recovery if Kenya allows the fixing of the opinion expressed by Dr Alston that the police are a law unto themselves, killing with abandon. Tourists do not favour war zones. This session, the grand coalition government needs to satisfy Kenyans through parliament that it has a plan to end official impunity and to restore the rule of law.
Agenda 2 was to immediately resettle the IDPs (internally displaced persons) and to provide humanitarian assistance to Kenyans in immediate need. Out there, they are saying IDPs are still in the camps. Even though the president says 90 per cent have been resettled, citizens are asking in what circumstances have they been resettled – on the fringes of national parks? At points have they been resettled where there are no common services, water or sewage?
The government needs to explain to parliament and to the people why it has been unable to attract substantive support for its resettlement programme, because the perception is that the government has failed to attract such support because it is viewed as being corrupt and untrustworthy. And if we are honest that perception is very much grounded in how politicians have conducted business as a grand coalition – maize, Triton,Anglo Leasing in the budget – you name it, we have seen it. There actually is enough.
Ken Ren fertiliser payments to Bawag Bank of Austria amounted to over two hundred million shillings this year, yet parliament has never had a proper explanation as to why we as a country are sending money to a European bank for a fertiliser factory we do not have. During this session such an explanation must be provided. During the budget speech the minister for finance told parliament that Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania will build a fertiliser factory. Any update on this from the minister of finance will be appreciated.
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* Mars Group Kenya campaigns for accountability from Kenya's leadership and encourages Kenyans to hold to account those who have committed improprieties.
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