The
fourth President of the Republic of Kenya Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta , I would like to share my positive thoughts of your presidency and how to
improve on the various gapping holes in our governance system . Iam neither an expert nor
am i trying to seek your attention
regarding the state of our nation . Iam going to be brief in my views like a miniskirt but hope they will be long
enough to cover the Subject matter. Here we go :
a)
The
slum upgrading programme in kibera may be viewed by many
pundits as a political strategy which is not a bad idea at all in so long as
its benefiting the locals , that’s the whole purpose as to why we people vote ,
based on issues and not on genetic allegiances though Kenya railways and the
previous grand coalition had such initiatives .My observation would be, spread it
across the country via your NYS strategy
and consider floating a housing bond , it has worked for Kengen and Infrastructural bonds and we can see the improvements , there has
been an upsurge in geothermal power generation and roads improvement , I presume the annuity infrastructure will follow suit
and be a great deal to infrastructural
connectivity.
b)
The
new look NYS is indeed a
fresh breath of air in nurturing our
young talents, its paradigm shift in the way are going to define the Kenyan society
as it equips and empowers the future generations , from the slum upgrading
programmes , vector control , traffic control inter alia. Hats off for the CS
devolution may be she is one of the few Wangari
Maathai in our midst , my observation; it should be a mandatory training for all O – level graduates before joining
campuses bearing in mind the ones with medical conditions.
c)
The
Huduma Centres are like shopping mall: they’ve cut out a lot of bureaucracies ,once again your CS devolution carries
the mantle , my only observation would be , is to have an integrated system that’s retrieves one
records by a click of button i.e. is to
say for instance to say the birth
certificates, National I/D, Driving Licence, NHIF,NSSF cards and KRA PIN number should all have one unique
number , which number in my opinion should start from the Birth Certificate stage, just have one unique magnetic strip card,
here there is still more to be done though it’s started.
d)
Tax incentives for employers offering holiday
allowances for its employees : This was a bright move considering that dependence on foreign tourism
does not improve our economy , to borrow from the founder of Ford Motors Corp ( Henry
Ford) who in 1914 , saw the need to increase his
factory staff salaries by 5 dollars each per day in order to boast his car
revenues and the rest was history for one of the U.S largest
car manufacturer, more staff bought cars from him rather than the competitor.
e)
The
Uwezo Funds is another milestone in your tenure : its
empowering many youths across all the 47 counties though my take would be why
not fund viable start-ups for instance innovators like Morris Mbetsa who has developed a tablet to be used by students, we
could be exporting such items to the great lakes region tablets instead of
buying some from the East , The NSEC does a great but for your love of the
youth this could unlock more potential if we focused on funding innovators.
f)
Your
support for budding artists : As a Kenyan living in
Italy I do realize art is big industry
deeply appreciated here , your
initiative to allow youths graffiti and artistic work on matatus is more than welcome
, you have even gone further a bought your own portrait from a youthful guy from karachuonyo
, people might view it as populism but I view it as leading from the front.
g)
The
First Lady Beyond Zero campaign initiative is second to none,
if any comparatives were to be done : it has demystified the position of the
lady and set a trend for future first ladies , maternal health care is a universal right ,scrapping of maternal fees
was long overdue its these simple things that matter. My take on this would be a
benchmark has been set for the future first
ladies.
h)
Your
focus an intra-Africa trade is a game changer as reliance on traditional
colonial markets limits our potential and
increases dependency: Ethiopia is an 80m market, Nigeria 177M , Angola 21m
and DRC 67M , indeed our biggest trading partner is Uganda but it’s this diversification that will grow
our economy , though some may argue that the UK with population of around 64M
has greater GDP but they forget that out
of the 20 fastest rising economies worldwide 10 are found in Sub-Saharan Africa, 8 in Asia
(2 from the Commonwealth of Independent States), and 2 from the Middle
East/North Africa, why should Nigeria import over
75% of
its import milk powder from New Zealand
when Kenya has it in plenty.
i)
My
Views on security given the rising terror activities: Mutahi Ngunyi calls it rented terrorism which in my view
holds some water , though overall it’s a
global geopolitical strategy that may range from use of bio chemical wars and exploiting ethnic identities through religious ideologies by a clique of
the arms race warlords and merchants , Syria
is good example , the Alawites and the Sunnis division’s is self-explanatory ; my take is a lot is
being done through deployment of military forces to hotspot areas, Safaricom’s
yet to be installed surveillance system but hey on second thought why not
1. Have all long distance public transport vehicles install
Distress
Alert systems that can pick and
relay info to the nearest police post incase of danger this reduces response
time to security issues instead of having police escort vehicles . my reasoning
is based on the recent Mandera bus attacks. if only had the driver pressed the
distress alert button and the same picked up by our forces they could have
saved a lot of lives and even for
insurance companies
2. Decentralize the special forces across all the 47
counties , shopping malls are sprouting everywhere in the country
hence need for special security teams to
handle complex security operations like the Westgate attack.
3. To reinforce point one above I have long held the view that by making it mandatory for policyholders install vehicle tracking devices it reduces theft ,death
,criminal related claims at large and this can only be done if such devices are
zero rated and have all tracking devices info lodged with
the NIS plus no insurance issuance to
motor vehicles without proof of installation, it will infringe on privacy but
it will boast underwriting revenues for
insurance firms and enhance safety of individuals.
4. Have all key installations, hospitals , schools and
shopping malls install chemical detectors , remember
terrorist are always ahead , recall what happened in Syria with use chemicals
to decimate individuals , all highly frequented places should have anthrax
detectors etc.
5. Immigration policies: Have
foreigners declare where they are going to stay , for how long and for what
purposes and for the hosts to declare
their visitors within 24hrs to nearest
police post.
6. For foreigners staying for more than 6 months or looking for work permit
, they should be subjected to A Swahili Test of proficiency before any work
permit is renewed.
7. Revamp the financial securities market for commodities market such as introducing livestock futures for pastoralists communities,
Mr
president I could go on and on for iam a patriot that will speak when good
things are done and suggest for solutions on areas of improvement even if we do hold divergent opinions.
God Bless
you and long live Kenya