ODM 2007 Manifesto. Though the definition of “manifesto” as a word is somewhat malleable—encompassing everything from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech to the Declaration of Independence—the intent of one of these documents is always to outline core beliefs and inspire sweeping change.
The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) is a centre-left political party in Kenya. It is the successor of a grassroots people’s movement which was formed during the 2005 Kenyan constitutional referendum campaign. This movement separated in August 2007 into the Orange Democratic Movement Party of Kenya and the Wiper Democratic Movement – Kenya (formerly the Orange Democratic Movement – Kenya, known as ODM–Kenya).
The name “orange” originates from the ballot cards in the referendum, in which the banana represented a “yes” vote, and the orange represented a “no” vote. Thus, the parties demonstrates that it supported a no vote in the 2005 referendum. The original linchpins of the ODM were Uhuru Kenyatta‘s KANU party and Raila Odinga‘s LDP. The leader of ODM is Raila Odinga.
What Is a Manifesto?
A manifesto is a written statement outlining what a person or group stands for and how they plan to effect change. These documents serve as long–form thesis statements—they put forth personal beliefs in the attempt to persuade others. It’s for this reason you might hear the words “creed” or “mission statement” as synonyms for manifesto.
Manifestos come in a few different iterations. You can use a political manifesto as a public declaration of intentions to change the world at large, whereas a personal manifesto might boldly state who you are and who you hope to become. In any case, these documents serve as valuable assessment tools—people can look back on them to see how well their practical attempts to change things for the better align with their initial goals.
What Is the Etymology of Manifesto?
The British and American English word “manifesto” derives from the Latin terms “manifestus” and “manifestum,” both of which mean “obvious.” Over time, the Latin morphed to “manifesto” (“to make public”) before changing again to a new word in Italian with the same meaning: “manifestare.” Beginning in the seventeenth century, English speakers borrowed the Italian word and returned it to the Latin “manifesto,” using it to mean a written document that elucidates beliefs and calls for change. The concept also translates into Spanish as “manifiesto.”
PREFACE
Kenya is a country blessed with vast potential. Its beautiful tapestry of ethnic groups, cultures and majestic landscapes make us proud of the land where our unity and diversity reigns.
We have some of the best agricultural lands where leading world exports are grown. Our human resource is one of the best trained in the region and the continent, while our wildlife and tourism resources are some of the best in the world. However successive governments have failed to fully exploit these resources, or where resource exploitation has taken place, gains and benefits have accrued to a few but not the many. All these governments have lacked integrity and leadership. For this reason alone, about half of Kenya’s population remains poor.
Presently, the Kibaki Government’s own surveys indicate that there are about 16 million poor Kenyans, up from 13 million about ten years ago. The strength, resilience and the spirit of the poor and disadvantaged in our nation is awesome. The plight of the poor and disadvantaged deserves to be addressed. They have a voice and a stake in our nation. We cannot just detail their problems; we need action to resolve them.
Kenya’s level of economic inequality, reflected in the gap between the rich and the poor, is one of the highest in the world. We need not suffer this tragedy. Over forty years of independence and the last five years of a failed transition from the Moi era compels us to demand better economic performance and inclusive politics from the Kibaki Government.
Kenyans grow increasingly weary of the failure of old policies and spent men who have been at the helm since independence. The spent political icons have locked out the fresh, dynamic and younger generations from the political process and thwarted their ascent. The younger generations of talented politicians have been lost to the cause and service of our nation – wasted not because they fail to reach for the stars but because they grow up with no stars to reach for.
Thus the best minds have fled to other nations, and optimism has been replaced with cynicism. Of all the sins committed by our current political leaders, one that transcends above all is their appetite for corruption.
An ODM Government will pursue economic and social policies that aim to make all Kenyans winners and beneficiaries of economic growth. It will target policy interventions that support private sector development as part of our growth and development strategy. We will support small and medium enterprises and support informal business so that millions of youths who are currently unemployed can find productive and meaningful employment. We will pursue both growth and real development for the people. The ODM’s economic policy would therefore be based on key fundamental values of prosperity with equity and accountability.
The main economic and political challenges that face us as a nation falls into five main categories:
• Fostering high, sustainable and equitable economic growth and development
• Ensuring creation of productive, decent and useful employment
• Reducing the existing rampant, widespread poverty and inequality
• Fostering regional equity and development on a sustainable basis
• Guaranteeing accountable leadership, a new constitution and an ethical governance agenda
We will address these challenges to ensure all Kenyans live in dignity and enjoy better living standards. However, to tackle these challenges, we must clearly outline what an ODM Government will address and what our economic policy and strategy will target.
Fostering high, sustainable and equitable growth and development
The present challenge that Kenya faces is not about the high level of economic growth that Kenya has, or could have, achieved in the last few years. Kenya has had a history of achieving over 7%, and even double digit economic growth, as was the case in the 1960s and 1970s. The present challenge of economic growth is about the source, pattern and distribution of that growth and benefits thereof. An ODM Government will address this challenge.
It has been stated in various Government reports that Kenya has witnessed dramatic economic recovery over the last five years. While this may be true, a number of pertinent issues arise from this report that President Kibaki and the PNU seem to have conveniently glossed over.
It is essential that for the average citizen we explain this economic growth and critically ask which sectors of the economy are growing and whether this is where the bulk of Kenya’s poor and unemployed are found. The sectors that have grown dramatically, such as, agriculture, transport and communications, tourism and services, are all areas where Kenyans should have made potential gains. If agriculture has grown rapidly as reported, then the fact begs the question why is it that about 80% of Kenya’s poor, as indicated in Government reports, live in rural areas where farming and agriculture take place? This shows that only a few small sections of the vast agricultural sectors have grown. If tourism has grown at double digits as reported, why is it that over 70% of people in Coast Province live below the poverty line, and yet they host the leading tourism resources.
This pattern of growth is neither beneficial nor sustainable, and no wonder even with high levels of growth, the number of poor people is higher now than it was 10 years ago and unemployment still persists. This pattern clearly shows that growth is not the real issue. The real issue is about how the citizens are linked to the sectors and systems that create growth. Creating growth in a few elite sectors is no growth for the people of Kenya.
It is important to inquire which people and social groups are participating in the country’s growth process. Young, relatively well educated Kenyans are still excluded from the growth process. Kenya’s entrepreneurial class still finds it hard to operate business and access credit. Women and the marginalised are on the fringes of business and the economy. Workers still continue to receive lower wages, even as they work harder and cope with rising prices of essential goods.
An ODM Government will build an all inclusive production and economy system whereby benefits of growth are felt by the very person who is responsible for that growth.
In the Kibaki Government’s obsession of seeing “growth” as the primary role of government, it misses the point on the delicate and critical balance between economy and society. An economic system exists to serve the people, and not the othe way round. Hence, the pursuit of growth and profit alone, without considering the social, environmental and cultural context in which that growth is taking place, makes most Kenyans net losers.
Finally, growth is necessary, but not sufficient, for real development of the people. Development, and not growth and growth alone, should be the ultimate focus of any government and leadership. The economy might have grown in the last few years, but have the Kenyan people developed?
We have received free primary education, but has it led to quality learning of our children? We have recorded increases in tax revenue collection, but have these resources been spent efficiently and productively for the welfare of average citizen, who is the tax payer? Do Kenyans now live in a much more secure and safe environment? These are the fundamental challenges that ODM will address upon forming the next Government, in order to ensure that the Kenyan people enjoy not just increase in GDP (gross domestic product) but also enjoy an increase in what has come to be termed as Gross National Happiness (GNH), which is a measure of real and transformative development of our people.
To address these challenges and secure Kenya’s long term prosperity, ODM will:
• Boost infrastructural development
• Involve the youth in development projects
• Reduce the costs of access credit and business
• Boost private sector development, informal and medium-sized businesses
• Implement targeted special programmes for the poor, marginalised and vulnerable groups
Creating productive, decent and useful employment
Every government seeks to create jobs and ensure full employment of its productive resources, both labour and capital. Kenya as a developing country has abundant and well-trained human resources. Previous regimes have, however, failed to guarantee maximum, if not full, employment of the men and women we train in our educational institutions, even when the economy grows. For instance, as Table 1 below shows, there seems to be no link between the high level of economic growth reported in various years and the creation of employment.
The Kibaki Government has reported (various paper adverts by Treasury and President’s Kenyatta day speech) that about 467,000 new jobs have been created since Narc came to power and that this amounts to about 93% delivery of their 500,000 new pledge of jobs.
This statistic is a misrepresentation and distortion of facts. As the evidence above in Table 1 shows the Kenyan economy has over time and history been able to create between 400,000 and 450,000 new jobs on average— regardless of the party in power and regardless of whether the economy is booming or stagnant. As Table 1 above shows, between 1999 and 2002 (which was the period that the economy was in doldrums) there were still 454,000 new jobs that were created within the context of only 1.7% average economic growth. With the same breath, the economy has had about 467,000 new jobs since 2003, within the context of 5% average growth. Finally, the number of new jobs created has not changed significantly (about 1.8 million jobs) between the periods 1999-2002 compared with 2003-06.
It follows, therefore that even when the economy is growing rapidly, the rate of job creation has neither been proportionate nor commensurate with a booming economy, and the system and sectors that are creating jobs are not linked at all with the people who need employment most, that is, young university and college graduates, idle youths in urban centre and rural areas, and those who are laid off because of retrenchment and industry
closures. What is more, even those who are employed still face rising costs of living (hence the emergence of the “working poor”) or are in jobs that are not making full use of their training (“disguised unemployment”).
An ODM Government will change these ironies that have been created by past regimes and the current Kibaki Government which have failed to reconcile and link the realities of Kenya’s growth process with its labour and human resource potential.
To address these incongruencies an ODM Government will pursue the following broad policies:
• Use and hire local labour in key infrastructural and development projects
• Ensure effective backward linkages between growing sectors and local supply chains and services
• Re-train and export specialised skills in order to tap into the international market
• Streamline informal trading and facilitating its upgrading to decent medium enterprise firms
• Ensure that education and training are in line with the needs of the economy as a whole
Reducing rampant and widespread poverty and inequality
As already mentioned, when an economy grows only for a few, leaving the bulk out of the system and sectors that are growing, and when that growth does not even lead to job creation to tackle the mass unemployment, recipes emerge for widespread and rampant poverty. This is the quagmire that has been produced by years of economic recovery that has not been accompanied by effective social and protection policies.
It has been reported that overall poverty has fallen from 56% in 2000 to 45.9% in 2005/06. However, there are a number of issues that need to be analysed, as broad national figures and statistics conceal a great deal about the real situation at the grassroots, which is where the common wananchi live.
While it is true that the proportion or percentage of poverty has fallen between 2000 and 2006 statistics from the more recent Government survey show that the number of poor people has increased. As Table 2 shows, presently it is estimated that there are over 16 million poor Kenyans, up from 13 million ten years ago. A major explanation for this growth of poor Kenyans is population growth: today Kenya’s population is bigger than it was 10 years ago.
While this might be a factor, the fact remains that the absolute number of poor people has not just increased nationally, but also between and within Kenya’s provinces. In a province like Coast, the number of poor has risen astonishingly, despite the fact that Kenya prizes itself for having a booming tourism sector.
Additionally, as Table 3 on the following pages shows, while poverty is said to have sharply fallen in urban areas, inequality has increased.
This outcome has the potential of producing two negative results. One, it implies that the growth and development pursued by the Kibaki Government and past governments was one that bred an urban-based economic growth pattern. Two, it means that while urban areas continue to prosper, rural areas lag behind, hence producing a sharp rural-urban divide and leading to inequality in urban areas.
Evidence from the Gini index that measures the extent of the gap between the rich and poor clearly bears out that inequality in urban areas has indeed risen. That is plainly undesirable and unsustainable for Kenya as a country.
Reducing both the rate of poverty and the absolute number of poor people, and building regional cohesiveness and constructive integration between the rural and the urban areas shall be issues that an ODM Government will address through many regional programmes, all under the context of devolution and regional equity.
ODM Government will steer policy toward ensuring that all Kenyans are part and parcel of national progress and prosperity. In terms of general policy direction, we will seek to reduce poverty (both in rate and number of people) by:
• As a matter of priority, ensuring that all regions in Kenya are opened up by building infrastructure that will support the exploitation of the region’s potential and endowments.
• Ensuring equity in access to social and economic services for the people such as access to education, health and security.
• Ensuring equitable distribution of all public and government resources to all regions.
• Integrating effectively the local industries and economy with the national economy to ensure growth at national levels is linked with progress at the regional and grassroots level.
• Creating a system of special grants to regions that are extremely marginalized, less endowed, or those that face natural calamities.
Fostering regional equity and development on a sustainable basis
ODM Government’s policy of devolution is informed by the simple fact that the whole is a sum of its parts: A country is made up of the regions in which its people reside. In sum, there can be unity in diversity. Seen in this context, devolution and ensuring regional development and equity is a fundamental means of building a united, developed and prosperous Kenya that is at peace with itself. The regional disparities in present day Kenya attest to the fact that the Nation (the whole) cannot be at peace if its parts (different regions) are ailing, less developed and marginalized by the neglect of the Moi and Kibaki regimes. Table 3 shows the fact that Kenya has been building on a centralised and dictatorial system that has failed to devolve power and public resources to regions and rural areas where the bulk of Kenya’s poor continue to live.
Today, about 14 million of the 16 million Kenya’s poor live in rural areas; 8 in every 10 poor persons are found in rural areas. These facts result from a centralised system of power and public expenditure.
When it comes to access to various social services, the disparities are very high. As Table 4 demonstrates, disparities at a provincial level still remain high. For example, while Nairobi and Western province enrols nearly all of it children into primary school, North Eastern is only able to enrol about 20%; four in five children do not attend primary school, even in the era of free primary education.
As a measure also of the quality of learning, class size matters a lot. And from Table 4, it seems that even while Western Province enrols nearly all of its children, a teacher there has a class of about fifty pupils, compared to only 38 in Central province. Certainly, children of these two areas, though enjoying the same policy of free primary education, are bound to have different outcomes because of having different numbers of educational facilities or teachers.
But the development challenge of regional inequity goes deeper than just at the provincial level, and vast disparities are present, even between districts within the very same province. Take the example of Central province, the least poor region with 31% poverty rate. Government survey indicates that, for example, all 100% of the children aged 12-23 months in Nyeri district are fully immunised. The rate for a comparable District like Thika is 61.7% .
In a province like Rift Valley, net secondary attendance is low (at 17.3%), but the rate of attendance varies sharply between districts like Baringo (4.5%), Samburu (3.2%) and Turkana (1.4%).
The overall message is that regional equity does not have to be equity among provinces that might be ethnically oriented, but it is really about building equity within and between districts from the same region. This is the regional equity that an ODM Government will aim at building.
Done in the context of effective devolution of both power and resources, building regional equity will provide a strong and sufficient basis for building national unity, progress and prosperity for all.
Guaranteeing Accountable Leadership, a New Constitution and an Ethical Governance Agenda
In their struggle for independence, Kenyans were driven by their dislike for tyrannical, imperial and unaccountable settler-driven rule. We desired to replace this with a democratic and responsive and devolved government. However, no sooner was independence won than the new rulers moved to concentrate power in an imperial presidency, institutionalise impunity and subvert all the institutions of democratic governance.
In spite of being elected on the platform of restoration of democracy, accountability and responsive governance, President Kibaki – like Kenyatta and Moi before him – abandoned the “change agenda” and has presided over a reckless unaccountable government. Kenyans’ demands for a new democratic constitution, good economic governance and inclusion in decision-making have largely been trashed as expediency and impunity reign
supreme.
The impending General Elections offer us an opportunity to change all this. We need an accountable government, a new constitution and an ethical governance agenda. These pillars will provide the platform on which all that we set out in ODM’s Plan for Government rests.
CHAPTER ONE: GUARANTEEING A NEW CONSTITUTION AND AN ETHICAL GOVERNANCE AGENDA
The Challenges:
In December 2002 there was a great sense of optimism and euphoria when President Kibaki and the NARC government were sworn into power. Kenyans and the international community welcomed the change in leadership. However, the optimism was very short-lived. The immediate rejection of the pre-election Memorandum of Understanding by Kibaki, his first act of betrayal in breaking the covenant he had made with his peers, was only the first step on a slippery slope to going back to the old political ways of doing business in Kenya under President Moi. Kibaki, like his predecessor, began to discharge his duties in an autocratic manner and justified the abuse of power under the current constitution which Kenyans expected him to quickly phase out. He began his presidency with betrayal and shattered the dream of all Kenyans who looked forward to an all-inclusive government premised on fundamental reforms.
No consultation and no consensus are President Kibaki’s trademarks in governance. His recent appointments to the Electoral Commission of Kenya, in marked contrast to his fervent views held in opposition for an independent Electoral Commission, demonstrate his dictatorial behaviour, and he fails to grasp that he is presiding over a multi-party political era in Kenya. Mwai Kibaki was never enthusiastic about multi-partyism in the first place. He described those calling for the end of the single-party dictatorship as trying to cut the mugumo tree with a razor blade!
It was the work of Kenyans that brought the mighty KANU down to its knees. It was Kenyans resilience that ensured the repeal of Section 2A of the Constitution. We thank Ken Matiba, Charles Rubia, Martin Shikuku, Raila Odinga, the late Masinde Muliro, the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and all other brave men and women who fought for the restoration of democratic space in our country. The moment we created the space, the ever opportunist Mwai Kibaki, who had never tasted the discomfort and pain caused by holding strong political beliefs and fighting for it, unlike his peers, left KANU and President Moi to launch his Democratic Party (DP). The architects of the one-party system have once more coalesced in the name of the Party of National Unity (PNU) to resist democratic change as demanded by Kenyans. President Kibaki has consistently failed to provide enlightened and effective leadership and now has led Kenyans back to the elitist and chauvinist past. Kibaki, Moi and the PNU must be defeated if we are ever to consolidate and enhance our democratic gains.
The desire for a new constitution by Kenyans for Kenyans has been a long struggle thwarted first by the repressive Moi regime only to be followed by the regressive Kibaki regime. Kibaki had assured Kenyans that he would introduce a new constitution within 100 days if elected. He quickly reneged on the promise.
The “Bomas” was an inclusive, people driven, and consultative process in constitution drafting. Enormous time, resources and expertise were utilized. Kenyans declared a vision of a country with a genuine democratic, accountable and responsive government that fostered national harmony by effective power sharing and devolution. Most saliently, Kenyans demanded a less overbearing presidency. The Kibaki Government subverted people’s views by presenting the “Wako Draft” and taking it to a referendum. Kibaki’s cronies were heard to say that constitutional change was a necessity for removing Moi from power but now that “one of their own” was in power, there was no need for a new constitution that would bring about genuine power-sharing. This subversion of the “Bomas Draft” of a new constitution was his second act of betrayal. He broke his covenant with the people of Kenya. President Kibaki lost the referendum by a landslide and dismissed those progressive individuals from the cabinet who demanded that peoples’ voices be heard and acted upon. Thereafter, he cocooned in government with the very individuals Kenyans had so massively voted against in 2002.
The lethal repressive and regressive political forces have now realigned themselves in this election. Former President Moi has endorsed President Kibaki bringing with him his pet “project” Uhuru Kenyatta in his back pocket followed by a motley crew of big-time crooks, such as, Nicholas Biwott and Kamlesh Pattni are some of the key actors in PNU. The Nyayo Empire that scampered out of the back door of power in December 2002 has inally sneaked back in the Kibaki State House – unashamedly through the front door!
Of all the transgressions of the Kibaki presidency there is only one that towers above all else and that is his acceptance of corruption – past and present – advocating zero-tolerance at the swearing-in ceremony and now tolerating it one hundred percent. The chant “everything is possible without Moi” has turned “if you want to misrule and loot your country then it is only possible with Moi.”
The creation of an ofice of “corruption czar” was a master stroke in domestic and international public relations. But it came to haunt President Kibaki whose government has failed to live up to its election promises. His government has failed to bring the individuals in the Goldenberg grand larceny (conducted in President Moi’s tenure of ofice where at least Kshs. 18 billion of public money was stolen) before courts of law to answer for their crimes.
There is also the infamous Anglo Leasing case where the Kibaki Government was involved in fraudulent contracting and procuring. The perpetrators of this crime are well known – but well protected, the only “victim” being the person who had courage and decency to expose it. President Kibaki within months of his presidency completed his set of betrayals by letting the international donor community down whom he had assured that he would eliminate corruption. When briefed by John Githongo of new cases of corrupt practices which involved his members of Cabinet, Kibaki casually told him that “this is how it is …done!”
This singular event accurately sums up President Kibaki who has been integral in all post-colonial administrations – his future is his past. He has lost all credibility and failed to provide leadership. He is unfit to govern. He must be denied another chance to work for the few at the expense of working for all Kenyans.
The major source of human rights violations in Kenya is the impunity that high ranking and well connected oficials and citizens seem to possess. There are two set of laws: one for the rich and powerful and another for the poor, so much so that our jails are illed with poor people who cannot afford lawyers or who cannot understand the law. More than 99% of the prisoners in Kenya are poor, yet crime is committed by all kinds of people. The Kibaki administration’s record on solving crime is abysmal. The parliamentary report on the Artur brothers had identiied key members of the Kibaki family and State House oficials as being involved. Yet, there has been no action taken against any of them. Once again the Kibaki Government’s justice system works for the few but not for all. “Let the work continue for the few” wins again. Kazi iendelee?
Tribalism is the instinctive tendency to recognize, judge and reward people according to their group identity rather than their characteristics as individuals. Ethnicity is a national disease knowing no regional boundaries and not confined to any one community. It rules our national politics and divides us unnecessarily. The Kibaki Government has compounded the ethnicity factor and deepened ethnicity in our public service by appointing people from his own community. Thus, the reorganization of the Government was dictated by prejudice and not equity. There have been various reports illustrating that the Kikuyu and Meru have more senior positions than any other ethnic groups in the Government and the share of the Kalenjin as DCs had declined considerably in favour of the Kikuyu. In an act of embarrassment the Government then rushed to announce a task force to examine the disparities with a view to seeking redress. The Kibaki Government has failed to promote competitiveness and inclusion taking cognisance of equity among genders and regions. The Kibaki government’s kazi iendelee means let the status quo prevail – public jobs for the few and not the many.
Our Commitments:
ODM will renew faith in our politics and provide sound leadership based on principles of consensus and fairness. Equity and inclusiveness are our watchwords.
We will govern in the interest of all and build a nation in which we all have a stake.
We view corruption as a pernicious crime against humanity, and we will eliminate it.
We will ensure that in government we represent all the people, not just one interest group. We will actively seek to remove those obstacles which hinder individual achievement – obstacles emanating
from tribe, gender, or economic condition. We will address the issue of ethnicity in our country.
Your ODM Government will:
• Guarantee a new Constitution within 6 months to ensure Equity, Executive Accountability and Devolution of Power.
• Introduce parliamentary system of government, where power will be shared and not concentrated in one person or ofice.
• Entrench Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Bill of Rights with limited claw-back causes for political and civil rights.
• Entrench the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights and increase its funding. We will make provision for the domestication of all international treaties which Kenya has acceded to or ratified.
• Review the functions and efficacy of the institutions set up by the government to fight corruption as billions of public funds are spent to finance them with no tangible outcome with a view to its rationalisation. So the expensive tenure of the Chief Executive of the KACC, his fellow directors and the institution as a whole will be rationalised.
• Review and strengthen the capacity of the Attorney General’s Office and that of the Solicitor General.
• Establish a Truth and Restitution Commission to bring closure to past corrupt crimes via a process of Justice, Truth, Reconciliation and Restitution. This shall include asset recovery and amnesty where restitution has been made. To this end we shall legally establish a system through a “Restitution Instrument” to facilitate this. For those who admit, declare and repay there shall be forgiveness. For those who forget or pretend to forget their past abuses they shall go through the justice system before they are exonerated. A process driven by justice – making good or compensating for past loss, damage, and injury; is what we are proposing. We intend to facilitate a process that will see the return to the Kenyan people what is rightfully theirs. The principle of Restitution has ancient African roots.
• Implement the principle of Transparency in Public Affairs (To this end will implement the Public Oficer Ethics Act and go further to facilitate the open disclosure of wealth declarations starting with the President).
• Enhance the capacity of the Judiciary to revive confidence in the rule of law and facilitate greater access to justice by all.
• Establish a public service accountability unit to set standards that will ensure effective performance based on actual outcomes within the society, not outputs that are only visible within the offices.
• Enact an Access of Information Bill into law to ensure transparency and abolish the tradition of secrecy through which corruption and malfeasance have thrived.
• Amend the Public Officer’s Ethics Act to make wealth declarations public and hence within public scrutiny.
• Establish a framework that will address and provide redress for past human rights violations and administrative injustices.
• Work with the United Nations and the World Bank who have recently launched Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative.
• Ensure respect for the rule of law and use the criminal justice system to ensure conviction and just punishment for all those convicted on corruption charges.
• Review the public procurement laws and procedures with a view to making it more open to the public and sealing the loopholes that continue to facilitate grand corruption in Kenya.
• Guarantee to build a Kenyan society based on fairness and equality of opportunity for all where merit comes before privilege.
• Introduce an independent Presidential Public Appointments Commission whose task is to ensure that appointments to public offices are based on merit and reflect the ethnic diversity of Kenya in its overall representation (The Commission will have to publish its appointments on an annual basis so one can check that all ethnic groups have been given equal opportunity to serve and are duly appointed).
• Introduce Community Relations legislation to prohibit any form of discrimination in terms of one’s membership of an ethnic group.
CHAPTER TWO: FOSTERING PROSPERITY AND ERADICATING POVERTY
The Challenges:
The wealth of the nation lies in the skills of its people and their ability to work together, in the stock of public and private investment it has accumulated, the natural resources within its territory and the quality of its natural and built environment. Sound economic management harnesses those resources, reinvesting as they are depleted,renewing skills for each new generation, caring for and maintaining those resources which are non-renewable.
In an open, increasingly global economy there are limits to what any government can do on its own to manage its domestic economy. But there are a number of ways in which active government can improve its competitive position.
Kenya’s economic decline has been halted. The annual growth figures of 6-7% are good,but we need to double them if we are to eradicate poverty. Under President Kibaki the rich have grown richer and the poor poorer. The top 10% of Kenya’s population continues to control nearly half our nation’s wealth. That means that for every 1 shilling earned by a poor Kenyan, the rich earned 56 shillings.This inequality has not altered even though the Kibaki Government trumpets its positive economic record.The growth is not inclusive and is exclusive only to the rich.The richest 10% now earn 42% of the national cake as opposed to 36% five years ago. This demonstrates that the Kibaki Government is a government of the rich,by the rich and for the rich.The poor are, at best, bystanders.
Kenya’s economic landscape is of stark contrasts between rich and poor, rural and urban, poor rural and desperately poor arid rural.
Solid economic growth is crucial for eradicating poverty, but getting economic growth to percolate or trickle down to assist the poor is a perennial challenge. How many children and adults have to die before the fruit of economic growth reaches them?
We in the ODM are determined to fight this inequality head on.We are a party that is responsive to people’s most basic needs.We remain determined to redress the balance between the satisfied and the hungry in our nation.
The Blair Commission for Africa recognised cash transfers as a key tool in tackling extreme poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa and recognises its potential impact on poverty and inequality as well as its contribution to promoting and distributing growth. The children from the households receiving cash transfers have an opportunity to break the inter- generational cycle of poverty.
The Kenyan Government has been generously assisted by various development partners in providing assistance to the very poor, such as, the Orphans & Vulnerable Children Cash Transfer Programme and the Hunger Safety Net Programme delivering guaranteed cash transfers to chronically food-insecure households.We appreciate with these programmes and pledge to scale-up the efforts of our key development partners by extending the programmes so that social protection investment contributes to overall economic growth.
Our Commitments:
We will achieve stable economic growth averaging not less than 10 percent annually.
We will pursue policies for equitable distribution of income,wealth and resources.
We will maintain a healthy balance of trade and payments position.
We will maintain macro-economic stability of employment, interest rates and prices in line with an ever growing economy.
We will optimize the collection of VAT, Customs & Excise Corporation and PAYE through efficient administration.
We will introduce a social protection programme for the very poor households by providing monthly cash transfers. This will reduce current poverty and inequality by providing a minimum level of income for extremely poor families and break the
inter-generational transmission of poverty.This will be ODM Government’s flagship poverty reduction programme,called,the “Usawa Programme”.
We will craft policies that protect and promote the livelihoods and welfare of the poorest and most vulnerable people.The objective of our social cash transfer scheme is to contribute to national efforts to reduce poverty and hunger in ultra poor households, increase school enrolment and attendance and improve the health, nutrition, protection and well- being of orphaned and vulnerable children and the very old.
We will create a new Ministry of Social Development in the Office of the President which will be the programme’s policy and supervision agency. It will establish basic programme architecture, learning from other countries,such as,Brazil,South Africa and Malawi that have successfully implemented cash transfer programmes.The new Ministry will focus on “how we get the right people”into the programme (targeting) as well as monitoring, oversight and evaluation.It will ensure graduation from poverty.
We have identified a large amount of savings through budget cleansing and streamlining operations which will fund our pledges in this manifesto.
Your ODM Government will:
• Ensure economic stability remains a platform for growth with low-inflation.
• Ensure that the government spends wisely and taxes fairly to raise living standards and achieves high and sustainable levels of employment.
• Encourage savings and investments.
• Review external debt commitments and initiate an effective debt relief management strategy.
• Improve the outreach of micro-credit programmes and monitor all credit operations to ensure their efficiency and effectiveness by operationalising the Microfinance Act.
• Formulate policy for issuing benchmark Sovereign Bonds for Infrastructure development.
• Immediately undertake a budget cleansing exercise covering all Ministries in the Central Government to look for overall national savings.This will help to identify questionable debt,especially the commercial ones.It will also help in elimination of wastage that currently occurs through procurement, duplication in allocations,and questionable allocations.
• Concurrently, with the above action, undertake budget cleansing exercise to review budgets of state corporations that receive budgetary subventions and finally the budgets of local authorities.
• Ensure through a cost benchmarking exercise that the government pays a competitive rate for goods and services at guaranteed quality.
• Increase efficiency in government by streamlining them ministries and spending units to between 18 and 25. The savings will go towards growth enhancing and priority reduction activities. The non-priority programmes will be terminated in the process.
• Commercialise all non-core government or quasi-governmental operations.
• Eliminate first class travel for public servants except for designated categories of public officials.
• Streamline the operation of devolved funds, such as, CDF, LATF and Road Maintenance Levy to avoid duplication in project implementation and restrict them to prioritised development activities as identified and designed by devolved levels of government.
• Encourage Public-Private Partnerships in infrastructure development through frameworks such as Build Operate and Transfer (BOT).
• Introduce a Government of Kenya Investment Agency that will use funds wisely to invest in the region and the continent in growth sectors. The agency will be modelled after the Dubai’s investment agency.
• Ensure a taxation regime that expands the tax base while lowering the tax rate and encouraging savings and investments.
• Expand Kenya’s double tax treaty network.
• Deal with high tax evasion in the highly taxed industries, such as, alcohol, sugar and petroleum products.
• Provide for open limit for refund of VAT claims.
• Reduce refund time for VAT to 30 days maximum.
• Review personal income tax brackets and personal relief to cater for inflation and increase purchasing power.This is the only real tax benefit that positively affects employees’ disposable income.
• Ensure that domestic borrowing is to be used strictly for infrastructure development.
• Drive towards stronger financial services and banking regimes with a capacity to finance large investments in the country.
• Establish a framework for credit referencing to lower rate of default on loans and enhance stability of the banking system.
• Review the banking sector regulations to lower the intermediation costs so that lending rates can be reduced.
• Ensure that there is speedy resolution of commercial disputes by the judiciary.
• Encourage consolidation and increase the capital base of insurance companies.This will be in tandem with encouraging life insurance business which is very low in Kenya and the EAC region.
• Tighten regulations of the capital markets to ensure transparent trading.
• Drive to increase the number of listed companies at the Nairobi Stock Exchange.
• Enhance the role of Co-operatives in savings mobilisation and small credit provision.
• Enhance the role of Micro-finance services to increase access to credit particularly in rural areas.
CHAPTER THREE: INVESTING IN INTRASTRUCTURE
The Challenges:
Kenya’s population is projected to grow to over 60 million people by the year 2043. There will be numerous challenges concerning the provision of optimal infrastructure and services to meet the demands of this population. Such challenges are already manifest and are barely met where the majority of the Kenyan population have no access to clean water, food and shelter; lack appropriate sanitation facilities: lack the capacity to use ICT services; and are faced with insecurity and lack good roads and energy in most urban and rural areas. Where there is such infrastructure, there are prohibitive costs of access, which has locked out the majority of Kenyans who live below the poverty line.
Our Commitments:
ODM will invest at least 10% of our GDP on infrastructure development over the next 5 years. We will build good roads that will reach all Kenyans and cover all parts of the country, thus achieving our ambition to get Kenyans and Kenya genuinely connected.
We will address the existing imbalance in the provision of road infrastructure that is concentrated on the so called “high potential areas” to improve accessibility for the development of all economic sectors and regions in Kenya.
We will introduce a modern integrated rail infrastructure that connects Kenyans. The opening of the new rail line is our special pledge for Kenya’s 50th Independence Anniversary.
We will enhance the reliability of electricity supply; increase access to electricity in rural areas and lower energy costs through expanded private sector participation.
Road Transport Infrastructure
The Challenges:
Research shows that the economic slowdown over the last three decades is partly attributed to the poor state of road infrastructure in the country. Road transport alone accounts for over 80% of the total internal freight and passenger traffic in the country with the remainder being mainly carried by rail and only a small portion by air.
There are over 65,000 km of classified roads (14% paved), 15,000 km of municipal roads (17% paved) and 120,000 km of unclassified roads of which there is no inventory. Of these roads, 20% paved, 30% gravel and 60% earth roads are in poor condition.
The roads sub-sector is reeling under a large backlog of road rehabilitation and maintenance work that requires large amounts of funding. At the national level, over 50% of total classified road network require urgent rehabilitation to bring them to maintainable conditions at an approximate cost of Kshs 150 billion (approximately US$ 1.9 billion). Further, there are other crucial cross-country networks and networks in marginalized areas, referred to as ‘low potential areas’, that require urgent development to take roads to where all Kenyans live and enhance accessibility and national mobility.
The existing institutional framework for roads delivery is inefficient. There is inadequate local contracting capacity, thus hampering optimal and competitive participation of local road contractors.
There is no appropriate mechanism for private sector investment in the funding of road development or maintenance.
The Road Maintenance Levy Fund (RMLF) is insufficient for maintenance o the public road network and can only cover 60% of the maintenance requirements if the road network was in good maintainable state.
Road rehabilitation and development is too dependent on external support. The Government has insufficient funds for rehabilitation, upgrading and new construction. There is currently no comprehensive policy for financing the road sector.
It is estimated that backlog maintenance alone requires approximately Kshs 100 billion which, if implemented, over a 5 year period equates to Kshs 20 billion per year. Periodic and routine maintenance requires an additional Kshs 15 billion per year. In addition we urgently need Kshs 20 billion per year for network expansion. However, the current funding arrangements allow for about Kshs 28 billion annually for both maintenance and development of the road network.
Overloading by heavy goods vehicles has led to deterioration of the network over a long period of time. The recent Nairobi Master Plan Study recommends an investment in new infrastructure of approximately Kshs 5 billion per year. Urgent upgrading and development in other major towns as well as main and feeder rural roads require an additional Kshs 10 billion per year.
An improved road network to facilitate the economic growth of Kenya would thus require approximately Kshs 80 billion per year, 4% of GDP using 2007 statistics. Currently, Kenya’s GDP is approximated to be at Kshs 2,040 Billion. The World Bank recommends using at least 7% of GDP for infrastructure. This includes rail and air transport as well as the water sector.)
There is severe vehicle congestion on roads within large towns and a lack of sufficient parking in addition to the low performance of the Railways sector, which has led to overburdening of the main roads that now have to carry a large proportion of heavy goods than would otherwise be the case.
Your ODM Government will:
• Institutionalise budgetary provision for road infrastructure to 4% of the current GDP.
• Review tendering processes for design and construction of roads to reduce time lag.
• Reduce procurement procedures in order to fast-track donor funded programmes.
• Bitumenise all international dual carriageways linking Kenya to its neighbours.
• Bitumenise all roads linking all the regions in the country and all roads linking rural areas to district headquarters and key service centres.
• Bitumenise all urban arterial and access roads.
• Create a commercial environment for increased private – public partnership in the provision of high quality, cost-effective road building and maintenance.
• Concession major international dual carriageways.
• Use labour intensive methods in roads construction to create employment cells countrywide. Minimum wages will be set to stem overexploitation of women and youth.
• Create Road Maintenance Training Centres in the devolved regions to skill-up labourers through apprenticeship schemes.
• Enforce strict load capacity according to the grade of the road and mandate the judicial authorities to impose stiffer penalties on road abusers by reviewing both the Traffic Act and the Transport Licensing Act.
Rail Infrastructure
The Challenges:
There has been a lack of investment by both the government and the private sector on rail infrastructure over the years. As a result, the existing Kenyan rail network is almost obsolete due to its outdated technology and aged condition. The existing rail technology is inefficient and expensive to manage. The narrow-gauge (one-meter-track) rail network limits capacity and speed of trains.
Currently, there are too many overloaded freight vehicles on the road carrying cargo which should be transported by railway. Long distance intra-urban travel between Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and other towns takes long hours or days to accomplish by the existing rail network. Further, air transport is expensive thus forcing the majority of people to be dependent on road transport. This scenario limits opportunities and turnaround time for transacting business between cities.
Urban commuter rail infrastructure and services are currently lacking in major cities in the country while its operations in Nairobi is inappropriate and unplanned. This situation has led to prime journey time rising from an average of 20 minutes to over 40 minutes in key city networks during peak hours.
There is poor coverage of rail network in the country, while the existing network is inadequately maintained. The existing capacity of the railway is under-utilized. The rail system has a capacity of more than 6 million tonnes per year while it only handles 2.4 to 3.2 million tonnes per year.
The recent transfer of management of rail services to Rift Valley Railways has not addressed the need for fresh investment in rail infrastructure in Kenya.
Your ODM Government will:
• Construct a modern, electric, international standard 1.6m gauge, high speed railway system to link key cities and towns in the country for rapid transit of passengers and bulky goods. This would protect our roads and lower costs for businesses.
• Develop a light railway transport network for Nairobi and major cities.
• Pursue public – private investment in railways.
• Invest in an optimal power generation system to enable electric power supply for a modern electric railway infrastructure.
Maritime and Inland Waterways Infrastructure
The Challenges:
The maritime sector has not had any significant investment in infrastructure for over 35 years now. The largest development in the 1980s was the establishment of inland container depots in Nairobi, Kisumu and Eldoret. The Port of Mombasa has been a regional hub in Eastern and Central Africa but is fast losing ground to other ports like Dar-es-Saalam due to inefficiency and lack of port infrastructure development strategy. Mombasa Port is the key to the economies of countries, such as, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, and Southern Sudan, Northern-Eastern Tanzania and Somalia also rely on Mombasa Port for import and export operations.
There are many undeveloped potentials in the maritime sector. Lamu has a potential for being a deep-sea port in addition to a regional passenger hub.
Kisumu has a big potential for being a regional inland water port. It shall be the main driver for other regional ports such as Bukoba, Jinja, Mwanza and Port Bell.
Lake Turkana has also the potential of being an inland water transport link with Ethiopia.
Dongo Kundu area that was acquired in 1976 for the purpose of developing an EPZ has a shoreline of 2000 meters of straight quay. This has remained undeveloped.
Our Commitments:
We will review maritime legislation and improve efficiency in cargo handling and clearance.
We will continue the equipment modernization programme at the ports and invest in building new facilities. We will enhance maritime safety and security and increase our seaborne trade.
Your ODM Government will:
• Pursue public – private investment in ports operation.
• Increase the capacity of the Port of Mombasa and overhaul the equipment required for efficient operations and establish a free trade area.
• Develop other minor satellite ports, such as, Lamu and Kisumu through strategic partnership approaches which tap the potential of private sector in port development and management.
• Enhance safety of maritime transport.
• Establish a Coast Guard service to link up with other international community coastguards in strengthening a safe and secure maritime industry.
• Revitalise the inland waterways port infrastructure in the lake region with Kisumu as a regional inland waterways hub to link with other regional ports such as Bukoba, Jinja, Mwanza and Port Bell.
• Establish an inland waterways transport infrastructure around Lake Turkana to improve mobility around the lake and also provide a link with neighbouring Ethiopia.
Air Transport Infrastructure
The Challenges:
Air transport has grown in demand from both the local business community as well as foreign tourists and investors. It is also the most cost effective means of transport for high yielding exports and perishable goods like floriculture and fish products. It therefore has the potential to catalyse the consolidation of economic gains and spur further growth. In spite of the existence of a good network of airstrips and aerodromes, these investments are lying idle completely neglected.
There are about 570 aerodromes in Kenya, of which 156 are public. Of the public aerodromes, nine (9) are currently managed directly by the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA). Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is currently playing the role of a regional hub within Eastern, Central and parts of Southern and North Africa. Moi International Airport at Mombasa is playing a major role as a tourist reception facility for the country at the Coastal zone as an entry and exit point.
Eldoret International Airport which was built in late 1980 and early 1990s at a cost of Kshs 2.0 billion is providing an alternative entry and exit point into and out of the country through Western Kenya.
Kisumu Airport is rapidly gaining popularity due to increasing demand for air transport as a mode of travel linking Western Kenya with other parts of the country and the region.
Your ODM Government will:
• Continue the modernization and expansion of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to make Nairobi a major hub for air transit to the Middle East, South Asia, the Far East and Australasia.
• Establish Kisumu Airport as a hub for flights within the Great Lakes region. The Airport is equally strategic as a gateway to the Western Kenya Tourist circuit that is yet to be exploited to its full potential.
• Establish Malindi as a regional airport and develop an airport in the Gusii/Southern Nyanza region to serve Southern Nyanza and Maasai Mara tourist needs.
• Enhance airport facilities at Wajir, Isiolo, Mandera and Lokichoggio to cater for increased passenger traffic to and from Southern Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia.
• Upgrade airstrips at provincial capitals and institute proper maintenance of all other airstrips and aerodromes through public-private partnerships.
• Maintain airstrips in national parks to provide safety for tourists visiting the game reserves.
• Liberalise the air transport sector to attract publicprivate ventures.
• Enhance the capacity of civil aviation regulatory authorities and eliminate the possibility of conflict by separating regulatory functions from service providers like air navigation services and airports.
• Urgently address deficiencies in air transport safety and airport security.
Energy
The Challenges:
It is important to note that demand for electric power supply in Kenya is growing at 9% per annum, which is above the supply levels of 7%.
Studies have shown that there is a direct linkage between electric power supply, job creation and
poverty alleviation. Electric power supply increases people’s opportunities for self-employment at the small and micro enterprises levels. Electrifying rural areas, towns and markets is therefore expected to increase opportunities for employment in the centres and improve living standards in new supply areas.
Electricity tariffs in Kenya still remain among the top five highest in Sub Saharan Africa and the second highest in East Africa after Uganda due to limited resources and losses along the grid. Retail prices of electricity in the Southern African region have been and are currently low by international standards.
Your ODM Government will:
• Address the high electricity tariffs to the manufacturing industry with a view to reducing them, thus making Kenyan goods competitive both locally and internationally.
• Encourage the participation of Independent Power Producers for generation, supply and distribution of electricity.
• Increase electricity generation capacity to 10,000 megawatts in the next 10 years to attract foreign direct investment.
• Strengthen the regulatory functions of the Electricity Regulatory Board.
• Explore and exploit geothermal resources to increase electric power generation to meet the emerging demands for electricity.
• Develop solar power stations and wind farms as renewable sources of energy.
• Reduce current system grid losses of electric power.
• Exploit the electric power resources of bagasse based cogeneration in sugar milling factories.
• Pursue oil and coal exploration to tap fossil fuels potential.
• Expand oil storage capacity to have a strategic fuel reserve and enter into bilateral trade agreements with oil exporting companies to import oil at stable and lower price.
• Exploit biomass energy resource in Kenya.
• Establish a national centre of excellence in renewable energy as a priority.
• Develop a regional power pool and a supporting domestic electricity industry structure.
• Expand rural electrification penetration through sufficient allocation of public resources.
• Divest government interests in oil refining and marketing and in the Kenyan Pipeline Company.
• Construct the necessary Liquefied Petroleum Gas infrastructure to increase consumption.
• Ensure that domestic production of motor fuels meet international quality standards.
Urban Infrastructure and Urban Development
The Challenges:
Urbanisation in Kenya has been growing rapidly since independence. However, the high rate of urbanisation has not been met with commensurate urban infrastructure and services, most notably urban transport infrastructure (roads, railroad, and
pedestrian thoroughfares).
Our Commitments:
We will undertake construction of roads in cities and principal towns through a mix of Labour-Based Hand-Packed-Stone and machine based methods to create jobs for the youth and spur real and sustainable growth.
We will undertake a comprehensive and integrated urban passenger transport system.
Your ODM Government will:
• Institute traffic management strategies to reduce travel time and cost of transport.
• Provide transport infrastructure facilities such as parking bays.
• Complete the construction of missing road-links in Nairobi City and other cities to provide efficient transport infrastructure and service connectivity.
CHAPTER FOUR: CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR EMPLOYMENT
The Challenges:
Unemployment is the greatest hindrance to our development at all levels – in families, regionally and nationally – in our country. Long years of economic decadence, dilapidated infrastructure and unfavorable macro economic policies have led to least job creation for the freshly-trained youth and other skilled as well as semi-skilled population.
Furthermore, the systematic policy of downsizing by the private and public sectors due to the economic turn down of the 1990s and pressure from international financing agencies, respectively, made the already bad state of unemployment in the country worse.
The foregoing challenges are compounded by a very unstable, under-developed and under-funded small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) sector.The successive governments have made little well-spelt-out and sustained efforts to promote and tap the potential of SMEs. This has been the case despite SMEs’ important role in the creation of employment opportunities and promotion of innovation and entrepreneurship, particularly among the economically marginalized – youth and women.
In addition to the ambivalent SMEs official policy, high levels of illiteracy, especially in the countryside, limited retraining opportunities for people who want to change their skills from what they already have and lack of viable structures to assist job seekers make our unemployment situation extremely complex.
Finally, the prohibitive cost of doing business in the country due to the high cost and unreliable supply of electricity as well as underdeveloped road and railway networks have thwarted any attempts at job creation by both domestic and international investors.
Our Commitments:
We will implement policies that reduce barriers to work – including education, skills and training – to create an adaptive, flexible and productive workforce.
We will pursue active labour market policies – providing tailored and appropriate help for those without work, to prevent long term detachment from the labour market.
We will help youths and adults without work and with poor employability skills move into sustained employment.
We will provide basic employability training for jobless people with severe literacy and numeracy problems to remove their barriers to employment and enable them to gain employment.
We will promote the role of SMEs in sustainable job creation and provision of goods and services which are better adapted to local market needs through progressive reform to boost production and distribution capacities of SMEs.
We are committed to transforming activities in the informal economy (JuaKali) into decent work fully integrated into mainstream economic life. We will implement policies and programmes to create decent jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities to assist JuaKali workers and employers to move into the formal economy.
Your ODM Government will:
• Collect national data on the SMEs sector, covering, interalia, quantitative and qualitative aspects of employment.
• Ensure fair taxation of SMEs.
• Give SMEs priority in access to public and private procurement to increase market access.
• Create venture capital and other organizations that assist in promoting innovation in SMEs.
• Adopt and pursue appropriate fiscal, monetary and employment policies regarding, in particular, interest and exchange rates, taxation, inflation, employment and social stability to promote an optimal economic environment.
• Establish and apply appropriate legal provisions on property rights, including intellectual property, location of establishments, and enforcement of contracts, fair competition as well as adequate social and labor legislation.
• Improve the attractiveness of entrepreneurship by avoiding policy and legal measures which disadvantage those who wish to become entrepreneurs.
• Provide a range of direct and indirect support services for SMEs and their workers by involving the public and private sector through, for example, organizations of employers and workers, semi-public organizations, private consultants, technology parks, business incubators and SMEs, themselves.
• Create and strengthen an enterprise culture which favours initiatives, enterprise creation, productivity, environmental consciousness, quality, good labour and industrial relations, and adequate social practices which is equitable.
• Open “Jobseeker” offices in major cities and towns before going nationwide for assisting those that have completed secondary school education and graduates. This will be our new government strategy to deal with unemployment. It will provide an active service to help people move from joblessness into work. The offices will be manned by job advisers who will register jobseekers, provide training and individual guidance in job searching techniques, including providing training, interview skills and assistance in the preparation of curriculum vitae.
• Ensure polytechnics become “Skills Academies” as these institutions will be a key driver in improving vocational education at a national, regional and local level. They will provide training programmes for young people and adults aimed at meeting potential employers’ current and future skills needs: As such, the academies will be employer-led.
• Promote an active marketing campaign to promote apprenticeships and boost take-up among employers and the trainees. Apprenticeships should offer a combination of on-the-job training with the chance to gain qualifications. There will be no age cap.
• Pilot a Career Development Loan (CDL) which is a deferred repayment commercial bank loan designed to help fund up to two years of vocational education. CDL will be run in partnerships with the interested banks. The Government will provide an incentive to borrowers by paying the interest on the loan during the period of training and for up to two months afterwards and guarantee a proportion of the loans to make it easier for the banks to consider lending for vocational training. The loan is then repaid to the bank over an agreed period at a fixed rate of interest. All loans will be “subject to status” as per the Bank’s criteria.
• Rename the Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development to the Ministry of Employment, Skills and Labour Relations where the above mentioned functions will be co-coordinated.
This chapter has to be read in conjunction with the one on “Investing of Infrastructure” and others that follow which all are geared to creating opportunities for employment.
CHAPTER FIVE: FIGHTING CRIME,DRUGS & INSECURITY
The Challenges:
Kenyans have a right to sleep safely in their homes, walk safely on the streets and drive safely on the roads. The Government has a duty to maintain that security. The recent upsurge in mindless murders and car-jackings increases fear of crime. Kenya is not on track to meeting its target of reducing crime. The Government had set to reduce the number of crimes to 35,000 by 2006. However, the reported number of crimes is rising and is most likely to be around 80,000 this year.
President Kibaki’s dereliction of his duty to protect Kenyans is most evident. The Internal Security Minister Michuki talks tough but does nothing to protect our citizens. The raid against the Standard
Group was a raid planned and executed in the name of State security! The saga of the notorious Armenian brothers, whose presence was revealed by one of us and proved, was blatantly defended by the Kibaki Government. The arrogant and casual manner in which this Government has treated public concern about our national security shows that the people at the helm can never be trusted to provide Kenyans with effective personal security. Insecurity and conflict continue to be perpetuated by organized criminal groups. The killings by security officials in circumstances suggesting possible extrajudicial killings increases police complicity in the crime wave.
The current police to population ratio is approximately 1:1150, well below the UN recommended standard ratio of 1: 450. We need to recruit more police.
Drugs are a scourge in every society. The vicious circle of drugs and crime destroys lives and communities, and Kenya’s record on fighting drug dealers and drug pushers is abysmal.
Many governance institutions, such as, the Judiciary and State Law Office face major challenges in eliminating corruption, and the Kibaki Government has failed to work with the development partners to implement the reform programme.
The circulation of illegal firearms in Kenya is a legacy of military conflicts in the region. The increasing number of armed robberies makes the task of blocking access to firearms a top priority.
Our Commitments:
We will never take for granted the security of Kenyans. It will be our legal duty to protect our citizens from crime and conflict and to ensure that the rule of law is upheld in undertaking criminal investigations.
We will significantly increase the number of police officers, police vehicles, communications equipment and enhance crime prevention and investigative capacity.
We will increase overall spending and ensure that the resources are devolved to local police stations.
We will care about social justice and criminal justice.
We will map crime “hotspots” in urban and rural areas and deploy more police officers to enhance police visibility and physical presence.
We will use close circuit television cameras in central business districts of Nairobi and major cities as a tool for crime detection and deterrence.
We will use the nation’s defence forces to provide extra support in policing our national borders in respect of stopping illegal flow of small arms.
Your ODM Government will:
• Maintain law and order, be tough on crime by apprehending, trying and sentencing offenders and tackle the causes of crime.
• Establish a new Metropolitan Police Authority for Nairobi based on the Scorpion force in South Africa. This new “crack force” will be better educated, trained, and equipped to deal with the rising gun crime and murder rates. It will be the foundation for a genuine accountable police force.
• Ensure adequate resources for training, purchase of modern communication equipment, transportation needs and the forensic science capacity to investigate crime.
• Review the current remuneration package of police, housing and office facilities and training with a view to significantly enhancing it.
• Address the shortage of police houses. We aim to build 30,000 new housing units countrywide, 8000 of which should be in Nairobi.
• Engage more citizens in active crime prevention through Neighbourhood Watch schemes and community policing.
• Regulate the private security industry so it works in partnership with the police in the fight against crime.
• Establish an Independent Police Complaints Authority so victims of police brutality or negligence can seek redress. This organization would ensure accountability of the police to the public, investigate cases of alleged extra judicial killings, and ensure that the police act within the law that they are mandated to enforce. Importantly, it could act as the recipient of complaints from junior officers, thus increasing morale and decreasing impunity in the police service. Wage a war on drug abusers and pushers as drugs are root causes of crime, especially in urban areas.
• Strengthen the criminal justice system to work fast – justice delayed is justice denied.
• Review the sentencing policy and ensure that anyone convicted of a second serious sexual or violent crime will get an automatic life sentence.
• Enforce the strictest firearm laws. Ensure maximum vigilance of our borders and play an active role in the international fight against terrorism.
• Ensure support for victims of crime, especially those who have suffered rape.
• Review the entire sentencing policy. We will encourage the use of community sentences as an alternative to prison and use custodial sentences where they are essential for public protection or to make punishment effective.
• We will work constructively with the development partners on the Governance, Justice, Law & Order Sector Reform Programme (GJLOS) ensuring we deepen the reform in all the relevant departments.
CHAPTER SIX: ADVANCING QUALITY EDUCATION
The Challenges:
Over the years and across the globe, education has proved to be one of the most reliable human development undertakings with the capacity to transform the lives of poor people. Quality education is a birthright of every child in Kenya. Education is the tool for empowering vulnerable groups including girls, children of the marginalized groups and children with disabilities.
The introduction of free primary education by the Narc Government in 2003 has been a success. However, the system is plagued with a myriad of problems. About 2 million children are not enrolled in schools despite free primary education, and the completion rate currently stands around 68%. Many primary schools have few classrooms. A lack of teachers is the norm in many areas and the class sizes are too large with a ratio of 1 teacher to 80 children. Children have to share textbooks and school uniform and transport costs are prohibitive for many households. We have to learn from this experience and improve delivery with quality education.
The introduction of free secondary education would help to reduce drop-out rates, increase literacy levels and provide more lifelong skills to more children. It would also substantially reduce the financial burden of many parents.
The estimated numbers of adult Kenyans who are illiterate are 4.2 million, two thirds of that number being women. This large number of illiterate Kenyan adults is attributable to a lack of access to formal education for many groups, especially the marginalized; low retention rates by the formal education system; and a high poverty index in the country. Enhancing adult literacy in Kenya is in line with several international commitments to education and human development, notably Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
The “Special Needs” education is in an appalling state in the country and needs to be professionalised.
Our Commitments:
We will introduce free quality secondary education.
We will improve teachers’ training, conditions of service and remuneration. Besides, we will treat teachers like the professionals they are.
We will enforce strict accreditation of colleges in order to assure our people of quality education and training.
We will develop a curriculum that takes into account the social, cultural and economic needs of a democratic Kenya competing in a globalised market.
We will invest heavily in Science, Information and Communication Technologies at primary and secondary school levels.
We will formulate an equitable budgetary allocation system that is driven by the needs of each school and region rather than a uniform allocation.
We will reduce the negative impact of culture, poverty, and inequality vis-a-vis the lack of access to quality education by most vulnerable groups, especially girls and children with disabilities.
We will protect vulnerable children and the girlchild from sexual abuse in the education system by enacting a tough law that punishes people that abuse pupils in their care.
We will ensure teaching and practice of basic hygiene in all schools and make sanitary towels available for girls.
We will invest in science and technology to transform our commodity based economy to a more knowledge driven economy through education.
We will enhance our universities so they gain an international reputation for excellence. We will work together with local industry and the private sector to ensure that our universities are the hub for innovation and enterprise.
We will review the functioning of the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) and increase funding to it.
Your ODM Government will:
In Early Childhood Education
• Develop and implement a comprehensive National Early Childhood Development (ECD) Framework for Kenya.
• Provide government sponsored standardized training for ECD teachers and caregivers.
• Provide minimum facilities for public schools to provide ECD to all children including children with disabilities.
In Primary Education
• Intensify efforts to build more classrooms by providing greater investment in school infrastructure.
• Rehabilitate dilapidated school blocks.
• Employ more teachers to progressively achieve a teacher pupil ratio of 1:40.
• Provide incentives and motivation so that girls match boys in enrolment and completing education.
• Revise current school curriculum to ensure that it places less emphasis on rote-learning and passing examinations and focuses on equipping the children with skills for a knowledge-based economy.
• Introduce special affirmative measures to ensure the inclusion of marginalized and vulnerable children in the education systems at all levels.
In Secondary Education
• Exempt tuition fees of fresh entrants to secondary school from January 2009.
• Improve student discipline by enhancing the role of parents and the local community in the education system.
• Introduce local community participation in the day to day running of schools to develop a sense of ownership and responsibility.
• Review the current secondary curriculum.
• Revitalise the Kenya Schools Equipment Scheme and close loopholes in procurement.
In Tertiary Education
• Rationalise university administration to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
• Encourage the participation of women and other marginalized groups in university education.
• Improve tertiary education towards skills gaining and towards job creators and job seekers.
• Ensure that industry, education and the Government co-operates more strongly than ever to turn tertiary education into practical economic benefit.
• Invest in research, development and innovation. We want to establish an investment and innovation agency in Kenya, bringing together current research, proof of concept, incubator and equity support from government.
• Allocate more funds to increase learning facilities in public universities.
• Facilitate the registration and regulation of private universities to ensure access to quality education.
• Create an “Open University” where adults who had not had the opportunity to attend campus universities can have access to current university facilities during vacation and weekends. It would be more cost-effective to use the existing infrastructure to get adults who missed out on university education to enroll and study at leisure and attend weekend academic courses and seminars and workshops during vacation. The Open University system would use the latest communications technology to bring high quality degree-level learning.
In Adult Literacy
• Encourage and invest in adult literacy education. By working closely with the voluntary, private sector and religious organizations, we can give an opportunity to Kenyans who missed out on formal education to learn basic literacy and numeracy skills in their own time.
In Special Needs Education
• Review special needs education in the country with a view to compiling an assessment of needs and priorities.
• Invest in modern teaching aids for children with learning difficulties and those with sensory problems.
• Undertake up-to-date training of teachers working with children who have special educational needs.
CHAPTER SEVEN: DELIVERING UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE
The Challenges:
Good health is a basic need for the survival of human beings and the maintenance of a life of dignity. The right to access basic health services is a must. It is enshrined in most of the international human rights instruments that Kenya has signed and ratified.
The health status of Kenyans remains below acceptable levels. Childhood and maternal morbidity and mortality remain too high, and Kenya is unlikely to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4 (reduce child mortality) and MDG 5 (improve maternal health).
Human resources in the health sector remain scarce, and hospital resources are continually overstretched. The entire health provision is grossly under-funded and delivering universal health care remains a priority. These problems are juxtaposed with the irresponsible wastage of the savings deposited by Kenyans in the National Health Insurance Fund. From Kshs 3 billion that the fund receives annually, a significant amount goes into salaries and administration costs.
It is disheartening that despite the professed national goal of eradicating disease, few ordinary people have access to good healthcare services. Our hospitals are poorly equipped and staffed and some are in a deplorable state. They rarely have essential drugs and basic medical equipment. Healthcare professionals are de-motivated often due to overwork and unfavourable working conditions.
The state of our public health is worsened by the inefficiency and corruption in drug and medical equipment supplies. In the rural area the healthcare facilities are few and far between. Kenya has one of the poorest pre-natal and post-natal care services in Sub-Saharan Africa. We are among the leading nations in infant morbidity and mortality from preventable diseases such as malaria.
Our Commitments:
We will emphasise preventive and promotive healthcare through targeted heath education.
We will ensure equitable allocation of government resources to reduce disparities in health status.
We will increase the cost effectiveness and cost efficiency of resource allocation and use.
We will create an enabling environment for increased private sector and community involvement in health service provision and finance.
We will continue to manage population growth.
We will introduce better management structures to ensure efficiency in the management of the healthcare institutions and systems.
We will review the health financing policies and invest in the National Health Security Services as a key national health financing mechanism that will progressively ensure equal access by the poor to the basic health services.
We will increase the efforts in the fight against HIV/AIDS to improve and increase the lives of those infected and reduce the number of those getting infected every year.
We will increase the health service infrastructure to ensure better access to health, particularly in the historically disadvantaged areas.
We will devolve healthcare system management, procurement and financing.
We value our healthcare human resources, and we aim to train more professionals and paramedical workers and enhance their terms and conditions of service and remuneration.
We will reduce corruption in the health sector and increase access to medicines.
We will ensure the development of effective regulatory and inspection mechanisms to protect the public from health injuries and loss of lives related to substandard health services.
Your ODM Government will:
• Enhance government spending in the health sector.
• Improve hospital infrastructure substantially by upgrading rural hospitals, building new health centres in under-served areas by using public/ private partnerships, and working progressively to realise the target of having a 30 bed-hospital in each location/ward.
• Provide free health care to all children under the age of 5 years. This will be the first step in our goal to provide free universal health care for all.
• Strengthen our fight against HIV/AIDS through education and counselling to promote behavioural change, mitigating the socio-economic impact of the disease which remains a priority.
• Continue to encourage population control strategies.
• Expand safe motherhood programmes in all districts by ensuring that these centres are adequately equipped and have improved referral systems, communication systems, and transportation facilities.
• Provide free ante-natal, maternity and post-natal care for expectant mothers.
• Achieve full immunization against TB, polio andmeasles.
• Promote simple practices that will prevent diseases like malaria and diahorrea in communities.
• Specifically work with cultural and community structures to eliminate beliefs and myths that undermine the promotion of primary health.
• Introduce gender indicators in the health monitoring systems at all levels to ensure equitable benefit of health interventions by gender.
• Build health centers in rural areas with an aim of progressively having a health facility accessible within a radius of 5 km.
• Improve the partnership with communities and religious and non-governmental organizations in an effort to increase access to good healthcare facilities.
• Use the government manufacturing rights under the Industrial Property Act to increase access to HIV/AIDS drugs and essential drugs to reduce the alarming death rate resulting from HIV/AIDS related diseases.
• Urgently invest in the research on TB to curb the spread of the emerging dangerous strains of the disease.
• Introduce a bottom up planning system in the health sector where the policy is driven by the needs on the ground rather than the perceived need by the Health Ministry headquarters.
• Overhaul the administrative and reporting mechanism to reduce bureaucracy, increase efficiency and ensure accountability.
• Train health economists to assist in the effective planning and monitoring for better services in the health sector.
• Overhaul the procurement procedures in the health sector to ensure accountability in the implementation of programmes and efficient use of the much needed resources in the sector including drugs and other medical supplies.
• Introduce hefty penalties for any commissions and omissions leading to the loss of resources in the health sector.
• Overhaul and strengthen the health inspection system to eliminate dangerous drug use and distribution practices that are undermining the efforts in controlling diseases like malaria and TB.
• Establish a ministerial monitoring and evaluation unit to ensure accountability in the implementation of the health sector policies.
• Empower devolved units to manage healthcare services.
• Introduce a national policy on nutrition as a component of health provision and a complement to key programmes like the management of HIV/ AIDS and infant and maternal mortality.
• Increase research in and regulation of the use of cultural/indigenous and herbal medicines for health provision in Kenya.
• Progressively build up more referral hospitals to ensure greater access to specialized services, especially in mental health.
• Invest more in biomedical research and introduce a sound legal framework to facilitate such research while protecting our vulnerable populations from unethical experimentation from the international drug companies.
CHAPTER EIGHT: EMPOWERING WOMEN
The Challenges:
Kenya is characterised by great gender disparities and inequalities. The population of women is 51.4% and yet only 6% have titles to their land. The current constitution indirectly discriminates against women, particularly in respect to access to resources. Neither do women enjoy equal citizenship rights with men. They cannot obtain an identity card or passport without either their father’s or husband’s permission.
Women cannot inherit land and cannot access credit; they are unable to improve their economic situation. They bear the brunt and consequences of growing insecurity in the country, and cases of rape and defiling young girls are on the rise. Women are grossly underrepresented in national and local decision-making institutions which remain maledominated.
Women are disadvantaged politically, socially, culturally and economically. There can be no sustainable or equitable development or poverty eradication unless discrimination against women is eliminated and unless gender-based inequality and injustice are proactively removed.
Our Commitments:
We will enact a new constitution based on the Bomas Draft which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender.
We recognize that women have special health problems which place them at a higher level of risk. We will ensure that all health programmes are gender sensitive and effective reproductive health services remain a priority. We will encourage and support training programmes for birth attendants.
We will develop gender sensitive natural resource management and environmental policies and programmes. Women are hardest hit by the effects of environmental mismanagement and degradation as their role and tasks in agriculture, animal husbandry and in the household make them managers and users of natural resources. We will support projects that promote the utilisation of alternative sources of energy as substitutes for wood fuel.
Your ODM Government will:
• Intensify efforts and actions to redress the existing persistent gender disparities in Kenya which hamper the full integration of women in our society.
• Ensure more girls enrol and remain in schools and introduce gender mainstreaming in curricula at all levels of education.
• Revise all oppressive practices, statutes and customary laws that perpetuate gender discrimination.
• Advocate the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls and ensure that our criminal justice system is tough on the perpetrators of such heinous crimes.
• Improve women’s access throughout their life cycle to appropriate, affordable and quality healthcare, information and services.
• Encourage the development and promotion of environmentally friendly and affordable technologies which would reduce women’s burdens.
• Encourage projects that promote the utilisation of alternative sources of energy as substitutes for fuel wood.
• Consolidate and expand credit facilities and provide more business advisory services and skills training to women so they can run viable and sustainable businesses.
• Take affirmative action and other means to ensure a minimum 30% representation of women in Parliament, Local Government, Foreign Service and all other areas of government and decision-making institutions. This would be a start, and there will be no glass ceilings on the aspirations of Kenyan women as we work progressively towards realising a 50:50 gender ratio in all public bodies.
• Address the issue of the rights of women concerning land. Land rights currently allow men to dispose of family land without consulting women.
• Ensure that we ratify the International Conventions on Women’s Rights and domesticate them into national policies and laws.
• Secure inheritance rights for unmarried daughters.
• Secure the legal rights of spouses to matrimonial property.
• Increase adult literacy rates among women.
CHAPTER NINE: HARNESSING THE POTENTIAL OF OUR YOUTH
The Challenges:
Kenya has a very large youth population and 60% of the entire population is below the age of 20 years.
The Kibaki Government has created a Ministry of Youth Affairs and established the Youth Enterprise Fund to enable young people access to micro-credit. This is a welcome start. But a lot more needs to be done in the area of providing education, training, employment, preventive health, and sporting facilities. Youths from the nomadic and pastoralist communities are hardest hit as they often lack formal education and are most marginalised. In any
case, the mere doling out of funds in an election year merely shows the incidental role the youth have played in the Kibaki Government.
Unemployment, especially among the youth, has been high and increasing in the last decade. Half of primary school leavers are unable to go to secondary school, so around 500,000 youth enter the labour market each year to compete for nonexistent jobs. The predicament of the youth in our economy is not simply a matter to be dealt with by introducing a youth fund; it needs a structural response at the level of providing new economic and political opportunities for the youth.
Kenyan political leaders from the colonial era who continue to cling to power today hold beliefs that are deeply entrenched in ethnicity, corruption and lack of accountability. They have exploited the youth as “leaders of tomorrow” while at the same time excluding them from the political processes. These political leaders are the worst kind of role-models and need to be rejected.
Youth unemployment and urban malaise remain political risks that need urgent attention.
We recognize the unique social, economic, cultural and health challenges facing young people in Kenya. These challenges go beyond education, employment or training. They require systemic overhaul.
Our Commitments:
We will involve the youth in developing a comprehensive national policy for the youth.
We will continue harnessing the limitless energies and talents of our youth.
We will work with the private sector to create jobs for the youth in a growing economy where the knowledge and skills of the youth will be progressively absorbed.
We will encourage the youth to engage in a voluntary national community service, such as, caring for the sick, aged and orphans.
We will provide more sports and recreational facilities for the youth.
We will promote greater youth participation in Kenyan political and cultural activities, thereby preserving culture and traditions for posterity.
We will promote a healthy lifestyle among the youth by campaigns, such as, ‘Say No to Drugs and Alcohol.’
Your ODM Government will:
• Revise the current National Youth Policy to make it more reflective of the youths’ aspirations and more responsive to their challenges. This will be done with full participation of the youth.
• Entrench the rights of young people in decisionmaking. They will have the opportunity to influence the decisions that affect them in education, health and employment.
• Review the role and efficiency of the Youth Enterprise Fund and ensure that the youth get business skills training.
• Introduce a new national youth leadership programme and integrate the youth in leadership today, not tomorrow.
• Establish Youth Vocational Training Centres to assist the youth in acquiring skills for gainful employment.
• Enhance career guidance and counseling services to meet the aspirations of the youth through the pilot Jobseekers Offices. Encourage the private sector and civil society organization to develop internship and apprenticeship programes to enable the youth to gain requisite experiences.
• Encourage greater awareness among the youth of the dangers of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.
• Address illiteracy among youth who never had the chance to go to school or dropped out.
• Address the concerns of the most vulnerable children, especially the street children.
CHAPTER TEN: ENHANCING MANUFACTURING,ICT,TRADE AND SERVICES FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH
The Challenges:
The performance of the manufacturing sector and its contribution to the economy has been static and remains below potential. Kenya’s industrial sector is characterized by lack of large and basic industries.
Our industries also suffer from high cost of production due to expensive and unreliable energy, poor infrastructure and corruption. Furthermore, a number of industries, such as textile, leather, dairy and oil seed have collapsed, and many of our industries are operating below capacity. This is due to bad governance, poor industrial policies, insecurity, bureaucracy and indiscriminate implementation of liberalisation and privatisation of state controlled industries. The increase in oil prices and appreciation of the Kenya shilling has also constrained exports and encouraged importation of cheap goods that compete with locally produced goods.
Kenya also lacks technical universities to spur innovation. There are also inadequate research and development opportunities.
The prosperity of our country and its people cannot be guaranteed without scientific and technological advancement based on a clear roadmap to achieve industrial status.
Our Commitments:
We will promote industrialisation to produce high value goods for the domestic market and export.
We will promote location of industries at the point of production of basic raw materials to benefit producing communities and transform the rural economies.
We will address the issues of stagnation of small scale firms, securing of property rights and security of tenure, costs associated with entry, expansion and exit regulations, notably securing a licence, tax and labour laws compliance.
As Kenya is predominantly an agricultural country, the bulk of industries are agro-based. Hence, it is crucial to undertake simultaneous improvement of agriculture with industry as agriculture provides the raw materials for industry for industry to succeed. Value addition in agriculture is a key to our model of industrialisation.
We will seek dialogue and partnership with the private sector to develop ways and means to facilitate sustainable economic growth.
Your ODM Government will:
• Encourage and facilitate indigenous entrepreneurs to build industries to create an independent, prosperous, dynamic and vibrant, integrated, balanced and sustainable national economy.
• Facilitate the establishment of modern basic industries that meet domestic and export needs.
• Ensure that product standards are adhered to.
• Facilitate the establishment of industrial clusters as seed beds for innovation, exchange of resources and ideas, collaboration and increased specialisation for rapid growth.
• Promote the establishment of industries in rural areas to transform the rural economy and ensure equity in development.
• Nurture and retain high level human resources for the transformation of industries by improving the working conditions and remuneration of our scientists to retain talents and attract back those who have left because of poor working conditions and remuneration.
• Promote the development of young talent by initiating a scheme to provide funds for young scientists and to encourage and support them to undertake industrial-oriented research in science and technology.
• Establish new specialist, research-oriented science and technology universities and research institutions, which will play a pivotal role in the advancement of science and technology for industrialisation.
• Establish national annual science awards for individuals and institutions that make great achievements in scientific and technological research and innovation.
• Encourage investment banks to finance industrialisation.
• Strengthen the enforcement of the laws and processes of curbing dumping and importing counterfeit goods.
INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
The Challenges:
The latest information and communications technology (ICT) has enabled some countries to change their destinies and future of their people in under a decade. Fast growing economies such as India and China can attribute a considerable
amount of their success to the effective use of ICTs.
Kenya must adopt ICT policies that recognize the effective use of technology in addressing the many diverse needs of its people in the political, social and economic arena. In order for ICTs to be relevant to Kenyan society, ICT policy must strive to facilitate the development of local innovative technologies that are informed by local content and local knowledge.
The lack of adequate ICT infrastructure has hampered the provision of efficient and affordable ICT services in the country. The existing total capacity of Kenya’s Internet gateways is limited and thus is congested.
The Policy, Legal and Regulatory Framework are insufficient to deal with issues of e-security, ecommerce and intellectual property rights.
There is inadequate ICT education at primary, secondary, tertiary and community levels. There is no formalised ICT curriculum, and there are inadequate number of teachers of ICT, especially in primary and secondary schools.
There is no proper framework for evaluating and certifying ICT training programmes, and Kenya has difficulty in retaining skilled ICT manpower, especially within the government.
The access to ICT services is limited to a few major towns leaving the rural areas of the country uncovered.
Our Commitments:
We will urgently invest in ICT infrastructure, especially high-speed Internet backbone networks countrywide.
We will improve ICT usage in Kenya and increase penetration nationwide. We will ensure that the Internet service is cost-effective, reliable and efficient.
We will focus on the establishment of educational, research and innovation and governance networks so as to speed up the creation of an e-literate and e-novative society.
We will encourage ICT companies to create high quality jobs and spur research and innovations in this field.
We will seek to reduce bandwidth costs in Kenya by the use of fibre optics national gateways and mechanisms.
We will hasten licensing of players as well as provide tax and other incentives in the sector to promote competition and create more job opportunities for our youth.
We will create awareness of the opportunities offered by ICT in a whole range of sectors, from education, health, governance, etc.
Your ODM Government will:
• Establish, with great urgency, a fibre optics based Internet gateways to the rest of the world to achieve affordable and reliable broadband internet connection countrywide.
• Provide infrastructure support, such as, energy and roads to roll out the fibre optic backbone network.
• Encourage establishment of high-speed wireless networks.
• Provide incentives to promote local software development.
• Encourage local manufacturing and assembly of computers and accessories, mobile phones and networking equipment.
• Provide incentives for the provision of ICT infrastructure to rural areas.
• Promote ICT in education at primary, secondary, tertiary and community levels by developing ICT curricula and ensuring that teachers/trainers possess the requisite skills.
• Set up a framework for evaluating and certifying ICT training programmes.
• Establish networks for sharing training resources especially sharing of e-learning resources between institutions, for example, by upgrading the KENET (Kenya Educational Network) network infrastructure.
• Establish computer labs with Internet access to all primary and secondary schools.
• Exploit e-learning opportunities to offer Kenyan education programmes for export.
• Use E-government to provide a framework for improved service delivery, enhanced communication and information collection and provision within Government, with the citizenry and the business community.
• Develop an e-security structure in collaboration with the relevant institutions and an adequate legal framework and capacity to deal with national security, network security, cyber-crime and terrorism and to establish mechanisms for international cooperation to combat cross-border crimes.
• Use ICT to provide a framework for integrated systems for better and efficient health services.
• Promote Tele-medicine which supports health professionals in remote locations and Telehealth which provides information for preventive healthcare to remote rural populations.
• Support the development of E-commerce and ICT based industries.
• Ensure access to affordable and appropriate ICTs by the youth.
• Rally all stakeholders and development partners in supporting the creation of local content.
• Ensure the participation of women in ICT policy formulation and implementation at all levels.
TRADE DEVELOPMENT FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH
The Challenges:
Due to inadequate, inefficient, and poor infrastructure, trade policies and practices, internal trade in Kenya is limited. Consequently, the flow of goods and services from producers to consumers is hampered. As a result, artificial shortages and high prices are experienced in deficit areas while producer areas suffer waste and very low prices and incomes, together with unemployment.
Currently, our external trade is characterised by the export of raw materials and imports of finished goods. As a result, we suffer unfavourable terms of trade and grave deficits in the balance of trade. Our exports are largely uncompetitive in the
international market.
Our Commitments:
We will promote internal and external trade as an instrument for economic growth and development.
We will strengthen institutions that promote trade.
We will ensure that Kenya’s membership in international trading blocs adds value. We will also encourage the export of high value processed products to maximise export earnings.
We will develop an import policy that ensures that imported goods are of high quality and meet all safety and health standards.
Your ODM Government will:
• Promote internal and external trade as an instrument for economic growth.
• Create capacity within government to effectively project Kenya’s trade interests and extract value for the country in international trade negotiations.
• Encourage fair and equitable trade policies that will enable our producers to get a just return for their produce.
• Streamline import and export procedures to facilitate rapid growth of trade.
• Re-examine legal and regulatory frameworks to simplify and regulate trading.
• Strengthen quality assurance institutions to ensure that imports, exports and all goods sold in Kenya are to the highest international standards and prevent dumping of products.
SERVICES SECTOR
The Challenges:
The role of the services sector has changed dramatically in recent decades. Services represent the largest single sector in developed economies.
It is necessary to re-think and re-strategize the country’s development agenda in order to fully achieve the full potential of Kenya’s service sector.
Our Commitments:
We will develop the services sector and position Kenya as the regional business hub and a major exporter of services to the whole continent and beyond.
We will conduct detailed field based studies of the identified sectors in the countries whose markets we target for promotion of our services.
Your ODM Government will:
• Deploy government resources to market and promote the services sector to create quality jobs and earn foreign exchange.
• Take advantage of business process outsourcing and establish a major hub in Nairobi with relevant high technology infrastructure to operate call centres and other financial services related activities.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: INCREASING VALUE IN AGRICULTURE,FISHERIES AND LIVESTOCK
The Challenges:
Agriculture is a key sector in the country’s economy, contributing about 25% the Gross Domestic Product. It is estimated that 75% of the national labour force is engaged in agriculture and its related activities. This number includes over half of the rural population, with a majority of them being women and other vulnerable groups like pastoralists, the landless, subsistence farmers and fisher-folk who rely on these sectors for their livelihoods.
Kenya’s agriculture is predominantly rain-fed with only 2% of cropland being irrigated. This has led to great variations in crop production from year to year due to varying rainfall patterns. As a result, severe shortages of food (through crop failure) resulting in hunger, starvation and death in some parts of the country have become the order of the day. Food insecurity has been aggravated by poverty, poor infrastructure and marketing systems.
Limited diversification and value addition of agricultural production has led to low revenue and high vulnerability of incomes of pastoralists and fisher-folk. Only a few commodities (coffee, tea, dairy, maize, wheat, beef, fish and horticulture) provide livelihood for over 85% of the rural population while coffee and tea alone provide 45% of the wage employment in the sector.
Women and the youth play a significant role in small-scale agriculture as they provide 75% of the labour force and manage 40% of the farms. Limited access to inputs, machinery, finances and markets due to a host of other factors limit their productivity and capacity for development.
The livestock sector, despite contributing over 10% of the GDP and about 30% of all marketed agricultural output, has not enjoyed much development assistance. Over 60% of livestock is found in the arid and semi arid (ASAL) areas where it employs 90% of the local population.
The fisheries sector continues to be neglected, despite employing over half a million Kenyans and contributing about Kshs 6 billion to the economy in 2005.
The transformation of agriculture, livestock and fisheries is essential in providing adequate food for all, assuring people decent incomes, enhancing equality, and providing productive employment for the majority of Kenyans in the medium term as the country strives to industrialise and create more non-agricultural jobs.
The thrust of policy in these sectors must move away from revitalization to transformation. It must move away from the current patterns of resource allocation – away from so called ‘high potential’ areas to marginalised areas and directed specifically to groups, such as women, pastoralists, youth and the landless people.
Policy transformation will enable us to rapidly diversify and deal with issues of equity and increasing rural incomes and standards of living to eradicate poverty. It is important that as the production of our traditional export crops (such as coffee, tea and horticulture) and dairy produce is expanded, emphasis is placed on new products in new areas.
The challenges facing this sector are many and varied. These challenges include: declining farm sizes and backward land tenure; expensive inputs; drudgery (backbreaking production) due to low mechanization; lack of extension services for both livestock and crops; lack of agricultural credit and insurance; inadequate value addition (processing, preservation and marketing of crops, livestock and fish); poor transport network, hence, inability to move produce to market in good time; and lack of marketing systems and institutions, hence, the bulk of profits are made by middlemen and final sellers, with farmers hardly meeting their cost and unfavourable terms of trade, especially in the horticultural production sub-sector.
The co-operative societies in this sector play a valuable role but have been constrained by poor governance and lack of transparency in the management. They also lack capacity in management, market intelligence and market research.
Our Commitments:
We will increase productivity and diversify by continuing to invest in agriculture, livestock and fisheries, thus, transforming rural livelihood.
We will increase our yields in the agriculture sector through progressive land reform and infrastructure development by the provision of water for domestic use and irrigation.
We shall also promote the application of modern technology, extensive mechanization, rain water harvesting, and flood control, and stimulate and support the development of agro-industries and businesses.
We will improve and enhance institutions that provide extension services, affordable credit, research and marketing in an equitable manner.
We will endeavour to provide preservation, storage and processing facilities locally for crops, livestock and fish to minimize post-production losses.
We will improve access to markets and fair prices for farmers, herdsmen and fishermen.
We will review the costs of production of cereals, sugar, beef and dairy products which are considered high in comparison with imports from the region with an aim of reducing production costs and increasing incomes for farmers.
We will develop people-centred policies that promote the achievement of all our objectives in the agriculture, livestock and fisheries sector.
We will improve the infrastructure – especially roads and power-supply – along the beaches to improve marketing of fishery products and improve fishing communities’ bargaining power.
We will encourage the co-operatives as they are vital to economic recovery and transformation of these sectors.
Your ODM Government will:
• Devolve decision making on funding, research prioritization, agro-processing and value addition.
• Develop appropriate and consistent policy and a legal and institutional framework in the agricultural, livestock and fisheries sectors and enable adequate capacity for enforcement.
• Preach integrity in the management of public resources.
• Invest in modern science and technology-led intensive and extensive irrigated agriculture, livestock, fisheries, and forestry.
• Facilitate timely access to quality and affordable seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and other farm and animal inputs.
• Ensure there is a well trained and equipped extension officer in every location in the country.
• Develop modern rural access roads to facilitate access to markets.
• Provide electricity, water and telecommunications to facilitate rural industrialisation and improve the quality of life in rural areas.
• Formulate and implement a responsive land tenure system.
• Promote the application of biotechnology in increasing production of food, feed, fibre and other products.
• Develop improved high yielding and disease resistant livestock varieties among the pastoralist communities, small scale dairy farmers, and peasants owning traditional livestock.
• Implement a livestock insurance scheme.
• Promote aquaculture for increased production of fish.
• Ensure that farmers, pastoralists and fishermen become more commercial and profitable.
• Strengthen institutional capacity of rural producers to improve their bargaining power in order to enhance their incomes.
• Facilitate investment in modern hygienic landing bays, storage and processing facilities, efficient transport and communications infrastructure on inland fishing areas, especially around Lake Victoria.
• Improve veterinary services to prevent and control diseases in animals.
• Access cheap veterinary medicines and assist farmers with their purchases and with meeting the high cost of breeding.
• Set up livestock processing industries in the ASALs.
• Build capacity of the co-operative movement and enforce compliance with the provisions of the revised Co-operative Societies Act.
• Streamline the management of the co-operative societies and improve their corporate governance.
• Introduce information and communications technology in co-operative management.
• Encourage investment in post-harvest processing and preservation technologies that will maximise returns to the rural producer while ensuring stable supply and affordable prices to the consumer.
• Facilitate fair international trade practices for our agricultural produce, fish, meat and flora.
• Facilitate investment in modern, hygienic landing bays, storage and processing facilities, efficient transport and communications infrastructure on inland fishing areas especially around Lake Victoria.
• Improve veterinary services to prevent and control disease in animals.
• Access cheap veterinary medicines and assist farmers with their purchase and in meeting the high cost of breeding.
• Set up livestock processing industries in the ASALs.
• Build capacity of the co-operative movement and enforce compliance with the provisions of the revised Co-operative Societies Act.
• Streamline the management of the co-operative societies and improve their corporate governance.
• Introduce information and communications technology in co-operative management.
• Encourage investment in post-harvest processing and preservation technologies that will maximise returns to the rural producer while ensuring stable supply and affordable prices to the consumer.
• Facilitate fair international trade practices for our agricultural produce, fish, meat and flora.
CHAPTER TWELVE: CONSOLIDATING AND EXPANDING TOURISM
The Challenges:
Tourism in Kenya accounts for about 10% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). After agriculture and manufacturing it is the third largest foreign exchange earner (18%) after tea and horticulture.
In Kenya, tourism remains one of the most important economic activities. It is a major source of employment. Tourism builds and strengthens international standing and bolsters investor interest and confidence and can prove to be one of the most effective ways of generating wealth and employment.
The sectoral policies in tourism remain outdated, and an attempt to develop a new policy paper has taken over 5 years still awaiting cabinet approval.
In Kenya, bad roads, power outages and water scarcity translates into high costs and has a negative impact on tourist experiences. Security and safety are key determining factors for the success of the tourism industry in any destination, and Kenya is perceived to be an insecure destination.
To improve international and domestic consumption of tourism goods and services, sufficient marketing and promotional activities must take place. This initiative requires sufficient regular funding to facilitate activities involved in marketing the destination. The government continues to consistently under-fund the Kenya Tourist Board in spite of growing revenues. Funding has stagnated at around Kshs 250 million and the development partner, the European Union, has withheld funds for the last three (3) years. About Kshs 1 billion has not been released because the EU wants the money spent on tourism activities within EU member countries such as the World Travel Market (London) and the International Tourism Board (Berlin) and not in other regions, such as the Far East.
A policy to encourage domestic tourism and local investment in the tourism industry is long overdue. This should go beyond availability of credit for building and expanding tourism facilities. Easier access to local advertising, popularisation of domestic tourism and public-private investment in the leisure industry is vital.
Lately, there has been a shortage of hotel beds, especially during high seasons
Our Commitments:
With more substantial support for the initiatives already taken by the Kenya Tourist Board we will diversify tourism activities that currently revolve around beach areas and wildlife to spread across the country. We will ensure that each region of Kenya fully develops and achieves its tourism potential. This will be done through Product Diversification Strategy maximizing on what is available in each region of Kenya, for example, adventure tourism, sports tourism, eco-tourism and cultural tourism.
We will harmonise wildlife tourism and land-use policies.
We will encourage investment in new hotel construction to increase bed capacity.
We will develop new tourist destination sites on the coast, Northern Kenya and in other parts of the country after conducting thorough environmental impact studies.
We will upgrade the standards of less popular parks and extensively market them.
We will ensure availability of marketing funds to a minimum of Kshs 1 billion and progressively peg it to a percentage of revenue generated to make Kenya compete effectively in the world tourist market.
Your ODM Government will:
• Launch new tourist circuits throughout the country.
• Actively promote domestic and regional tourism. Incentives and special affordable packages will be developed for Kenyans to encourage them to travel within the country. This promotion will help Kenyans from different backgrounds appreciate each other’s culture and way of life.
• Promote Cruise Tourism. We will build an ultramodern cruise terminal dedicated to cruise ship markets in Mombasa. A steamer service will be launched in Lake Victoria.
• Build an ultramodern Conference Complex with accommodation to challenge Egypt and South Africa as the conference destination in Africa. Hosting international exhibitions is also lucrative, and Kenya needs to be proactive and seek to host many exhibitions and conferences.
• Encourage and certify more home-stays. This concept is an emerging phenomenon in modern visitor experience. The visitor stays in a host home and pays for bed and breakfast. Through this arrangement, the visitor is able to experience how Kenyans live. The rural Kenyan is able to benefit from such tourism receipts. This concept fits in well as many Kenyans have good rural homes spread across the country which are not fully utilized. This concept will improve room capacity with minimal investment and also ensure that tourism wealth spreads to all parts of Kenya.
• Review and restructure the Kenya Tourist Development Corporation to become more responsive to the needs of the industry.
• Work in partnership with other East African Community members to provide multi-destination tourist experiences and joint promotional activities.
• Establish a workable compensation scheme for economic losses due to wildlife.
• Devolve tourism area planning to secure community participation
• Review and upgrade the training provided at Utalii College and ensure it remains as an internationally recognized tourism training institution.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: BUILDING AFFORDABLE HOUSING & IMPLEMENTING LAND REFORM
The Challenges:
About 30% of Kenya’s population lives in urban areas. Of these, 67%, or approximately 6.6 million, live in informal settlements. The conditions in the informal settlements or slums are grim. The units are densely packed and built of weak structures with mud walls and corrugated iron sheets. Most units are built on government land that has been acquired in a nontransparent manner, and the landlords do not live in the area.
There are no water and sanitation services provided by the local government since the settlements are not part of the urban planning. They have to survive on dirty water or illegally tapped water sold at a high price. Informal settlements do not have electric lighting provisions so the residents have to make do with paraffin lamps and in some instances residents connect to the electricity grid illegally and dangerously. Fires are a common occurrence and the level of insecurity is high. The residents are poorly educated; many are living with HIV/AIDS, women and children have been abandoned or have been victims of violence and rape. They are very poor and vulnerable members of the Kenyan society. Their living conditions should be a blot on our collective conscience as a society.
Our Commitments:
We will explore ways in which most valuable land in urban centres occupied by informal settlements can be converted into communal ownership which can then be used to secure development funds.
We will provide security of tenure to the residents living in informal settlements so they have an incentive to invest in their homes and neighbourhoods.
We will plan to build new suburbs around Nairobi and other major cities and towns to reduce congestion and offer choice of quality environment.
We will strengthen the National Housing Corporation further so it continues to make the dream of home ownership a reality for many Kenyans.
Your ODM Government will:
• Establish Urban Planning Units in all devolved local authorities.
• Introduce building regulations and standards including the adoption of appropriate cost-efficient construction technology.
• Introduce a strict enforcement of rules and regulations by the physical planning department of the local authorities.
• Streamline licensing and approval systems for building developments.
• Ensure that public recreational facilities are integral to all housing developments.
• Strengthen the capacity of the planning departments of the local government authorities and the National Housing Corporation to implement the policy on housing.
• Prepare a National Land-use Master Plan in order to facilitate better urban planning.
• Prepare and implement strategic development and investment plans for all municipalities and cities.
• Build 150,000 affordable quality housing units through eclectic initiatives to deal with the housing deficit. This may include slum clearance or upgrading; inviting foreign investors to participate in the rapid housing development programmes; and by using low cost house-building technologies.
• Address the land tenure issues relating to land in the slum areas and commence slum upgrading steps with minimum disruption of the slum dwellers. Ensure that the upgraded facilitates have access to water and sanitation services and electricity.
• Enact the Housing Bill 2006 to ensure a “onestop- shop” housing development approval for fasttracking house building. Ensure joint coordination of the activities of the Ministries of Land, Local Government, Public Works, Environment and Housing to facilitate the implementation of the Housing Policy.
• Establish housing technology centres to increase access to decent housing by promoting low-cost energy-saving housing.
• Accelerate and improve the development of infrastructure and communication between Nairobi and Nakuru with a view to developing Nakuru into an industrial town with a designated Export Processing Zone.
• Ensure Nairobi becomes a regional hub for commerce and finance. Every necessary action by the government will be taken in conjunction with the City Council to showcase Nairobi as a 24-hour city by investing in infrastructure, ICT, security and planning.
IMPLEMENTING LAND REFORM
The Challenges:
Land is Kenya’s most basic and essential resource. The livelihood of over 85% of Kenya’s population depends on it. It is also critical to the economic, social and cultural development of Kenya and was a key reason for the struggle for independence. It is also a key in the development of all aspects of the economy, especially industry, physical infrastructure and urban development. Prudent management of the land sector is crucial to poverty reduction, equity and social justice.
Approximately 582,646 sq. kms. (97.8%) of Kenya’s total surface comprises of land; of this only 20% of the land area can be classified as medium to high potential agricultural land, and the rest of the land is mainly arid or semi-arid. Forests, woodlands and national reserves and game parks account for ten percent (10%) of the land mass.
Largely because of historical factors perpetuated by post independence mismanagement and private accumulation by political elites, the land sector is notable to function as the engine of development. The lack of a clearly defined National Land Policy since independence has resulted in a complex land management and administration system. Successive postcolonial governments have been unable or unwilling to resolve this issue. The need for land reforms in Kenya arises out of the ineffectiveness of the current constitution in establishing an efficient, accountable and equitable institutional framework for land ownership, administration and management.
Serious historical injustices and gender imbalance in access to use and violations of land rights of minority communities (such as hunter-gatherers, forest dwellers and pastoralists) need to be seriously tackled.
Centralisation of state responsibility over land matters has resulted in governmental decisions that have not been responsive to the citizens, especially at the local level.
Lack of governmental accountability in land governance has led to irregular allocations of public land.
Legal protection of private property rights granted even though the land in question may have been acquired in an illegitimate manner must be queried.
The land has been inequitably distributed. In particular, women, children, minority groups and persons with disabilities have been denied access to land rights.
Government regulation of private property rights has been ineffective. As a result, many unplanned settlements and environmental degradation have become commonplace.
Our Commitments:
We will review all laws and policies adopted by post independence governments that exacerbate historical injustices.
We will ensure the enactment of Chapter Seven on “Land and Property” as stated in the Bomas Draft Constitution.
Your ODM Government will:
• Restructure the land sector through the review of the current laws and institutions.
• Establish the National Land Commission (NLC) to carry out land administration and management efficiently, equitably and sustainable.
• Implement a system of registration of institutional land.
• Secure tenure to public land by repealing the Government Land Act (Cap. 280) and replacing it with a Public Lands Act.
• Designate and keep an inventory of all public land and place it under the National Land Commission (NLC) to hold and manage it in trust for the people of Kenya.
• Establish an appropriate land taxation system to discourage land speculation.
• Repossess any public land acquired irregularly.
• Establish a suitable legal and administrative framework to investigate the historical injustices and recommend mechanisms for their resolution.
• Establish suitable mechanisms for restitution, reparation and compensation of historical injustices or claims.
• Address the coastal land ownership problems by conducting an inventory of all government land along the ‘10 mile coastal strip’ and other parts of the Coast Province for conversion to community land for eventual adjudication and resettlement.
• Protect the Land Rights of Vulnerable Groups and Minority Communities.
• Protect the rights of women in issues concerning land inheritance and matrimonial property.
• Ensure that productive land is put to effective use.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: ENSURING CLEAN WATER,EFFICIENT SANITATION AND EXPANDING IRRIGATION
The Challenges:
Access to water is the key to survival; therefore, it is a basic requirement for survival and promotion of human dignity. Only 2% of Kenya’s total surface area is covered by water. A large area of the country is arid and semi-arid. Two-thirds of the country is covered by semi-desert or desert land.
As a result, only about 160,000 sq km of land, most of which is situated in the wetter southwest area, is suitable for the current population of approximately 33 million.
Future projections show that by 2025, per capita water availability will drop from current 650 cubic meters per year to 235 cubic meters as a result of population growth and climate change.
Lack of proper management structures at the Ministry of Water and Irrigation has forced it to return Kshs 3.63 billion to the Treasury in the last financial year, thus falling below its target of providing clean water.
Access to sanitation is a fundamental issue of human dignity. It is inextricably connected to all the Millennium Development Goals involving the environment, education, gender equality and the reduction of child mortality and poverty.
The sanitation coverage is low, estimated at less than 50%. This means that one out of two people do not have adequate sanitation. The urban slums mired in garbage and informal settlements have serious sanitation problems.
Approximately 80% of hospital attendance is due to preventable diseases and 50% of these diseases are water, sanitation and hygiene related.
The irrigation schemes and canals are in a desperate state and need rehabilitation and expansion.
Our Commitments:
We will ensure efficient and equitable delivery of clean water.
We will pursue the reform policies stated in the Water Act (2002) and ensure that funding and implementation are done in an equitable manner.
We will draw up a strategic plan for rural and urban sanitation and review them annually.
We will ensure proper disposal of solid wastes and encourage the adoption of recycling technologies.
We will invest heavily in sanitation facilities and increase its coverage so we can achieve the Millennium Development Goals for sanitation.
We will promote the building of decent sanitation facilities in all areas and encourage appropriate behaviour to foster a hygienic environment.
We will invest and expand irrigation schemes.
Your ODM Government will:
• Map the country to determine specific regional needs and introduce special measures into the policy to give priority on water provision to the historically marginalised areas.
• Ensure that 80% of Kenyans will have access to potable water by drilling boreholes, constructing gravity piped water supplies and expanding urban piped water supplies.
• Shorten the distances household members will have to walk to collect water.
• Strengthen key services of hydrology and hydrogeology in the Ministry.
• Build capacity at the Ministry to absorb the funds needed to enable the realization of the Millennium Development Goals on water.
• Commence a project of harvesting and storing rain water as twin solutions to the stemming problems like flooding as well as water shortages.
• Ensure that the water drainage systems in all urban areas are redesigned to facilitate the harvesting and recycling of rain water within these areas.
• Ensure that the water regulatory board is a strong, efficient, corruption-free institution that ensures effective delivery of service.
• Construct dams along rivers Nzoia, Yala and Nyando and identify other sites for smaller dams. Apart from facilitating irrigation, dam construction will solve the perennial problem of annual floods in Budalangi, Kano Plains and other flood hotspots in the country.
• Undertake a feasibility study for the construction of a 54km canal from River Tana to Garissa.
• Build a pipeline to transfer water from River Tana to the arid and semi-arid regions.
• Rehabilitate and expand the capacity of the Mzima water pipeline serving the coastal towns.
• Ensure waste management does not foul our clean water points.
• Develop economically and environmentally acceptable methods of waste disposal with recycling waste as an integral approach to waste management in cities and towns.
• Intensify public education efforts concerning waste disposal as a health issue.
• Provide adequate toilet and hand washing facilities in schools to reduce the incidence of sanitation related diseases and teach relevant skills to maintain personal hygiene.
• Increase the number of self-help community irrigation schemes and encourage building of earth dams.
• Rehabilitate and expand the major irrigation schemes.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: DEVOLVING POWER
The Challenges:
Every governance structure has its strengths and weaknesses when viewed in a particular historical and social context. Consequently, in order for any system to be in tandem with the peoples’ past experiences and future aspirations, it must be subjected to constant critical assessment, review and adjustment.
For more than 44 years, however, we have operated under an overly centralized unitary government system. The system has negated the very essential need to embrace local or peripheral views as the bedrock of local level governance. Our people at the grassroots have been mere spectators of the development policies and national resource allocation, expenditure, as all these policies are formulated and executed by the centre and its agents.
The greatest need for us now is to devise ways of reviewing our unitary system because it has proved largely ineffective and inefficient. It has bred vast inequalities in incomes and well-being. It has led to regional disparities in infrastructural development as well as partiality in the provision of healthcare, education and other social amenities. Kenya today has the dubious distinction of being the third most income unequal country in the world.
The challenge of deciding on whether or not Kenyans need devolution squarely belongs solely to the people. Devolution is a political concept that denotes the transfer of political, administrative and legal authority, power and responsibility from the centre to the lower levels of government.
Our Commitments:
We will reform the system of governance to empower local communities. By so doing, we will enable the transfer of power to communities with strong democratic and accountable local level governance structures.
We will disperse power to communities and engage our people in active citizenship by involving them directly in the management of their neighborhoods and the services they use. We will do this because we vehemently believe that devolution without democracy is just tyranny on a local scale.
We will entrench the CDF by raising budgetary allocations according to need and local demands.
We will ensure transparency and accountability in its administration.
We will respect communities and recognize the fact that they have distinct needs and ambitions. We will focus on the reality that wananchi are genuinely concerned about what happens in their neighborhoods and want to be involved in the decisions that affect them whether they reside in Karen or Kariobangi. We will also recognize that too often these ambitions are thwarted by authoritarian micro-management, corruption and centralization of our central government structures.
Your ODM Government will:
• Establish a framework for even and equitable development of all the regions of the country
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: SAVING OUR ENVIRONMENT
The Challenges:
Kenya’s deforestation rate was at its highest during the Moi regime characterised by a great appetite for land grabbing with total disregard for environmental protection. Consequently, we face massive environmental challenges now.
Deforestation, water resources depletion, threats to biodiversity and fisheries resources, human habitat degradation, pollution and climate change are all priority issues that need urgent attention.
Water resource management is a major environmental issue, and the demand for existing water resources for agriculture, manufacturing and urban uses is becoming a constraint to sustainable development.
Soil nutrient levels are declining owing to inappropriate farming which subsequently compels farmers to expand into marginal areas and into indigenous forests, thus putting pressure on biodiversity.
Owing to climate change, we are getting more vulnerable to extreme weather conditions. Frequent floods and droughts challenge the capacity of the Government and of the private sector to maintain sound economic growth. Nearly 3.5 million Kenyans required food aid and other humanitarian assistance following poor rains in 2006. Nearly 70% of livestock were lost in arid and semi-arid regions. Climate change cannot be ignored as it affects the foundations of human and economic development of our nation.
Our Commitments:
We will combat escalating environmental desertification and degradation by ensuring that environmental protection is built into every economic decision in all areas of government policy.
We will scale up Professor Wangari Maathai’s Nobel award winning Green Belt initiative.
We will ensure a participatory approach with local communities to ensure sustainable forest conservation and management.
Your ODM Government will:
• Place concern for the environment at the heart of Government’s policy –from housing and energy policies to policies on global warming.
• Undertake environmental audits for major existing projects and environmental impact assessments for new projects.
• Introduce measures whereby local communities will share revenue from the core management of natural resources.
• Make greater use of carbon emissions trading and environmental taxation to pursue our “green agenda” both to deter pollution and provide resources to invest in sustainable alternatives.
• Introduce plans for the micro-generation of power.
• Strengthen regulations on industrial pollution, intensify the monitoring of environmental pollution and ensure that the polluter pays for the damage.
• Promote civic environmental education and awareness campaigns nationally and take action to implement waste recycling.
• Introduce strict measures to fight against water hyacinth and bilharzia infestation. The fishing sector faces continuous challenges as a result of environmental degradation of Lakes Victoria, Naivasha and Turkana. Therefore, improving the stability of annual fish stocks is an urgent agenda.
• Protect and conserve water towers including Mount Kenya, Mau Escarpment, Mount Elgon, the Aberdares and Cherangany Hills.
• Introduce fast-growing bamboo trees to replenish forests stripped of timber, providing alternative fuel wood to local populations in the absence of other energy sources.
• Conserve mangrove and marine resources.
• Encourage the use of bio-degradable packaging materials.
• Develop recycling of waste structures in all cities and municipalities.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: ENSURING DISABILITY RIGHTS
The Challenges:
In the absence of official statistics, it is estimated that at least 10% of Kenya’s population are persons with disabilities. The current Constitution of Kenya does not prohibit discrimination against people on the basis of disability.
The Persons with Disabilities Act was enacted in 2003 by the Kibaki Government but there is a need to constitutionally entrench protection and empowerment of persons with disabilities. Some of the rights that are sought by persons with disabilities, such as the right to affirmative measures in respect of parliamentary representation, are constitutional issues and need to be included in a new constitution.
Certain key sections of the Persons with Disabilities Act (2003) have not been implemented. Immediate implementation of sections concerning the reservation of employment for persons with disabilities (section 13), National Development Fund for Persons with Disabilities (section 32) and exemption from tax (section 35) would greatly improve the livelihoods of persons with disabilities.
The “national machinery for ensuring the rights of persons with disabilities,” refers to the mechanisms that the state has in place for ensuring the rights of persons with disabilities. This constitutes two basic actions. First, the National Council for Persons with Disabilities was established in 2004 with an annual budget of Kshs 6 million. This is less than two months’ salary for the Director of the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission! Second, “a desk” in the Ministry of Gender, Sports, Culture and Social Services was established to deal with issues of disabilities.
These mechanisms are inadequate for addressing the needs of at least 10% of the country’s population.The free primary education promise has not yet been realised for children with disabilities. They face physical access challenges and lack of teaching aids, such as Braille or sign language interpretation necessary to facilitate their full access to free education. The dream of universal free primary education is, therefore, yet to be actualised for children with disabilities.
Our Commitments:
We will ensure that all vulnerable groups in our society are not discriminated against and are given opportunities to be productive and self-reliant.
We will introduce the Bomas Draft Constitution that addressed the concerns of persons with disabilities. Issues such as representation had a reservation of at least 5% of all appointive offices for persons with disabilities as well as affirmative action provisions in the chapters on the legislature and the devolved governments.
We will enforce the provisions of the Persons with Disabilities Act to improve the quality of life of the disabled in our community.
We will increase access to education and training; provide employment opportunities; and increase access to health services.
We will improve coverage, efficiency and effectiveness of the services for people with disabilities.
We will implement relevant programmes, initiatives and services designed to care for, protect and develop children with disabilities (physical and mental) to their full potential.
Your ODM Government will:
• Develop and enforce a policy on ensuring full access for children with disabilities to the free primary education programs.
• Fully operationalise the Persons with the Disabilities
Act.
• Entrench the protection of people with disabilities in the new constitution.
• Through affirmative action ensure parliamentary representation and inclusion for appointments in the public and diplomatic service.
• Encourage the private sector to recruit more people with disabilities to appropriate positions.
• Ensure free universal delivery of mobility aids for the handicapped.
• Promote awareness and sensitisation of disability issues, particularly with regard to the UN minimum rules in the equalisation of opportunities for persons with disabilities.
• Encourage participation of people with disabilities in decision-making and contribute wherever possible to their expenditure on social services.
• Actively promote sports for the physically and mentally challenged and improve training facilities.
• Ensure that those that are least able and most vulnerable are adequately cared for.
• Promote and reward exemplary achievements by individuals with disabilities who have excelled in their chosen career.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: PROMOTING OUR HERITAGE,CULTURE,MEDIA & SPORTS
The Challenges:
In a 24 hours / 7days a week television and Internet age, our heritage and cultures are under threat. We need to preserve the best for posterity. The Kibaki Government boasts about liberalising the broadcasting sector by listing the number of FM stations and private television channels it has licensed. However, the glaring omission is the reform of the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) as a public broadcaster which remains under total government control and is a biased mouthpiece tha covers 80% of the country.
There has been a lot of political interference, bad management and corruption in many of the sporting organizations responsible for all the various disciplines. Quite a lot of sporting infrastructure has been poorly maintained.
Our Commitments:
We will strengthen the unity of our nation by maintaining our cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity as we believe that encouraging cultural diversity is more in keeping with democracy than forced uniformity.
We will develop and reinforce the national ethos of honesty, hard-work, self-reliance, discipline and patriotism.
We will ensure complete independence of the media from government control.
We will ensure that Kenya Broadcasting Corporation is fully independent of political bias, and its role as primary broadcaster will be to serve the public interest.
We believe in the universal principles of journalism, which require media houses to be responsible, fair, accurate and unbiased on matters of public interest.
We will reclaim all recreational areas that have been grabbed.
We will ensure that sporting facilities are well maintained and managed.
We will encourage greater participation of children in sports and drama through their schools curricula.
We will bring a competitive spirit back in Kenyan teams participating in various regional and international events. Participation in team sports plays a critical role in political and social integration as different ethnic members come together to make a team.
We will nurture and sustain a thriving national music, literature, art, drama and the film industry.
We will reward and recognize the great talents of Kenyans in the fields of sports, media, culture, arts, music, theatre and film.
We will promote moral and religious education in all educational institutions.
Your ODM Government will:
In Heritage and Culture
• Establish more museums and cultural centres in various regions.
• Pursue policies that instill a greater sense of nationhood, while at the same time promoting greater awareness of cultural and linguistic diversity through programmes on radio and television.
• Support upkeep of our monuments and historical places of interests.
• Launch a national campaign to elicit the best idea to mark our 50th anniversary of our independence.
In Media
• Ensure that broadcasters will be expected, encouraged and enabled to defend national pride and identity through the production of high-quality local content that reflects the cultural, social and economic realities and aspirations of society.
• Ensure that the broadcasting industry present news and programmes with integrity and decency, respecting dignity and intelligence of the audience, as well as the subject of the news.
• Encourage the media to promote peaceful co-existence among citizens and strive to effect positive change in society and within government.
In Sports
• Establish a Sports Policy and Legislation Unit that will have the responsibility of developing policies and guidelines in areas of women and sports, junior sports, disabilities sports, code of conduct, anti-doping regime and sports infrastructure.
• Increase funding for all sports and cultural activities by, among other ways, setting up a national sports lottery to assist in building world-class sporting facilities.
• Establish a Kenya Sports Commission, Kenya Institute of Sports and National Sports Academies for various sporting disciplines, such as soccer, volleyball and athletics.
• Encourage private sector participation in the development of sports with a particular focus on sports marketing, branding, promotion of athletes, commercial sponsorship, sports export promotion and sports tourism.
• Build new stadiums in every region of the devolved government.
CHAPTER NINETEEN: MAXIMIZING THE POTENTIAL OF OUR DIASPORA
The Challenges:
There are as many as 1.8 million Kenyans living and working abroad as professionals and entrepreneurs. The remittances from the Kenyan diaspora account for a significant amount of Kenya’s foreign exchange amounting to approximately 3.8% of the national income. They remit over Kshs 90 billion a year.
This by far outstrips the net foreign direct investment (FDI) of Kshs 3.6 billion ($ 50.4 million) which accounted for only 0.41% of Kenya’s gross domestic product. These remittances contribute significantly to the country’s development.
The Kenyan diaspora has huge potential, and we need to maximize their influence in our economy.
Our Commitments:
We will cherish our most invaluable resource – Kenyans abroad.
We will empower the Kenyans in the diaspora to participate in the social, economic and political life of this country.
Your ODM Government will:
• Introduce in partnership with local banks and/or the Postal Corporation the most cost-effective and swift way to make remittances from abroad. There are high money transfer costs that are retained abroad in commissions.
• Introduce rights to dual citizenship and to voting.
• Create an online Diaspora Data Bank to collect baseline information on Kenyans abroad for networking. There are many renowned experts in leading academic and financial institutions. Their skills and knowledge can be tapped by those Kenyans living at home to share and update their knowledge and skills, thus reversing brain drain to brain gain. The one-stop website should also provide up-to-date information on investment opportunities and jobs in the public sector.
• Attract Diaspora investors and entrepreneurs by assisting them in setting up joint ventures with domestic companies. The members of the Diaspora will be assisted quickly through the maze of company registration, licenses and permits required to start a business.
• Consider giving tax holidays for Kenyans who start up business upon returning home. A one time waiver may be granted by relaxing import duty on items necessary for start-up.
• Consider setting up Special Economic Zones, exclusively for industries to be set up by nonresident Kenyans and people of Kenyan origin.
• Facilitate charitable ventures proposed by the members of the Diaspora in Kenya, such as building health centres or supplying toys for nurseries etc.
• Encourage domestic financial institutions to provide foreign currency mortgages to match the currency in which the salary for non-resident Kenyans is earned, thus eliminating exchange risk.
• Employ qualified Kenyans in the host countries as local staff in the embassies.
• Encourage the Diaspora to assist the Kenya Tourist Board in marketing Kenya as the best holiday destination in their host countries. For example, they can distribute travel literature in local libraries and write articles in local papers extolling the beauty of Kenya.
• Assist Kenyan women abroad who are enduring violent breakdowns in marriage and are at serious risk. The Mission can provide a safe refuge and passage home if necessary.
• Appreciate and honour members of the Diaspora who have excelled in the host countries either in academia, commerce and philanthropy by awarding them medals.
CHAPTER TWENTY: PURSUING A PROGRESSIVE PAN-AFRICAN AND FOREIGN POLICY
The Challenges:
We live in a global village and in an era of rapid globalisation. Kenya is a member of the United Nations (UN), Commonwealth, African Union (AU), Common Market of Eastern & Southern Africa (COMESA), Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), World Trade Organisation (WTO), New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the East African Community (EAC).
The decisions made in these regional and international forums have clear impact on the lives of Kenyans. Consequently, ODM Governments’ Foreign Policy must ensure that Kenya is both well positioned to derive maximum benefit from its interactions and relationships with all external partners, agencies, and institutions.
Kenya is a signatory to a number of international conventions and treaties but has yet to domesticate them. These treaties and conventions seek to enhance the human rights of various categories of persons including women, children, and other minorities. Their non-ratification and implementation fails to protect vulnerable people.
Being a member of various international and regional trade-related market friendly regimes, Kenya, like many developing nations, has borne the brunt of unfair trading regimes that confer disadvantages to our people.
Kenya is not satisfactorily represented in the high echelons of the various international organisations as compared to some other African countries. Hence as a nation we do not have sufficient leverage to ensure that negotiations which impact our lives are clearly articulated and our long-term interests promoted.
Kenya plays a pivotal role as a regional leader in peace building and conflict resolution without playing a role of “big brother.”
We live in an era of continuing regional insecurity and international terrorism, and therefore our Defence Forces have to be on full alert to defend our national integrity.
Our Commitment:
We will uphold and defend the territorial integrity and the new constitutional order of the Republic of Kenya.
We will actively promote Kenya in the world family of nations as a shining beacon of a country that remains united, secure, democratic and, thus, at ease with itself.
We will re-examine our membership of various international institutions and trading blocs to ensure that our interests remain paramount and fulfilled.
We will showcase Kenya as a beacon of peace, economic, environment and multilateral diplomacy.
We will ensure that our Missions abroad are geared towards promoting commerce as the new driver of our foreign policy.
We will maintain well-disciplined, trained, equipped and gender-sensitive Defence Forces that will assist regional and global security by way of international peace-keeping operations.
Your ODM Government will:
• Put Kenyan interests first.
• Promote peace, democracy, respect for human rights and commitment to social justice at home and abroad.
• Pursue a Pan-Africanist foreign policy.
• Accelerate greater integration within the East African Community on the basis of equity. We will intensify our efforts towards integration of economies and harmonization of our laws and practice among the EAC and the full implementation of the provisions of all common instruments for a common customs union.
• Aggressively market Kenyan companies and products in the lucrative markets within the EAC, COMESA, SADC and other member countries of the African Union.
• Welcome and co-operate with traditional and new development partners who are committed to assist Kenya within the framework of the Government’s set of priorities outlined in this manifesto.
• Strengthen relationships with Europe, the United States and Canada. We will also seek new ties with emerging economies in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Russia. We will further reinforce our trading relationships with the Middle East, India, China and the countries of South Asia and Australasia.
• Promote the resolution of any conflicts whether in the region or elsewhere and use our “good offices” to deliver long-lasting peace.
• Ratify, domesticate and implement treaties and conventions that promote the values and rights of Kenyans.
• Review and rationalise the various trade agreements to which Kenya is party. We will push in concert with other affected nations for the review of disadvantageous terms and agreements to ensure that Kenya’s interests are of paramount concern and safeguarded. We will unite with other developing nations to fight for better terms of trade.
• Ensure that constant and effective lobbying takes place within regional and international institutions to promote Kenyan citizens to occupy top positions.
• Lobby for control of the international arms trade as it fuels so many conflicts in our region, thus robbing the poor of personal security and the chance of prosperity. We will double our efforts to control and eradicate the flow of small arms within the region by strengthening border controls.
• Play a proactive role in regional and international environmental negotiations because pollution and
environmental degradation do not respect national boundaries. All countries need to work together to tackle climate change and protect the world’s environment for the future generations.
• Enhance the role of the Foreign Service Institute and build capacity so it becomes a premier institute in the region for training in diplomacy, peacebuilding and negotiations skills training.
• Ensure that the appointments to the Diplomatic Service are governed by the overriding principle of selection based on merit. It should sustain programmes to promote and deliver the principles of equal opportunities with a special emphasis on recruiting members from the under-represented groups such as women, youth, and individuals with disabilities.
• Ensure that our Defence Forces are best-equipped, well-trained and better-remunerated in order to defend our territorial integrity and provide national security against potential terrorist threat.
Fellow Kenyans
We share with you this blueprint for creating a prosperous, democratic and equitable Kenya.
This is a testament of our cherished faith in Kenyans’ ability to reclaim and transform their
homeland. It is indeed a seal of our covenant with the people. Through these words of commitment
we affirm our resolve to end the politics of exclusion, betrayal and misappropriation of national
resources.
The majority of Kenyans have had to endure the grinding combination of poverty and inequality,
regional imbalances in income, infrastructure and social provisions.
In Kenya, where you are from, what your parents did, the school you went to, your ethnicity,
your physical ability and gender determine your chances in life, your educational attainments,
your work prospects and even how long you will live.
Our proposals for accountability, dispersal of political power, decentralisation of public services
and support for local communities will help to reduce inequality. These changes go to the heart
of what is wrong in Kenya today.
The Kibaki Government has no solutions as they are part of the problem. They must not be
allowed to work for the few at the expense of the many.
Only we will deliver prosperity, ensure equity and guarantee accountability.
I warmly commend ODM’s Plan for Government.
God bless you; God bless Kenya.
Hon. Raila Amolo Odinga
