Here’s what to expect from a Kenya Kwanza administration

President-elect William Samoei Ruto’s election campaign was informed by an ideological paradigm shift pegged on addressing the economic plight of Kenyans. I believe this shift from re-engineering power to re-engineering economics by focusing on the ordinary citizens is what won us the election. It is now time to stop politicking and focus on delivering on our promises to Kenyans.

Upon assuming office, if the Supreme Court upholds his victory, Ruto will find a full in-tray at Harambee House, with a myriad of urgent challenges and competing priorities amidst limited resources.

Quick wins

Kenya Kwanza is under no illusion that we can accomplish everything overnight, but we shall prioritise and sequence interventions into quick wins, short and medium-term interventions to get the country back on track. On short-term measures, logic will prioritise high-impact interventions with the biggest effect at the bottom of the income pyramid.

The five high-impact areas of urgent intervention are expected to be: bringing down the cost of living, eradicating hunger, creating jobs, expanding the tax revenue base and improving the balance of payments. These will be anchored on the key sectors that form the core pillars of Ruto’s plan, including agriculture; micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME); housing and settlement; healthcare; digital superhighway; and the creative economy.

To realise the Kenya Kwanza agenda as stated in the manifesto and various meetings during the campaign period, agriculture is expected to be the silver bullet, informed by its potential to significantly reduce hunger within a short time span. Agriculture can also immediately bring down the cost of living since food constitutes about 54 per cent of most household budgets, and it equally has the highest potential for job creation.

To unravel its full potential, the Kenya Kwanza government should provide affordable working capital to farmers and also transform two million poor farmers from food-deficit to surplus producers through input finance and intensive agricultural extension support, with a minimum productivity target of Sh50,000 per acre, raise the productivity of key food value chains, reduce dependence on basic food imports by 30 per cent, revamp underperforming/ collapsed export crops, expand emerging ones (coffee, cashew nuts, pyrethrum, avocado, macadamia nuts) and enhance the tea value chain through blending and branding.

The second pillar of the Kenya Kwanza plan is transformation of the MSME sector, which employs 85 per cent of the country’s 19 million work-force. Kenya National Bureau of Statistics data shows the country has not even scratched the surface towards realising the full potential of MSMEs. This potential has largely been hindered by the hostile and informal operating environment that MSMEs operate in, coupled with lack of prudent policies to spur growth.

To give MSMEs the pride of place in the economy, there is a need to prioritise decriminalisation of such businesses by enacting a right-to-work law that would make licences and a location to trade an entitlement to every deserving citizen.

Informal traders

One way to achieve this is by working with the county governments to take steps like providing one-street trading premises per 50 urban residents, with a view to increasing average daily income of informal traders while reducing bureaucracy and regulatory compliance costs.

The Kenya Kwanza plan should also review and rationalise all business licences and cap total licences at 1.5 per cent of turnover and enact administrative burden law.

To alleviate financing deficit for MSMEs, the proposed Sh50 billion a year fund will provide MSMEs with 100 per cent access to affordable finance.

But for Kenya’s workforce to deliver in the agricultural sector and realise the full potential of MSMEs, we must upgrade and align the health and housing sectors.

 Kenya Kwanza plans to deliver Universal Health Coverage partly financed by government and the private sector and reconfigure the National Health Insurance Fund to make it fit for purpose, more efficient and affordable.

To meet Kenya’s current estimated two million housing units deficit and bring down the cost of housing, Kenya Kwanza is expected to increase supply of new housing to 250,000 units annually and the percentage of affordable housing supply from two per cent to 50 per cent by structuring affordable long-term housing finance schemes to guarantee offtake of houses from developers.

There are also plans to grow the number of mortgages from 30,000 to one million by facilitating lowering of costs. The housing crisis is also an economic opportunity through projects in the construction sector that create thousands of direct and indirect jobs.

There is also the attendant opportunity to strengthen the capacity of the Jua Kali sector to produce high quality materials for affordable housing.

The Kenya Kwanza manifesto has been the most public-consultative plan for government since independence.

Kenyans expect the prospective administration to immediately bring down the cost of living, alleviate hunger, create jobs, fix the healthcare system, provide a decent standard of living and bring down the spiralling national debt. But plans are only as good as effective alignment of structure to the strategy plus the architecture of the implementation team. Ruto’s enthusiasm, passion, energy, drive and results-orientation has been evident throughout his public career.

Supported by a dedicated Deputy President-elect Rigathi Gachagua, vastly experienced Chief Minister-designate Musalia Mudavadi and facilitated by the impeccable team of technocrats and professionals, Kenya Kwanza is ready to be held accountable for results. We are equal to the task, and we are good to go.

Mr Owalo is an economist, management consultant and strategy expert.