President William Ruto (right) chairs a Cabinet meeting at State House in Nairobi on September 17, 2024.
President William Ruto has set a June deadline for every ministry to achieve priority projects amid public pressure for the Kenya Kwanza administration to deliver on pre-election promises.
Cabinet Secretaries (CSs) and Principal Secretaries (PSs) have formally committed to achieving specific deliverables in an ongoing performance contract for ministries and state departments.
So far CSs Andrew Karanja (Agriculture), Wycliffe Oparanya (Co-operatives and MSMEs), Alice Wahome (Lands, Public Works and Housing) and Salim Mvurya (Investment and Trade) have negotiated and validated projects to be delivered under the provided timeframe.
The CSs assigned the commitments alongside their PSs in the ambitious exercise being supervised by the Deputy Chief of Staff in the Executive Office of the President responsible for Performance and Delivery Management in Government, Mr Eliud Owalo, and the Secretary to the Cabinet Ms Mercy Wanjau
CS Wahome committed to have her ministry construct 66,155 affordable housing units to various levels of completion as well as 52,758 social housing units to various levels of completion by June.
The ministry further commits to construct 41,964 housing units consisting of 24,152 for National Police, 10,033 for Kenya Defense Forces and 7,779 for Student accommodation to various completion levels. Also to be achieved in the current financial year is the registration and issuance of 280,000 title deeds covering all 47 counties.
Land Value Index
“The Ministry commits to develop a Land Value Index for three (3) more counties namely: Migori; Homa Bay and Lamu to guide the compensation for infrastructure projects, guide investment and curb speculation on land,” states the document.
CS Wahome also committed to decentralise land services by opening four new land registries in Malindi, Kajiado South, Gilgil and South Imenti.
Under Agriculture, CS Karanja committed to facilitate the provision of subsidised fertiliser as a way of enhancing the production of maize and other crops across the country. The CS committed to have at least 12.5 million bags of fertiliser distributed to farmers by next year. The ministry further committed to register an additional 200,000 farmers on the e-voucher system.
“To enhance value addition, market access and competitiveness of the dairy industry, the Cabinet secretary through the Livestock Value Chain Support Project commits to install 210 bulk milk coolers in 36 counties,” Mr Karanja promised.
The document adds, “To increase market access for livestock products in line with the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda on agricultural pillar, the Cabinet Secretary commits to improve food safety for foods of animal origin by having 15 milk processing plants, eight export slaughterhouses.”
Construction of eight grain aggregation, drying and storage facilities at Kibuline, Mbeu, Mwendi Urithi Lailuba (Meru County); Mogogosiek (Bomet County); Matayos (Busia County); Suwerwa (Trans Nzoia County); and Bakule and Moiben New Progressive FCS (Uasin Gishu County) are also part of the ministry plan to mechanise agriculture across the country.
Under the Trade docket, CS Mvurya committed to coordinate the implementation of the Buy Kenya-Build Kenya initiative. The ministry also committed to fill up export processing zones and complete the operationalisation of four more. It further seeks to develop an e-commerce policy and a digital services export strategy.
Export Processing Zones
“In order to nurture SME exporters with the majority local Kenyan shareholding in the Horticulture/Food Processing, Textile/Apparel, Leather, Commercial Crafts, BPO and ICT sectors, the Ministry commits to complete the development of and operationalisation of Four (4) Flagship Export Processing Zones projects as well as the construction of 19 County Aggregation and Industrial Park (CAIPs),” committed the ministry.
On his part, CS Oparanya committed to waive coffee debts worth Sh2 billion in the current financial year as well as ensure participation in national and international coffee trade fairs to promote the produce. The ministry also committed to enhance access to affordable financing for MSMEs, as well as enable the strengthening of governance framework and policy reforms to create a conducive business environment for MSMEs.
Data by the government shows that a total of 21.87 million individuals have so far joined and benefitted from the Hustler Fund, which has since disbursed Sh54.9 billion to applicants.
The government has, however, noted difficulty in recovering the money from defaulters. More than half of the borrowers under the financial inclusion fund have defaulted on repayments totalling Sh11 billion, while the non-performing loans ratio hits 21 per cent. This is according to the State Department for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
“I’m confident that the targets we have set for the Ministries are realistic and achievable, all factors being held constant. The Performance indicators are objectively verifiable and the same will inform the anchorage of Performance appraisal at the end of the activity period.
The Performance contracting process is a major milestone for the Government in institutionalising Results-Based Management at all levels in the Public Service because “What gets measured gets done”,” said Mr Owalo.
