What Kenya must do to attain the Vision 2030 growth goal
Posted Friday, August 15 2008 at 19:04
After launching Vision 2030, many Kenyans have started making it a reality through various initiatives and personal involvement. And analysts are either supporting or criticising the Government’s socio-economic development blueprint.
But what is encouraging is that it has generated interest among almost every Kenyan, and the nation is talking about or taking stock of the much-touted strategy.
But reading through the medium-term plan and the popular version of its policy paper, it is clear that realising the objectives will need the support of all the interested parties and the public in general.
However, Kenya has a negative history, grounded on the culture of impunity that must first be addressed to psyche the entire populace to work together along the slippery road to Vision 2030.
To achieve the vision, Kenya will need to expand its democratic space and guarantee legal fairness for all. Grand corruption must be punished as severely as petty corruption. There should also be a wage policy for a fair rewarding system that will narrow down the gaping income gap.
Historical injustices must be addressed, so must the land issue so that the landless are settled. People who gained from the past disorderly regimes must be willing to own up to their actions and surrender the loot.
Young people must be put in the central knob that will twist open the door of the engine running the vision’s vehicle. Without meaningful involvement of young people the vision is doomed to failure. For as it stands now, a large percentage of youths has been pushed to the periphery of development and condemned to the dustbin of despair and hopelessness.
The political leadership must begin to do what they preach. For instance, it annoys one to hear them condemn the mayhem in secondary schools when they have been the cause of negative modelling of the youth. Politicians must declare their wealth and stop using young people as a shield as they quench their political thirst.
In the past, they have fronted the youth to fight their battles, only to dump them at the table of sharing power and the benefits.
The recommendations of various probe committees instituted by the President and Parliament to address past and present injustices must be enacted. And the Ndung’u land report and the others must be made public to renew our faith in governance and the power of transparency.
We need motivation and inspiration to feel equal and harness our doubts and fears. Kenya is not growing economically as fast as is expected not because the people are lazy. It is the state of disorder that has demoralised them. Kenyans need a natural respect founded on the understanding that any of them is equal to and as important as the other.
OULU GPO, Nairobi.
1 comment:
I am thinking of 2030, when I will be 44. Besides my generation, the other people who will be so significant are those 10 - 15 years our juniors. These are people now aged 12 to 17 years and will then be 34 to 39 years old. Let us take that down ten more years: they will be 24. We will be “facing out” and letting them take some of our positions(at least some).
If vision 2030 is to be accomplished, it does not take the current leaders who are 50 and above. They will be 72? If anything, most of the ideas being implemented are those of the young tucks working in their offices. Since the vision is from the young, the passion is with the young, so the “old” do not feel anything for the possible lack of accomplishment of the vision since it wont matter so much to them. Those who will be alive by 2030 will have secured substantial amounts to allow them to resign and rest in their safe havens and watch form afar as Kenya deteriorates.
We (my generation) are the people to enjoy the benefits of vision 2030 and my children are the people to sustain it, alongside the adolescents roaming all over town and the high school kids who are causing havoc in their schools. Unless we shall concentrate on filling the next parliament with young people (I don’t think I am the only one who has met bright and passionate young people who aspire political positions), vision 2030 will be just as good as it is: beautifully written. Unless we can create a forum of mentorship and empowerment of these high school kids we have recently termed as a menace and a shame, all we will work to accomplish will be squandered by them in front of our very own eyes. Unless we make a resolution to be better parents than our parents, we shall have more to complain about in the dailies of 2030 than our parents are currently complaining about.
Post a Comment