MUIA: Kenya on course to attain Vision 2030 growth targets

The director general of the Kenya Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat, Dr Julius Muia, spoke to Njiraini Muchira about the progress of the long-term development masterplan.

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Kenya Vision 2030 seeks to transform the country into an industrialising, middle-income country. You took over one year ahead of the close of the second medium term plan (in a series of such five-year plans). How would you rate the progress so far?

Kenyans should understand that Vision 2030 is a comprehensive long-term development blueprint cutting across the political, economic and social spheres. In terms of implementation, the second medium term plan of 2013-2017 has 182 flagship projects. Most of these projects are on course.

They include energy generation, the standard gauge railway, expansion of higher education opportunities and the implementation of the county system of governance.

To most Kenyans, the mention of Vision 2030 brings to mind projects like the SGR, Lapsset and Konza City. Why is this perception so deeply embedded?

This may be the general thinking but in reality, Kenyans perceive Vision 2030 quite differently. Late last year we went on a roadshow across the country and were surprised that free maternity, free healthcare and free education are the three main things that Kenyans associate Vision 2030 with, because they affect them directly.

The large projects seem prominent just because of visibility. It is also important to add that Vision 2030 is not a static document and we have incorporated other issues that did not get much prominence as flagship projects. These include the oil and minerals sector, as well as climate change and national values and ethics.

The drafters of the Vision 2030 blueprint were clear it should be divorced from governments in power. The feeling among many Kenyans is that the current government has discarded the spirit of the Vision and is implementing its own projects. Is this the case?

The Vision 2030 blueprint is a unifying document for all Kenyans. This is why it was important to divorce it from politics. The feeling that the Jubilee government has discarded the spirit of the Vision is not the case.

In 2013, we looked at the manifestos of all the major political parties and over 90 per cent of what they promised Kenyans was Vision 2030 projects. That is why projects being implemented by Jubilee like the SGR, the Digital Literacy Programme, expanding irrigation schemes and energy generation projects all fall under Vision 2030. There is no project that the Jubilee government is implementing that can be said not to be part of the Vision 2030.

Why is the Delivery Secretariat accrediting projects by private investors as Vision 2030 flagship projects?

In the economic pillar, most of the flagship projects are intended to be implemented by the private sector. That is why we are excited to give such projects accreditation, as long as they are within the framework of the Vision, in that, they are transformative.

More importantly, the private sector is essentially the driver of economic growth and what the government is doing is providing an environment for it to thrive.

When the Vision was launched in 2008, the goal was to achieve a 10 per cent GDP growth rate by 2012. This has never been achieved and still seems far off. Why?

Vision 2030 is a long-term development plan. The fact that we have not achieved the 10 per cent growth does not mean we should condemn Vision 2030 as a failure.

Kenyans should understand we are still laying the foundation for sustainable growth with projects like SGR, energy and the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport (Lapsset) Corridor project, which alone will contribute two per cent to GDP annually. Also, one cannot ignore the fact that a large component of our economy is informal and does not get measured. As far as I am concerned, we are on course to attaining 10 per cent growth in coming years.

Kenya is heading to the elections divided, while corruption has become a way of life. Is this a testament of failure of the political pillar?

In 2010, Kenyans passed a new Constitution that seeks to cement an issue-based, people-centred and result-oriented political system. There have been many gains because the political space in Kenya is wide open.

That said, we have realised the need to introduce national values and ethics as part of flagship projects in the second medium term plan to deal with the problem of divisive politics and corruption.

We want to promote values and ethics for people to stop glorifying selfish gains. But we must understand that changing values in a nation is a generation thing that can take upto 30 years.