Deputy President William Ruto (right) receiving President Uhuru Kenyatta
to make his speech during the Madaraka Day celebrations at Nyayo
Stadium on June 1, 2015. BILLY MUTAI |
NATION MEDIA GROUP
Fellow Kenyans,
Friends of Kenya,
I
welcome and appreciate every one of you for joining us today to
celebrate this important occasion in our calendar. June First (1st) is
one of the most memorable and inspiring days of our life as a
nation.
Indeed, history records this day as the beginning of our journey to
sovereignty and independence.
On that
first Madaraka Day, we assumed moral, legal and political
responsibility for our destiny as a nation. On that day, we proclaimed
that we would be totally responsible for our destiny and that we would
join our compatriots in the fight for the freedom of those countries in
African that remained under colonial rule. We embraced this sacred
mandate, signed with the blood of our freedom fighters.
Fellow Kenyans,
We
won our freedom because we worked in unity, and shared a common vision:
to be a free people, to govern ourselves and to determine our destiny.
Our
freedom heroes and heroines saw that Kenya was indivisible: it could
not be seen through the eyes of tribalism and other sectarian or
parochial interests.
Indeed, we
dishonour our fore-fathers when we engage in negative ethnicity and
inter-communal conflicts. These actions are a criminal betrayal of our
freedom fighters’ labours, and sins against our nationhood and God.
I
call upon all Kenyans from all corners of the country, east, west,
north and south, to be united. That way we are sure of conquering the
challenges of social-economic development that we still face as a
nation.
Let it be known that engaging
in meaningless conflicts only undermines our ability to grow the
national cake that would be enough for all.
At
this point let me make it clear that political competition will not be
allowed to whip up negative tribal emotions and baseless agitation to
address imaginary wrongs. We all have to abide by our constitution,
which provides a fairly modern framework for conducting our political
affairs in a more civilized manner.
Fellow Kenyans,
There
is no doubt at all that unemployment, inequality and poverty are still
real development challenges that as a nation we continue to face. But
my government is dealing with these challenges through our national
institutions, and careful economic planning by both national and county
governments. Our institutions charged with the responsibility to
allocate resources, identify development projects and process
appointments in public offices, are expected always to bear in mind the
constitutional requirement for gender, regional and ethnic balance.
This
mandate is to make Kenya better every day, and to make every Kenyan
count. To the freedom fighters, this nation and its people were
important enough to fight for, to suffer for, and even die for. To us,
Kenya and its people deserve all our sacrifice, struggle, effort and
resources.
Fellow Kenyans,
Madaraka
is a charge on all Kenyans to make Kenya freer, safer, healthier,
wealthier and happier but also to enable more and more Kenyans play
their part.
Madaraka is our
continuing struggle to crown our sacrifices with meaningful achievement,
and to adorn our freedom with wholesome values. We give our best
tribute to our heroes and heroines when we live up to their ideals, and
honour their struggle.
Fellow Kenyans,
Since
its inception, my Administration has been committed to safeguarding
this legacy and advancing the mandate of Madaraka in thought and word,
and in deed.
We are working hard
every day to make Kenya a country we all can be proud to live and to
work in. The greatness of this country is defined by what each one of
us contributes to build it, and the benefits all of us draw from it.
SECURITY
Fellow Kenyans,
To
achieve sustainable prosperity, experience shows that security is
paramount. Security of life and property of our people is a
prerequisite for any meaningful development.
Nobody will be willing to invest unless they are assured of their security, be they local or foreign investors.
This
is why my Government will and has invested heavily in strengthening the
institutions that protect the lives and property of our people. We
have done a lot in equipping our police so that they can be able to
respond quickly to situations that require their attention.
Equally, we have empowered our national intelligence and criminal investigation institutions, and our defence forces.
Indeed
as a result of the measures we have taken to strengthen the capacity of
our police, crime rates have fallen commensurately. But we face a new
kind of enemy, against whom conventional methods will not work. This
enemy is a radicalized young man or woman who appears innocent but is
devoted to death, division and destruction.
He has been misled to believe that he is doing God’s work by killing those of different faiths.
To
deal with this enemy, we must keep improving our methods and tactics.
Prevention is better than cure: and that is why we must stop them from
being radicalized. We can’t do this without the complete cooperation of
parents, guardians, and religious leaders.
My Government takes the matter seriously, and has already developed a major anti-radicalization programme.
Very
shortly, all security organs, national and county governments,
civil-society groups, as well as faith based leaders, will begin to
implement it.
Just as my Government
will work with these outside groups, so too will we work with parents,
teachers and community leaders. Theirs is not a minor responsibility.
Radicalization does not always wear its intentions openly.
Your child might appear devoutly religious, but you must be able to tell when radicalization turns piety to evil.
Together,
we can meet our joint duty of vigilance against those who would harm
us. The enemy is cunning, but if we work together, we shall overcome. I
salute those who give information, who voice their suspicions and who
stay vigilant for the sake of our security and safety. You have saved
lives, but we must remain vigilant, for the threat remains real.
MEDICAL CARE
Fellow Kenyans,
At
our first Madaraka Day, we pledged to fight poverty, ignorance and
disease. That long war against disease continues. And we will fight it
until every Kenyan has the very highest standard of medical care, for
our people are our most important asset. My Government will do
everything in its power to protect this asset.
That is why, last week, I had the pleasure of commissioning new, modern medical equipment in Machakos County.
The
equipment includes state-of-the-art theatre, kidney, X-ray, and ICU
equipment to enable our doctors diagnose, prevent, and treat serious
ailments. This is only the beginning: in time, this national programme
will be rolled out to every county. Soon, a hospital near your home
will be as well-equipped as Machakos. You will not have to travel to
Nairobi or overseas for specialized treatment.
Given
the consequences of further delay, it is clear that this scheme can no
longer be politicized. There is no good politics which prevents X-ray or
dialysis machines from reaching those who need them.
To
further ease the cost of healthcare, my government is implementing
Universal Health cover through the National Hospital Insurance fund.
This will ensure that those expenses not met through our free health
schemes, will be underwritten through public medical insurance.
Just
as we have fought disease, so have we fought ignorance. My government
has raised its capitation to secondary schools from 28 billion to 32
billion KSh, and for primary schools from 14 to 15 billion. All this
with the objective of making primary and secondary education truly free
within the next three years. Indeed, from this year, parents will be
freed from the burden of paying examination fees because the government
will now cover this expense.
FOOD SECURITY
Fellow Kenyans,
A
hungry person has no dignity and is not able to be productive. We are
therefore committed to eradicating hunger in our country.
My
Government has begun, and will sustain, its immense investment in food
security and drought resilience until this is realized. In the most
recent dry seasons, my Government has been alert to ensure that food
markets effectively transmit balanced nutrition between food surplus and
deficit areas.
Coupled with that, my
Government has established vigilance and accurate response to any
famine or drought. We will continue protecting our people from
starvation, and our pastoral communities from losses following drought.
Through our strategic food reserves, animal uptake subsidy schemes and
livestock insurance, we are investing in solid resilience for our
communities.
My Government has also intervened strongly to enhance food supply and bring down the prices of our staple foods.
My
Government has also partnered very strongly with county governments to
ensure that there is adequate investment in agriculture, food production
and rural enterprises. Extension services are now available all over
the country; I thank the private sector for the support it has lent to
Kenya’s rural renaissance.
Kenyans of
all ages and backgrounds are rediscovering agriculture. The youth,
especially, are taking their bold, innovative spirit to the farm, and
the impact has been transformative. I feel extremely encouraged to see
our media devoting a lot of time to matters of farming, agriculture and
rural wealth. Let us each do our part in this revolution.
GOVERNMENT TENDERS
Fellow Kenyans,
Everywhere
we turn, Kenyans yearn for the opportunity to make our dreams come true
and to make this Nation great. My Government is investing in that
opportunity.
Our initial investment
is the Youth and Women Access to Government Procurement Opportunities
that my government launched shortly after its inauguration.
Thirty
per cent (30%) of all tenders in government institutions have been
ring-fenced for marginalized groups: youth, women and persons with
disabilities. Since this programme was launched, 8,464 companies have
won tenders worth billions of shillings.
There
has been a steady and encouraging improvement in response to these
opportunities. My measure of success will be the moment when the
presently earmarked opportunities will be exhausted, requiring my
government to go beyond 30 per cent in order to further entrench youth,
women and persons with disability in our industrial and entrepreneurial
system.
The opportunities go beyond
the National Government. I am happy to note that county governments have
also taken and prioritized empowerment of the youth, women and
persons-with-disability in order to achieve a more inclusive and
cohesive Kenyan society.
Ring-fencing
business opportunity is not enough. My Government recognized the need
to provide financial support to the beneficiaries of the ring-fenced
business opportunities for them to truly exploit them.
The
Youth Fund, the Women’s Enterprise Funds and Uwezo Fund were
capitalized with a total of Sh13.2 billion all dedicated to empowering
youth, women, and persons with disability. From these funds, individuals
and groups can obtain loans to start businesses.
As I have said, it is my expectation that these funds will be used to harvest opportunities in many sectors of our economy.
With
more youth involved, we will see more intense innovation in business
and technology, greater creativity in the Arts and robust performance in
Agriculture.
Fellow Kenyans
In the spirit of empowering our young men and women, we have continued to grow the National Youth Service (NYS).
Last
month, we concluded the recruitment of an additional 10,935 young
recruits into the National Youth Service, bringing our total NYS
contingent to 31,000 in one year. These new recruits will go through
three months of basic training and thereafter undertake six to nine
months of national service.
The young
NYS servicemen and women are building a new national psyche of nation
building, patriotism, service culture, volunteerism, civic competence
and social cohesion, not only amongst themselves, but also working with
other young people within their communities.
The
servicemen and women, disciple other young people in the communities
they serve, and instil the same values and principles to them, working
on a ratio of 1:10.
This afternoon, I will commission the 7,000 youth who have just graduated from recruits to servicemen and women.
These
young men and women will be going to all parts of the country, they
will engage in youth empowerment programmes aimed at improving informal
settlements; building water pans and drilling boreholes in Arid and
Semi-arid Land areas; carrying out vector control programmes; and other
activities that are aimed at building the foundation for developing a
prosperous Kenya.
They will be in the
informal settlements in Nairobi and Kisumu, and in other counties
across the country working together with residents to make the informal
formal. The servicemen and women will work alongside 70,000 community
youth in the communities where they will be engaged.
Fellow Kenyans,
Kenya
is a working nation and it is this in mind that my Government continues
to work hard to create and sustain the best environment for opportunity
and productivity.
This entails not
only the proper infrastructure, but also the legal and policy
environment to foster competitiveness, innovation, wealth generation and
employment creation.
To secure
opportunity and productivity we will enforce policies to ensure that we
grow consumption of goods and services produced locally.
My
Government shall in the new financial year, will strictly ensure that,
as a minimum, 40% of all goods and services procured by Government at
all levels are locally produced. Additional policies to open up new
sectors such as the creative arts and sports sectors are being earnestly
pursued.
We are committed to
ensuring that our large pool of talent benefits from their hard work;
that they rightfully receive a significant portion of the billions of
shillings generated by the media, communication, arts and sporting
sectors.
To further increase
opportunity, we are also focused on expanding our infrastructure. Our
investment in infrastructure is opening up the country in countless
beautiful ways. Every kilometre of road and rail we have built has
transformed the lives of people for good.
Through
infrastructure, Kenya is getting more connected within itself and with
its neighbours. Through infrastructure, Kenya is becoming safer and our
people have access to many services.
As
we complete the railways and open up new roads and airports, for
example in Kisii, Kwale and Voi, the vocabulary of regional
marginalization and low-potential areas will become well and truly
extinct.
To support all those who do
their bit to move Kenya forward, my Government has committed itself to
build two new railway lines, from Mombasa to Malaba; and from Lamu to
Lokichar. Last week, I visited Voi to inspect the progress of the
Standard Gauge Railway.
I am happy to report to you that by 2017, the SGR will have come to Nairobi.
Another
harbour, road, oil pipeline and railway project is programmed to be
implemented under the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia (LAPSSET)
infrastructure corridor project. This initiative will completely open up
northern Kenya and transform it into one vast hub, creating
opportunities not just locally, but regionally. We should all look
forward to the take-off of these transformative projects.
To create the millions of jobs that we really need, my Government is deliberately taking steps to attract foreign investors.
COST OF DOING BUSINESS
For
this reason, we have started a full campaign to make Kenya an
irresistible investment destination. We are making tremendous progress
in bringing down the cost of doing business in Kenya.
One
of the most troublesome aspects of the cost of doing business is energy
costs. Despite the shocks of a volatile global petroleum market, we
are on course to extracting crude petroleum in various parts of the
country.
Our ambition has been to be a world leader in the generation of plentiful, cheap, clean, green and reliable electricity.
Towards this end, the Government has invested heavily in energy generation in the last five years.
This
has expanded our generation capacity. Kenya now has a secure energy
reserve margin besides bringing down the cost of power by over 30%.
As
a result, we are able to offer businesses cheap off-peak electricity to
expand production, light our streets, electrify all public primary
schools and connect to electricity more than one million new households
throughout Kenya.
Last week, I
launched the Last Mile Connectivity Project. The 40,000 transformers I
commissioned will end up lighting up every village of this country. To
ease access, the cost of electricity connection will drop from Sh35,000
to Sh15,000. And even that smaller sum can be paid in instalments, so
that every Kenyan has the power he needs to improve and to prosper by
investing in enterprises that add value.
That
project complements our school electrification programme, under which
every primary school in the republic will have electricity within the
next few months. It will also enable our pupils to receive the laptops
we promised as part of our transformative programme.
This
transformation is real. This investment is real. You can feel it in
your home, street and place of employment. The work has not stopped. My
government will continue to expand power generation, with focus on clean
energy.
It will also endeavour to
ensure, reliable power generation in Kenya to reach our 5,000 MW target.
The realization of our power generation target of 5000 MW will give us
reliability, price competitiveness and export capacity.
Large
scale manufacturers will set up in Kenya and export to our region and
international markets. They will come with many job opportunities for
our people.
Fellow Kenyans,
Even
as we work hard to transform this country, it is important to remember
two things. The governance agenda is about Kenya and its people.
It
is about you, mwananchi. The billions we are investing to place the
welfare of the wananchi at the front and centre of all national activity
is hard-earned money sacrificed by the people for the promotion of
their well-being.
It must be managed responsibly in a manner that takes each shilling as far as it can go, and brings maximum value to our people.
My
Government is committed to the mandate of prudently overseeing national
affairs. We are also fully committed to national transformation.
A biggest threat to these commitments is mismanagement, waste and theft.
Public
office is a trust for the benefit of the wananchi. This trust entails
prudent stewardship based on professionalism, integrity and diligence.
The
foremost danger to our Republic today is the large number of public
officials who have become comfortable with laxity and corruption.
On
this Madaraka Day, I call on every Kenyan, be you in the public sector
or private sector, to reflect on the question of upholding the tenets of
good governance.
Today, I urge
everyone to commit to turning over a new leaf and expel the culture of
bribery, extortion, kickbacks and other conspiracies and contrivances
against the public interest.
As I see
it, fighting corruption and restoring integrity has three principal
components. The first is by delivering accountability for economic
crimes already committed. Secondly, by enhancing vigilance and prudence
in order to detect and disrupt corruption that is underway.
Finally,
we must establish a robust framework of making Kenya graft-proof going
forward. The institutions that help us fight corruption can themselves
become corrupt.
While my Government
recognizes all the institutions which fight the war against corruption
with us, we expect them to maintain high standards of integrity.
On
our side, we recently commenced very vigorous action to bring
accountability to various allegations of corruption involving government
officials. My Government is committed to follow through and take the
entire initiative through the due process. It was the beginning. We are
serious about this and we will succeed.
My
Government has put in place integrity-assurance and corruption
prevention frameworks throughout the public service. But let the truth
be told. Unless we fight corruption together, unless every Kenyan joins
my Government in the war on graft, then we will not win it.
Lack
of transparency and inefficiency breed corruption. By digitizing public
records and the migration of public information and services online
will bring us closer to an administration of integrity, free of
corruption.
IFMIS, the E-citizen
Government Digital Payments Platform, E-procurement, the KRS Simba
system, E-migration, the Online Transactional Cadaster at the Ministry
of Mining, and the digitization of registries at the ministry of Lands
are restoring efficiency and credibility to government institutions.
These
services have been augmented by the Huduma Centres, where public
services are delivered in a manner modelled as closely as possible on
the expectations of the Constitution on public service.
As a result, my government has created space for the best practices in service delivery to become part of Government mandate.
So
far 21 Huduma Centres are operational, providing a range of 45
different services. They are located in cities and towns including
Kisumu, Mombasa, Kakamega, Nyeri, Kisii, Embu, Eldoret, Nakuru,
Machakos, Turkana, Bungoma, Kajiado, Siaya, Kitui, Wajir, Isiolo and 4
in Nairobi.
By the close of this
financial year 2014/15, my Government will have opened a total of 44
Huduma Centres. The new Huduma centres currently in progress are in
Kibera, Marsabit, Muranga, Samburu, Nandi, Busia, Kilifi, Garissa, Homa
Bay, Migori, Kirinyaga, Kwale, Narok, Kiambu, Kitale, Nyamira, Laikipia,
Kericho, Baringo, Taita, Lamu, Makueni and Tharaka-Nithi.
With
these measures, my Government has expanded access to government
services, enhanced transparency and accountability and saved many
stakeholders time and trouble. As we simplify delivery of government
service, we are also making it easy for people to do business in Kenya.
National Youth Service band leads a procession
along Kimathi street as they headed to Dedan Kimathi Stadium in Nyeri
during the 52nd Madaraka Day celebrations on June 1, 2015. PHOTO |
JOSEPH KANYI |
NATION MEDIA GROUP
Fellow Kenyans,
I
have taken this day to remind ourselves about something we may have
forgotten. Self-government is about you and me. Madaraka is about us.
Everything
we do, we should do it in the name of Kenya and for the benefit of all
the Kenyan people. We must not waver from the mandate of Madaraka. We
must keep the Madaraka candle burning. We must keep marching on in
pursuit of a better, peaceful and prosperous Kenya as envisioned by our
forefathers.
Today, in our time, we
have the power to bring down those walls that stand in the way to
realizing our timeless vision of a better united Kenya. We must bring
down the walls of poverty, tribalism, and the walls of intolerance.
Fellow Kenyans,
As
you go back to your homes, go with the knowledge that my Government
believes in you and cares for you. I assure you that my Government will
not waver from the mandate of Madaraka; we will keep working for you
and investing in you.
Finally, we owe
it to our founding fathers to realize what they struggled for. Our
liberation from the yoke of colonialism must translate into the
betterment and prosperity of every Kenyan.
Let us today rededicate ourselves to this vision and work together to make our dream a reality.
Thank you very much. God bless Kenya.
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