Politics and foreign debt were the main talking points in
President Uhuru Kenyatta's interview with CNN anchor Richard Quest that
was aired on Monday night.
On matters politics, Mr
Kenyatta explained why he entered a truce with his erstwhile critic
Raila Odinga, noting that it was a way of facilitating economic
development and transitioning the country from perpetual politics.
Mr Kenyatta was also categorical despite Mr Quest’s lengthy probing that he is not interested in a third term in office.
There
is a section of politicians who think Mr Kenyatta is too young to
retire. Notably, Murang’a Senator Irungu Kang'ata said at the weekend
that Mr Kenyatta will still be the kingpin of the Mt Kenya area even
after his term ends.
The matter was among the issues discussed when Mt Kenya MPs met in Naivasha at the weekend.
In
the CNN interview, Mr Kenyatta was adamant that he is not interested in
extending his term in office, pointing out that the clamour for
revision of the constitution aims to address the cost of running
government and not the presidential term limit.
Below is the full transcript of the interview:
RQ: What’s your comment on the election battles of last year?
UK: As you all know, we came from quite an election last year that was contested and we ended up with two elections.
So,
last year was not a very interesting year, let’s say, for business. And
this is what we are coming out of. And, maybe, a lot of people are yet
to feel the real impact of that. That’s why we’ve been keenly focused on
ensuring that we create this political atmosphere of getting people
together, of trying to put that year behind us so that we can focus
ourselves on matters growth, development and economy. This is what
matters to our people.
RQ: What policies will that include?
UK:
This is one of the key things that we ourselves brought about. On our
first five years, we had focused on the hard infrastructure: looking at
the railways, roads, power and water connectivity.
But what we’ve now agreed on…is focusing more on the software, the softer aspects: the health, housing, and job creation.
These
are the elements and the areas that we are looking into, which we
believe, tied with what we started doing in our first four years will
move the country now to the next level.
RQ:
I was anchoring many programmes during your election and obviously
watching the twists and the turns. How deep are the scars of that
election?
One person said to me the other day here that
we have a really peaceful and gentle country where everybody gets on
until there is an election. Would you agree with that?
KENYATTA: And
that is, I believe, what we are trying to come out of. That’s why we’ve
been really focusing ourselves on working together even with the
opposition leaders and saying Kenya comes first.
You
can’t always go through this cyclical five-year period where we are
talking about election, fighting over elections...we are conflicted as a
society.
We’ve got to be able to move and that,
actually, is the basis of the partnership that we’ve agreed on with the
leader who we were competing against last year.
And
we’ve said, ‘Look, we don’t have to always agree on everything. But we
can agree on things Kenya, and we can agree that this issue of cyclical
elections has to come to an end.
RQ: You’re
raising money; you’ve got high debts. The country has a fairly high
debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio at the moment. The largest
part of the bilateral debt is to China.
UK: China as well as to many other institutions as well.
RQ: Are you comfortable with the increasing debt that this country has to China?
UK: What
would worry me is if the debt that we have incurred has gone into
recurrent expenditure; [the debt] has gone into paying salaries or
electricity bills and so on and so forth.
But what we
have utilised our debt for is to close the infrastructure gap and
anybody coming into Nairobi after 10 years — just Nairobi alone.
Let’s
not talk about the rest of the country — will be able to note that the
number of roads that we have been able to do, the new railway lines that
we’ve been able to do, all aim at both improving business and
increasing job opportunities for our young men and women.
The
number of people we have moved as a country in 10 years, from 32 per
cent of our people connected to our electricity grid, we are now closing
to 65 per cent of our population.
RQ: My point is not the money being borrowed, it’s who is doing the lending: China. You’re putting yourself in Beijing’s debt.
UK: We
are borrowing from China. We have borrowed from the United States. We
have borrowed — our healthcare system is money [that] we are working
together with companies like General Electric who are the backbone of
what we are doing in our health sector.
When it comes to energy, we are working very closely with AFD, the World Bank and the African Development Bank.
RQ: The criticism is that China has another agenda. You’re familiar with this.
UK: We
are familiar with those arguments. But our position is a very clear
one. We have an infrastructure gap that we need to fill and we are going
to work with our partners across the globe who are willing to partner
and to work with us to help us achieve our socio-economic agenda.
Because,
Japan, for example, is our biggest lender when it comes to all our port
developments. Today, Mombasa port wouldn’t be without the support of
Japan. When we talk about electricity and electricity generation, we
wouldn’t be where we are without the support of AFD of France. So, why
are we focusing ourselves only on one lender?
Actually,
as far as I am concerned, we have a very healthy mix of debt from the
multilateral lenders — who are basically the World Bank and the African
Development Bank — to bilateral lending. Like I said, Japan, China,
France...are working with us to help us achieve our objectives.
RQ:
The argument is they don’t have the same agenda that President Xi
[Jinping] might have in terms of bringing Africa within the greater
sphere of influence of China.
UK: We
are looking at it, like I said, from our Kenyan perspective. And our
Kenyan perspective is that we have a development agenda, we have a
social agenda, we have an economic agenda, and we are willing to partner
with all countries that help us achieve our objective.
RQ:
Your term of office ends in 2022. The Constitution prevents you from
standing again. Are you going to try and seek to change the
Constitution? On your birthday, a simple yes or no will do on that one.
UK: No.
RQ: And when anybody says, ‘Oh, we want you to stay, we want you to stay.’ You will say, ‘No, the Constitution says it. I’m not having a third term’?
UK: I’m not interested in a third term.
RQ: I can’t ask you whether you’re interested. If asked, would you serve?
UK: No.
RQ: That’s a clear no?
UK: No.
RQ: You’re sure? Absolutely. You’re not going to join Mike Bloomberg and suddenly change the law?
UK: No.
RQ: And when anybody says, ‘Oh, we want you to stay, we want you to stay.’ You will say, ‘No, the Constitution says it. I’m not having a third term’?
UK: I’m not interested in a third term.
RQ: I can’t ask you whether you’re interested. If asked, would you serve?
UK: No.
RQ: That’s a clear no?
UK: No.
RQ: You’re sure? Absolutely. You’re not going to join Mike Bloomberg and suddenly change the law?
UK:
[Laughs] People are talking about Constitutional change, but they’re
talking about constitutional change not necessarily because they are
desirous for the president to seek a third term.
They
are talking about constitutional change because of issues related to the
costs of running this new constitution, et cetera. Those are the issues
on the table.
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