President Uhuru Kenyatta’s flagship projects in affordable
housing, universal healthcare, manufacturing and food security are being
implemented at a “snail’s pace”, Parliament has said.
The
Budget and Appropriations Committee (BAC) said key projects under the
“Big Four” agenda may not be realised by the time Mr Kenyatta exits
office at the end of his tenure in August, 2022.
“The
committee notes with concern that key projects under the Big Four agenda
appear to be implemented at a very slow pace and may therefore not be
completed within the stipulated timeframe provided,” Kimani Ichung’wah,
who chairs BAC said in the report on the scrutiny of the 2020/21 Budget
Policy Statement (BPS).
The committee cited the
manufacturing pillar where the Common Affluent Treatment Plant at
Kinanie Leather Park is only 30 per cent complete although the BPS
reports at expected 80 per cent completion by end of 2018/19 and 100 per
cent completion by 2020/21.
“Similarly, the Dongo
Kundu special economic zone (ZES) and Naivasha Industrial Park reported
three per cent and four per cent completion respectively in 2018/19 and
have an extraordinary target of 40 per cent and 30 per cent completion
targets respectively for 2020/21,” the report notes.
In the food security pillar, the committee said a number of
irrigation projects appear to be off-track as they are still quite far
from achieving the targeted acreage for irrigation as well as targeted
amount of produce.
The State had pledged to put a million acres of land under irrigation to boost food security.
Under
the affordable housing pillar, the MPs said only 228 units of the
indicated 500,000 affordable houses have been constructed with only one
notable investor.
“It is not clear if the project is
adequately funded. Similarly, there is lack of clarity in the financing
mode of the universal health coverage (UHC) as well as the role of
National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) in the provision of UHC,” the
report states.
The MPs said although the BPS indicates
that the government will forge a multi-sectoral collaboration with the
county governments, the framework of such collaboration and how soon it
will be implemented remains unclear.
“Given the
critical role that the Big Four agenda is supposed to play in promoting
economic growth, the national government should be more purposeful in
implementation of Big Four policies and programmes.
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