President Uhuru Kenyatta has highlighted the achievement of his administration in the past nine years as he defended Kenya’s appetite for loans, saying it was good for the economy.
Addressing the nation during his last Madaraka Day celebrations as head of state on Wednesday, Mr Kenyatta said his administration has achieved a lot on gender, education, health and infrastructure through borrowed money.
He said the loans had made it possible to improve infrastructure.
“Previously, a maize trader from Kitale would take three days to South Sudan, but with what we have borrowed and what we have used, we have ensured that that person can be at the border of South Sudan in five hours and not three days,” said Mr Kenyatta.
“The only time debt is a burden to the nation is if a nation is led by looters. But in the hands of a visionary administration, debt is a catalyst for rapid development.”
He said President Kibaki’s administration built 2,000km of tarmac roads but he has built more than 11,000km, which is close to six times what was built by previous governments.
“We have built more roads in nine years than what the previous administrations combined, including the colonisers, built in 123 years,” said Mr Kenyatta.
He said infrastructure, ranging from elevated expressways to floating bridges, have put Kenya on the global map, distinguishing the country as an investment destination of choice, a regional and continental hub, and a leader on the African continent.
Mr Kenyatta who addressed the nation from Uhuru Gardens, Nairobi, said he would pride himself on how they have achieved on women’s leadership, pointing out that in the last nine years, the Cabinet Secretaries for Foreign Affairs in his government have been women.
He also singled out the appointment of Chief Justice Martha Koome as an achievement towards gender equity.
The head of state said his administration has also fast-tracked the promotion of women to leadership in in the security sector, giving an example of Fatuma Ahmed as the first woman Major-General of the Defence Forces in 2018 and the first holder of the constitutional office of Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu who was appointed in 2021.
The president also highlighted development in digitisation and healthcare reforms as some of his major gains, citing digital advancement had played a big role in cutting in enhancing services
“My pledge of being a digital government coupled with Huduma Centres has changed the way Kenyans do business. During my tenure, we successfully transitioned from analogue to digital TV and radio,” he said.
Mr Kenyatta also defended the Competency-Based Curriculum system saying it was the best system of education for Kenyan children.
In an indirect attack to his Deputy William Ruto who said his administration will scrap CBC, Mr Kenyatta said there was no turning back on the new system of education.
He said the current 8-4-4 system has become inconsistent with the aspirations of a growing Nation, as its overloaded curriculum and focus on learning and the passing of examinations as the ultimate goal of the system does not augur well for students.
“As we begun re-engineering it, we had to return to the foundational philosophy of education that: ‘citizens do not fail - systems fail them’. And if the systems are inconsistent with the aspirations of the people, they must be changed,” he said.
