Despite the positive growth, the economy remains fragile with risks hanging on the horizon, among them the weakening shilling and the debt burden.
The political class and other economic actors must work together to ensure that the ensuing political battle ahead of the general election in August does not reverse the gains that Kenyans sorely yearned for.
Kenya's economy defied the Covid-19 shocks to grow by 9.9 percent in third quarter of 2021 compared to a contraction of 2.1 percent in 2020, marginally missing the double-digit mark.
The growth coming on the backdrop of a 10.1 percent year-on-year in the previous quarter, the highest in more than four decades, has set the country back on a firm foundation of growth.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) attributes the growth to the easing of Covid-19 containment measures, which lifted performance in the education, accommodation and food serving activities, transportation and storage, manufacturing and insurance activities that had been battered by the lockdowns.
The data released also notes that the agricultural sector is yet to pick up after; it contracted by 1.8 percent compared to a growth of 4.2 percent in the corresponding quarter of 2020 due to drought conditions witnessed in most parts of the country.
The KNBS says that the dismal performance of the sector was evident in the decline in fruit exports, cane deliveries, tea production and coffee exports.
The volume of fruit exports and cane deliveries declined by 19.9 and 5.6 percent respectively while production of tea and coffee declined by 5.9 and 24.1 percent in that order.
The silver lining was the hotel sector, which posted the highest recovery after growing by 24.8 percent compared to 63.4 percent contraction in the third quarter of 2020.
Despite the positive growth, the economy remains fragile with risks hanging on the horizon, among them the weakening shilling and the debt burden.
Omicron, the new Covid-19 variant, has also renewed the threat of the health crisis revealing that it is far from over.
That is why the political class and other economic actors must work together to ensure that the ensuing political battle ahead of the general election in August does not reverse the gains that Kenyans sorely yearned for.
It will be a shame for economic actors to work hard to reboot the economy and set it back on the right path to recovery in line with Vision 2030 only for the election cycle to wash it all away.
As important as the polls are, it is upon the actors to steer the country to D-Day without causing pain and misery.
PAYE Tax Calculator
Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
