The Kenya Government has been unable to meet most of the targets it had set out to achieve in the first phase of Vision 2030, which aims to transform the country into a middle income state.

The missed target was mainly attributed to prolonged drought, effects of the 2007/2008 post election violence, delays in procurement and inadequate financing and complexity of some of the projects top being the construction of a mass rapid transit system for the Nairobi metropolis.

The country has also registered a low economic growth rate in the last two years compared to its neighbouring countries. The same trend is also expected to continue, this year, as Uganda and Tanzania register growths of 9.5 and 7.5 percent respectively, and Kenya 4.5

The latest progress report on the implementation of Vision 2030, Kenya's economic blueprint, also blamed the failure to limited private sector participation, inadequate infrastructure and lack of proper policy and legislative framework, to stimulate growth.

The report launched today by Planning minister Wycliffe Oparanya says the country’s economy, during the 2008/2009 financial year, had initially been projected to grow by six percent, but realized only 2.5 percent.

“This target was not met due to the global financial crisis, drought and effects of the post election violence,” said the report.

Negative effects

The low growth rate had negative effects on various sectors of the economy namely agriculture and livestock, tourism and manufacturing among others.

Ironically, in the political pillar, the government claims it has met and even exceeded the target it set to reduce corruption in the country. The report cites an increase in corruption perception index in the last two years to back up its case.

The information is in contrast to the global rankings on corruption, for example, by Transparency International, which lists Kenya as one of the  most corrupt countries in the world.

The report also says, the target for promoting peaceful coexistence between various communities in Kenya was met, following the establishment of district peace committees, after the disruption of livelihoods during the  post-election violence.

Despite this, the government also reported successes in some sectors like energy, where the number of households connected to electricity went up from 1.06 million to 1.27 million against a target of 1.26 million during the period under review.

The modernisation and expansion of various airports and airstrips, development of various roads among others were also realized following increased investments.

But according to the figures, tourism earnings dropped significantly from Sh65.5 billion in 2007 to Sh52 billion in 2008, as tourists stayed away due to political disturbances.

Travel advisories

The earnings from tourism was far much below the Sh90 billion target that had been set with the Planning Ministry, a decline also attributed to travel advisories in the source markets.

The sector, however, recovered last year to realise earnings of Sh62.5 billion representing a 19.5 percent growth.

The agriculture and livestock sector also registered poor performance mainly due to unfavourable weather conditions, high cost of farm inputs and the displacement of some farmers as a result of the post election violence, which disrupted agricultural activities.

The same was also witnessed in the manufacturing sector whose contribution to the country’s economy declined from 10.4 percent in 2007 to  9.8 percent in 2008 and further to 9.5 percent last year.

“The decline can be explained by high cost of production, competition from cheap imports and high taxes,” says the report.

In the health sector, immunisation coverage, one of the major indicators of a country’s standard of living, failed to meet the target  due to what the government termed as “interference by post election violence".

The report says some health workers were displaced  prompting coverage, which once hit the target of 80 percent in the turn of the century, to decline to 64 percent. The target of reducing the HIV and Aids prevalence  to 6.4 in 2008/2009, from  7.4 in 2007,  was also not met.

Leading killer

Access to HIV health care for Aids patients  also failed to meet the target set, due to inadequate funding and inaccessibility to facilities as a result of poverty and stigmatisation. However, the goal of reducing malaria incidence, one of the leading killers in the country, was met.

The government’s effort to improve access to safe water in both urban and rural areas failed to meet the target set, leaving thousands without safe drinking water. The reason for the failure, according to the government, was the prolonged drought which has reduced the water levels in dams.

Investments in the sector also remained limited due to the financial difficulties the country faced and the dwindling sources of donor funds.

The task of  providing extra facilities in secondary schools, for the large number of students leaving primary schools, proved  harder than expected with thousands missing a chance to advance their education.