Last week, President William Ruto made a special national address in which he outlined what he called Beyond Vision 2030, a blueprint that will shape Kenya’s development for the next 30 years. Mr Ruto argued that social and economic development were constitutional imperatives, not just policy choices. He placed public participation at the heart of his new vision. Accordingly, he invited political factions, youth, civil society, private sector and religious institutions to join the national conversation around the vision. Referencing the Asian Tigers, he underscored the importance of stability, which would underpin rapid export-oriented industrial growth.
I confess I found it difficult to listen to the speech, not because there was anything wrong with the ideas he articulated, but because of the glaring, almost mocking contradictions between his words and the realty we have lived through over the past four years. Why don’t Mr Ruto’s speech writers and advisers do reality checks, so that national speeches reflect the reality, acknowledging both regime failures and successes and, importantly, outlining plans to fix failures?
