Jubilee’s Govt’s first 100 days in Office a Statement from MP Aden Duale (Leader of the Majority)

During its campaigns the Jubilee coalition made several promises, the most famous being the one-laptop per child project. However the Jubilee government also made promises with regards to security, maternal health care and youth unemployment among a whole gamut of other promises.

A few weeks ago the MP for Rarieda, Nicholas Gumbo, sought a statement on the progress of the programmes and promises made by the Jubilee Government. The specific promises he wanted addressed were: the provision of security services, the one laptop per child programme, and the rollout of the free maternity service in all public hospitals.

These seem to be the most controversial promises given the countries shortage of finances and the practicality implementing these promises; the laptop project especially seems like a white elephant considering the government cannot at the moment seem to adequately remunerate teachers.

Last week Wednesday the Leader of Majority, MP Aden Duale, gave a statement on the progress that the Jubilee government has made on its promises within its first 100 days in office, below are some excerpts from his statement:

On Security, the Leader of the Majority stated that there had, “been an improvement on the state of security in our country over the last 60 days,” and that, “the crime rate in the country has gone down by 14 per cent in the last five months.” He did admit however that the country continues to face major security threats from organised criminal groups, including Al Shabaab, Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) and Mungiki.

Budget wise in its first 100 the Jubilee government has allocated Kshs. 67 billion shillings to security in the next fiscal year. The government has also transferred security personnel who overstayed insecurity-prone areas and deployed additional security personnel to contain emerging areas of insecurity. There has also been a move to prioritise the repatriation of Somali refugees from Kenya to Somalia.

On the Lap-tops, MP Aden Duale, stated that within its first 100 days the Jubilee government through the Ministry of Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has put in place a strategy for the implementation of the project which includes development of the technical specifications for the computers to be procured for schools and testing the machines to ensure they actually work (important after the BVR kit debacle which cost the country billions). The government has also put in place a steering technical committee to deal with the development of infrastructure and electricity for power provision, creation digital content, capacity building and, the procurement process around laptops.

The promise, on Free Maternal Health Care at Public Hospitals was effected on June 1^st this year. According to Aden Duale’s statement, “the free maternity initiative of the Jubilee Government is being implemented in 293 hospitals and in all the 372 health centres across the country,” and the government expects, “that upon implementation of the initiative, the health facilities will experience a 15 per cent in service utilization.” Budget-wise, “Kshs. 1 billion has been provided for free maternal health care in the Revised Estimates of the Budget for 2013/2014, another Kshs. 4 billion has been provided for in the Budget of 2013/2014 for reimbursement to facilities for free deliveries and Kshs.3.6 billion has been provided for in 2013/2014 Financial year to recruit additional health workers and another Kshs. 1 billion for equipment for all the health centres under this programme.”

With regards to Youth Unemployment, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and Services, developed the National Employment Policy and Strategy for Kenya, this was forwarded to parliament last month. According to the leader of MP Aden Duale, “The policy proposes to address the issue of youth unemployment by developing employment programmes for youth with different skills levels.” This includes the development of a national internship policy to promote acquisition of practical skills and work experience to the relevant labour market; Creation of awareness to change the perception by the society and youth towards informal sports, agriculture and creative industries to promote job creation for the young people.

Budget -wise the government intends to restructure both the youth fund and the CDF to cater for these initiatives and has allocated Kshs.6 billion to these initiatives this financial year.

The Statement made by the Leader of the Majority paints a decidedly favourable picture of the Jubilee government’s achievements in its 100 days. The statement fails to mention that also within the first 100 days of the Jubilee government there have been several strikes by government employees most recently the teachers. There have been several protests by the populace first against the increase of salaries of members of the National Assembly, secondly against the VAT bill. There seems to have been a systematic a undermining of independent commissions most recently the Salaries and Remuneration Commission. In addition the devolution process continues to come under threat as national government and the newly devolved institutions buttheads over which institution should do what....and the list continues.

What is your take of the Jubilee governments first 100 days in office?

Read full statement here

Posted by Mzalendo Editor on July 4, 2013

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