President William Ruto

Last week, we looked at the milestones made by President William Ruto in the spaces of economy, education, agriculture and health. This week, we are focusing on the digital, on Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and job creation spaces as elucidated below.

Digititalising government services

Within two years, we have been able to transform the digitalisation of government services from 300 to 20,195. This is a game changer, especially with the digitalised payments through the eCitizen platform. The government used to collect Sh60 million per day, but now it has gone to between Sh700 million and Sh1 billion per day!

The training of our young people in digital skills is phenomenal, with 693,000 having been trained thus far. The government also been able to establish 282 digital hubs across the country. It has also increased the fibre optic kilometre coverage by 4,690km, up from the 8,900 in 2022, to the current 13,590 through leveraging on the KPLC grid. All government services, including school fees, shall be paid through eCitizen. Moreover, the government will ensure that all the 2,500 public Wi-Fi spaces continue to be installed and functional. There is also dire need for more than 150,000 computers, and the government intends to have them assembled locally, so that we also develop and enhance our manufacturing expertise.

MSMEs

The sixth issue of focus is the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). By the time we took over government in 2022, seven million Kenyans were actually condemned by the Credit Reference Bureaus (CRBs). Many people were not able to borrow. The first task was to remove many of them from the rating. We created the Sh50 billion Hustler Fund that has now been able to disburse Sh63 billion to more than 25 million Kenyans. This is the real reason for the fund, to enable the millions who are financially excluded to get a credit rating. Through the Hustler Fund, one can be able to pay for SHA for the whole year! What is more interesting is that we’ve seen 20 per cent of Kenyans have used the fund to finance their agricultural production, e.g., to purchase of subsidised fertiliser. If you want to get your two bags of fertiliser at Sh2,500, you can borrow Sh5,000. This has been very important because it has enabled many people to come into the formal economy. The uptake of bridge and group loans, coupled with savings, has gone up significantly.

Jobs

The Fifth Administration has curated four main ways of creating jobs for our youth through the Affordable Housing Programme, Kazi Kwa Ground, Kazi Mtandaoni and Kazi Majuu.

In the Affordable Housing Programme, more than 250,000 jobs have been created. Singapore was at par with us during Independence, yet 60 years down the line 90 per cent of them are homeowners, while seven million Kenyans live in slums.

Singapore was once a huge slum, today it’s a highly developed country.

However, through the Affordable Housing Programme, we’ve been able to build 150,000 houses under construction, and another 550,000 are in the pipeline, totalling to 700,000 houses. By the end of this year, 11,000 houses shall be ready for issuance. The whole idea is to eradicate slums while creating jobs. In the small towns, the biggest estate in any of them is actually the Affordable Housing Programme.

We also have the Climate Works Kazi Mtaani Programme, with 110,000 jobs starting from July 1. Already 20,000 youth are working in Nairobi. This is not about talk; it’s not about the campaign; it’s not about promises. This is about transforming our great country, Kenya.

The second platform is the labour mobility, the Kazi Majuu Programme. Kenyans have a very good reputation internationally, as our English is one of the best on the continent. Kenyans work under minimal supervision, and are knowledgeable. As a result of this, we are seeing a very interesting trend in which 393,000 Kenyans have been able to get jobs abroad in the last two years.

This has come about through dealing with the challenges of rogue agents and having inadequate Bilateral Labour Agreements (BLAs). The President established the State Department for Diaspora Affairs and paired it with the State Department for Labour. Reforms were carried out at the National Employment Authority, such as the digitisalisation of the labour mobility jobs into a public portal so that anyone can see what jobs are on offer. Jobseekers are now being financed through the Youth Enterprise Development Fund and Uwezo Fund to ensure that those who want to go abroad are able to get money for their tickets, tests etc. The Supplementary Budget III proposes to allocate Sh100 million towards this endeavour.

The government now has a database for Kenyans going to work abroad, with proper declaration of opportunities by the employer, the contract period, etc, and there is an established green channel for the processing of passports within seven days. As a result, our political remittances have increased by almost $1 million from $4 billion, to $4.95 billion in 2024, translating to Sh638.56 billion. Notably, 85 per cent of this money is actually used at the household level to finance daily costs such as food and other necessities.

The fourth avenue/platform is digital jobs, the Kazi Mtandaoni Programme.

More than182,000 digital jobs have been created, contributing to the remittances mentioned above.

 And this is extremely important. The government is also training Kenyans to learn to speak other languages, such as French, German, Amharic, Chinese and others, at KMTC, and in our universities.

Saving culture

We have been able to save Sh320 billion in 60 years. However, within two years, we have been able to save Sh720 billion. Soon, we shall cross Sh1 trillion.

Markets

The Special Economic Zones (SEZs), one hand and County Aggregation Industrial Parks (CAIPs) are critical in value addition of our products to ensure there is money in people’s pockets. New markets such as the EU, through the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), plus the Forum for Chinese Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) negotiations to open up the 1.4 billion Chinese markets are in progress, for our products such as macadamia nuts, avocado, tea, coffee and other crops.

The focus of the Fifth Administration is not the next general elections; the focus is to transform this great country, Kenya. That is the clarion call of the Fifth Administration.

Isaac Mwaura is Government Spokesperson