Construction of the Dongo Kundu bypass bridge, Mombasa. [Robert Menza, Standard] The government is upbeat that Vision 2030 will be achieved within the set time frame despite major challenges that have hampered its implementation.
Key in the vision was an annual economic growth rate of 10 per cent, which is far from being achieved with less than a decade to the target date amid drawbacks such as perennial drought and the coronavirus pandemic.
On Friday, the Vision 2030 Delivery Board released three progress reports for flagship projects from the time the plan was unveiled in 2008 to last year, clustered as 2008-17, 2018-19 and 2019-20.
The blueprint seeks to transform Kenya into a globally competitive nation economically by 2030 and is anchored on three pillars: economic, social and political. READ MORE
With nine years remaining, and expected regime changes in next year’s election, ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru said the plan will still be achieved when put in the right hands.
He said Kenya has made tremendous progress since 2008 when Vision 2030 was unveiled, citing digitisation of government services and growth of mobile financial technology as highlights.
Platforms such as eCitizen and Ardhi Sasa, he said, have transformed lives and put more hours in the hands of Kenyans to build the economy.
“With blockchain technology, it means your title deed is yours and people cannot change it,” Mr Mucheru said.
“If you have already charged your property in one bank and want to move it to another, it should not be a problem, it should be automated.”
The CS said because of this progress, Kenya conducted a digital census and analyse the data in four months compared to four years when the process was manual.
“We have made serious and important strides in our countries and in many cases we do not seem to celebrate. We sometimes focus on the holes and not the great successes we make,” he said.The Vision 2030 pillars themselves have several enablers among them infrastructure, information communication and technology, science, technology and innovation, land reforms, human resource development, security, peace building and conflict resolution. Values and ethics Others are public service reforms, national value and ethics, and ending drought emergencies.The target was to grow the economy at 10 per cent per year by 2012.The progress report for 2008-17 documents that 7,646 kilometres of roads had been constructed or repaired against a target of 8,000km.“Some of the challenges experienced during the period included: […]