Ensure Ruto US visit was not just a talking shop
President William Ruto’s state visit to the US was a resounding success by any measure. Whether it is the glamour, the high-level meetings, the state dinner hosted by US President Joe Biden, or the deals secured, it was a great outing. The visit yielded several huge investments that can make a great difference to Kenya’s economy.
Everstrong Capital will build the long delayed dual six-lane Nairobi-Mombasa Expressway for Sh440 billion, cutting travel time between Nairobi and Mombasa from 10 to 4 hours. The potential benefits of this project are mind-boggling.
Microsoft and G42 will establish a data centre worth Sh131 billion at the KenGen Green Energy Park at Olkaria, while Coca-Cola plans a Sh23 bil-lion upgrade of its plants in Kenya.
Millenium Challenge Corporation signed up to renew the city of Nairobi. This plan, dubbed the Kenya Urban Mobility and Growth Threshold, will benefit more than 4.3 million people, equivalent to the population of Nairobi. The US government will give Kenya Sh924 million to modernise the National Police Service.
But Kenyans have been here before, have they not?
In March 2023, Microsoft founder Bill Gates signed a deal with President Ruto in Nairobi to establish the African headquarters of his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. About that project, just crickets!
In that month, Kenya signed a deal with Belgium to set up a biomanufacturing hub in Kenya. Not a word since. In April 2023, Kenya secured Sh50 billion from a consortium of European financiers, including the European Union, to build dedicated electric bus lanes in Nairobi. Kenyans are not holding their breath any longer.
In May 2023, President Ruto announced that Germany had agreed to a labour exchange deal that would see 250,000 Kenyans get jobs in that coun-try. Germany also pledged to increase the centres of excellence in Technical, Industrial, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training institutions from three to five, and upgrade 60 others. Kenyans have already moved on. And so on and so forth!
There is a pattern here. Grand announcements, which then go into limbo. It’s a crying shame that nothing is happening with all these projects in a country that is crying for jobs and investments.
President Ruto must completely change tack when it comes to rolling out the deals he secured from the US. These deals alone can jumpstart the comatose economy. Imagine the energy that will be unleashed if all these projects are undertaken simultaneously!
He must establish a dedicated secretariat at the Presidency with the express mandate and full authority to focus exclusively on ensuring the US-backed projects are rolled out as a matter of priority. For accountability, this secretariat should issue public quarterly updates on the progress made. A real sense of urgency is required here.
Further, for the Nairobi-Mombasa Expressway and the Millenium Challenge Nairobi city revamp, the government must ensure that these projects do not go the Mombasa-Naivasha Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) way. The SGR’s local procurement was so scandalous because it was almost nonexist-ent. The billions remained in China. The billions to be spent on these US-backed projects must circulate in Kenya’s economy.
Finally, for the US ambassador to Kenya, Meg Whitman, well done! For the first time, Kenya has a champion who believes in the country and its potential, and is ready to unabashedly promote it. Ignore the naysayers. Even China’s economy is heavily dependent on the US. Kenya needs the US.
Focus on success. However, the ambassador must realise that Kenyan bureaucracy trumps and wilts even the best of initiatives. So, she must not ease her foot off the gas pedal until all the projects are rolled out.
— The writer can be reached at [email protected]
