President Uhuru Kenyatta used the Madaraka Day celebrations yesterday to outline the economic growth and achievements his administration has made.

The Head of State said his administration has set what he called “The Big Push Investments” which he said was geared towards laying the ground for the country’s economic take-off.

Uhuru elaborated the achievements made by his administration since 2013, saying the development witnessed in the country over that period was much more than what all the previous governments had achieved since independence.

 “Post-independence, within a period of 50 years, the combined administrations of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel Moi, and Mwai Kibaki increased GDP by Sh4.5 trillion,” Uhuru said.

He told the gathering that in only eight years, his administration has doubled what the colonisers and the first three administrations did in 128 years.

The GDP, the President said, stands at Sh10.3 trillion, the highest in the region adding that with the right programmes there was room major improvements.

Disbursed to Sh2.3 trillion

He noted that Sh2.3 trillion had been disbursed to the county governments in the last seven years.

 “This is equivalent to about 16 percent of current GDP.  This is also equivalent to the GDP between 1885 when the colonisers came to Kenya and when President Moi retired in 2002,” Uhuru explained.

He stated that the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) envisages that, the minimum revenue allocation will be raised to 35 per cent, sending even more resources to the counties to catalyse their accelerated development.

Uhuru fobserved that under his administration, 5.1 million title deeds have been issued in just seven years.

“The previous administrations issued six million title deeds in 50 years, compared to us who have given out over 5 million.  On a pro-rata basis, this is seven times what previous administrations had done combined,” Uhuru told the gathering.

He said 20 percent of the titles issued were in the Nyanza region, and Kisumu county in particular.

The title deed, he added is what the founding fathers fought for when they made land ownership a central plank of the independence struggle.

“By accelerating land adjudication and settlement, my intention is to give security of tenure to as many Kenyans as possible,” said the President.

Uhuru said the brick-and-mortar investments of roads, rail and ports are not the dreams that he anticipated but what these “Big Push Investments” will do for Kenya; and how they will transform Kenya’s standing in the society of nations.

In particular, the Head of State singled out the Lamu Port, saying it was the first to be built in Kenya since the Port of Mombasa in 1896.

“Kenya is the first country in 115 years to build a deep-sea port on the East African Coast of the Indian Ocean. It took 49 years to conceptualise Lamu port; but it took just eight years to make it a reality,” said the President.

Uhuru said once the port is operational, Kenya will be able to handle ships the size of those that transit through the Suez Canal.

Noted the President; “This capacity will not only increase Kenya’s trans-shipment business, but will also impact on the over 130 million residents of the Eastern African region.”

He said his administration has already embarked in the process of reviving “dead” projects.

Some of the projects include the 556km Metre Gauge Railway (MGR), which stalled many years ago.

He said the revived 200km Nairobi-Nanyuki railway has now become one of the most popular train routes in Kenya.  

Every trip, Uhuru said, the train transports 1,600 passengers, which is the equivalent of a convoy of 120 matatus.   

“The cost per passenger is only Sh200 compared to Sh500 by Matatu. The passengers on the train make a 60 percent saving using the revived train system; all while travelling at greater comfort and safety. What an achievement?” the President quipped.

Landmark projects

Other landmark projects he named include the Port of Kisumu and the reconditioning of the MV Uhuru vessel.

He said the decision to revive MV Uhuru was informed by the need to make fuel transport fuel from Kisumu to Uganda affordable and economical.

He noted that transporting fuel by road from Kisumu to Uganda takes 72 hours because of the long queues at the Malaba border.  But to transport fuel from the Port of Kisumu to Port Bell in Uganda by ship takes only 12 hours.

“This means that by the time a tanker makes one trip to Uganda by road, the MV Uhuru Ship will have made six trips,” Uhuru said.

Further, one tanker carries 20,000 litres of fuel, but one wagon aboard MV Uhuru carries 60,000 litres. If the ship accommodates 22 wagons, each voyage it makes to Port Bell is an equivalent of a convoy of 66 tankers headed to Uganda.

In terms of cost, Uhuru said it was effective to use the water transport than road in that If it costs Sh3,745 to transport one litre of fuel by road, it will cost Sh1,712 to transport the same through the Port of Kisumu.

“It is apparent that for every Sh214 spent transporting fuel to Uganda by road, you spend only Sh107 by ship,” Uhuru told the cheering crowd.

He said his administration had also made major steps in improving maternal Healthcare in all parts of the country.

President Uhuru said his administration had established many clinics, especially in slum dwellings. He singled out the Mukuru slums where a clinic was serving 500,000 residents before the government intervened.

“A delivering mother at the clinic would only be allowed to stay for one hour of post-natal care before she was asked to leave to make way for the next patient. My administration fixed this indignity by building 25 hospitals in informal settlements in just 100 days,” he revealed.

In terms of the achievements made in the health care, the head of state said his administration had established renal units in all the 47 counties compared to the period between 1963 and 1978, when the country had one renal unit.