SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY HON. UHURU KENYATTA, C.G.H.

, PRESIDENT AND COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE DEFENCE FORCES OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA DURING THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF THE SECOND MEDIUM TERM PLAN AND SIGNING OF PERFORMANCE CONTRACTS FOR CABINET SECRETARIES, KENYATTA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CENTRE, NAIROBI, 3RD OCTOBER, 2013 Good Morning, Ladies and Gentlemen, As you are aware, my Administration was elected on its pledge to rapidly build on recent economic growth. Specifically, we committed to accelerate economic growth to propel Kenya into the league of middle-income countries. The plan is to trigger an industrial revolution, setting a strong manufacturing base to make us Africas manufacturing hub. In our thinking, our road, rail and power supply infrastructure must be upgraded to facilitate industrial growth. Our philosophy is anchored on the knowledge that we need to generate and sustain a high rate of economic growth, 10% to be exact, that is necessary for economic take-off, as well as to establish a more equitable society. Economic growth is important to us, but so is equity for sustainable social stability. This is captured in an expression we often use: Shared Prosperity. No Kenyan will be left behind. No region of Kenya will be left out of any of our development programmes. As I have made it clear on a number of occasions, my Government is the principal guarantor and Trustee of the Kenya Vision 2030. By 2030, we expect Kenya to be a globally competitive and prosperous nation with a high quality of life. This implies a newly industrializing, middle-income country providing a clean and secure environment. We know the realization of our vision depends on essential governance pillars that provide the framework for its execution. We know What Must Be Done, and Who Must Do It. I am, therefore, delighted to be at this event, where we shall canvass what must be done by the people mandated to do it. If we are in the same room, surely we must be on the same page. First, on What Must Be Done, we have developed the Second Medium Term Plan of Vision 2030 which we are going to launch this morning. The Plan is the roadmap of the second leg of our national economic transformation journey for the next five years. It contains projects and programmes for implementation by my Government in collaboration with the people of Kenya, our private sector, foreign investors and international development partners. Implementation will fall within the constitutional mandates of both the National and County governments. Secondly, we have come to launch the official commencement of the Performance Contracts of all government ministries for the 2013/14 financial year. Today, ministries will commit themselves to achieve specific service delivery targets that can be verified and audited. The national development plan requires the country to implement a series of fiveyear projects. Ministries and public officers will also be committed to annual performance targets. The Medium Term Plan is the basis for ministerial strategic plans, which in turn guide the performance contracts. The Second Medium Term Plan of Vision 2030 will run on the theme, Transforming Kenya: A Pathway to Devolution, Socio-economic Development,

Equity and National Unity. It carries on the system of incorporating critical aspects of each governance pillar at each phase of implementation of Vision 2030. At this point, it is important to note the integral role of Devolution in the achievement of Vision 2030. Just as you cannot be pro-Constitution without being pro-Devolution, you also cannot be proDevelopment without being pro-Devolution. At my inauguration, I swore an oath to uphold and defend our Constitution. Devolution is the strategy the Kenyan people have chosen to propel their development agenda. Therefore Devolution is here to stay, and it must succeed. Successful Devolution is key to shared prosperity. That is why the National Planning and Devolution functions fall under one ministry. Devolution is the only flagship project under the political pillar of the Second Medium Term Plan. We must, therefore, get it right and must succeed. We want to get the people of Kenya to feel the impact of Devolution and of Vision 2030 in their homes, farms, businesses, places of work, schools and hospitals over the next five years. To register this impact, the performance contracting for 2013/14 will bind ministries to deliver services to all the people of Kenya. We will measure the impact of the Medium Term Plan on the basis of economic growth and human development. Higher incomes, longer and healthier lives, adequate nutrition, gender equality and greater social inclusivity, therefore, are the things we will look out for to evaluate success. These are the economic and social rights that the constitution guarantees the people of Kenya. I trust that county governments will collaborate with the National Government through County Integrated Development Plans now at various preparatory stages. Public consultation that many county governments incorporated in project preparation struck the right note. I note with approval the efforts county governments are making to align these projects with the National Vision 2030, and even neighbouring counties strategies. Coordination in planning avoids delays and wastage. In this Medium Term Plan, my Government will place utmost emphasis on sound economic management. We aim to maintain low inflation, sustainable fiscal deficit, adequate foreign exchange reserves and a stable and competitive market determined exchange rate. A key challenge to this intention is the fact that our exports have not grown at the same pace as imports. To improve our trade balance, the plan prioritizes expansion of the value of our exports through diversification and value addition. My Government is determined to expand the markets for our manufactured goods in African and global markets. I therefore, encourage our businessmen and workers to be more innovative and competitive in order to tap the external markets and thereby increase profits. Ladies and Gentlemen, Under this Plan, my Government will continue investing in port, road and rail infrastructure in order to intensify local and regional connectivity and reduce the cost of doing business. We will work on trunk roads as well as feeder roads in the rural farm and rangelands. This will ease the expansion of markets for our manufactured goods and reduce production costs. But transport infrastructure alone will not solve the production costs problem. Energy is equally a critical factor. In the Plan, we will increase electricity generation capacity. Our

emphasis is to expand green energy and make it the focus of our generation strategies. By encouraging exploitation of geothermal, solar and wind sources of energy, we will stabilize power supply which now fluctuates according to the seasonality of hydroelectricity. We are already running at full speed in our pledge to add 5,000 megawatts of electricity on our grid within the next 40 months. As part of the Second Medium Term Plan, my Government will also accelerate land reforms to unlock land as a commercial asset and upgrade our security sector to assure investment and protect growth. As well, we will intensify the application of ICT, science and research to bolster efficiency in Government and the private sector. To achieve its food security pledge, my Government will invest in mechanized, irrigated, scientific, value-added commercial agricultural production. The Irrigation Master Plan, which will bring One Million acres of land under production, is a flagship project in this Plan. Oil and mineral production are now priority areas under the economic pillar of his Plan. I urge all stakeholders in this sector to hasten the development of a legislative and regulatory framework to reform the management of these resources and ensure that all Kenyans and communities in the mining areas benefit in the shortest time possible. Ladies and Gentlemen, Let me now turn to Performance contracting, which lies at the heart of an effective and efficient public service, and is vital to public service delivery by the government. We have assumed the mandate to govern at a unique time of great promise, but also one ridden with innumerable challenges. Our country faces threats connected with insecurity and vulnerabilities related to unequal development, globalization, recession, unemployment and low value addition. At the same time, Kenya is ripe with promise: we have a formidable critical mass of well-educated young people with the nimblest, most innovative minds anywhere on this continent. Our economic growth continues to offer much hope. We now have the capacity to extract our natural resources and exploit economic potential under a governance framework that guarantees sociopolitical and economic equity. It is important to ensure that our development does not cost us our environment. We cannot afford to trade our heritage for short-term gains. The logic of a Green Energy policy will be completed by active measures to attain and exceed the constitutional requirement of 10% tree cover. Kenya has 40 million people. Were each of us to plant one tree this year alone, we would transform our environment in immensely wonderful ways. I direct the Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Water and Natural Resources to urgently conduct a nationwide tree-planting drive through the Kenya Forestry Service working in conjunction with schools and other public institutions. I also call on Kenyans to embrace this drive to ensure that we become a prosperous, Green Kenya. Ladies and Gentlemen, The role of leadership is to marshal an army of patriots who will transform the country through deft management of challenges and astute exploitation of opportunity. My Government is reaching out to every such person, who sees, as clearly as I do, the context of this transformative mandate, and is willing to give their best to execute it. I challenge every

one of you who is charged with the management of our public institutions to reflect whether they are able and to demonstrate that they are willing to join this journey. Should you find yourself either unable or unwilling, you owe it to Kenya, and to your conscience to stand aside in good faith. Our people do not expect to hear excuses instead of service delivery. It is irritating to observe that part of our national challenges are caused, not by unavoidable or elemental phenomena, but sheer incompetence and corruption by people who ought to know better. This mediocrity lays to waste the efforts of committed, diligent and professional public servants and inflicts misery on thousands of taxpaying Kenyans. It is not desirable at this stage of our journey to progress, to be obstructed by characters who give no value for public money spent on them. The time has come to detect and cull them. On the other hand, if you find yourself suited for the call, I assure you of my governments full support going forward. My Administration will recognize and reward those who are conscientious and hard working. Ladies and Gentlemen, We have outlined Governments planning goals. We will now orient those goals to resources allocated against specific targets that can be verified. From the 2014/15 financial year, Government will simultaneously conduct public consultations on Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Plan targets. This means that the consultations will happen at the same sitting. The public will have a sit at the table when these consultations happen. We will, therefore, have a smooth cycle starting with planning, then resource allocation and tracking of results, concluding with a Government framework of rewards and sanctions for the public service. I will repeat this: We will be rewarding success and heavily penalizing failure. Government will no longer offer refuge to loafers and joy riders. My Administration is going to revolutionize public service and bring it close to the people. This is a key objective of the performance contracts for the ministries. One of the ways of achieving this objective is through Huduma Centres, which bring together routine government services under one roof close to citizens. These one-stop-shops will improve access and effectiveness of government services as well as promote accountability and customer satisfaction. Ladies and Gentlemen, We are also very determined to deliver on our commitments to young people. We are clear on the most important thing: we must empower the youth. We have already launched the Uwezo Fund to avail start-up capital to youth and women for small and medium-scale enterprises. I expect all ministries to provide technical advice and other support to those youth and women investing in their line sectors. My Government has also directed that at least 30 percent of public procurement be allocated to youth and women. The ministerial performance contracts being executed today contain the implementation of this directive as a target, and I expect that the responsible departments closely monitor and report on it. We also urge our private sector, micro-credit and financial institutions, development partners and other stakeholders to join the endeavor to empower our youth. This way, we will grow our economy and create employment opportunities for our youth.

We are examining a range of other options in getting our young people on the ladder to entrepreneurship and success. We are committed to provide opportunities to our young men and women that transform them into job creators from job seekers. This will secure our countrys future. The Government expects all Cabinet Secretaries to ensure that in due course, performance contracts will govern the execution of every public officers terms of reference. The Public Service Commission will in the coming weeks complete the Framework for Rewards and Sanctions Policy for Public Officers, which form the basis for promotion and retention of public servants. In conclusion, let me remind all of us that security and stability are crucial to delivering prosperity to our people. I can confirm that our country is safe despite the shadow cast by the recent terror attack on Westgate. Our security agents are at high alert. Kenya is our ordained home and we will work with all our might to safeguard it from our enemies. Working together, we will no doubt overcome this and other challenges and triumph in our Vision 2030 Dream. I thank you and God Bless you.