Uhuru risks being a one term President

Two and a half years after being sworn in, a majority of Kenyans are disillusioned with the Jubilee administration. This is due to failure of the incumbent President Kenyatta to address rising cases of corruption, impunity, near collapse of the economy and being out of touch with the people’s concerns at the grass root level.

In his address to the nation on Mashujaa day, President Kenyatta had a chance to redeem himself and his government but he gave a rather underwhelming speech which did not touch on the plight of the common Mwananchi. Many Kenyans were anticipating the President to talk of how to strengthen the weakening shilling, taking tough action on corrupt individuals and reducing excessive wastage of public funds both at the National and County level. He instead chose to focus on petty issues like criticizing the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the expense of the ailing economy.

Even though Uhuru is advocating for reduction in wastage of public funds, he recently admitted that his office is perpetuating corruption and is one of the government departments that is among the big spenders on travelling and hospitality. Mr. Kenyatta has made history by surpassing the number of trips made by his predecessor Mwai Kibaki in his last term in office. No wonder the budget in his office has shot up from 1.4 billion to 9.7 billion in just two years.

It is also important to note that during Uhuru’s tenure there has been excessive borrowing of funds to implement the huge infrastructure projects initiated by the Jubilee government. Public debt has since risen to about 2.5 trillion up from 1.8 trillion in 2013; which is more than 45 % of the Gross Domestic product (GDP) and the treasury threshold.

There has also been misuse of the $ 2B sovereign bond which was floated in June 2014. The bond was meant to stabilize the shilling, reduce cost of imports and ease the cost of living. Irregular withdrawals of the fund has since led to depreciation of the shilling against the dollar, rise of interest rates and drying up of public coffers.  

Another area of concern where the president has failed is the issue of the teachers’ salaries. His arrogance will cost him dearly on the ‘can’t pay won’t pay’ response. He needs to come up with a strategy to avoid future education collapse as the teachers needs have not been adequately addressed as ordered by the courts.

These are among the many issues which may lead Uhuru to lose presidency in 2017 as it  was in the case of Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan became a one term president after he lost to Muhammadu Buhari this year.