Despite tough times, Kenya is on the rise

President Uhuru Kenyatta has worked hard to bring about the action and change he promised in 2013. Governance in Kenya has become an organised and serious business. Uhuru is showing that with good leadership, a country can surmount any problem. The security crisis that Uhuru’s administration was met with upon ascending to power has been strategically dealt with and now, threats have greatly receded under his watch.

In his inauguration address in April 2013, Uhuru said economic diplomacy will be the defining feature of Kenya’s engagement with the rest of the world. Kenya’s enviable status as a trade, investment, transport and logistics hub in the region has been enhanced thanks to economic diplomacy. His administration has refashioned its foreign policy to enhance the country’s military, economic, diplomatic and cultural influence.

 The forays abroad have also expanded market access for Kenyan goods while attracting foreign direct investment in key sectors. In July 2015, the President was voted Africa’s President of the Year 2014/2015 by the Africa Education and Leadership Awards institute for his outstanding leadership and his ability to build consensus locally and abroad.

Around the same time, US President Barack Obama visited Kenya for the first time as President, attending the Global Entrepreneurship Summit.

His visit was hitherto thought unlikely but here he was, standing shoulder to shoulder with President Kenyatta, spend time with his own Kenyan family, inspiring young people to reach for their dreams and promising to help Kenya fight the vice of terrorism which had hurt Kenya’s potential as a tourism and investment destination.

 Apart from Obama, many world leaders visited Kenya in the past two years, demonstrating that Kenya is ‘ready’ despite its challenges. Some of these include Pope Francis, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Indian Prime Narendra Modi, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Kenya has hosted a number of high level summits on trade and investments whose impact to the local economy is profound. Key among them is the 6th Global Entrepreneurship Summit, which President Obama attended. Others are WTO’s 10th Ministerial Conference, Fourteenth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD 14) and more recently the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI) Summit.

These high profile visits and conferences were not simply lucky breaks. Yes, there have been challenges on many fronts, but the President’s leadership is being recognised globally. His influence among his African peers, as demonstrated during his own challenges at the ICC, did not go unnoticed. His affable, easy going nature, has won him many friends everywhere, especially among his peers.

On the policy and development front, the President’s passion and commitment has been unmistakable. As State House hosts various sector specific summits, it is becoming evident that infrastructure, youth enterprise and women’s health are very close to his heart.

And whereas corruption and waste remains a challenge at all levels of government, there is no doubt that the President loathes the vice that is not only deeply embedded in the Kenyan psyche but is slowing down the nation’s takeoff to a higher level of economic growth.

In big picture terms, however, Kenya is fortunate to have had Uhuru as President at this critical juncture in its history. He has succeeded in putting Kenya on the global map as a nation that can no longer be ignored.

Hopefully in his second term as President, he will focus not just on completing projects initiated in the first term, but on slaying the dragon of corruption once and for all. As we can glean, Kenya is on the rise. The people are feeling it. The country is oozing it. It is no longer business as usual. Times are hard but we have a competent hand at the steering.