The Presidency of Kenya is a very well established institution. The role of the vice president changes from country to country. What is the role of the Vice President in the government of Kenya?
The position of the Vice President is provided for by the Constitution. The president picks one elected Member of Parliament to become the vice president. The role and duties of the Vice President is to assist the President and the President can delegate or direct him to undertake certain duties. That is a tradition. The Vice President is also the leader of Government business, but much more principally, he is the one that is expected to direct, in parliament, the priorities of the government, or those matters that are important to the government. He also plays a major role in interacting with members of parliament.
Finally, the Vice President is the chairman of the business committee in Parliament. A specific portfolio is also assigned to the Vice President and in this case it is the Ministry of Planning and National Development. I think literally, assigning the vice president a portfolio that is not too heavy, allows him to play his full role. There are many other occasions when the vice-president is delegated to perform certain works, that the president may decide from time to time.
You have been the Vice president of Kenya previously, and you have recently been reinstated in that position. What are your short and middle term plans for your newly started term?
Let me begin by saying I have been Kenya's vice president between January, 1993 to December, 1997. Previously to that, I was the vice-president from May, 1989 to December, 1992. From December 1997 to April 1999, I was the Minister of Planning and National Development, without being the Vice President. I was the Minister for Finance from 1983 to 1988 also without being the Vice President. I have put it that way to you so that you can understand that I have been in this ministry of Planning and National Development and indeed, I have been involved in planning for many years even prior to my being appointed Minister for Finance. For my entire sixteen years in Government, I have actually not done anything else, other than Finance and Planning. This particular ministry of Planning, works out broad economic strategies and policies that are distributed to various ministries that are the ones supposed to implement them. We are coordinating in the sense that, we work out all these policies and strategies for development. We work very closely with other government ministries. Essentially, we draw up strategies and plans. Every five years, we produce developmental plans. Every year, we put out a survey for the economic activities for the year. We work very closely, almost on a day to day basis with the other ministries. The economic survey provided the background to the formulation of the budget. Broadly, what we want to do, is correct the problem with the infrastructure, such as roads etc. The causitive factor to the current state of the bad infrastructure was El Nino rains. It has been a very costly affair, and that of course has created some difficulties. But I would like to assure you that it is a candidate for very careful scrutiny. Repair work is already going on, as far as the road between Nairobi and Mombasa is concerned. This is an important road, not only to Kenya, but all the way to the Great lakes region. It is also happening to other roads, and there is still a lot to be done and it is being addressed.
Kenya has been a very stable country politically, and also very peaceful. Countries around us have not been so lucky. They have had difficulties. There have been problems in Kenya, Uganda, Great Lake Region countries, Sudan, Somalia, Congo. If you go out onto the street you will find a lot of Kenyans, Congolese, Rwandese etc. All these things have created problems. In this budget, substantial resources are needed to ensure security. When I talk about security, what I would like to come out clearly is that Kenya is the most secure and stable in this region of Africa.
They have provisions of vehicles, so as to enable them to move rapidly, and also to provide them with necessary weapons and other equipment of communication. A great deal is being done on that. Tourists should feel free to come into Kenya now with the infrastructure being attended to, Kenya being the most secure country etc.
The Government today more than ever before, is committed to routing out corruption. We have set up the mechanism, the Anti-Corruption Authority, and given it certain powers, to be able to investigate, arrest and prosecute. There are so many other measures the Government is carrying out to make sure that speedy decisions are made in other areas where approval is required. Once again, we are not going to spare anybody. There are other people involved in corruption and they are in the private sector. I say private sector because it is the people in the private sector who come to corrupt the government officials. It starts from there because they want some favors.
As far as the economic situation is concerned, to get macro-economic stability, we have to ensure a proper budget. The measures that are put there are the ones that will drive us to a sustainable development. We have cut down the deficit dramatically, so whatever little deficit there is, is clearly defined in the budget.
On the financial side of it, a great deal is being done to make sure that the banks operate properly and all the other financial institutions too. Inflation is being controlled. It still remains at a single digit. The interest rate is high but not extremely high, they are determined by market forces. All these measures have been brought in to ensure that the economy will be sound.
Kenya has had in the past, quite good relations with donor countries and international institutions, but a couple of years ago, the IMF retired its funding until new reforms were put in place. What are your present relations with international donor agencies?
Not too long ago, they came out and put a number of conditions to fulfill, prior to the commencement of the negotiations. We put those things in place and they came out publicly and agreed that these conditions have been met. | The areas of contention, such as the areas of governance. We should adhere to good governance guidelines and should take action to ensure that things will be done properly, with or without the IMF. Our determination is to make sure that things which are right are put in place. If this is done, they are going to lead to growth, and growth in investment, to sustain the deficit at a much lower level, in order to lead to increased earnings of foreign exchange through exports, etc. The trend, today, internationally, is the fact that there is a downward trend of a flow of resources of the developed countries to the developing countries. There is donor fatigue, no doubt about it.
We require the IMF because it is a kind of international credit agency. Anything to which it agrees to, makes it easier in a way, and quickens and also opens up some of the tight money which we badly need. We are still in discussion with the IMF; communication has not broken down.
Could you maybe comment on the Goldenberg scandal?
It was in parliament the other day, and the matter is still in court. The matter has been left to the judges, so as to speed it up, and take action on the culprits. There is a statement that I issued in parliament the other day, and you can have it. Our own constitution has what you call the 'separations of powers'. Parliament, the Judiciary and Executive. These three are supposed to be independent of each other. We cannot intervene as the government, telling them how and when they should do it.
How are you planning on attracting investors?
Let me give the example of telecommunications. We have a body that dealt with three things in general. First of all with Postal Services, then the regulatory aspects of telecommunications, there was the actual telecommunications. We have divided these into three parts.
The regulatory body Communications Commission of Kenya. Obviously you cannot privatize this. Nobody will be interested in buying it.
Then we have got the Postal Services. Normally you find that there aren't many companies that will want to buy that. Where the interest is in the Telkom, we are now looking for strategic partners, and there are quite a number. So that is an are where investors can buy something.
Energy used to be two in one, Generating and Marketing. Investors who want to come and invest in the Energy sector and generate energy are invited to do so, and we believe there are quite a number of them already at work. We believe they should come because there is a very big need for energy today.
There is another area, the Ports. Our intention is to allow the operational aspects of it, because you can never sell the land. You privatize the operation. They are free to come into the Railways. There are also other candidates for privatization. Kenya Reinsurance is an example.
There is a great deal of scope for those who want to put their money into the companies that are being privatized. Apart from that, there is also scope even in the new industries. There is a great deal of potential of investment in the Agro-industry, in the Textile industry.
If an investor is looking, not just at the Kenyan market but at the East African and even the COMESA market with 400 million people. They should also take into account the strategic geographical position of Kenya.
Last May, the COMESA organs met in Kenya and President Moi was elected the chairman of COMESA. What role do you think Kenya can play in its development, considering that some smaller countries in the region are jealous of the size and development of Kenya?
We are not competing with South Africa. We are a founding member of COMESA in the early 80s. We are committed to COMESA, and we are also committed to the doctrine of regional integration.
We are all at different levels of development and Kenya appears to be at a fairly advanced stage and you can see a gap there. Mechanisms are going to be developed and will be put in place. I believe that is what was agreed. We do not want it to appear that COMESA members were unable to cooperate with other countries. The same thing applies to countries like Spain and Portugal, countries which were in a terrible state of affairs when the EU was formed but are now doing extremely well. We are going to follow the same route.
Kenya's image has really been changed in the recent past, by bad publicity due to the bombing of the US Embassy in 1998, etc. What are the plans for restoring the good image of Kenya?
We do have a Ministry of Tourism. That one is being charged with marketing Kenya internationally. The Kenya Tourism Board has the resources. The board is going to do whatever it can, internationally, to paint a different picture of Kenya to the world. The whole idea essentially, is to say look!! Kenya is no longer unsafe. That is the impression out there. We will be able to say exactly, what kind of security we have. Kenya is not that bad in terms of infrastructure. We will say what we have done.
I want to say briefly, that operators in tourism are moving all over the world.
Do you have any final message for our readers?
I think the final message is that Kenya is a stable country within this region. It has been peaceful for the last 35 years. It has held democratic and free elections every five years as provided in the constitution. Therefore, the Kenyan government and people firmly believe in the virtues of democracy.
There are many opportunities for investment in Kenya, found in the Tourism industry, the wildlife and the beautiful beaches we have, there are other industries. We have a legal framework with broad incentive for potential investors. This is to say that, in the 21st century, Kenya will be a growing economy. |
