15/09/2023
STATEMENT BY AZIMIO LA UMOJA ONE KENYA COALITION PARTY ON ONE YEAR OF KENYA KWANZA ; SEPTEMBER 15, 2023: IT’S BEEN A GRAND DISASTER:
We have had a meeting of the full house of Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party that focused on three areas namely, to receive and review a report on the status of the national dialogue talks, to assess and share with Kenyans our take on one year of Kenya Kwanza regime and to analyze the general health of our nation one year since Kenya Kwanza imposed itself on our people.
Today, we will confine ourselves to two areas of concern; the management of the economy and its impact on cost of living and the management of education.
In the past one year, that is September 2022 to September 2023, Kenyans have been treated to loud claims and boasts on how great we are doing as a nation. We have been made to believe that we are first in Africa and that we are beating our quiet neighbours in every aspect of competition and that the future is guaranteed.
As the sun set on the first year of Kenya Kwanza, it is clear that no amount of oratory or extravagant claims can hide the harsh fact that we have had an extremely disastrous and difficult one year and there is no reason whatsoever for Kenyans to believe that the next one year will be better.
Ghanaian economist and opposition leader Dr. Mhamudu Bawumia told his country, and we quote “THE LESSON FROM HISTORY IS THAT YOU CANNOT MANAGE THE ECONOMY WITH PROPAGANDA. IN FACT, YOU CAN ENGAGE IN ALL THE PROPAGANDA YOU WANT BUT IF THE MACROECONOMIC FUNDAMENTALS ARE WEAK, THE EXCHANGE RATE WILL EXPOSE YOU.” We can add that the cost of goods and cost of living will expose you.
Despite the rhetoric, despite the eloquent words and the confusing figures, Kenya Kwanza has been badly exposed on all fronts. As we begin the second year of Kenya Kwanza regime, it is clear we are in reckless race to the bottom.
At midnight, the cost of Diesel went up by Ksh21 shillings.
Paraffin exposed Kenya Kwanza when its price went up by Ksh33.
Petrol exposed Kenya Kwanza after rising by Ks16 higher.
You cannot manage the economy via propaganda.
One year later, all indicators point to the fact that that life is deteriorating not improving.
The cost of every item that is basic to life has gone up.
In the last one year, the following have happened:
1. The price of one kilogram of sugar has gone up 61 per cent,
2. The price of one kilogram of loose maize flour has gone up by 9.6 per cent.
3. Rent for a single room rose by 2.8 per cent.
4. The price of 2kg Fortified unga has gone up by 8.1 per cent
5. 50 kilowatt electricity has gone up by 68.7 per cent.
6. 200 kilowatt electricity has gone up by 48.8 per cent.
7. One litre of kerosene has risen by 31.1 per cent.
8. A litre of diesel has risen by 28.0 per cent.
9. A litre of petrol went up by 22.1 per cent.
10. Wines and spirits went up by 9.0 per cent.
We hasten to add that these price rises were before the developments of last night. Given rise in fuel after last night, we estimate that these prices will go up by up to 70 percent.
We are staring at a straight second disastrous year under Kenya Kwanza.
In one year under Kenya Kwanza, our currency, the Kenya shilling, the once mighty currency in the region, has received severe beating. The shilling has lost a quarter of its value against the US dollar in one year. The shilling lost 20 per cent of its value against Tanzania and Uganda shilling.
In August 2022, the shilling was trading at 120 for one US dollar. A year later, the shilling is trading at 150 against one US dollar.
The fall of the shilling comes with a great price that includes escalated cost of imports including food. It puts tremendous pressure on parents seeking to take their children abroad or those who want to seek treatment outside the countries.
The free fall of the shilling is therefore a grand betrayal of the people of Kenya by the Kenya Kwanza regime. Given the state of the economy and the promises they made during campaigns, Kenyans would have expected that Kenya Kwanza would cut down expenditure and borrowing. The regime did the complete opposite. Kenya Kwanza increased spending by Ksh400 billion; spending money it does not have and raising it by extorting more taxes from suffering Kenyans. The taxes rose at a time the overall economy has been contracting.
In the second quarter of 2022, which is the first era of Kenya Kwanza regime leading into 2023, the economy grew by only 5.2 per cent. In a similar period in 2021, it grew by 11. 0 per cent.
The regime resorted to more borrowing, ignoring the warnings that we are in debt distress and at the risk of debt default. Without blinking an eye, the regime went against its promise to reduce borrowing and did the complete opposite.
Kenyans responded to this turn of events by trying to steady their business especially the small enterprises but those efforts were in vain as interest rates rose through the roof and more taxes hit those businesses.
Only the government can now afford to borrow at the astronomical rate of 17 per cent or more, from the domestic market. The result has been that micro and small businesses are struggling, defaulting and folding up while the larger private sector is at best, stagnating or equally folding up. In the last one year, the proportion of micro and small businesses defaulting on loans has increased by 17 percent.
Today, 6 out of ten micro and small business are either paying late, paying only a part of their instalments or are unable to pay.
Inflation is driven by cost of food and fuel. As long as the government has not resolved the price of food and fuel, the cost of living will not come down. No amount of fertilizer will lower the cost of food as long as the cost of fuel is unchecked. Diesel is one of the highest costs in farming. Even if you give the citizen a bag of fertilizer but make it impossible for her to plough an acre of land you have not solved the problem.
With the shilling tanking, the grains – like maize, wheat and rice that we import have increased 25 percent. As the economy has suffered, another grand betrayal of the dreams and aspirations of our country has unfolded silently in the education sector.
As a party, we believe that we cannot neglect education no matter the magnitude of the economic challenges we are grappling with.
We believe that if we are to spend just on one thing, it should be education. In one year, Kenya Kwanza has thrown the education sector into a deep financial crisis.
In public, the Kenya Kwanza administration continues to talk about free education, the reality in our schools and homes across Kenya is that education is no longer free either in primary or secondary schools.
Inadequate funding is growing into a full-blown crisis in primary and secondary schools, forcing head teachers to beg from well-wishers to help finance schools, straining parents further and threatening the high enrollment reached in recent years as many students are sent home for school fees.
Although the academic year is coming to an end, the funds that have been released to schools are way below what was required. In some of the schools, the Government has disbursed as low as Ksh.15, 000 for a student population of 400. Some schools received as low as Ksh.3000.
We are however very concerned that under Kenya Kwanza, education and the country are getting compromised by mismanagement, lack of clarity, lack of interest and weak leadership in the sector. Verbally, education field officers have been instructed to work with school PTAs and BOMs and approve measures to help school raise funds for their operations. For schools, this only means raising school fees.
As a result of the weak leadership, examination integrity is back as an issue in our education. Implementation of the CBC curriculum is in chaos.
Mismanagement persists at key institutions like TSC, KNEC and the ministry itself. Inequality between public and private schools is rising. The quality and capacity of day schools is deteriorating.
But more worrying is that parents are being forced to pay more for this chaotic and poor quality education. In the first one year under Kenya Kwanza, the cost of education has gone up by 225 per cent. But the quality is not guaranteed.
Fellow Kenyans, this has been a disastrous one year under Kenya Kwanza. And we have no good new or encouraging words to offer. There are strong indications that things will get worse or remain the same. We however refuse to ask you to tighten your belts. You have done enough.
The ball is squarely in the court of the regime. They either act or await the fate that has fallen other insensitive and incompetent regimes across the continent.
