The 4th Medium Term Plan (MTP) covering the period 2023/2027, which also marks the final five-year plan of the Kenya Vision 2030 has been launched in Kiambu County.
The Plan has been designed to elevate the Country into a new industrialized Middle-income country ensuring high quality of lives for its citizens.
Speaking when he officially launched the MTP4 Monday, Public Service, Performance and Delivery management CS Moses Kuria said that planning function is extremely important for governance, financial management, and economic management.
He noted that great planners such as Tom Mboya, Prof. Anyang Nyongo among many other leaders in the country had been instrumental in making long term plans, but the greatest regret, especially after the advent of multi-party in the country is that such plans were associated with a government of a particular type and this is wrong.
“We all should own our long-term plans and compete on how best we can be able to implement the plans instead of making it political, ” he said, adding that when vision 2030 was mooted, Kenya was in the category of the Least developed countries, but has now moved to the Middle-income countries.
“This therefore means we have had the benefit in implementing the vision through MTP1, MTP2 and MTP3. I am hoping that as we transition to MTP4, we will have a better future and even make it to the category of the Upper Middle Income,” he noted.
Kuria who also shared the statement made by the President during the National Launch of the MTP4 in March this year, pleaded with the two levels of government to enhance inter-governmental cooperation by integrating programmes such as social health for the plan to come to fruition.
“County governments are very important contributors in various programmes and I have noticed that quite a number of counties are rolling out their plans especially on health, farming, food and even seedlings, which is extremely, very good but they should be integrated and made part of one system,” he said
Kuria explained that currently the government is doing very well in areas such as agriculture, but noted that despite being clear on the plans, it still has its challenges.
“We need to walk the talk and since my ministry is responsible for performance and delivery, we will ensure that we deliver and I want to commit that I will hold all state departments, ministries and agencies of the government into account for the plan,” he said.
The CS said that it is time that implementation of the plan is fulfilled, adding: “All plans are good on paper, but they will remain so if diversified implementation is not done. I want to commit that my Ministry will work day and night to ensure that everybody being paid by the taxpayer is held to account.”
Kuria said that another challenge of implementation that the country has is that of optimism noting: “The minute we have optimism, we become hopeful and energize all our people.”
He emphasized that the plan cannot work in the context of political stupidity, bad manners, competition, tribalism, parochialism, selfishness and corruption.
He added, “This plan doesn’t mean an avenue for us to come here and lie to ourselves. If we fix our politics, make it less toxic, less divisive and unite this country, we have a historic opportunity to invest in our country.”
Giving the Kiambu County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP) 2023 to 2027, Stephen Mungai, from the local Department of Planning and who was representing the CECM Finance said the plan has prioritized the major economic value chains in the areas of leather, Agriculture, Infrastructure and Education among others.
“We have ear-marked in our CIDP training of factory and tannery owners on proper leather production techniques, we are also giving subsidized fertilizer, procuring and distributing coolers and pasteurizers for our farmers,” he said.
Mungai explained that some of the challenges the County was experiencing include pending bills, missed revenue targets, especially on its own source of revenue, a weak monitoring and evaluation system, inadequate resources and lack of public participation in planning and policy development.
He recommended that there is need to improve on the timelines of exchequer release noting: “We have also realized that we need to manage and clear our pending bills if at all we have to implement our CIDP the way we have made it, increase revenue collection, enhance public participation and implement robust financial management practices and strengthen collaboration with stakeholders.”
Kiambu population, Mungai said is projected to rise from 2.6 M last year, to 2.7 M in 2025 and 2.8 at the end of planning period; 2027, with the density of 952 persons per square kilometer.
The MTP4 future plan calls for investment in five core strategic pillars of agriculture, healthcare, housing and settlement, micro, small and medium enterprises, economy and the digital super-highway, as well as creative economy.
By Wangari Ndirangu
