IHighlights of Strengths and Challenges from the Review Process

The key highlights of strengths and challenges in governance and socio-economic development in Kenya from the Peer Review are:

Strengths

• A well-developed human resource base that is well engaged in development activities, highly motivated and outspoken on public affairs;
• A vibrant and diverse civil society including religious bodies, NGOs and media;
• Numerous credible and well-renowned institutions including the University of Nairobi, Business and Research associations and the Nairobi Stock Exchange;
• A political environment that allows for open political debate;
• A resilient economy that is less dependent on donors than in many other African countries;
• An established decentralised funding mechanism for local development;
• Hospitality towards refugees and migrants that has manifested itself for many decades;  
  A relatively stable country;
• The vibrancy of the media, both print and electronic;
• A vibrant agricultural export sector, especially for horticulture; and the
• Adoption and ratification of numerous codes of corporate governance and socio-economic development.

Challenges

• An inability to address the colonial legacy, and the need to set a political agenda for real and strong national unity;
• Historical imbalances in the channelling of resources and development programmes to certain regions in Kenya, which has perpetuated regional and ethnic inequalities;
• The delay in promulgating a new constitution in spite of the Boma draft being the product of the most extensive constitutional consultations in Africa’s history;
• The absence of broad-based and inclusive political parties, cutting across the racial and ethnic divides and anchored on a truly national agenda;
• The lack of confidence and trust in public institutions coupled with pervasive corruption despite the substantive legal and institutional frameworks instituted to curtail it;
• The high incidence of poverty and pervasive unemployment, especially for youth;  
  The under-representation of women in key positions of leadership at all tiers of government and the private sector;
• The lack of efficient public sector service delivery and enforcement mechanisms as well as the weak implementation of policies and programmes;
• The ineffectiveness of the Parliamentary Oversight Committees;
• The limited access to finance for small business; and the
• Low probability of meeting MDG goals with the exception of universal primary education and fall in HIV/AIDS rates.

Key Issues from the first Annual Progress Report

Challenges general to the APRM Process include :

• The APRM process needs to move faster within the countries that have already joined also as part of advocating for its expansion with new membership. For this to happen, however, it is clear that political will is required to give the Mechanism the space and resources to function.
• The processes and instruments of the Mechanism need to be constantly adjusted and simplified sufficiently to permit speedy implementation. This should be done taking into account local specifies and innovation without at the same time prejudicing the comparability of experiences and lessons among countries.
• APRM needs to be rooted in the realities of participating countries. It must be implemented in a manner that promotes and deepens country ownership through greater decentralization and its efforts to be an agent of change, making a real difference in peoples political and economic lives.
• APRM needs to be mainstreamed into the development strategies of our countries so as to avoid duplication, secure greater coherence and better use the available resources. Failure to do so will create parallelism particularly in the implementation of the National Programmes of Action, and stands to undermine the Mechanism.
• The implementation of APRM requires partnerships and resources both within countries and with partners. While partnerships are critical, it is clear that credibility and sustainability of APRM hinge on national ownership. This means that countries must be prepared to shoulder the burdens of APRM with the full recognition that outside resources may not always be readily forthcoming or may do so on conditionalities that defeat the very objectives of the Mechanism.
• There is clear need to deepen our understanding of APRM and the challenges our countries face individually or collectively in its implementation. Better advocacy and communication will deepen knowledge and understanding of APRM.
• The APRM process urgently requires properly constituted Monitoring and Evaluation frameworks to guide the implementation. In this regard, the efforts by Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda in developing the M&E APRM Framework need to be adopted and shared among APRM participating countries.
• The APRM requirement that newly reviewed countries make a six month progress report is unrealistic and needs to be reconsidered.

Key Thematic Challenges

Political and Democratic Governance

• Constitution making process,
• Corruption,
• Internal Conflict and Security,
• Equal and fair distribution of national resources to regions and communities,
• Land Policy- people need training and sensitization on land policies, programmes, procedures and mechanisms, proper land legislations and regulations, and establishment of community arbitration committees,
• Under-representation of women in decision making ,
• Mainstreaming issues affecting the disabled people in all sectors of the economy,
• Management of the devolved funds Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and Local Authority Transfer Funds (LATF),
• Implementation Gaps.

Economic Governance and Management

• The key overall macroeconomic policy challenge is to accelerate and sustain economic growth at 10 percent per annum within a sustainable framework of low inflation, low fiscal imbalances, declining net domestic borrowing and healthy balance of payments.
• The specific challenges will include: increasing domestic savings and investment, improving accountability and efficiency in the use of public resources, and restructuring and continued refocusing public spending toward priority activities envisaged in Vision 2030 and those that will lead to realization of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Corporate Governance

The private sector is expected to play an important role in wealth creation as envisaged in the Vision 2030. The key challenge will therefore relate to creating a favorable environment, to create a competitive world class business sector. Some of specific challenges include:

• Cost of credit in the country is still too high to spur economic growth of all enterprises and especially MSMSEs,
• The Country's capacity and speed of implementing the legal and regulatory reform agenda,
• The power availability, its cost and the country's capacity to develop power generating capacity and efficient distribution system enough to support projected economic growth,
• Development and roll out of fibre optic network in the country is a challenge from a financial and implementation stand points,
• Implementation of the road rehabilitation and construction projects within the set timetable requires a scaling up of the national road construction capacity and development of fast and transparent procurement framework,
• The development of a modern rail network and infrastructure. In addition the slow speed of the national railway to substantially increasing its share of freight and passenger traffic.
• Planning and Management of urban traffic especially in Nairobi.
• Administration and dispensation of justice and resolution of commercial disputes remain a challenge in the short and medium term.
• Enhancement capacity of some regulatory bodies and professional organizations.
• Creating quality jobs in the formal sector and the rate of success of migration of MSEs into big enterprises

Social Economic Development

The key social economic challenge is to ensure that as the economy grows, equity and poverty reduction are realised. Some of the key sectoral challenges include:

• Lack of capacity to maintain records of monitorable indicators by key responsibilities to gauge the extent of actions. This has impaired preparation of review and validation. ? High Poverty levels impacting negatively on the fight against HIV/AIDS as it makes people vulnerable to HIV infections.
• Inadequate manpower as the health sector currently requires additional 7,000 health workers for it to operate optimally.
• Inability to access funds on time by rural health facilities.
• High Poverty levels impacting negatively on the fight against HIV/AIDS as it makes people vulnerable to HIV infections.
• Some retrogressive socio-cultural behavior such as wife inheritance, polygamy is making people more vulnerable to HIV infection.
• Ensuring that the quality aspects of the Free Education are addressed
• No understanding of how school bursary is distributed sometimes child is listed as a beneficiary but does not receive funding. Bursaries do not benefit the immediate community members’ issues of tribalism and nepotism.
• School facilities are still overstretched and overcrowded particularly in urban slums. The problem is exacerbated by diminished community support, following the FPE initiatives which relived parents from paying fees.

Way Forward

Most Kenyans feel that constitutional reforms could be better effected by: appointing experts to review the constitution, creating level playing structures, empowering institutions and not politicians, and making the process all inclusive. If possible, external experts from the AU could be sought in order to eliminate the existing political competition within the constitutional review process. This is within the earlier recommendations made by the Country Review Team during the peer review exercise.

In addition, stakeholders suggested the need for traditional courts to help the poor with legal service. There is also need for enhanced civic education on judicial reforms to inform citizens on their rights

Sustaining the economic growth will require commitment of the Government to governance issues raised within the frameworks of APRM. It is only through this that issues of equity and managing diversity will be comprehensively addressed. The existing inequalities have a strong correlation to land issues, internal conflicts and security in the country.

While the macro-economic data indicates economic growth in the last five years, the perception of the people within the APRM framework indicates that this growth has not trickled down to the common man. This is the challenge that the Government has to deal with.