President Uhuru Kenyatta alongside Military General Samson Mwathethe during Jamhuri Day fete, December 12, 2017. [Photo/PSCU]
President Uhuru Kenyatta has said a focus on economic development and a shift from politics for politics’ sake is the only way to transform Kenya.He said Kenya has lost many golden opportunities because leaders have elevated politics to a level higher than economic prosperity.Kenyatta said poverty, as well as weak nations and conflicts in Africa, were a consequence of a wrong approach to nation-building which focused on politics at the expense of the economic well-being of the people.“Poverty is not our fate as Africans. It is merely the outcome of the wrong solutions and priorities by leaders and their followers. For proof of this, you only need to take a look at the countries that have focused on politics for its own sake, and they abound on our continent,” said the President.Kenyatta spoke at the Kasarani Sports Complex in Nairobi when he led Kenyans in celebrating the 54th Jamhuri Day, the first after his swearing in for his second term in office.He noted that none of the countries that placed politics over the economy has been able to achieve sustained prosperity for all and many have been destroyed through conflicts.“It is time to reject this false notion of politics for politics’ sake. Our founding fathers knew that we would never be totally free unless we were also prosperous,” he said.Kenyatta, who was sworn into office for his second term at the end of November, said he will unite and lead Kenyans to make a paradigm shift that will place equal opportunity, dignity for all and the pursuit of material prosperity for all above politics.“I have seen the future, and it is at hand. The pursuit of politics for politics’ sake is the past; the pursuit of political leadership for economic liberation is the future. And it is up to us, as Kenyans, to deliver it,” said Kenyatta.While acknowledging that the shift from the mindset that values politics for politics’ sake to one that promotes politics of prosperity will not be easy, Kenyatta emphasized the need for all Kenyans to pursue the path of transformation.“It will attract cynics and pessimists; it will attract haters of the country who want to imprison us in a vicious cycle of empty politics and talk. The big shift cannot and will not be achieved by me and Jubilee alone; it will need all of us,” said the President.