[President Uhuru Kenyatta during the State of the Nation March 15, 2017. Photo/ PSCU]
President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday highlighted a number of his achievements during State of the Nation Address.
“We promised we were going to build a new railway, from Mombasa to Malaba through Kisumu, and that we would complete the first phase from Mombasa to Nairobi before June 2017. We have kept the promise.”
In 2013, Uhuru said they promised to undertake the most aggressive road construction program ever seen in Kenya.
With 1,950 kilometres of new roads completed, and another 7000 kilometres under different phases of construction, he said they had kept the promise.
Below is part of his statement on his pledges:
“In 2013, we promised to connect every county to Fiber Optic technology in order to ease access to information. Today, every county headquarters is connected to fiber and 50% of all sub-county headquarters are also connected. We have kept the promise.
In 2013, we promised to provide access to electricity for 70% of all households by the end of 2017. Today, we have connected an additional 3.7 million new homes to electricity. We have more than doubled the total number of connections made since independence. We have kept the promise.
In 2013, we promised to connect electricity to all public primary schools by 2017. Today, having connected an additional 14,045 schools representing over 98% of all public primary schools in the country. We have kept the promise.
In the health sector, we promised to upgrade our public hospital facilities. Prior to 2013, only the four referral hospitals had such equipment. Four years later, through the innovative Managed Equipment Services program, I am pleased to say that 92 hospitals across all counties have now been equipped with modern diagnostic equipment. We have kept the promise.
In 2013, we guaranteed the provision of free primary healthcare for expectant mothers. Today, we have doubled the numbers of expectant mothers delivering under the care of skilled medical attendants to over 1.2 million by the end of 2016. We have kept the promise.
We promised to bring service delivery closer to every Kenyan. Today, we have transformed service delivery through the Huduma initiative. We have 45 Huduma centres in 41 counties, providing 66 different government services to over 40,000 Kenyans everyday. We have kept the promise. We have kept this promise!
In 2013, we promised to put in place special financial incentives to support the role of the youth as the drivers of innovation in this country. After 4 years, Kshs 11 Billion has been accessed by close to a million young Kenyans.
We promised to provide social protection to our most vulnerable members of society. Today, our National Safety Net programme “Inua Jamii” covers 720,000 persons up from 220,000 in 2013. The budget for this programme has also been increased by 600 percent to 18 billion shillings.''