President Uhuru Kenyatta's eighth State of the Nation Address before the joint sitting of the Houses of Parliament did not meet our expectations.
The speech failed to make an impact; it was under-whelming.
The President was expected to take stock of his government's milestones as well as state his plan for his final year in office ahead of the August 2022 general election. But it did not come out as Kenyans would have hoped.
He also said the country is still in a "Constitution moment" and that what did not happen (BBI) will still happen. I do not think that is true.
As representatives of the people, we expected the President to talk about high prices of basic commodities. We also expected him to talk about the prices of produce from local farmers, something the head of state did not mention.
By the way, it was like a Netflix inside Parliament because there was a great divide between what was said in the House and the reality outside. There was a huge difference between what the President said and what ordinary Kenyans are going through.
In his address, the President talked about impressive economic growth, which most Kenyans are not aware of, or are not feeling.
The head of state also talked about prices of farm inputs like fertiliser, which was not very true. The prices of fertiliser almost doubled this planting season.
I think the President was misguided by his advisers because what he reported is not what is happening on the ground.
I also want to note that we expected the President to talk about the country's debt. It is a very crucial matter because of the micro economy of our country.
Since the current administration took over in 2013, public debt has been growing steadily and is now almost four times what they inherited from the Kibaki administration. There has been pressure on the National Treasury to cut the appetite for loans but nothing has happened.
The President needed to tell us about debt so we could look at it against infrastructure development.
Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro spoke at Parliament Buildings
(Edited by V. Graham)
