Kenyans have devised an ingenious way of holding the Kenya Kwanza regime accountable for its pledges by starting an online tracker for all its promises made before and after assuming office in September last year.
The master sheet contains six columns about the nature of the promise, the date the promise was made, the delivery deadline, the status of implementation, the person who made the promise and a description of the promise.
"Tracking the promises made by the Kenya Kwanza government that got into power in 2022 led by Dr William Ruto. Idea (and most promises) gotten from this master sheet. Use #KKPromises on Twitter to add new promises,” the header on the site dexxe.notion.site says.
As of June 5, 2023, the master sheet showed that a total of 109 promises had been logged with those fulfilled standing at 18.35 per cent.
Top on the list of fulfilled promises is the Sh50 billion Hustler Fund which was launched on December 1, 2022, by President William Ruto to offer cheaper credit for small businesses.
The other is the pledge by the President to remove at least four million Kenyans from the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB) listing made on September 28, 2022.
Some 15 other promises are listed as ‘in progress’.
These include the streamlining of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) to ease the financial burden on parents and excess homework for learners made on October 2, 2022.
It followed the appointment of a 49-member task force on September 30, 2022, to evaluate the curriculum.
The team was to subsist for six months and issue the President with a progress report every two months.
Also listed as in progress is Ruto’s ambitious plan to plant at least five billion trees within five years to counter climate change.
Ruto said the initiative will aid in combating the ravaging drought that has put lots of lives at risk.
Other promises listed as progress are the removal of tax on cooking gas, provision of WiFi hotspots in marketplaces, provision of the internet in schools, digitization of government services within six months and connection of 8.5 million homes to the internet.
All the promises were made on December 6, 2022, by President Ruto.
The message on digitization of government services was emphasised by ICT CS Eliud Owalo who said the move is part of enhancing efficiency and improving public access to all services offered by the government.
Other promises in progress are reduction of unga prices, construction of Moderna Vaccine facility, free parking on Saturdays in Nairobi, Kemsa cleanup and probe into the Shakahola massacre.
On the down low, tens of other promises have been listed either as not started or abandoned.
Those not started include upgrading of stadia as Kenya bids for Afcon 2017, restructuring of Kenya Power, reviving the textile industry, extending SGR to Uganda and Congo, Madaraka Day promises and reopening of Garissa Immigration offices which were closed in 2014 for security reasons.
Those promises Kenyans have listed as abandoned include the pledge to institute an inquiry on State capture, 6kg cooking gas to cost Sh300 by June, Kenya’s offer to send police officers to battle gangs in Haiti and stationing of immigration officers in Botswana to help with passport issues.
The pledge to lower monthly NHIF contributions to go to Sh300 from Sh500 is listed as unfulfilled.
