2023: Defining moment for Ruto's presidency and legacy

To say there is so much to do for President William Ruto and his government going forward is a cliché.

What I want to do is just indicate a few of the many areas that will need a lot of attention in 2023. I have already seen a lot of analysis on his first 100 days in office, and my focus will be on the New Year , discussing the direction he will drive the country.

To start with, five or even 10 years in leadership is not a long time at all in terms of what one needs to accomplish and be felt as worthwhile. What is not in doubt is that time is enough to make a huge impact of success or failure. So 2023 will be a defining moment for Ruto's presidency and legacy.

Huge focus will and should be on the economy. It is here where Kenya’s problems and those facing many countries of the world start. It is the economy that defines the quality of life of the citizens and its state is only good to a few, the country’s sustainability is not guaranteed.

Indeed, in modern era, it is courting disaster if the economy is unfair to many or life is miserable to them.  Even having a minority feeling left out or suffering is still courting disaster. The state of economy nowadays breeds the state of politics that can lead to extreme outcomes.  So poverty is completely undesirable anywhere.

In Kenya, there are already plenty of issues relating to the economy and its consequences such as unemployment, under-employment, poverty, crime and even terrorism threats.

There is a lot of expectation on the government to change this situation. From evidence and various respectable studies, there is need to have a diversified functional economy. I would personally wish President Ruto puts his energy and mind to making various parts of Kenya have a fully functional 24-hour economy, especially in cities and big towns.

Similarly, there is need to ensure viable and well-structured systems to enable Kenyans take opportunities of working and doing businesses in diaspora as opportunities abound. The net effect is creation of opportunities for investing back home, if these Kenyans in the diaspora are facilitated to invest back home.

Obviously in sectors such as tourism, the scope is huge, the opportunities are immense and we have not scratched the surface given the new emerging frontiers in medical tourism. In manufacturing, there is a lot of work to be done.

Tourism and manufacturing sectors have huge ripple effect to the entire economy in terms of jobs and the ripple effect to others such as agriculture.

In regards providing quality infrastructure across the country, a lot still needs to be done.

During my visit to Germany and Switzerland, among other neighbouring countries, I was surprised to see a lot of infrastructure development going on even at night such as construction of roads. Yet these countries have quite decent infrastructure already in place, especially roads, railways and airports.

You will have the same experience in Nordic countries such as Denmark, where governments don’t relent on providing efficient transport systems.

Kenya, therefore, has a lot of work to do on this area to also facilitate economic development.

There are also unlimited opportunities in technology that need to be explored to catalyse development.

Hopefully, the Hustler Fund will undergo a re-invention to ensure ultimate success and sustainability and help in promoting small-scale businesses.

A conducive political environment will be requisite in revamping the economy and the need for sane politics cannot be gainsaid.

I wish the president well to build a decent legacy, a legacy built on saving Kenyans from the jaws of poverty, unemployment and under-employment, whose impacts is detrimental to Kenyans’ standard of living. 

Leaders are to be judged by the impact they have on the lives of the people they lead. It can never be politics or leadership for the sake of it. I guess and hope going by the many promises the President made during the campaigns and after, a lot will be done to get Kenyans out of their economic suffering.

Year 2023 is the date of rendezvous with destiny for President Ruto.

Harrison Mwirigi Ikunda is a political, economic and social analyst and commentator