Inside Uhuru's Big Four Agenda revamp

 

President Uhuru Kenyatta's administration is seeking to inject up to Sh1.3 trillion on key projects in the next three years to drive the Big Four agenda.

The Jubilee government has lined up projects tied to the health, food security, manufacturing, and affordable housing pillars with massive funding.

Hit by drastic budget cuts following the Covid-19 outbreak, the government is planning to enhance funding for the sectors including infrastructure, energy, and ICT projects.

The massive funding for Big Four related projects comes at a time when there have been concerns that the ambitious plans remain a pipe dream two years to the next elections.

To build the country's food basket, the government plans to pump Sh118 billion towards agriculture in the next three years.

A further Sh354 billion will be set aside by the Treasury towards financing the healthcare which seeks to provide access to affordable medical services.

The President seeks to scale up funding to Sh29.7 billion for the mass roll-out of Universal Health Coverage in the next fiscal year.

This is set to increase to Sh35 billion and later to Sh25.8 billion in financial years 2022-23 and 2023-24.

There is also queued another Sh12 billion to cater for the UHC scheme for supply of equipment to facilities providing primary health care.

Funding for Level 5 hospitals is also set to be increased to Sh4.7 billion from the current Sh4.3 billion.

President Kenyatta’s administration also seeks to provide Sh350 million for the establishment of cancer centres.

Some Sh24.5 billion will be spent next financial year in efforts to improve the ease of doing business in the country.

The education sector is set to consume a chunk of the resources dedicated for the period with the proposed Sh1.5 billion.

Some Sh358 billion will go towards environmental and wildlife conservation while about Sh360 billion will be spent on security and justice sectors.

The government also plans to issue 20 million Huduma Namba cards in the next financial year.

There also plans to put resources to Dongo Kundu Water supply project to support agriculture at the coast.

President Kenyatta seeks to construct 6,462 kilometres of new roads and maintain others stretching 108,146 kilometres.

The government is also keen on rehabilitation of airstrips; construction and operationalisation of three berths at Lamu Port.

More resources would also be dedicated to the development of Dongo Kundu Special Economic Zone and construction of shipbuilding and repair yard in Kisumu.

The government also targets to construct 7,810 affordable homes; complete 16 stalled government buildings; and support economic stimulus programmes.

There is also planned construction of 76 kilometres BRT lanes, 50 stations and two park-and-ride facilities.

Jubilee administration further plans to complete five-county government headquarters; construct 200 footbridges across the country, and construct 7.7 kilometres of the seawall.

The Kenyatta administration also seeks to implement the Konza Data Centre and Smart city project as well as the President’s digital talent initiative.

More resources would be dedicated to maintain and rehabilitate the national optic fibre cable infrastructure and construct KIMC campus in Eldoret.

The government further intends to put more money on energy projects to generate 62.82MW from geothermal resources.

In this regard, budgets would be provided to drill 15 geothermal and 20 coal exploration wells.

There will also be budgetary allocations promote uptake of LPG gas through Mwananchi Gas project among others.

The Jubilee administrations also intend to issue at least 1.35 million title deeds; settle 39,000 landless families; digitize land records in 68 offices; survey and maintain 520 kilometres of boundaries.

About 4,000 schools will get their land titles transferred to them during the said spending period.

Ministries, State Departments, and Agencies may be forced to drop some of their plans for lack of budgets.

The National Treasury has invited members of the public to give their views on the proposed allocations for three days starting November 25.

Politicians allied to the Tangatanga faction have been throwing jibes at the President accusing him of abandoning his pet projects in favour of BBI.