This posting is thought provoking and is meant to waken us up from our dream
Friends,
The Vision for 2030 in Kenya is composed of very sweet words; A national long-term development blue-print to create a globally competitive and prosperous nation with a high quality of life by 2030, that aims to transform Kenya into a newly industrializing, middle-income country providing a high quality of life to all its citizens by 2030 in a clean and secure environment.

The vision is anchored on three key pillars; economic, social and political governance. 

Vision 2030 Roads in Kenya

And about the Flagship Projects, this is what they are saying;  With over 120 transformational & cross-sector flagship projects implemented across the country, each pillar encompasses various sectors that Kenya Vision 2030 is working to transform. The three pillars are buttressed by the foundations of Vision 2030 – Enablers and Macro. Browse through each of the pillar's flagship projects and see the future that awaits you and our country.
Vision 2030 Roads in Kenya
The three said Pillars upon which Vision 2030 are anchored on are Economic, Social and Political.
The Economic Pillar aims at moving the economy up the value chain- whatever that is.
The Social Pillar aims at investing in the people of Kenya.
And the Political Pillar aims at moving to the future as one nation.
All this makes some very good reading. But then, let us interrogate what this Vision is all about and let us put to test how realistic this vision is.
Vision 2030 Roads in Kenya
I am never a pessimist. But being the optimist I am, I like living real and in real times. It is good to have dreams, but it is never good to keep in your dream all night long till daylight come, till midday come, and till another night falls.
Dreams are realities of life that each one of us gets involved with once in a while. What matters, and what makes a difference is the length and quality of that dream. If you had a long dream, time comes when you must wake up from it and start facing reality.
The Vision 2030 is a master piece of such a dream.
Vision 2030 garbage along Lunga Lunga Road in Nairobi
We all know how at some point in time we were subjected to water for all by the year 2000 dream. The dream went on and when the year 2000 came, the dreamers went silent. They have never told us what happened to that sweet dream; water for all by the year 2000!
The Vision 2030 dream is one such sweet dream. 2030 is only 18 years away, and looking at our State of the Nation now, there is no action that indicates that we are keen in realizing this beautiful dream called Vision 2030.
A quick look at the 3 Pillars shows that nothing of the dream will be realized. What does moving the economy up the value chain mean to a layman? We have simply perfected the art of clothing our incompetence in nice sounding words which mean absolutely nothing to many Kenyans.
Moving the economy up the value chain would not be actualized simply through theatrics and posture. This must involve harnessing the human resource and capacities of Kenyans. It will involve as many Kenyans as possible being in gainful economic activities that will add value to our national GDP.
Vision 2030 garbage in Nairobi
As it were, unemployment is at its worst in Kenya, and nothing, absolutely nothing is being done to absorb the mass production of failures being channeled through our education system.
Every year, many Kenyans are being sieved at class 8, at form 4 and at the University levels. What are we doing with this lot that fail to meet the thresh hold to move to the next level? Do we condemn them to a life of hopelessness and dream?
Secondly, our Education Institutions are engaged in mass production of illiterate Kenyans. What is the Vision 2030 doing about the quality of education in our schools, in our colleges, in our universities? Nothing.
Recently, we have engaged in some very productive and useful debate, where we were looking at the quality of our Road Engineers. Again, how can we achieve this Vision 2030 thing if we as a Nation are stuck at Roads Construction? We are perpetually building the same roads!
Our Roads Engineers are giving us shoddy quality of works across Kenya, and yet, I want to believe that any thriving economy drives on the roads or on the rails to reach their markets.
How will we achieve Vision 2030 when we have no roads to power any Economic Take-off? Instead of building the Mombasa Road to acceptable standards, we are building a road that serves a County and pegging our hopes on it as a flagship project. Thika Road serves no known economic interest of Kenya. It is a County Road serving the interest of Kiambu County and nothing less.

Vision 2030 garbage at Muthurwa on Landhies Road in Nairobi

Look at the Rail System in Kenya. For all practical purposes and intent, the Rail System in Kenya is dead. Very dead. Dead to an extent that we are all seeing the strain on our Roads across all Kenya. And yet, we are stuck in slumberland dreaming about Vision 2030 and doing absolutely nothing to revive our Rail System.
On the Economic Pillar of the Vision, we have lost it and lost it badly. We are doing nothing to even cushion the manufacturers on the costs of production. We have an erratic power supply that makes the manufacturers keep passing the costs of production to the common man.
Power regulation has become one issue that is surely sounding a death knell to our beloved Vision 2030. Again, energy regulation is also making a mockery of our resolve to keep this dream alive.
Vision 2030 Roads in Kenya
The Social Pillar of this Vision 2030 is in a shambles. Nothing is being done to up the quality of Education in Kenya. The sad reality is, parents do not know what their children are being instructed on in schools. Merchants and journeymen have been allowed to become authors of serious academic staff. I do not mind individuals penning their memoirs, but these can never be authorities for academic instructions. The quality of Text Books we currently have driving our Education Curriculum can never allow us to achieve Vision 2030.
As we are writing this, we all know how in shambles our health care in Kenya is. We have now made two attempts at unveiling universal health care for Kenyans with disastrous results. Look at how these men and women messed a very good idea at the NHIF? Instead of working for quality of health care for Kenyans, we saw an opportunity to steal from Kenyans. With this kind of a mindset, we surely can not achieve Vision 2030.
Our Towns cannot manage waste and garbage, and yet, any environmentalist will tell you that waste is wealth. But they have drastically failed to convert that waste into wealth. And Vision 2030 has also done nothing to ensure that we have a clean and safe environment as is posited in our Constitution.
These are some of the quick gains the Vision would have ran with. But when we cannot even manage simple things like waste, how can we live the dream of Vision 2030?
Vision 2030 garbage along Kampala Road in Nairobi
The Political Pillar is a sturdy in confusion and the Vision 2030 Mandarins better wake up. The Pillar aims at moving us to the future as one Nation. What have we put in place to help us move into the future as a Nation? Is it the rudderless National Cohesion and Integration Commission? Is it the ever quarreling Truth and Justice Commission? Is it the non- functional Political Parties Act?
Now, moving the Country together as a Team is one of the things many Kenyans are happy with. We live together, go to the same hospitals, schools, markets, play fields and we all suffer power blackouts together.
We all drive on poorly build roads together, and we all suffer the high costs of fuel as a people.
We all suffer the ignominy of being Kenyans at a time a few people are embroiled in dreams that will never be realized.
In conclusion, I want to be categorical that the following should have been the foundations upon which Vision 2030 would have been anchored;

1. Education;  Without quality education, we cannot have the human resource to dream for a better Kenya.
2. Roads/Infrastructure; Without quality roads, we cannot access the markets and move as efficiently as we want.
3. Health Care; Without an affordable and accessible Health Care for all, we are the poorer as a Nation.
4. Shelter; We need adequate and affordable shelter for our people. As it is, housing has become one area of real irritation to many Kenyans. The housing sector has been left to jackals.
5. Lethargy; We must move from transferring inept and lethargic Public Servants from one station to another. They should be fired in public interest and sent home without any benefits.

With this done, it is my firm conviction that the Vision 2030 Dream is a good academic theory best placed at the Universities for instructions on how not to achieve it.
A walk around Kenya will tell you that we are better off addressing the immediate challenges of our Nation and lay a firm foundation upon which a clear dream can be built, for this is the State of our Nation.

Odhiambo T Oketch
Executive Director,
The Clean Kenya Campaign- TCKC
Tel; 0724 365 557
Website; www.kcdnkenya.org
Blogspot; http://kcdnkomarockswatch.blogspot.com