This archive report was first published on 2 January 2020.
As President Uhuru Kenyatta ushers in the New Year, he is faced with the daunting task of fulfilling his pledges and mending the broken fabric of a nation within just 950 days. This period represents the sum total of the president's remaining days in office – from today to August 8, 2022, when his term officially ends as provided for in the Constitution.
With many of the promises made by the Jubilee administration, both in 2013 and 2017, still a long way from being fulfilled, the year 2020 presents President Kenyatta with the challenge of deciding on priority projects and interventions to implement to ensure a decent legacy.
Fixing the wanting state of the economy, arresting runaway corruption, addressing housing challenges as promised in the revised Jubilee manifesto – now dubbed the Big Four Agenda – and arresting his government's insatiable appetite for debt are among the pressing issues the president will have to tackle.
Despite Parliament giving a boost to the Jubilee administration in its allocation of funds, with the bulk of the 2019-20 Budget allocated to the Big Four Agenda, little has been done on the ground so far. The year could prove a defining one for a government that was twice voted in on the basis of its promising blueprint.
It will also be the year when all eyes will be on him regarding the resolution of challenges plaguing his administration, including the implementation of the recently-released Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) task force report. The report, which portends changes to the Constitution, has presented politicians with a platform for debate.
Whether the implementation of the report will help cure the country's rifts or further divide it remains to be seen. The BBI task force report aims to address some of the country's most pressing ills such as cyclic post-election violence, corruption, marginalisation and negative ethnicity.
