Deputy President Kithure Kindiki has hit out at critics downplaying the possibility of President William Ruto turning Kenya from third to first world country.
The second in command, in an apparent response to the United Opposition that has repeatedly laughed off the transition, said pessimistic comments about Singapore being a tiny 735 square kilometer city-state incomparable to Kenya should know that Kenya’s first world ambition is modeling on a few more Asian countries besides Singapore.
The Opposition led by former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka has on several occasions warned that Kenya couldn’t emulate Singapore’s development model unless systemic governance issues were addressed.
“Singapore was built on order, discipline, accountability, and a fierce intolerance for corruption, not the chaos, carelessness, and impunity we are witnessing today,” Kalonzo was quoted in a recent address.
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has also laughed off the idea saying promising Kenya will be like Singapore while the government tolerates corruption and governance failures was an insult to Kenyans.
But Prof Kindiki exuded confidence in his boss’s commitment, sharing an example with
China whose turning point came in 1978 and subsequently transition from a poor to first world country 40 years later.
“With a 9.6 million square kilometer mega country of 1.5 billion people, compared to Kenya’s 582, 646 square kilometer area and 55 million people, China is almost 17 times larger than Kenya,” he said, stressing that transformation was not determined by the size of the country but deliberate measures taken.
Prof Kindiki further noted that between 1981 and 2020, China lifted 800 million of its citizens from poverty, accounting for 75% of overall global poverty reduction.
This translates to about 200 million people lifted from poverty in a decade.
He said though recent data show that 40 percent of Kenya’s population (20 million people) live in poverty, it was possible to reduce the number by 10 million in every decade, completing the poverty eradication journey in 2 decades.
Under President Ruto’s leadership, Kenya is embracing a transformative agenda of broad-based economic reform and industrialization—the foundational pillars for achieving first-world status.
