How to make Vision 2060 non-partisan, nationally appealing

The national conversation themed “Beyond Vision 2030” and launched by President William Ruto this week was intended to create a fresh Vision 2060, a successor to the expiring Vision 2030. It is doubtless one of those processes that should have support across all our political isles, were it not for three primary reasons.

Firstly, Kenya is always in perennial campaign mode.  There is nary a break for non-partisan conversations. Consequently, every issue is viewed through its political promoters and backers. Secondly, and related to the first, Kenyans have been subjected to what were framed as “national interest” conversations, only to realise they were primarily about managing electoral politics.

Who can forget the ill-fated Building Bridges Initiative, which was clearly intended to manage the Uhuru succession? Kenyans are therefore entitled to scepticism on any programmes fronted by political leaders. Thirdly, what makes this conversation unduly difficult is that it is coming one year to what will be a hotly contested election.

The President’s detractors believe the national conversation is meant to enable the incumbent to define the conversations in the period leading to the elections. This will take away the oxygen from their critique of the government’s record and its perceived or real failures. These are real and legitimate concerns.

That said, there are certain realities about the proposed conversation that must be protected from vagaries of partisan perspectives and transient politics. The first is the necessity of an agreed long-term vision for Kenya’s development. As was stated during the launch, the objective of such national visions is to build a citizen-backed national compass that survives election cycles.

Political contests then focus on how to achieve the destination rather than redefining it every five years. There is no doubt that the starts and stops associated with every successive administration hamper our long-term growth. Vision 2030’s strength arose from its development at a time of stable politics during the government of national unity. It defined its parameters through 3 pillars: the economic, the social and the political pillars, with the principal programmes in each of these pillars clearly defined.

Watchers of Kenya’s development paradigm will note that these broad pillars of the vision have been maintained, even though the focus on the specific routes towards attaining them have been placed aside since the exit of Kibaki, its founder President. The 5-year plans, including Jubilee’s 6-pillar promise and Kenya Kwanza’s BETA, have stayed true to the broad promise of Vision 2030.

Unfortunately, each of the post-Kibaki regimes has downplayed the vision, focusing instead on their campaign-laced 5-year programmes. Naturally, these programmes come burdened by partisan political competition with a shelf life that never outlasts each regime. They also tend to be populist, long on promise and clearly incapable of delivery. The result is citizen scepticism of government, which is seen as directionless, promising much and delivering little.

Worse still, these short-term plans are not publicly owned, never having been subjected to a process of public discourse. There is therefore an urgent need to define a publicly owned long-term agenda to replace Vision 2030. Unfortunately, this critical conversation is occurring when the electoral war drums have been beaten. Would it be possible to place politics aside for a few months as we discourse on these critical issues? I suspect not.

But government must find a way to expand the discourse to various constituencies even as it tries to get the political wing to engage.

The latter may largely involve criticism, but even that is good for the conversation. The government should, however, consider reducing the political overtones. One option is to cede leadership of the conversation to a body like the Vision 2030 delivery board, which can be expanded to include a few more statesmen and women with broad public appeal.

Such a body would then engage with an expanded constituency including faith-based communities, professionals, trade unions and non-partisan elements of civil society. It would need innovative ways, including dynamic social media platforming, to engage the ultimate owners of the vision, the young and very restless. Without innovative approaches, a good and necessary idea will be sacrificed on the altar of partisan politics, denying a chance to agree on the Kenya we want. 

-The writer is an advocate of the High Court