Vision 2060: Putting new wine into old wineskins?

Kenya's Vision 2030 project is ending in three years, and we seem to have suddenly noticed and started seeking a replacement. 

Firstly, what should be the best name for the new Vision: 2060 or 2063?

The latter is best to coincide with the 100th anniversary of independence; never mind that 2060 sounds more “symmetrical".  Vision 2063 also coincides with Africa’s Agenda 2063.

On paper, 2060 looks far, but 2030 did too. There is a low chance I could still be around in 2060. My stepmother is 102. What do we need to achieve Vision 2063?

Let me share my thoughts and hope that, in 2063, those alive will forgive me if I am wrong and pay tribute if I get it right. If alive, I will still be below 100.

One is to convince Kenyans that Vision 2063 is not about 2027 polls. And it’s not a diversion from failed economic promises: jobs, lower cost of living and higher standards of living.

Secondly, a plane still needs wheels to fly. We need such wheels to reach 2063.  The basics are the wheels: food, shelter, health, education, and mental peace. Remember Maslow's hierarchy of needs?

Thirdly, our focus must shift away from brick and mortar, from skyscrapers and highways to soft issues, meaning, purpose and why we are on this planet.

Anyone who has satisfied the basics knows how these “soft issues" matter. What happens after you own a home, a car, and other items? 

Fourthly, integrity is mentioned several times in the preliminary document on Vision 2063.  

Where did it go? How will integrity and honesty become our guests again? Where will hypocrisy and disdain for Kenyans go? 

Fifthly, our benchmark is the East: Koreans or Singaporeans.

Both are known for discipline in class and the workplace. Will the inheritors of Vision 2063 be that disciplined and focused? 

How shall we redesign our education in content and delivery to rhyme with the vision? What were Koreans and Singaporeans doing as we burnt schools?  What is Zinjanthropus doing in our curriculum?

Sixthly, we benchmark with the West on culture and politics. We conveniently ignore the Protestant work ethic. Working is seen as evil.

Why not benchmark with Western countries too on economic matters?

I have Germany in mind after World War II. Its adoption of the social market economy worked. Luckily, the social market system mimics our traditional societies where we love mining elders around polls time.

Seventhly, who will work to deliver the Vision 2063? If the vision was an anthill, who are the drones?  Who will sweat? 

Working has slowly been debased. Why else is nepotism so entrenched? Who will be working in agriculture? Shall we see a repeat of land consolidation of 1956/7 after so much fragmentation?

How shall we mechanise agriculture with all the subdivision and genetic control espoused by seedless crops and sprays?

In manufacturing: what shall we manufacture and for which market- Japanese or Korean style?  The Kenyan economy is now 55 per cent services, according to the Economic Survey 2026. 

How shall we reverse that? Who will lead industrialisation: Kenyans or outsiders? Innovation is our dream. Who will do the hard thinking with the tide of artificial intelligence (AI)?

Eighthly, the vision will be driven by self-interest. Long live Adam Smith, the father of modern economics. We shall be asking what is there in the Vision 2063 for each of us. 

What is there for me as an individual; how will this vision change my life? What is there for every generation from Z to Alpha and the unborn?

What is there for every region or county? What is there for every economic sector? That is how the vision will be bought and easily sustained across generations and regimes.

Is this capitalism thinking not Kenya’s secret to growth despite inequality? We should not ignore Adam Smith’s book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, written in 1759.

Vision 2063 framers should note it is not accidental that this book came before “Wealth of Nations".

Ninthly, in "Mrima" they say, ”maguta makùrú matinaga rwìmbo."

Loosely translated, every ceremony needs new dressing and perfumes; you can’t use yesterday's. Will the ideas of Vision 2030 still apply to Vision 2063?

Remember, Big 4 and BETA (Bottom-up Transformation Agenda) were derived from Vision 2030.  Would new blood improve on Vision 2063? Who helped midwife the 8-4-4 education system?

Who helped midwife Vision 2030? What will be revolutionary about Vision 2063? What will be the wow factor in Vision 2063?

Will Vision 2063 be just an improvement of Vision 2030? Remember how we borrowed the 2010 Constitution from the US and elsewhere?

Tenthly, Vision 2063 is the strategic plan; what of the operational strategy? What will be done by whom, by when?

What role will our neighbours in the East African Community (EAC) and the rest of the world, including China, the US and other rising powers, play?

Eleventhly, what political and legal structures will deliver Vision 2063? Should we change the constitution? Education system? Religion? Family structure? How do we talk of Vision 2063 and village elders at the same time? Are we putting new wine into old wineskins?

Finally, will the high-income society of 2063 be happy?

Anyone who has lived in a developed country can identify with that question. Let’s see what the new Vision 2063 looks like after the national conversation next week, on August 12.

Let’s see how it will capture the aspirations of Kenyan people across regions and generations. Let us also, in silence, pay tribute to two architects of Vision 2030: the late Dr Wahome Gakuru and President Mwai Kibaki.