What follows is a speech distributed to media houses by the office of His Excellency President Mwai Kibaki. In it is a plea that Kenyans back his re-election bid, and acknowledge the positive steps made in the last five years.
Fellow Kenyans, I
want to begin by thanking the Almighty God for His guidance and for
enabling me to serve you in the last five years. I want to thank my
family; in particular my wife, the First Lady, Lucy and our children
for their love and encouragement. Let me thank all of you, the people
of Kenya, for your support and prayers over the last five years.
When
I addressed you in Uhuru Park at my inauguration as your President on
December,30 2002, I spoke of the rays of sunlight that had bathed my
room with such brilliance on that morning.
I
promised to lead you into building a country that we could all be proud
of, once again. I invited all of us to join hands and remain united for
the good of our people, and to face the enormous tasks and challenges
that lay ahead. I am proud to say that we have faced our challenges
head on and together we have achieved some phenomenal milestones in our
national development.
Today is as bright a
day for our nation as my election to office in 2002 was. We are here
today to launch the Party of National Unity, an alliance of parties
assembled here and committed to staying the course I outlined in 2002
and to completing the journey we embarked on.
It
is a journey that has seen us achieve economic growth of 6.1 per cent,
and lift more than two million Kenyans out of poverty. It is a journey
that has seen us reduce the distance walked by women in search of water
in our most arid areas from 20 to seven kilometres.
It
is a journey that has seen us empower communities and devolve decision
making to the constituencies through the CDF and the Schools Bursary
Fund. It is a journey that has seen us empower women and youth through
the establishment of the Women and Youth Enterprise Funds.
Furthermore,
this journey has brought electricity and light to remote rural areas;
it has seen over 4,000 kilometres of roads rehabilitated; it has
delivered a dramatic expansion of our democratic space. And,it is a
journey that resulted in over 1,000 new health centres being built
across the country, bringing affordable healthcare closer to the people.
PNU is for equality of opportunity
Fellow
Kenyans, We have been driven by two principal convictions during the
last five years, to serve you well, without prejudice or favour, and to
invest in our nation's welfare today for a better tomorrow.
The
formation of the Party of National Unity will build on the foundations
we have laid and the successes we have achieved and bring real change
to the lives of every Kenyan.
The PNU
alliance will mobilise Kenyans to use their resources and ingenuity to
address emerging challenges and issues that confront our society, so
that together we will build a prosperous future that includes each one
of us, from every part of this great country.
One
single conviction unites the PNU Alliance, equality of opportunity
today, and hope for a better future. This means ensuring that every
child growing up in Kenya will have access to food, shelter, healthcare
and education, clothing, and security, the basic requirements to get
ahead. We want a society in which every child has equal access to basic
healthcare and education, food and shelter, no matter what their
parents do, or which part of the country they live in.
We
want a society where all mothers deliver safely in our public health
facilities, every child is immunised, and all children are fed at
school so that they can perform better. These things will be possible
to achieve because in the last five years, we have worked together as
the people of Kenya to lay the foundations for their realisation.
We
will be guided by a principle that states ‘no matter whether you were
born poor or rich, you have the right to go to school and improve your
circumstances. It is a principle which says ‘‘if you fall sick, you
have access to affordable healthcare for you to get back on your
feet,'' so that mothers can care for their families, children can go to
school, and men and women can go to work.
We
want you as farmers, pastoralists, matatu operators, artisans, business
people, professionals, teachers, pastors, and Kenyans from every walk
of life to go about your daily business with the confidence that your
Government will provide affordable healthcare to keep you and your
family healthy and productive and a good education for your children.
Symbol of progress
Fellow Kenyans, The
torch that symbolised Narc in 2002 was a torch of light and hope. In
2002 we promised to expand the democratic freedoms and we have
delivered; we promised to improve public service management and we have
delivered; we promised to fight corruption and we are on track; we
promised to strengthen accountability and public participation in
public affairs and we have delivered; we promised to empower Kenyans
with an economy that would create jobs and improve incomes and we have
delivered on this too.
Indeed, we have
kept our promises and delivered much more than we all expected five
years ago. Today, the two PNU torches that are our symbol represent
progress and unity of purpose by our parties in implementing
fundamental changes today for a better tomorrow.
Under
my leadership, we will ensure that the PNU alliance is united in one
common purpose; providing equal opportunity for all Kenyans. We will
build our common prosperity on the foundations we have laid.
We
have reclaimed Kenya's status as one of the most dynamic economies in
the continent by implementing enlightened economic policies and
investments in modernising our infrastructure. We are now rated as
having one of the most improved business environments in the world.
This is why the economy is as strong as it has ever been, and we
promise it will be even stronger.
The
challenge we now face is to expand and distribute wealth and the
benefits of improved public service management to every corner of the
country, so that wealth is not confined to our cities or in the hands
of few, but is distributed far and wide throughout the land. We have
made a good start, but the task is not yet complete. We will not rest
until it is complete and until the vision we have set out for our
nation is achieved.
We as the PNU will be
determined to transform our country into Africa's most competitive
regional hub for manufacturing and services. We will double our
investment in infrastructure to build world-class networks of roads,
railways, airports and seaports, power and communications, and water
supply over the next five years. We will make these investments in
order to create a globally competitive environment for investments in
tourism, manufacturing, communications, financial and social services
as well as support growth and modernisation of the informal sector. We
shall also support and encourage investment in value-adding industries
in agriculture, livestock production, and fishing in various parts of
the country.
The PNU's policies will grow
the economy to double its current size in five years, spreading
economic benefits to all Kenyans, and creating jobs and business
opportunities in every part of the country. It will generate many
decent jobs that will employ our youth, and provide incomes to our
urban and rural communities, enabling many more of them to own a
bicycle or a small car as well as their own home or farm. The revenues
generated by a larger economy will allow us to achieve our ambition of
providing free secondary education and free healthcare.
With
more money to invest in development, we will build a society that is
cohesive, secure, and tolerant, as each part of the country receives
its equitable share of economic and social development opportunities.
Then it will not matter, which tribe you are from, which religion you
belong to, which region you come from, and what social class you belong
to; because we shall all be first and foremost, proud Kenyans.
Rights for all
Fellow Kenyans, We
in the PNU will promote, protect, and conserve our national heritage.
We shall recognise community rights and cultural interests, while at
the same time striving to promote cohesion, tolerance, and mutual
respect for the cultural diversity of our people.
We
want every Kenyan to feel free, respected, and secure wherever they are
in the country. No Kenyan should feel discriminated or harassed on the
basis of ethnicity, religion, race, gender or social status. Neither
should we allow anybody to incite and divide Kenyans along these lines.
All parties in the PNU will commit themselves to implement policies and
laws that bind our people together and build on benefits that our
diverse cultures bring to our society.
We
in the PNU know that our cardinal responsibility is to make sure that
we protect and promote our country and empower our people.
As
the PNU Government, we shall ensure the security of our people and
their property by expanding the police force, providing them with
adequate transport and equipment, and strengthening cooperation between
the police, the provincial administration and the local communities for
more effective policing.
Moreover, the
growing economy will have done its part, by employing most of our young
people, thereby reducing the incentives for committing crime.
We are for peace
Fellow Kenyans, The
impending election should be about issues and not about slogans,
insults, and empty promises. Nor is it about bombastic speeches to
incite people into ethnic conflict and regional animosities. It is
about sound, wise and proven management of public affairs that will
improve the welfare of all our people and create wealth in our beloved
country.
As PNU delegates, I urge you to
use today's statement as a basis of what to tell Kenyans when you tour
the country and travel around your constituencies in search of votes
for us and for PNU. Tell the people of Kenya the truth, that Kenya is
better than it was five years ago, and will be far better off five
years from now under PNU.
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These cronies are no doubt happy about your presidency, and the benefits that this has endowed upon them. There have been a few efforts, most of them undetermined, but on the whole it's a case of up a ten and siesta at two, up at fours, teletubbies and then off to sleep after the 7 o'clock news.
Thank your lucky stars it is Raila you are facing, and him we certainly do not want.