Hello sir, Mr. President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta I cannot look straight in your eyes and tell you all I have because of your seniority in our society but obviously even if I wish to do so I will never get that opportunity. Am just left with one option: to send you this letter though the chances are still slim of encountering the same but anyway I must write and writing I should. Mr. President, personally I didn’t vote for you, instead I voted for Raila Odinga twice but lost. But still I held some hopes especially from your manifesto and digital presentations. As a young person I saw some hopes for the future under your leadership. Allow me your Excellency to highlight some few things that your advisors either haven’t told you or have chosen the path of ignorance not to listen. Therefore below are reasons why the Kenyans are very broke.
To start with lets go back to mathematics class a little bit Mr. President. Construction of SGR from Mombasa to Nairobi. The distance between the two towns is 441km or 274miles. The total cost was around sh. 600B. That leads to (600B÷441= sh. 1.36B). That’s sh. 1.36B per kilometre. Before the Cs for transport in your first term left, he had said that sh. 300m was to be used to construct 1km of SGR. Now let me scale down from sh. 1.36B per km to sh. 300m estimate from engineer Kamau. When he was tasked by the media to state why the cost was such high, he confidently said that for each km the government had also budgeted for the wagons. Githeri media journalist could not ask him if the wagons will be arranged all the way to Malaba border. So how could it have move anyway. I wouldn’t wish Mr. President to talk about second phase of SGR. Your Excellency, that’s why we are broke.
Secondly Mr. President, your administration has consistently increased VAT on goods both essential and non-essential. I will request you Mr. President to go through the records of the revenue collection on goods like cigarette and alcohol during your tenure as the minister of finance and now as the President. I will deal with Alcohol because is the most affected. Since you took leadership in the upper house sir, more than 12,000 bars have closed down because of lack of customers. Let us assume each bar has five (5) employees (12000 × 5 =60,000). That means 60,000 kenyans have lost jobs. A good of consumers of the legal alcohol have opted for chang’aa and muratina which are cheap and they only pay tax to the police when arrested. The prices of unga, fuel, and other essential commodities have gone up. Even middle class citizens have opted to open market to purchase njugus, nyanya etc. supermarkets are closing down. Sir, that’s why we are broke.
To add on My President the epidemic of corruption in this country under your watch basing on the Auditor General’s report, only 5% of money meant for development is really used on the same. Sir you have the intelligence at your disposal, why don’t you act by sacking the corrupt fellows in government starting with the police which is the leading institution in terms of corruption. Mr. President a clean police leads to a clean society. With a clean police, you won’t require EACC. You have talked tough in the past but acted weak. This journey of fighting corruption sir has not been sufficient as your officers mostly fight the vice on the media but as it’s commonly said “kwa ground vitu ni different”. Therefore most looters cannot take the cash to the bank instead they keep cash in their houses leading to poor circulation of money in the system. Mr. President if you make a phone call to IG today and direct him that you want zero corruption case in police: then it will reduce to 1%. Your Excellency we cannot have money if this situation persists.
In addition Sir, you have persistently employed citizens from some known families to you. The families that are known to you with due respect sir, they don’t have the urge to perform after all their grandfathers already made it in life. More disturbing Mr. President, you have employed retired civil servants and politicians who lost elections. The youth and the most learned, energetic human resource have not gotten a chance at all. The group you select from sir, is not interested to re-invest and create more employment because they are passed productive age. Mostly they buy land and shares. Your Excellency, on this one you have ignored the cries from Kenyans even those who voted for you but decided to ignore. The youth have given up, the economy has shrunk and your character basing on the sane has persisted. That’s why we are broke sir.
Your Excellency, the high cost electricity has had a negative impact on the growth of Juakali industry. Kenya power where corruption is very high should not be a profit making company, but should be an entity to help other sectors grow. Before you took over sir, most Kenyans who could afford to construct semi-permanent houses were able to purchase grilled windows because the cost was as low as sh. 2,500. That cannot happen now because of high cost of making one in the industry due to high cost of electricity. In a simple welding shop, power charges is beyond sh. 20,000 down from sh.3000 during Kibaki regime. This is not tenable and as you’re aware sir companies have rolled up and relocated elsewhere because of high cost of production and a simple example is Panpaer in webuye. Jobs have been lost, families have broken and there’s no hope. That’s why Kenyans are broke sir.
Mr. President, am almost winding up but just persist a little till I conclude. Sir we are broke because you leased medical equipment for counties and some of them are paying as high as sh. 600m per year yet the machines are locked in stores. You procured when you had not put in place necessary infrastructure and essential human resource. It was just simple Mr. President; your government could have trained the youth, set up infrastructure then purchase the machines. A lot of funds are being spent abroad and within to treat cancer. Even the middle class have had it rough which has led to sale of properties to carter for treatment.
Sir your Cs education is purchasing books for all learners in Kenya. That’s a good idea but look at this and ascertain if its logical. All students who were in form two were given books in all subjects the ratio 1:1. That happened to other classes form one to four. Back now to form two’s. Each student in form two will get a new form three text books next year from your government and the books for form three purchased are still there. Thus, a quick maths each student in form four will have atleast 60 textbooks. The libraries all over the country have lacked adequate space to keep the books. The Cs advised schools to give the books to learners after completing the four year program. Sir, with due respect this doesn’t make any sense. More so, the fee charged by schools is not synonymous with the ministry of education recommended figure. Parents are spending heavily despite the government subsidizing the same. Some extra county schools were charging as low as sh. 28,000 per year but your Cs for education gave guideline that all extra county should charge amount not exceeding sh.54,000. That prompted some schools to increase to the limit set. Sir, parents are left at the mercy of the Principals. That’s why parents in Kenya are broke.
Mr. President the costly agricultural inputs and lack of the market for the produce has killed the sector. Farming has become a luxury in Kenya. Be it maize, coffee, tea, sugarcane, poultry, dairy etc all have become very expensive to produce. But sad enough because of poor strategy the produce cannot find its way to the market. The cost is too high and the returns are too low. This is orchestrated mostly by the cartels in your government who imports farm produce at low prices and flood the market. Sir, farmers are broke.
Mr. President, since 2013 you have made 300 trips outside the country. It’s the highest in the history of this country and maybe the world. The more you travel the more your juniors do the same. The cost accompanied is just too high sir. Borrow from your predecessor in planning and am 1000% sure you can afford those trips even after presidency because of your background sir. On a polite note sir, your trips and other government officials have made us broke.
Lastly Mr. President being a good person in this country comes with price. Most youth cannot manage to get all the documents required for employment. Almost all are servicing HELB and yet the PSC demands HELB clearance certificate to secure jobs. It’s traumatizing sir. Remember more certificates like good conduct certificate, clearance from CRB, accident cover certificate, EACC clearance certificate etc. All this certificates comes with a price and most young citizens cannot manage to raise the amount at the same time paying rent and sustaining their daily means.
Mr. President His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta this is just the summary of why we are broke. But I don’t know how you will fix it because your juniors seemingly don’t take your directives seriously. Twice you’ve directed that all the contactors be paid but all in vain. Sir you still have two Christmas in office, kindly get the country back on track. Am still hopeful the issues raised will be addressed.
Thank you in advance sir and GOD bless you.
Yours
Robert Kerre
