President’s focus should remain after coronavirus

One-hundred and fifty years ago, legendary American President Abraham Lincoln defined democracy as, “government of the people, for the people, by the people”. While the ways in which countries are run have changed significantly since Lincoln’s presidency, the essence of democracy has not. The challenges facing democracies in the modern age are indeed plentiful. 

However, one thing that has become easier over time is public participation in the democratic process. Although not everyone can sit in parliament, technology now allows each and every citizen to express their concerns and help guide the issues that elected officials choose to address.

With the conversations in the media dominated by coronavirus related issues, it is easy to forget that there are other issues which concern ordinary Kenyans.

A recent poll published by Infotrak Kenya sought to understand exactly what those issues were. Polls such as these are cherished by our president as they help him to understand and address the things that concern our citizens most. After all, he was elected to represent the needs of our people. 

In one of his best known quotes, Uhuru stated, “Politics is not about making enemies, but respecting choices”. While protecting the citizens of our country against Covid-19 naturally ranks highest amongst the choices expressed by Kenyans in the poll, the other two top issues concerning people today were food security as well as access to healthcare.

Locust swarms which recently attacked agriculture across the country have highlighted the importance of the former, while the coronavirus crisis has of course shown us first-hand, how absolutely vital the latter issue is as well. 

Ensuring all Kenyans have access to adequate food is an issue Uhuru takes very seriously. This is why it was included under the Big Four agenda that remains the primary guiding force of the government’s efforts. While nobody can doubt that malnutrition remains a serious issue in our country, statistics show that since 2013, the situation has been improving.

Our country’s ranking on the Global Hunger Index has steadily increased, and agricultural statistics are similarly promising, indicating that we are on track to meet Uhuru’s bold food and nutrition security goals by 2022. 

The government has also, over the past few years, been working tirelessly to reform Kenya’s healthcare sector. Every citizen of our country deserves accessible quality healthcare, and that is why healthcare was included in Uhuru’s Big Four agenda. This culminated in the ambitious Universal Healthcare Programme.

Collaborating with international partners, such as the World Health Organisation has made this initiative particularly successful, with counties in which the plan was rolled out reporting coverage levels in excess of 90%!

Leading a nation naturally requires the ability to adequately respond in times of crisis. These are when leadership skills are tested in real time. More important though, is a leader’s ability to remember that a crisis is only a temporary disruption of a country’s day to day agenda.

After every crisis comes a return to normalcy and that is the time the country must really be prepared for. Our children will continue to need to go to school, sick Kenyans will continue to need to be treated and the people of our country will continue to need to eat. 

Many in the international community are scrambling to address Covid-19 without considering what will happen when all of this madness is over. We have witnessed some of the world’s largest economies skidding to a halt, without consideration of the long-term recourse of these actions. For exactly this reason our leadership has been avoiding hurriedly rushing to implement drastic measures. The benefits of such an incremental approach will be felt for years to come. The government has realised that Kenya’s strong economy, which took years of careful planning to build, could be destroyed in an instant if our leadership acts rashly. 

Although it may seem far away, the day after coronavirus will arrive faster than we know it. Kenya has overcome calamity in the past. From financial to political to humanitarian crisis, we have always persevered.

Our government’s ability to continue its pursuit of the Big Four development agenda, alongside its response to the coronavirus crisis is therefore more important today than ever. Citizens’ concerns continue to be addressed irrespective of the temporary coronavirus setback.