When President William Ruto nominated Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Chairman John Mbadi for National Treasury Cabinet Secretary position, I called him a few minutes later, out of anxiety as any of his friends would ordinarily do.
Surprisingly, in a matter of micro-minutes, he picked up my call, before a second ring, and asked me: “How are you, Kepher?” – before I could answer back, to congratulate him for the “noble” appointment.
Mbadi, believe me, was not shaken at all! No! Despite landing one of the toughest dockets at the height of the recent Gen Z protests, he beamed with confidence, perhaps signalling how prepared he was to fix the fiscal policies at the Treasury – to reduce the debt burdens, to reduce poverty, and to stabilize the country’s fledgling economy.
From my brief conversation with him, Mbadi sounded armed with financial solutions, and only asked for Kenyans’ prayers, support, patience, time, and grit to help rationalize our economic problems.
So, as he thanked President Ruto for the job, he revealed that he was set and ready to work with like-minded economic and financial cohorts to find quick remedies to rework strategies that will rebuild our national economy by reorienting fiscal policies.
While acknowledging it will not be an easy task, Mbadi asked me to tell Kenyans to humbly support him in his new challenging task, when I will be commenting and/or reporting on the challenges of the new Cabinet responsibility.
New sheriff in Treasury
But even as I ‘nodded’, the image that quickly conjured up in my mind was what he, Mbadi, the new sheriff in Treasury, was going to do differently to fix the economic woes bedeviling our nation from his immediate predecessor, Prof Njuguna Ndung’u, who had at one time rumoured to have opted to resign from the post at the peak of tax hike protests, when Kenyans rejected his first Finance Budget, only to be asked to stay put by the Executive.
Strictly speaking, the new Treasury CS nominee awaiting approval by Parliament as the law posits, is not scared by the daunting task ahead. He is confident of his ability to deliver.
Mbadi re-energized my consciousness about the challenges facing the Treasury.
Knowing very well how Kenya had sunk deep into debts, I was keen to note down issues to watch for on how he will sort them out. They are enumerated concisely as follows:
First, reworking payments of the national debt, running into Sh10 trillion, surpassing the set threshold by the National Assembly, where he, as the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee Chairman, was the lead vocal critic of the surging debts.
Second, how in contrast this is to his initial claims in Parliament, evidenced by the Hansard Report that the economy can only be fixed by taxing Kenyans more. This, whether he said it as a mockery to the ruling elites at the height of heated debates on high taxes, would remain ‘a-wait-and-see’ approach that he will employ to deal with this financial conundrum.
Then, the new Treasury CS has also been a vocal critic, asking the State to broaden the tax base so that Kenyans do not feel the burden of its oppression. I, also like any other curious Kenyan youth, am holding my breath to see how he will, in ample time, fix this one too.
Before, he spoke as an outsider with no opportunity to take action, only suggesting remedies to the Executive, but now he is the one directly in charge with no one else to blame if or when things go haywire.
Remember that my concerns, aptly put, are the same as those of millions of youth and other Kenyans, especially at this point in time when our national economy is in a ‘fix’.
Kenyans’ eyes are now glued to the solutions Honourable Mbadi has in store for them. Will he ‘deliver us to Canaan’ by reviewing our fiscal policies urgently towards fixing our economic woes and upheavals?
This is the fundamental question that many Kenyans that I talk to are asking. I feel certain that you, too, reading this script, are also asking the same question, albeit silently, as we mark time for the new nominated CSs to quickly settle down to serious work.
Another point is the option of renegotiating our debts with the-lenders-of-last-resort, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
Eye on mutilated institutions
Will Mbadi reach out to these multilateral institutions to consider debt equity swaps, to push forward, or even to stagger our repayment schedules? Well, we are looking forward to seeing what he will do on that end.
Related to that, is whether he will put up a convincing reason to Parliament to cap the debt ceiling to a certain limit, as he has been a vocal critic of this strategy, initially suggesting that such a clause be added to the constitution.
This, if done according to his consciousness, would ‘tame the appetite’ to borrow in excess when the economy is ‘bubbling hot’ or when it ‘overheats’, thereby reversing to risk-aversion.
On reducing poverty, focus should be on sound agricultural policies, so that he is the person in charge of the planning docket as well, to come up with plans to help grow the national economy.
Over the years, we have witnessed a trend whereby anytime our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grows, and when we look at the agricultural sector, we see improved production output.
Our GDP and overall economic growth have, therefore, been dependent on the agricultural sector growth.
This is the reason why when the Kenya Kwanza government assumed office, they made provisions for farm inputs at the apex of their development agenda and put more effort to bring down the cost of fertilizer to bolster agricultural production and to bring down the cost of living as well as to grow our national economy.
This had started to happen until the Gen Z protests emerged, slowing down our economic take-off at 5.6 per annum.
Mbadi must, in my view, revisit this issue after the former agriculture executive officials reportedly messed up the fertilizer projects with cheap sand supplies instead of the authentic fertilizers expected to boost the soil nutrients and up the production output. This, too, we will be keen to see among his fresh plans to revamp the national economy.
Well, I may not be an expert in these matters to advise the new Treasury CS nominee competently on how to fix the national economy, but by deductive logic, these are some of the overt and covert issues that he will have to confront when he settles down at the National Treasury.
Allow me not to delve into more issues, as I believe that Mr. Mbadi is competent enough to resolve them. Mine is to urge all of us to accord him the necessary support where appropriate and necessary but to also critique where inappropriate and unnecessary.
Ultimately, he will learn from our past mistakes and use those lessons to fix our economic woes in time, trustingly, negative prejudices or nuanced beliefs or doubts, trashed.
On the political front and the contrasting positions that he initially took on the national budget and Finance Bills, he will have to readjust his adrenaline and hormones to absorb the ‘heat’ that will come with his new role of now being the one in charge.
Now we expect him to drop his ODM political jersey and political ego, and to wear a new ‘technocrat’ and ‘patriot’ jersey and, as an accomplished accountant, account for every shilling that he will disburse to the counties proportionately and appropriately to run those ministries efficiently.
“Success, Mr. Mbadi: Kenya’s new Purse-Keeper and the Cash-Brief-Case-Holder! Hold it firmly, knowing when to open it to disburse what is in it, where it is needed most, and when to close it”.
God bless you! God bless Kenya! Action now! Time is of the essence as development projects cannot delay any longer!
Nor can the government system fail to run smoothly while you are now in charge of planning and dispensing cash. Dispense proportionately – as planned!
The writer is a regular commentator on topical issues and a senior journalist based in Kisumu, Western Kenya: KepherPeace@gmail.com.
