Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has called for impactful collaborations among government agencies tasked with coordination and implementation of key government programmes and projects.
Mudavadi said a lot of resources earmarked from donors, development partners and tax-payers are misused and mismanaged.
He regretted the imprudent use of critical resources due to lack of a synergized and coordinated approach in their utilization, saying it has negatively impacted on implementation of prioritized government development agenda.
“When one arm does not know and understand what the other arm is doing in relation to the implementation of a common project, then there is a problem. The more we are fragmented the more it takes time to complete a single project or harness results from a prioritised programme.” He remarked.
Mudavadi made the remarks today when he chaired the Group of Seven Plus (G7+) development partners meeting at the Railways Headquarters offices on the G7+ transport sector priority pilot programmes and projects.
“We must drastically pull together and harnessing resources within our disposal for maximum out-put, since Kenyans are expecting nothing short of positive results and better service delivery that will have a lasting and meaningful impact in their lives.” He added.
The Prime CS, committed to ensure that the national government Coordination Secretariat (NGCS) domiciled within the Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary (OPCS) becomes the fulcrum of unlocking bottlenecks that constrain the delivery of government services.
He said NGCS under its mandate of coordination and supervision of national government operations through the whole of government approach, will work tirelessly towards ensuring the implementation of priority policies, programmes and projects for the betterment of Kenyans.
“OPCS is the focal point for Coordination of National Government operations, with NGCS having the overarching mandate of Coordination and Oversight. We are now on a journey towards optimising coordination and enhancing the impact of development efforts in Kenya.” he noted.
Adding “Effective coordination is not merely a procedural necessity; it is the bedrock upon which successful, sustainable, and inclusive development is built. The ability to work together seamlessly across ministries, departments, and with the international partners, determines the success of our initiatives and the tangible benefits they deliver to Kenyans.”
The G7+ Secretariat within the NGCS aims to support a collaborative approach and streamline the financing and implementation mechanisms that will help achieve a seamless and coordinated urban transformative transport infrastructure as one of the pilot projects for Nairobi City County.
“This is informed by the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) launched by the G7 members (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom and United States) during their 48th Summit in June 2022,” Prime CS noted.
“The G7 members pledged to mobilise US$ 600 billion to support transformative infrastructure projects in developing nations and Kenya would wish to proactively draw on this support and demonstrate how a nation can leverage its internal coordination mechanisms to make the most efficient and effective use of development partner funding.” He added.
Mudavadi stated that the ultimate goal for the Kenyan government is to leverage a portion of the resources for projects in Kenya that will have a lasting and meaningful impact on the lives of Kenyans thus setting a solid foundation to build a case for even more support from the donors and development partners.
He said for the Government to maximise the impact of these investments, a coordinated approach that integrates efforts across various Government agencies and ultimately plugging in development partners to support the development priorities has to be in place.
“We intend to align priorities between the Government of Kenya and our G7+ Development partners, in order to efficiently and effectively deliver on prioritized projects, anchored on the Government’s Bottom-UP Economic Transformation Agenda.” he said.
He pointed out that the Transport Sector was chosen as the pilot sector due to its substantial impact on development and the high level of donor involvement.
He said the success of this pilot in the transport sector will be a game changer that will trigger other critical sectors such as Energy, Water, Health, MSMEs, Education and ICT.
“The NGCS G7+ Secretariat has provided a coordinated approach to unlocking support and investment from G7+ partners in the transport sector, ensuring alignment with the Transport sector priorities. In particular, the coordination is expected to unlock bottlenecks for the implementation BETA.” he said.
Mudavadi pointed out the government’s primary focus on improving urban mobility by enhancing Commuter Rail, Bus Rapid Transit, Non-Motorised Transport systems and the realization of the Nairobi Railway City among key other programmes that will result into road enhancement and bring on board the intelligence transport systems technology.
The selected projects have been identified by the State Department of Transport in the Ministry of Roads and Transport as priorities that will produce real, impactful and sustainable outcomes for the people of Kenya.
“The Nairobi Metropolitan Area, as the hub of Kenya’s economic growth and which generates 40% of our GDP, faces significant challenges of congestion and mobility. This negatively impacts the environment, in terms of pollution and increases the costs of transport. Decongesting Nairobi and improving mobility are our top priorities as identified in the Fourth Medium-Term Plan (MTPIV) and BETA.” he said.
The representatives in the meeting were drawn from the G7 Member States (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America), the European Union (EU), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), UN-HABITAT, African Development Bank (AfDB) and key entities from the Government of Kenya among them the State Department for Transport, NGCS and the Nairobi City County Government among others.
