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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 NAIROBI 004175 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV KDEM KE
SUBJECT: KENYA'S ELECTIONS: PRESIDENT KIBAKI'S NATIONAL DAY 
SPEECH 
 
REF: NAIROBI 3998 AND PREVIOUS 
 
Summary and Introduction 
------------------------- 
 
¶1. (SBU) On October 20, President Mwai Kibaki delivered a 
National Day speech at Nairobi's Nyayo National Stadium 
before a near capacity crowd.  Rival presidential candidate, 
Raila Odinga, was seated near the speaker's podium with other 
senior leaders of the opposition.  Kibaki used the occassion 
to deliver a largely positive campaign speech, which is 
repeated here in its entirety.  He did, however, use the 
opportunity to rebuke Odinga's "Majimbo" (devolution) 
campaign platform for, among other things, being "likely to 
fan tribal sentiments."  As will be reported septel, the 
debate over the intent and meaning of ODM's call for 
"Majimbo" has become the pivotal issue in this campaign.  End 
summary and introduction. 
 
Text of President Kibaki's National Day Speech 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶2. (U) Kibaki's speech was as follows: 
 
Fellow Kenyans, 
It is my pleasure to once again join my fellow countrymen and 
women in commemorating this year's Kenyatta Day. 
 
This is a special day in our national calendar, when we 
remember our brave countrymen and women who lost their lives 
in the struggle for Uhuru, and all those who made a 
contribution to the achievement of our independence. 
 
We pay tribute to all of them for liberating our country and 
our people from the yoke of colonialism.  I call on all 
Kenyans to emulate the selflessness of these heroes in 
sacrificing all that they had for their country and their 
people. 
 
When we gather together as a nation on an occasion such as 
this, let us also review the progress of our individual as 
well as national efforts in this regard.  We also need to ask 
ourselves whether our daily actions and efforts are 
contributing to the well-being of this nation and the welfare 
of our people. 
 
We are fortunate to have been bequeathed a beautiful country 
with diverse cultures, abundant flora and fauna, a beautiful 
climate and enchanting landscapes.  These are resources which 
if harnessed fully will generate wealth for all our people. 
 
This is why I have on many occasions called on Kenyans to 
embrace a culture of a working and caring nation.  As caring 
Kenyans.  We should not feel contented with our individual 
achievements, when some of our fellow citizens are suffering 
from lack of basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing, 
health and education. 
 
This is the spirit which guided the action of our national 
heroes who fought for a land in which they would have freedom 
and liberty, and a society that would be free from poverty, 
disease and ignorance.  This is also the spirit that inspires 
the policies that my Government has formulated and 
implemented since 2003. 
 
Indeed, my Government has waged successful battles against 
each one of the three adversaries and achieved meaningful 
victories for the Kenyan people. 
 
With regard to the fight against poverty, the economy has 
witnessed substantial growth to nearly twice its previous 
size with growth rate rising from 0.5 per cent in 2002 to an 
estimated 7 percent by the end of this year. 
 
The tide created by this growth has reduced the national 
poverty rate from 56 to 46 per cent thereby lifting about 2 
million people out of abject poverty.  Furthermore, over 1.8 
million new jobs were created between 2003 and 2006, and per 
capita incomes increased from 400 US dollars in 2002 to over 
630 US dollars currently. 
 
As we look ahead towards the next five years, my goals are to 
attain a growth rate of 10 per cent, and reduce poverty 
 
NAIROBI 00004175  002 OF 005 
 
 
levels further to 30 per cent, and reduce poverty levels 
further to 30 per cent by 2012. 
 
The fight against ignorance is also on course.  Buoyed by 
revenues from the growing economy, every child now has the 
opportunity to attend school whether rich or poor.  Indeed, 
today, more than 1.7 million children who would otherwise be 
out of school because of poverty or disability, are now 
learning, and have a chance of success in life. 
 
We are now ready to extend the successes and benefits of Free 
Primary Education to the secondary school level.  Beginning 
next year, I pledge to see that every child including those 
with special needs, will be educated for free in public 
schools from primary to secondary school level. 
 
This will give every child, no matter their social background 
an equal opportunity in life through education.  Education is 
the singlemost important determinant of a country's 
development, which is why my Government has accorded it the 
highest priority in its development strategy. 
 
This is also the best way of enabling every child in this 
country to realize its full potential and thus reducing 
inequality.  There is no reason for parents not to send their 
children to school.  I call on all parents and local 
administration officials to ensure that all children attend 
school without exception. 
 
Concerning the fight against disease, we have reversed 
decades of declining health standards by investing heavily in 
the health sector.  For instance, all children under five are 
now treated and provided with drugs without charge in all our 
public health facilities.  In addition, treatment for 
malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS is free.  Further, today, Kenyan 
mothers can deliver for no charge at all in our public 
dispensaries and health centres.  We have also waged a 
successful anti-malaria campaign by providing free 
insecticide-treated nets to mothers with children. 
 
As a result of our efforts to make healthcare affordable and 
available to all Kenyans, HIV prevalence rates are down from 
13 to below 6 per cent, child mortality rates are also down 
by 44  per cent while maternity survival rates for mothers 
have risen substantially. 
 
Having achieved these successes, I would like to see that in 
the next five years every child under five years of age, 
children with special needs and every child enrolled in 
primary or secondary school will receive free treatment and 
drugs in public health facilities, thus giving every single 
Kenyan child the opportunity to grow up healthy and strong. 
 
Fellow Kenyans, 
 
There are many challenges facing our country.  But the 
solution to these does not lie in making empty or alarming 
statements.  The only way forward for our country is to 
harness the full potential of our people and the economy so 
as to provide more and better services to the people. 
 
And this is the reason why we are investing heavily in 
several key sectors of the economy, in order to provide a 
highly improved environment for business and farming that 
will create more jobs and wealth for our young people. 
 
Five years ago, we promised an economy that would generate 
500,000 jobs a year.  During the period up to 2006, we 
succeeded in generating an average of 467,000 jobs annually. 
 
Moreover, the Youth Enterprise Development Fund has so far 
disbursed 534 million shillings to more than 14,000 youth 
groups and individual young people to start up or expand 
their businesses.  I know that we still have a large number 
of young men and women who remain unemployed or 
under-employed.  Majority of these feel frustrated because 
they are unable to realize their hopes and dreams.  I want to 
tell these young men and women that my heart and mind remains 
focused on tackling this challenge. 
 
In the next five years, under my leadership, we shall grow 
the economy double its current size, creating decent jobs and 
business opportunities for our youth, and good incomes for 
 
NAIROBI 00004175  003 OF 005 
 
 
our urban and rural families. 
 
To achieve these goals, I intend to double our investment in 
infrastructure so as to build world-class networks of 
airports, seaports, roads, railways and low-cost housing. 
 
These investments in infrastructure will in turn create a 
globally competitive environment for investors in tourism, 
manufacturing, communications, financial and social services 
as well as value adding industries in agriculture, livestock 
production and fishing in various parts of the country. 
 
I expect these investments to generate tens of thousands of 
decent jobs and business opportunities for our youth.  For 
the young people in Nairobi and other major urban centres, we 
have started building hawkers' markets. 
 
We intend to go a step further by building jua kali and small 
business parks in every city, town and municipality so as to 
support and encourage employment and business opportunities 
for this crucial segment of our population. 
 
I wish to assure our young people that the last five years 
saw us change the economy from a no-jobs economy into one 
with many jobs.  We have just started to bake the cake and it 
is becoming bigger by the day. 
 
We will grow this cake into a huge one under our stewardship 
with enough slices for everyone in the next five years as we 
transform this economy into one that will see most of you 
employed gainfully in the formal or informal sectors. 
 
Fellow Kenyans, 
 
The prosperity and welfare of our people will depend on the 
degree of probity and accountability exercised by those who 
govern them.  We recognize that we cannot eradicate 
corruption merely by staging dramatic events around those who 
are alleged to be corrupt. 
 
We have instead chosen the route of developing and 
establishing laws, regulations and institutions that will 
over time inculcate and entrench a culture of ethical public 
conduct and accountability. 
 
We have also made provisions for declaration of personal 
wealth, tightened procurement and expenditure procedures, and 
provided the mechanisms for reporting, investigation and 
prosecution of economic crimes. 
 
We have further made it more difficult for individuals to 
abuse public office or misuse public resources by undertaking 
far reaching public service reforms that demand personal and 
institutional accountability in service delivery and use of 
resources. 
 
These include the strategic plans, performance contacts, 
service charters and in some cases, citizen charters.  I 
commend civil society and the media, whose continuous 
vigilance has contributed to further reduction in levels of 
corruption being reported in public institutions. 
 
It has also resulted in an accountability and development 
dividend that is enabling to us to implement major social 
programmes in the education and health sectors. 
 
Fellow Kenyans, 
 
We have spent the last five years building an inclusive and 
caring society.  This has been one of the key themes of my 
leadership.  As our country moves forward in development, we 
must ensure that no one is left behind, and those who may 
have been neglected in the past must be brought into the fold. 
 
This is why I have continuously promoted the inclusion of 
women in every aspect of our life, because I firmly believe 
that given the opportunity, women will contribute as 
effectively to the development of our nation as men. 
 
In this regard, we have set up the Women's Enterprise 
Development Fund, and committed ourselves to guaranteeing 
women 30 per cent of all public employment opportunities.  I 
have also directed that women be represented in every one of 
 
NAIROBI 00004175  004 OF 005 
 
 
the constituency level development committees. 
 
Further, we have taken note of the children who live in 
slums, and registered their learning institutions into 
non-formal primary schools that receive the same level of 
support as regular public primary schools. 
 
We are providing grants and equipment for children with 
special needs, building boarding schools for children living 
in nomadic communities, and are in the process of putting in 
place a disability fund. 
 
We have done our best to incorporate minorities into this 
Government, and to ensure that areas that were previously 
marginalized receive their equitable share of development 
resources. 
 
Fellow Kenyans, 
 
An area of great concern to me is the security of our people 
and that of their property.  Over the last four years and 
nine months, we have relentlessly fought crime in all its 
forms.  Today, cases of armed robbery, banditry and 
carjackings have been reduced to a minimum. 
 
Our people feel free and confident to move about in the 
country and do business.  We will continue to ensure the 
security and well-being of our people and their property by 
providing effective security through joint efforts involving 
the police, provincial administration and local communities, 
and by observing and upholding the rule of law. 
 
Further, we are committed to observing and upholding the 
sanctity of property rights.  In this regard, Kenyans holding 
title deeds, intellectual property rights, and any other 
securities, should feel secure that these will be honoured. 
 
Indeed, my Government has sought to deal with the issues of 
squatters and the landless fairly, with the desire of 
arriving at mutually beneficial outcomes between the landless 
and the landlords. 
 
We have also accelerated the adjudication and titling of land 
for both squatters as well as those who live in areas that 
are suitable for land titling and registration. 
 
In this regard, my Government has issued over 1.95 million 
title deeds in the last five years, and we will continue to 
set aside more resources to buy farms to settle the landless, 
especially in the Coast and Rift Valley provinces. 
 
Fellow Kenyans, 
 
As the political environment becomes more charged in 
anticipation of the general elections, alot of things are 
being said and will continue to be said. 
 
In an effort to win voters' attention, some political leaders 
are making pledges without giving any serious consideration 
to the unity of our nation or the peace and security of our 
people.  The issue of federalism for instance, has been 
portrayed as the one solution to the social and economic 
challenges we face. 
 
This is misleading because you cannot generate more resources 
for development simply by telling communities to stay in 
their own reservations. 
 
This is only likely to fan tribal sentiments.  Moreover, in a 
rapidly globalizing world, countries are forming even bigger 
unions in order to harness opportunities that arise from 
having larger markets. 
 
This is why from the outset, we have sought to use devolution 
as our principle approach in creating an inclusive and 
equitable society.  The most well known instrument of 
devolution we have used in the last five years is the 
Constituency Development Fund (CDF), where we have ensured 
that the most needy areas receive the most resources. 
 
Others include the Bursary Fund that allowed secondary school 
enrolment to increase by almost a quarter of a million more 
students in the last five years, and the Local Authorities 
 
NAIROBI 00004175  005 OF 005 
 
 
Transfer Fund (LATF). 
 
Our experience with these financial and decision-making 
devolution instruments has been positive, with increased 
local participation and greater investment in meeting the 
priorities of the local people. 
 
We will continue to devolve even more resources and 
decision-making to the people, as more financial resources 
become available from a growing economy, and as stronger and 
more accountable devolved institutions are formed at the 
grassroots. 
 
We will also commit to recognizing community rights and 
cultural interests of all, while at the same time striving to 
promote cohesion, tolerance and mutual respect for the 
cultural diversity of our people. 
 
We want all Kenyans to feel free, respected and secure, 
wherever they are in the country, and not to be discriminated 
or harassed on the basis of ethnicity, religion, race, gender 
or social status. 
 
In conclusion, and as we head towards the general elections 
in a few weeks time, I urge all of you to carefully evaluate 
all those seeking elective leadership positions.  Scrutinize 
their past records, examine their character and judge them on 
the basis of what they have done for this country. 
 
I urge you to make prudent choices so that this country may 
enjoy leadership that unites the people and leads to a 
brighter and more equitable future. 
 
Thank you and may god bless you all. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) After completing his prepared speech, Kibaki made 
several off-the-cuff remarks in Ki-Swahili attacking ODM for 
promising more than they could deliver and for portraying 
federalism or "Majimbo" (devolution) as a workable solution 
to Kenya's economic and social challenges when instead it was 
likely to fuel tribalism.  Raila Odinga, speaking to the 
press immediately after Kibaki's speech, criticized the 
President for turning a National Day celebration into a 
desperate and partisan campaign rally.  Odinga then defended 
the ODM platform as one designed to devolve resources to the 
regions and suggested that this national election presents 
Kenyan's with a distinct choice between a centralized system 
of governance and business as usual, on the one hand, and 
federalism and change, on the other.  The meaning of 
"Majimbo" and its impact on the national elections and beyond 
is being reported septel.  End comment. 
 
RANNEBERGER