Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has said that Geneva and Kenya must quickly shift gears from dependence on aid to laying the foundation on how to attract trade and investment.
Mudavadi said Kenya must adopt and actualize immediate, radical, and aggressive policy shifts strategically, focusing on how to generate adequate resources to fund critical programs.
He has warned that the era of aid dependency has come to an end, and Kenya and Africa should now be thinking of quick and sustainable alternatives to support their economies.
“The geopolitics and shifting global dynamics being witnessed is a clear indicator that we should be looking at ways of being self-reliant moving into the future,” Mudavadi said.
“We cannot afford to prevaricate. Other countries are making their moves; we must make ours now.”
Mudavadi, who doubles up as the Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Cabinet Secretary, made the remarks as he concluded his official visit in Geneva.
He noted that Kenya’s strategic position as the regional economic and financial hub puts it in an advantageous position to advance that course.
“Parliament must be quick in decision-making on this agenda; the county governments and the executive must also be quick, and we must embrace a stronger partnership with the private sector, across board, whether in the agricultural sector, manufacturing, industry, finance, technology and many other sectors,” he stated.
The Prime CS said the current situation calls for critical collaboration as the world is scrambling for the fewer available investment opportunities, insisting that there is no room for making mistakes.
He cautioned that countries that have been relying on foreign aid support, including donor funding, must now be wary of the decisions being taken by certain countries and capitals, particularly Washington, and make a solid foundation for their future.
“In the colonial days they used to say scramble for Africa, where everybody wanted a piece of Africa, but now it is our turn as Africa to scramble for our investments.”
Mudavadi echoed Peter Sands, the Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, message that the global health fund is under threat in terms of resource mobilization capacity.
He noted that the global fund in the previous cycle raised about 18 billion US dollars, and according to Sands, they hoped to maintain that target, but the changing global dynamics have forced big contributors like Washington, which was injecting up to a third of the required resources to pull out.
“It is essential that we adjust not only as a country but as Africa and figure out how we are going to deal with the financing gap that will arise if resources are not going to be flowing in the health sector,” he said.
Mudavadi urged Kenyans to support the governments’ programs and policies, as the message coming from the international arena is clear that countries must now take care of their own health programmes.
He pointed out the health sector is critical to Kenya, saying the programs are not going to be underwritten by donors or partners anymore, and therefore, Kenyans must embrace themselves to adopt ways that will be helpful moving into the future.
“That which was being seen as maybe not being popular must now be taken more seriously because it was not about being popular; it was about safeguarding the health of the Kenyan people.
“The Universal Health Care must now shift from the angle at which it was being seen to now be seen as a serious lifesaving program for the people of Kenya,” he added.
