{"id":127045,"date":"2025-12-19T14:03:29","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T14:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/kenya-will-transition-to-first-world-confident-kindiki-says\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T14:03:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T14:03:29","slug":"kenya-will-transition-to-first-world-confident-kindiki-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/kenya-will-transition-to-first-world-confident-kindiki-says\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Kenya will transition to first world, confident Kindiki says"},"content":{"rendered":"

NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 19\u2014 Deputy President Kithure Kindiki has pushed back against critics who dismiss Kenya\u2019s ambition to attain first-world status, insisting the country is firmly on course to become a developed economy within the lifetime of the current generation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kindiki said pessimistic comparisons that cite Singapore\u2019s small size to argue Kenya cannot follow a similar path miss the broader context of the country\u2019s development model.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who say Singapore is too small to be compared to Kenya should understand that our first-world ambition is not modeled on Singapore alone,\u201d he said Friday, noting that Kenya is also drawing lessons from several Asian economies, including China.<\/p>\n

The Deputy President pointed out that China, a mega country with a landmass of 9.6 million square kilometers and a population of about 1.5 billion people, is nearly 17 times larger than Kenya, yet managed a dramatic economic turnaround within a short period.<\/p>\n

\u201cChina\u2019s turning point was 1978 \u2014 just the other day. In about 40 years, it moved from being a poor, isolated country to a first-world economy,\u201d Kindiki said.<\/p>\n

\u201cKenya will transition to the first world in our lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

His remarks echo President William Ruto\u2019s November 20 State of the Nation Address, in which the Head of State declared that Kenya is now on a historic trajectory to join the ranks of the world\u2019s leading economies.<\/p>\n

Addressing a joint sitting of Parliament, President Ruto said reforms undertaken over the past three years have laid firm foundations for economic take-off, drawing parallels with the rise of the Asian Tigers \u2014 Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Malaysia \u2014 countries he said were once Kenya\u2019s peers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they could rise, so can Kenya. It can be done. Let me repeat: it can be done,\u201d Ruto told lawmakers, urging the nation to abandon what he termed a culture of settling for average outcomes.<\/p>\n

The President dismissed critics as \u201chigh priests of eternal pessimism,\u201d accusing them of ignoring tangible progress across key sector.<\/p>\n

However, the government\u2019s vision continues to face pushback from the Opposition.<\/p>\n

On December 8, Wiper Party leader Kalonzo Musyoka challenged the feasibility of transforming Kenya into a Singapore-style economy, arguing that poor governance, corruption and fiscal indiscipline undermine the ambition.<\/p>\n

Speaking during the launch of the Okoa Uchumi report, Kalonzo said Singapore\u2019s success was built on order, accountability and a strong intolerance for corruption \u2014 values he claimed are lacking in Kenya\u2019s current governance environment.<\/p>\n

He accused the government of reckless borrowing, weak oversight and mismanagement of public finances, warning against the sale of key national assets such as Safaricom, Kenya Pipeline Company and Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.<\/p>\n

Kalonzo proposed stronger parliamentary oversight, protection of constitutional watchdogs and a transparent debt restructuring process, saying sustainable growth cannot be achieved without accountability.<\/p>\n

Despite the criticism, Kindiki and President Ruto maintain that Kenya is at a critical inflection point, comparable to the early years of the Asian Tigers, and that bold, disciplined choices will deliver long-term prosperity.<\/p>\n

\u201cCountries that rose to first-world status were not extraordinary,\u201d Ruto said. \u201cThey simply made courageous decisions. If they could rise, so can Kenya.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 19\u2014 Deputy President Kithure Kindiki has pushed back against critics who dismiss Kenya\u2019s ambition to attain first-world status, insisting the country is firmly on course to become a developed economy within the lifetime of the current generation. Kindiki said pessimistic comparisons that cite Singapore\u2019s small size to argue Kenya cannot follow a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127045\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}