Distinguished Guests, Fellow Kenyans, Today We Commemorate Our 54Th Birthday As an Independent Nation. on This Day, 54 Years
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Distinguished Guests, Fellow Kenyans, Today we commemorate our 54th Birthday as an independent nation. On this day, 54 years ago, the Union Jack came down and the Kenyan flag went up. As a symbol of our nationhood, it was designed to fix our eyes and minds on, and to remember always, three things. First, and foremost, is that our independence was bought at a great price. The Founding Fathers of this nation gave their lives for our liberty. The red in our flag is a reminder of the price paid by the veterans of our independence struggle. Second, the flag is a symbol of our identity as Africans. The Founding Fathers, such as the Kapenguria Six – Achieng’ Oneko, Bildad Kaggia, Kung’u Karumba, Fred Kubai, Paul Ngei and Jomo Kenyatta – were proud Africans. The black in our flag celebrates our African identity. Third, when the Founding Fathers designed our flag, they wrote our future on it. The green symbolizes the natural wealth we have been given by God, and white the peace they won for us. Ours is to turn them into a shared prosperity. We thank our Founding Fathers and pledge to protect the heritage and the liberty for which they sacrificed so dearly; more importantly, we commit to work hard, together and in unity, to build a prosperous and peaceful nation. Fellow Kenyans, Unity is paramount to the realization of a peaceful and prosperous nation. Every Kenyan must understand its value and how our individual choices, particularly in the politics we support, play into building or destroying it. The unity of our nation is the shield against the dangers that have shattered other countries;it protects us against any enemy by frustrating attempts to divide and, therefore,weaken us. Unity allows us to forge forward, together, in building families,communities, counties, and a nation that knows what it wants and where it is going. Every day, we see evidence of how much stronger and well-off united families are. It is, indeed, the same with a nation. Families that are united may disagree on some matters, but they are always guided by the wellbeing of the family, and know that disagreement must never lead to discord. Let us bring this understanding to all our citizens so that in our words and in our actions, we reject the politics of divisiveness and confrontation. Fellow Kenyans, Today we also celebrate a re-birth of the nation; a shift from the old to the new. Today, we celebrate what our founding fathers imagined and created, but we also celebrate the generational transition from their generation to ours. When our Founding Fathers constituted Kenya, they did it with fresh wounds from the independence war. They had conquered the enemy, but the daunting task of uniting our communities into one nation remained. That was why they taught us to celebrate our diversity and to preserve our traditions. But they cautioned us not to poison the minds of our young people with ethnic disharmony. As your 4th President, I will not tire of reminding you that we will have a 5th, and even a 10th President. But we will not have a second, third or fourth Kenya. Preserving Kenya is preserving yourself because Kenya is you, and you are Kenya. Fellow Kenyans, I am proud to be a Kenyan, to belong to a nation that has, within a few short decades, shown the world the excellence of its people, its love of democracy and liberty, and its ambition to be a force for good in our region and the world. I call on all Kenyans to join me in proclaiming pride in our beloved country. Celebrate being part of a generation that will be remembered fondly by those yet to be born, for the achievements you will add to those of our forefathers. As your President, I also pledge to you today, to continue to work to bring harmony between communities, to deepen our unity, and to foster national cohesion. I want you, in this spirit, to turn to the person sitting or standing next to you. Greet them and say how proud you are, to be Kenyan. Tell them that you are their keeper because, to be Kenyan, at its core is about loving your neighbor. My friends, our Founding Fathers taught us one more thing: that “…The person who plants is not always the one who harvests”. They toiled to plant this nation, though they knew that it was their children who would harvest the fruit of their labour. If my generation has reaped that harvest, we have the responsibility of protecting our inheritance, and renewing it periodically, so that our children, and our children’s children, can harvest the fruit of our labour. Fellow Kenyans, There is a different thinking that has been evolving, a thinking that offends the principles the founding fathers laid down for us. This thinking promotes the belief that we strengthen the weak by weakening the strong; it wants us to believe that a Kenyan can climb the ladder of prosperity only if he brings down a fellow Kenyan. This thinking has cost us lives and property, in these last few months. I condole with those who lost their loved ones and property in the recent disturbances. Fellow Kenyans, For a long time now, many in our political arena have believed that politics matters more than economic development. We have drawn Kenyans into our squabbles. For fifty years, we have squabbled over politics for politics’ sake, and squandered economic opportunities that would have made a difference in the lives of our people. My Friends, there is abundant evidence that focusing on economic development transforms nations. Over the fifty years, we have seen countries that focused on development, and nothing but development, leap from poverty to prosperity. Singapore, a city State, is a shining example. It focused on using politics to build its economy, and was so ambitious and disciplined that it became a world leader in multiple sectors. Fellow Kenyans, As Africans we should not accept poverty as our fate. It is merely the outcome of the wrong solutions and priorities by leaders and their followers. For proof of this, you only need to take a look at the countries that have focused on politics for its own sake, and they abound on our continent. Not one has been able to break out into real and sustained prosperity for its people. And many have even been destroyed through war and conflict. It is time to reject this false notion of politics for politics’ sake. Our founding fathers knew that we would never be totally free unless we were also prosperous. Fellow Kenyans, I have seen the future, and it is at hand. The pursuit of politics for politics’ sake is the past; the pursuit of political leadership for economic liberation is the future. And it up to us, as Kenyans, to deliver it. The future is now. It is about a healthy nation, built on equal opportunity for all, dignity for all, and the pursuit of material prosperity for all.Fellow Kenyans, As I have stated before, as President of all Kenyans, I am willing and commit to engage all Kenyans, and all Kenyan leaders, including my worthy competitors, irrespective or their religious or ethnic affiliation, in fashioning this paradigm shift. During my inauguration address on the 28th of November, I mentioned the more than 700 campaign rallies I attended across the entire country. During these rallies, you and I had a lengthy and productive national conversation. In our interactions, four things emerged as the major concerns that deserved our focus. You told me that a jobless Kenyan is a desperate Kenyan; you told me that a hungry Kenyan is a negative Kenyan; you told me that a sick Kenyan is a weak Kenyan; and you told me that a homeless Kenyan is a Kenyan without hope. You, the Kenyan people, spoke clearly. We want dignity; we want to put enough food on our tables; and we want a lower cost of living. I listened. On reflection, I came up with four responses to your concerns. I call them the Big Four: food security, affordable housing, manufacturing and affordable healthcare for all. During the next 5 years, I will dedicate the energy, time and resources of my Administration to the Big Four. The Big Four will create jobs, which will enable our people to meet their basic needs. Jobs will transform the lives of our people from that of hardship and want, to new lives of greater comfort and wellbeing. And that is the future I have seen. In the first pillar of the Big Four, we will create jobs by expanding our manufacturing sector. Manufacturing is about believing that we, as Kenyans, can be competitive and ambitious enough, to make products that are as good as any other in the world. Lazima Tujiamini. The selfishness and corruption of some amongst us have allowed counterfeiters and cartels to flourish at the expense of local manufacturers. As result some companies have gravely suffered. It’s time to say that enough is enough: We must face and defeat these enemies. To conquer these enemies and boost manufacturing requires we keep a common vision, and remain focused; and equally critical, that our workers must remain in harmony with our employers. Let me emphasize that political stability and harmonious labour relations are the bedrock on which we will achieve a robust manufacturing sector. In boosting the manufacturing sector, my Administration will focus on 4 sub-sectors; the Blue Economy, Agro-Processing, Leather and Textiles.