Uhuru, Ruto mark 100 stormy days

PHOTO | SULEIMAN MBATIAH | FILE Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto during the campaign period prior to the 2013 General Election.  NATION MEDIA GROUP

By SAMUEL SIRINGI ssiringi@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Wednesday, July 17  2013 at  23:30

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The teachers strike, insecurity and ethnic divisions are the biggest challenges that the Jubilee administration has had to deal with in its first 100 days in office.

The four-week teachers’ strike that ended on Wednesday had threatened to derail schools’ plan to run mock examinations, which start this week. Mocks prepare candidates for the national examinations, which start in two months.

The other major challenge that faced President Kenyatta and his deputy, Mr William Ruto, was the division caused by the March 4 General Election.

An opinion poll conducted by Ipsos Synovate published earlier this month showed that 51 per cent of Kenyans had confidence in President Kenyatta while 48 per cent had confidence in Mr Ruto.

President Kenyatta’s rating is closer to the 50.07 per cent of votes that the electoral commission announced he garnered in the March 4 election, showing that those who did not vote for the Jubilee candidate had not had a change of heart.

“The rating is surprisingly low,” Synovate researcher Tom Wolf had said when he announced the results of the survey.

The Kenyatta administration has also had a hard time combating insecurity caused by gangs, militia groups and ethnic fighting in regions like Bungoma, Mandera and Tana River.

Although the killings have subsided in recent weeks, Mr Kenyatta had at one point to warn that he would send in the military to deal with ethnic groups engage in some of the conflicts.
More than 100 people were killed in the attacks, marring the first 100 days of the new administration.

Some of the killings, including acts of terrorism in northern Kenya, occurred before Mr Kenyatta could appoint a substantive Cabinet secretary for Internal Security. Attorney-general Githu Muigai acted in that capacity for a few days before Mr Joseph ole Lenku was appointed and sworn in on June 6.

Mr Ruto said recently that the government had restored security in the worst-hit areas.

The delay to constitute a government also caused anxiety among Kenyans.

Many people felt that the Executive was over-consulting before picking individuals for various offices.

In the Ipsos Synovate poll, 10 in every 100 people interviewed reported that they had been victims of crime in the last three months with Nairobi recording the highest number of cases.
Fifty-eighty per cent of those who reported crimes to the police were unhappy with the response, while an equal number chose not to report at all.

Although the government promised to lower the cost of living, there has not been adequate effort to set the pace for a reduction in the cost of basic goods.

In fact, prices of basic commodities are likely go up should Parliament pass the controversial Value Added Tax (VAT) Bill currently before the House.

The Ipsos Synovate opinion poll showed that the high cost of living was the most serious problem facing Kenyans, with 54 per cent of respondents mentioning it, up from 39 per cent in November 2012.

Another 49 per cent of the people felt their general personal and household economic conditions had worsened under the Jubilee administration.

The new government has also been faced with the challenge of stopping the rising number of accidents on Kenyan roads, many of which have been attributed to failure by traffic police to crack down on offending motorists.