President Uhuru Kenyatta during the Madaraka Day Celebrations

President Uhuru Kenyatta has emphasized infrastructure development as one of his most significant accomplishments during his nine-year presidency.

Uhuru highlighted that his administration had built over 11,000 kilometers of road during the 59th Madaraka Day Celebrations. According to him, 3,000 kilometers of roads were developed in the first term, from 2013 to 2017, and 8,000 kilometers in the second term, from 2017 to 2022.

“I am proud to record that, if the Third Administration built 2,000 Kms of tarmac roads, we accelerated his achievement by building over 11,000 Kms, which is close to six times what they built.  In fact, we have built more roads in 9 years than what the previous administrations combined, including the colonizers, built in 123 years,” Uhuru said.

As an outcome, Uhuru claims that Kenya has risen from being Africa’s 12th largest economy to the continent’s sixth largest in the previous nine years. According to the President, Kenya’s wealth has nearly quadrupled from Ksh4.5 trillion in 2013 to close to Ksh13 trillion now.

According to the President, the government has invested tenfold in the water sector in order to ensure that every Kenyan home has access to clean water and sanitation.

Currently, at least 13 million Kenyans have access to safe drinking water. President Uhuru Kenyatta stated that the government has recovered and doubled the overall acreage under irrigation from 374,000 acres in 2013 to 664,000 acres in 2022.

The number of Kenyans covered via the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) has increased by 400 percent since April 2013, with at least 17.1 million Kenyans insured compared to 4.4 million in April 2013.

In addition, the government has built 1,912 new healthcare facilities around the country, marking a 43 percent increase in the overall number of public health institutions in the country.

President Kenyatta stated that the government has been able to plant 1.34 billion trees in the last nine years, increasing Kenya’s forest cover from 6.99 percent in 2013 to 8.83 percent in 2022, and the tree cover to 12.3 percent, far exceeding the constitution’s 10% target and eight years ahead of the 2030 deadline.

President Uhuru Kenyatta also expressed pleasure in the security sector, claiming that the security forces had put an end to a wave of terror assaults that had gripped Kenya.

Despite criticism from certain sectors, Uhuru hailed his government’s Competency-Based Curriculum, describing it as a game changer.