Nairobi — Kenya's economy is in for a boost following the Government's pledge to establish an emergency programme for reconstruction and restoration.

The economy, which has consistently performed well over the past few years, was recently threatened by post-election violence following last December's disputed presidential election.

In his speech during the State opening of second session of the Tenth Parliament Thursday, President Kibaki said that the programme would mobilise resources locally and internationally to be used in repairing and rebuilding infrastructure damaged during the violence.

Informal sector

"We, therefore, expect the economy to recover quickly from the recent setbacks it has faced," said President Kibaki.

He was grateful that the informal sector, which is the country's largest employment sector, received policy attention with the passage of the Microfinance Act last year to support small and medium enterprises.

"We have also made progress in building of markets to enable street vendors do their business legally and without harassment," added the Head of State, who further acknowledged that the nation had come through a challenging two months since the December 27 General Election.

He was optimistic that the more than 17 Bills passed into law last year would help improve Kenya's social, political and economic environment.

Policy agenda

And to improve market performance of several key commodities, President Kibaki proposed a wide legislative and policy agenda.

"There is need to amend the Coffee Act 2001 to provide direct sales of coffee, Sugar Act 2001 to restructure the sugar industry and introduce Bills and sessional papers covering the dairy, poultry and fishing industries, among others," said the President.

To enable the tourism industry perform even better, President Kibaki said the Government would table three Bills - the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations Guidelines, Tourism Bill and the Wildlife Bill.