allAfrica.com: Kenya: Will PM-Designate Deliver On Promise? (Page 1 of 2)

As he joins the grand coalition government Raila holds a powerful position. Going by his presidential manifesto launched last year, the PM-designate has powers to influence what he promised but only if he is given the resources.

On May 6, last year, Mr Raila Amolo Odinga, now set to be Prime Minister, mounted the platform at the formal launch of his presidential vision.

Prime Minister-designate Raila Odinga. He toyed with the construction of several highways to open up the countryside.

Raila declared himself 'the bridge' that would link Kenya to its past, present and future.

At that function at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Raila laid out harsh judgement on what went wrong with Kenya and his plans to cure it.

He said then that something went wrong between 1963, when the forefathers of the nation "coined and encapsulated the Kenyan Dream" in the National Anthem.

When he made that speech that Sunday afternoon, Raila was submitting his application "to the people of Kenya for the position of president". In the campaigns that followed, Raila made "change" his rallying call.

He promised the most radical reorganisation ever witnessed in government since independence in 1963, if he became President.

He planned to "decongest" the Office of the President (OP), take away a number of departments and functions currently lumped in there to make it more transparent and accountable. His team talked of "a government of talent, experience, full of new faces and highly representative".

Unlike past regimes which put their faith in the OP, Raila was widely expected to invest heavily in a new ministry of Social Development, which was to deal specifically with poverty and efforts to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor.

That ministry was to handle welfare programmes, including the money transfers to the poor, which the party had promised in its manifesto. Raila estimated that his government would spend up to $2 billion (more than Sh120 billion) on infrastructure ministries like Roads and Energy.

Some of this money was to come from bonds. He toyed with the construction of several highways to open up the countryside.

Raila did not become President. But at the end of last month, together with President Kibaki, he signed the National Accord and Reconciliation Act, which put him on the path to be PM.

The accord has now become law and could see Raila sworn in as PM this week. It gives him authority to co-ordinate and supervise the execution of the functions and affairs of the government, including those of ministries.

The PM will also perform any other duties assigned to him by the President or by law.

With this arrangement, Raila has got a bit of what he wanted and also missed out on some. He has come close to realising his dream of the parliamentary system of government he promised during the campaigns, as opposed to presidential system.

Raila had argued during the campaigns that nearly all the mature democracies in the world have parliamentary systems of government.

He envisaged a parliamentary system in which the role and powers of the Head of State - whether president, king or queen - are separate from but complementary to the role and powers of the head of government, usually the prime minister.

Power brokers

Going with Raila into the same government are leaders from an era he singled out to have let down the nation. With his powers and role being interpreted by all sorts of people, the question remains, will the PM-designate have adequate powers and room to deliver the Kenya he promised during the campaigns?

The PM-designate promised to begin by "removing power from power-brokers and giving it back to the people".

The ODM leader promised to tackle poverty, insecurity, poor education, inadequate health services, lack of social welfare programmes, huge disparities in income, absence of opportunity, disempowerment and consequent hopelessness and despair.

"We have been spinning out of control on a downward spiral for more than 40 years. Experts have described Kenya as 'a country of great potential but a disappointing under-achiever'," he said last year.

Raila argued that at Independence, Kenya's economy was at par with that of South Korea. All the major economic indicators in the two nations - GDP, per capita income, literacy, industrialisation - were comparable.

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