Madaraka Day: President Uhuru Kenyatta's full speech at Uhuru Gardens

#MadarakaDay
Today, I am delighted to return to these hallowed grounds of Uhuru Gardens to commemorate our 59th Madaraka Day. I am overjoyed because, after 59 years of self-rule, this is the first time we are celebrating Madaraka Day at these hallowed grounds. Madaraka Day is significant in our history because it is on this day in June 1963 that the Founding Fathers of our nation replaced the outgoing colonial government and formed the first indigenous Government of Kenya.

Why did our independence heroes choose Uhuru Gardens as the place to midwife our young Nation? What was the significance of these grounds in the history of our liberation struggle? And what did they want remembered by generations to come? On these grounds sat one of the largest concentration camps in colonial Africa, holding up to 10,000 freedom fighters at any one
given time.

Why do I call Uhuru Gardens a hallowed ground? I do so because our Founding Fathers wanted us to celebrate this ground as a camp of martyrs and the birthplace of a Nation. A place of remembrance, healing and renewal. Each time we gather at this birthplace of our great nation, we
must remember that being free is the easy part; but staying free is the difficult part. Although we are now fully free, we cannot continue to claim freedom casually. Instead, we must begin to practice it and jealously guard it against all threats, both foreign and domestic. The practice of freedom comes with a price.

In our efforts to foster inclusivity and gender parity, the one thing I am proud of is how we have built women leadership and expanded their fields of participation in governance. Today, and thanks to the 2010 Constitution and my commitment to equality and inclusivity, I have had the pleasure of working with eleven women in My Cabinet, at different times and in different capacities. All of them have occupied high profile portfolios. In fact, all the Cabinet Secretaries for Foreign Affairs for the last 9 years have been women.

In August this year, if it is the wish of the electorate, we have a chance of a woman shattering the glass ceiling by assuming the second highest office in our Republic, the Office of the Deputy
President of the Republic of Kenya. If our women were part of the liberation struggle, advancing their course intentionally is a duty we owe them and ourselves as a country. And I am, indeed, proud to have been part of this push for women leadership in our Republic...

Question: How much is ‘too much’ borrowing? When does borrowing become ‘too much’ and unbearable to a nation? The only time that debt is a burden to a nation is if the nation is led by a cabal of looters. But in the hands of a visionary administration, debt is a catalyst for rapid development. When South Korea achieved its economic ‘miracle’ in a record 25 years, it also achieved the rank of being the 4th most indebted country in the world. But they did not call it debt, they called it ‘using other people’s money’ to advance their course. Similarly, in the 1900s, Britain borrowed ‘other people’s money’ to industrialize. Indeed, Britain only finished repaying this debt
in 2015 after 102 years.

On the part of My Administration, we used ‘other people’s money’ to close our infrastructure gap and to connect our markets. If it took a maize trader 3 days to travel from Kitale to the border of South Sudan, what we borrowed ensures that it takes him now just 5 hours. Similarly, today, any trader can travel on tarmac road to 4 out of 5 of our neigbouring countries in record time. And if we can transport 10 times more passengers with SGR at half the price and half the time and move 3 times more cargo daily from Mombasa to our neighbours, then our borrowing has surely been worthwhile and paid tangible dividends. To maintain the tempo of our accelerated achievements, the Fifth administration should not shy away from using ‘other people’s money’. Debt, in a cleaned-up government, is an enabler, not a burden.

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