Government sets development goals with ministerial performance contracts

By Robert Mutasi

President William Ruto presided over the signing of the 2024/25 Ministerial Performance Contracts at State House, Nairobi.

Cabinet Secretaries, including Aden Duale, reassured their commitment to BETA with a focus on enhancing efficiency, transparency, and measurable outputs in the delivery of public services.

The performance contracts, which were negotiated over several weeks, include targets touching on the administration's key priorities like agricultural revitalization, job creation, and digital transformation.

Agriculture remains a cornerstone, with goals like distributing 12.5 million bags of fertilizer and introducing high-yielding crop varieties that could raise food security and improve rural incomes.

The agreements also emphasize social protection programs, such as expanding the Inua Jamii initiative, which has already increased its reach to over 1.2 million older persons, and introducing a nutrition-sensitive cash transfer scheme targeting vulnerable groups.

President Ruto underscored the importance of accountability in achieving these goals, with ministries facing rewards or sanctions based on performance outcomes.

This initiative comes amid efforts to rebuild public trust following challenges in service delivery during the previous fiscal year.

Other priorities are reforms in the education system, digitization; ease of doing business by removing red tape in licensing processes; and climate resilience through locally led action programs.

These measures would be growth-enhancing, low-carbon, and inclusive. In essence, by making performance monitoring institutional, the Kenyan government will help move the country closer to its goals of continuous economic recovery and transformation as enshrined in the Kenya Kwanza manifesto.