Hap­py New Year friends and indeed what an amaz­ing time to be liv­ing in Kenya! This might seem like a strange state­ment con­sid­er­ing that we have just fin­ished the sec­ond year with masks on our faces. From this per­spec­tive, it might appear that there isn’t much to cel­e­brate about the New Year. How­ev­er, we have so much to be thank­ful to God and be hope­ful for. 

First, the masks on our faces should be a dai­ly reminder that we have achieved crit­i­cal behav­ioral change in our fight against Covid-19. In addi­tion, until this point, we have emerged rel­a­tive­ly unscathed from Omi­cron, the new Coro­na vari­ant that is spread­ing across west­ern Coun­tries. Fur­ther to this, an Impe­r­i­al Col­lege Lon­don Study revealed that Omi­cron is a less severe Coro­na vari­ant. As we cel­e­brate this piece of good news, we should also appre­ci­ate that as of Decem­ber 31, 2021, 10 mil­lion Kenyans had either been par­tial­ly or ful­ly inoc­u­lat­ed. We should build on this to vac­ci­nate mil­lions more this year.

Thank­ful­ly, crit­i­cal job cre­ation sec­tors like the tourism indus­try are on a rebound. Even as we strate­gi­cal­ly lay foun­da­tion for immea­sur­able eco­nom­ic take off through influ­en­tial state projects includ­ing exten­sive direct flights into Kenya, the accom­mo­da­tion and restau­rant sec­tor grew by 25%, a big leap from the pre­vi­ous year’s con­trac­tion of 63%.

Third­ly, for mil­lions of our chil­dren and the thou­sands who work in the edu­ca­tion sec­tor, the high­est growth was expe­ri­enced in the edu­ca­tion­al sec­tor, which grew by 65%. Our schools have ful­ly reopened and we are on track to nor­mal­ize the edu­ca­tion­al cal­en­dar year by the end of 2022. This is no mean feat con­sid­er­ing that chil­dren stayed away from school for months. 

Forth­ly, the weath­er has also been kind to us in recent months. This past Decem­ber, rains were expe­ri­enced across the coun­try. While short rains are typ­i­cal­ly expe­ri­enced around this peri­od, cli­mate change has in recent years result­ed in dry Decem­bers. We should thank God as we cel­e­brate these rains that have set the stage for 2022 to start off on a good note. 

Fifth, one of the biggest rea­sons for us to be hope­ful this year can be summed up in one word – peace. This is an elec­tion year. The stakes are quite high as thou­sands of can­di­dates for Coun­ty and Nation­al offices begin to inten­si­fy their cam­paigns. Unlike pre­vi­ous elec­tions, this elec­tion doesn’t have promi­nent trib­al fault lines. The lead­ing pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates have sup­port that cuts across regions and tribes. This has less­ened the like­li­hood of polit­i­cal­ly insti­gat­ed trib­al fight­ing. Before the 2007/2008 post-elec­tion vio­lence flared, trib­al war drum­beats had been beat­ing for months. Even in the sub­se­quent 2013 and 2017 elec­tions, trib­al fault lines were evident. 

It is now up to us to seize the pos­i­tive momen­tum that has been gen­er­at­ed both by nature and by man. While nation­al chal­lenges remain press­ing, nation­al oppor­tu­ni­ties are abound­ing and beck­on­ing once we choose to sin­cere­ly become our brother’s keeper. 

For sure 2022 presents us with gold­en oppor­tu­ni­ties to elect trans­for­ma­tive lead­ers who will shift from ‘pop­u­lar deci­sions to brave deci­sions” to secure our pos­ter­i­ty towards eco­nom­ic King­doms as opposed to Polit­i­cal King­doms as stat­ed by Pres­i­dent Kenyatta. 

In 2003, the Gallup Inter­na­tion­al annu­al End of Year Sur­vey revealed that Kenyans were the most opti­mistic peo­ple on earth. Although that opti­mism lat­er waned dras­ti­cal­ly, we can still rekin­dle such hope in 2022 because it is still res­i­dent in us. Think green and act green!