On the south­ern edge of Kiambu, in the town of Gachie, a wid­ow named Mama Caro wakes up each morn­ing and opens the doors to her small print­ing shop. She has a gov­ern­ment LPO signed and stamped, along with pho­to­copy­ing ser­vices she pro­vid­ed to the local office in Decem­ber last year. Ten months lat­er, she is still wait­ing to get paid. Mean­while, her rent is over­due, her daugh­ter dropped out of col­lege, and her only print­er broke down last week.

Now mul­ti­ply that sto­ry by the 637 bil­lion shillings in pend­ing gov­ern­ment bills record­ed nation­wide by the Trea­sury. That is not just a num­ber; it is a trail of inter­rupt­ed dreams, stalled busi­ness­es, and suf­fo­cat­ed jobs. It is a full year’s salary for every pub­lic-school teacher. It is Kenya, paused.

Last week in Mom­basa, lead­ers from Par­lia­ment, the Nation­al Trea­sury, the Con­troller of Bud­get, and coun­ty offi­cials gath­ered for a rare but impor­tant meet­ing. In the same room, both nation­al and coun­ty gov­ern­ments asked a ques­tion that shapes our future: How can pol­i­cy cre­ate jobs?

It was a remark­able meet­ing. This time, res­o­lu­tions were made with clear intent. Among them: set­tling out­stand­ing bills, adopt­ing dig­i­tal pro­cure­ment, and invest­ing in coun­ty-lev­el green jobs. If these promis­es are kept, they will not only enhance sys­tems but also change lives.

As Par­ty Leader of the Green Think­ing Action Par­ty, I was pleased to see our move­ment well rep­re­sent­ed by Hon. Dominic Mwamisi, the MCA for Mutha Ward. His pres­ence remind­ed us that true gov­er­nance begins with grass­roots integri­ty, not just headlines.

But even as we cel­e­brate the pur­pose of the meet­ing, we must con­front the silent resis­tance that con­sis­tent­ly oppos­es reform. Many coun­ties and depart­ments still delay the imple­men­ta­tion of IFMIS and e‑GP inte­gra­tion, not because these sys­tems are inef­fec­tive, but because they work too well. These plat­forms remove the shad­ows where theft can occur.

Let’s be clear: the prob­lem isn’t using e‑procurement. The real issue is the youth group whose project was put on hold because a man­u­al file “got lost.” It’s the moth­er whose pay­ment dis­ap­peared behind closed-door pro­cure­ment. When pub­lic offices resist trans­paren­cy, they’re not pro­tect­ing their inde­pen­dence. They’re pro­tect­ing secre­cy. This must change!

IFMIS and e‑GP are not just tech­nolo­gies; they are Kenya’s defense against pover­ty. They are the lifeblood of account­abil­i­ty. When pro­cure­ment moves online, cor­rup­tion moves offline. That is the dig­i­tal choice we face.

Let’s ask every coun­ty and MDA to pub­lish their e‑GP adop­tion with­in 30 days. Let dash­boards speak loud­er than debates. Let the truth be vis­i­ble in numbers.

And let us focus on the green econ­o­my. Each coun­ty was tasked with pre­sent­ing at least three green job projects. These are not just future ambi­tions; they are ready-to-imple­ment solu­tions. In Kwale, man­grove restora­tion can cre­ate jobs for 2,000 young peo­ple. In Lamu, solar mini-grids can sus­tain­ably pow­er island economies. In Mom­basa, waste-to-val­ue plants can sup­ply indus­tries and improve city clean­li­ness simultaneously.

The only jobs Kenya can afford to cre­ate are those that secure its future. Green jobs are not a lux­u­ry; they are essential.

These lessons echo what I shared in my green book: that a nation’s pros­per­i­ty comes not from poli­cies on paper, but from integri­ty in action.

By now, we all under­stand that jobs don’t start with speech­es. They begin with sys­tems. They start with pay­ing what is owed, spend­ing what is bud­get­ed, dig­i­tiz­ing what remains unclear, and pri­or­i­tiz­ing the local con­trac­tor over the polit­i­cal­ly con­nect­ed broker.

So, what’s next?

Let’s unlock Mom­basa’s poten­tial. Have each coun­ty pub­lish its plan for pend­ing bills with­in 30 days. Let Par­lia­ment review each res­o­lu­tion by the end of Decem­ber. Have youth mon­i­tor job cre­ation out­comes, not just pro­cure­ment cycles. Ensure every dol­lar the gov­ern­ment spends results in a job cre­at­ed and a life improved. Because when poli­cies pay on time, Kenya func­tions on time. And some­where in Gachie, Mama Caro is still wait­ing. Think Green. Act Green.