{"id":1571,"date":"2011-01-20T08:43:52","date_gmt":"2011-01-20T08:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/?p=1571"},"modified":"2011-01-22T22:06:18","modified_gmt":"2011-01-22T22:06:18","slug":"interview-with-mugo-kibati","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/2011\/01\/interview-with-mugo-kibati\/","title":{"rendered":"“The new Constitution will encourage foreign investment.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Global: What are your thoughts on Kenya\u2019s economic prospects leading up to the next elections in 2012?<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mugo Kibati:<\/strong> Kenya\u2019s economic prospects are pretty bright. And we are working very hard to ensure we come as close as possible to the 10 percent Vision 2030 target for 2012. I also think that the changes in the Constitution have been very positive, both psychologically and substantively. There are going to be significant reforms in the judiciary, in the police and also the public sector, in terms of probity. The level of probity expected now should significantly affect issues to do with governance and corruption and all this I think augurs well for the economic prospects of the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

The obvious question about the year 2012 is what to expect. I think that the experience of 2008 and the lessons learnt then are very, very alive to Kenyans of all walks of life. Not just government, not just politicians, but the public at large. And with lots of people working very hard to ensure that we permanently avoid a repeat of what happened in 2008, indeed the impetus for the new Constitution is partly that – the idea of reforming institutions so that we obviate the need for that kind of an occurrence happening. My view is that the prospects are very, very bright.<\/span><\/p>\n

What do you think will be driving the economy?<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Infrastructure is a key driver but an additional driver going forward, in my view, will be the improved governance in the country. I think there will be greater transparency, greater accountability, a greater focus towards improving the business environment and incentives. People who are looking to start businesses or do anything operationally with their businesses will have recourse, will have a place to go to, because public officers are now much more accountable. They will have to be much more so than they were prior to the [new] Constitution.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you think the new Constitution will encourage foreign investment?<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Absolutely, it will encourage foreign investment. I think an environment with more transparency, more accountability, better governance always leads to higher investment because you have higher confidence from investor money. Not to mention the fact that we are reforming the judiciary. In fact, just the act of judicial reform should go a very long way towards encouraging foreign investment.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Global: What are your thoughts on Kenya\u2019s economic prospects leading up to the next elections in 2012? Mugo Kibati: Kenya\u2019s economic prospects are pretty bright. And we are working very hard to ensure we come as close as possible to the 10 percent Vision 2030 target for 2012. I also think that the changes in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10673,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[64,43,17,73],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10673"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}