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President William Ruto on Thursday unveiled a new national development framework to succeed Kenya's Vision 2030, urging citizens to join a "national conversation" about the country's future – even as opinion polls show two-thirds of Kenyans believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction and trust in his leadership has collapsed to a net minus 39 per cent.
With the General Election scheduled for August 2027, the embattled president faces mounting pressure to deliver on campaign promises of jobs and lower living costs that many voters say remain unfulfilled nearly four years after he swept to power on a "bottom-up" economic agenda.
"Great nations are never built by chance. They are built by design, by discipline and by deliberate, focused national purpose," Ruto said in a nationally televised address from State House, invoking comparisons with Asian tigers like South Korea – whose per capita GDP now exceeds $36,000 compared to Kenya's $2,400.
The new vision, to be shaped through public consultations beginning August 12, aims to translate constitutional guarantees on health, housing, food, water and education into "measurable development outcomes". Ruto said Kenya could become a "prosperous, high-income, industrialised and globally competitive nation within one generation".
