President William Ruto has called for a nationwide conversation to develop a long term national development charter to succeed Vision 2030.
Ruto said the country must seize what he described as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to accelerate economic transformation.
He said the proposed charter should transcend electoral politics and provide a constitutional framework for Kenya’s development beyond the government’s current Vision 2030 blueprint, which is nearing its target date.
“This is a national undertaking about the future of our Republic,” Ruto said during a special nation address at State House on Thursday.
He added that the process should unite Kenyans around a shared vision of economic growth and prosperity.
The president said the country had missed opportunities to capitalize on previous waves of global industrialisation that transformed countries such as South Korea, Singapore, China and Vietnam into major economic powers.
Ruto noted that Kenya and South Korea had comparable income levels in the 1960s but had since diverged sharply, with South Korea becoming a high income economy.
He also pointed to China and Bangladesh, saying both had overtaken Kenya after undertaking sweeping economic reforms.
“History rarely announces the arrival of defining moments. I believe we are on the threshold of one such historic moment,” Ruto said.
The head of state argued that Kenya was now better positioned to plan for long-term growth after restoring macroeconomic stability, stabilising the currency and attracting higher levels of foreign direct investment following reforms undertaken by his administration.
He also cited Kenya’s ranking as Africa’s most competitive economy in the 2025 IMD World Competitiveness Ranking as evidence of improved investor confidence.
Ruto said institutions including the National Infrastructure Fund and the Sovereign Wealth Fund had been established to finance long-term development projects and preserve wealth for future generations.
He acknowledged that Vision 2030 had shaped Kenya’s development agenda over the past two decades but said several of its key targets, including attaining upper-middle-income status by 2030, remained unmet.
Rather than replacing Vision 2030 with another government plan, Ruto said Kenya should develop a national charter anchored in the 2010 Constitution, which guarantees economic and social rights such as healthcare, housing, education, food security and access to clean water.
He said the process should involve citizens from all sectors of society, including political leaders, businesses, faith groups, civil society, professionals, workers and young people.
“The future of Kenya is too important to be left to politicians alone,” Ruto said.
He said he had consulted current and former national leaders, scholars, business leaders and youth representatives over recent months and had also commissioned a team led by Professor Hiroyuki Hino and Kisumu Governor Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o to examine Kenya’s development beyond Vision 2030.
He said the team’s recommendations concluded that Kenya could become a high-income, industrialised and globally competitive economy within a generation if it maintained long-term policy discipline.
The president announced that the government would formally launch a “National Conversation on Kenya’s Future Beyond Vision 2030” on August 12, 2026, describing it as the most significant public participation exercise since the promulgation of the 2010 Constitution.
The dialogue will bring together representatives from all counties, political parties, the private sector, labour organisations, universities, faith groups, civil society and the creative industry, with young people expected to play a central role, he said.
Ruto said the process aimed to forge a long-term national consensus that would outlast successive governments and focus political competition on how best to achieve agreed development goals rather than debating the goals themselves.
Leave a comment