Mwiraria Speech Shows Economy On Right Track.

(From The Nation (Kenya) - AAGM)

Byline: Charles Muchene

The Minister for Finance, Mr David Mwiraria, had reason to smile as he delivered his Budget speech on Wednesday. A couple of weeks earlier, an upbeat Minister for Planning, Prof Anyang' Nyong'o had released the 2005 Economic Survey, which showed the highest rate of economic growth in years.

We thus had a public that was waiting with bated breath to hear what the Finance minister had up his sleeve. Many were sceptical about the growth statistics that had been released earlier. I chose not to be fixated on a statistic but rather concentrate on the message - and the message that at last there are signs of recovery in some sectors (thanks to extraordinary effort by resilient players in the private sector) is supported by feedback from key players in the market over the last six months. …