Kenya’s moment: Investing in youth to save our future

The cost of living continues to climb while the cost of doing business suffocates entrepreneurs. Investors flee a system where bureaucracy and graft have become standard operating procedures. Today, Kenya spends over 70 per cent of every tax shilling on debt service, leaving less than 30 per cent to run schools, hospitals, and county programmes. That means every new loan we take is stolen from our children’s future.

Our debt now exceeds Sh11 trillion, and in the financial year 2024-25 we will spend nearly Sh85 trillion—roughly three-quarters of all revenues—on debt service. This fiscal indiscipline is not abstract; it is a theft of opportunity. Every shilling spent servicing debt instead of funding youth training is a job not created, a dream deferred.

Reducing waste

Meanwhile, the ruling elite continues to award itself obscene compensation. A governor today can often earn 160 times more than the average Kenyan worker. Our political establishment drains hundreds of billions annually in salaries, allowances, and travel. Kenya’s problem isn’t lack of money; it is the misuse of it. We cannot rebuild our economy with leaders who treat government as a feeding trough. It is time for the youth to rise and demand a new direction, one that places productivity above politics and fairness above privilege.

The next administration must take the initiative of reducing waste in government and redirecting savings toward the nation’s greatest asset: its youth. Under my plan, reducing excessive political costs and bringing efficiencies to rationalise the cost of government will save over Sh200 billion annually, money that will be invested directly in skills development, manufacturing, and digital innovation.

Around the world, nations are racing to master Artificial Intelligence —the new oil of the global economy. By 2030, AI is projected to contribute over $15 trillion to global GDP (PwC, 2023). Kenya cannot afford to sit out this revolution.

My administration will make AI and digital transformation the cornerstone of our economic renewal. Through a National AI Strategy and a Kenya AI Institute, we will invest Sh80–300 billion over five years to build data centres, expand broadband, train young Kenyans in machine learning, and support AI-driven start-ups in agriculture, health, and finance.

Mobile money

This effort will create over 500,000 tech-related jobs, lift GDP growth by 1 per cent annually, and make Kenya Africa’s AI and innovation hub—just as M-Pesa made us the global pioneers of mobile money. We are not starting from zero. Kenya already hosts world-class innovators: M-Pesa, Ushahidi, Twiga Foods, Sendy, Koko Networks. With the right leadership, we can replicate these successes across every sector. By investing in intellectual property, research, and digital infrastructure, Kenya can lead Africa in exporting, not raw materials, but ideas and technology—the foundation of a $10 billion idea economy envisioned in our IP & Innovation Master Plan. This is our decisive decade. We can continue financing corruption and mediocrity—or we can invest in our youth, our ideas, and our future. This is why I am committed to rebuild our economy. My agenda is not a slogan but a strategy—to restore fiscal discipline, end waste, and unleash Kenya’s creative and technological potential. Let history record that this generation refused to miss its moment. For Kenya, the time is now.

Mr Maraga is a former Chief Justice of the Republic of Kenya, and a presidential hopeful in the 2027 elections.