Vision 2030 Development Strategy for Northern Kenya and other Arid Lands 2012

Abstract

The purpose of this document is to complement and deepen Vision 2030 by explaining how its goals will be realised in the specific context of Northern Kenya and the country’s arid and semi arid lands. It does not duplicate the main document but should be read alongside it. The dream of a just, equitable and prosperous nation set out in Vision 2030 is as relevant to people in the arid and semi-arid lands as it is to those in any other part of Kenya. Vision 2030 acknowledges the special circumstances of previously marginalised communities and places a premium on reducing poverty and inequality and re-balancing regional development. In this respect it offers a chance to turn history on its head. Until recently the distribution of investment in Kenya favoured the so-called high-potential areas – those which, in the words of Sessional Paper Number 10 of 1965, have ‘abundant natural resources, good land and rainfall, transport and power facilities, and people receptive to and active in development’.1 Vision 2030 imagines a future which is the polar opposite – one where the hopes and dreams of all Kenyans can be realised.