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The NYOTA programme and decision to hold this year’s Madaraka Day in Wajir are not isolated gestures. They are a governance thesis, and Kenya should hold this administration to it.
For 62 years, the national celebration of Kenya’s self-governance has largely been a story told in familiar places: the populous Rift Valley, the Central highlands, the Coast, and the capital. The North Eastern region, home to Kenyans who have been counted in every census yet consistently overlooked in every development budget, has watched from the margins.
When it was announced that Wajir County would host the 2026 Madaraka Day, the first time in the North Eastern region, it was not merely a logistical decision. It was a statement about who this country belongs to. That statement gains its full meaning only when read alongside what else is happening simultaneously in the same region and across Kenya’s historically underserved counties.
The NYOTA Business Start-Up Capital programme has disbursed over Sh3 billion to 121,800 young entrepreneurs nationwide and crucially, Wajir, Mandera and Garissa are on the list.
For a generation of young people in the arid North who have grown up watching national programmes designed around the political arithmetic of more populous regions, the appearance of their counties on a State House disbursement map is itself a form of recognition that money alone cannot fully measure.
The structural argument for equitable national development has always been straightforward, even when the political will to pursue it has been absent. A country that leaves entire regions outside its productive economy does not merely fail those regions; it impoverishes itself.
The North Eastern counties, with their strategic location along the Isiolo-Moyale corridor connecting Kenya to Ethiopia and the broader Horn of Africa, represent not a burden on the national budget but an under-exploited engine of cross-border commerce, livestock trade, and regional connectivity. The 750-kilometre Isiolo to Moyale road is not charity directed northward; it is national infrastructure serving a national economic interest.
What distinguishes the current moment is not simply the intent to deliver. Every incoming administration has announced that intent. What is different is the visible architecture of follow-through. A 10,000-seat capacity stadium constructed for Madaraka Day in Wajir in 100 days, affordable housing units rising across all counties within 30 months, and road projects progressing on parliamentary-confirmed timelines all point to something more than a communication strategy.
They point to a presidency that has personalised the accountability chain, inserting itself directly into implementation and publicly confronting sector heads when delivery falters. This approach carries its own risks, as over-centralisation can hollow out institutional capacity over time, but its near-term effect has been to create a culture in which non-delivery carries visible consequences.
The test, however, is not whether the President shows up for the launch. The test is whether the state remains after the flags are folded. For Wajir and its neighbours, the relevant question is whether the NYOTA disbursements translate into sustained enterprise ecosystems rather than one-off capital injections that dissipate without a supporting infrastructure of business development services, market linkages and financial literacy. For the Madaraka Day gesture to mature into a durable policy, the government must institutionalise the North Eastern dividend. This means committing to consistent budget allocations rather than relying on presidential discretion alone.
–The writer is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya
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The NYOTA programme and decision to hold this year’s Madaraka Day in Wajir are not isolated gestures. They are a governance thesis, and Kenya should hold this administration to it.
For 62 years, the national celebration of Kenya’s self-governance has largely been a story told in familiar places: the populous Rift Valley, the Central highlands, the Coast, and the capital. The North Eastern region, home to Kenyans who have been counted in every census yet consistently overlooked in every development budget, has watched from the margins.
When it was announced that Wajir County would host the 2026 Madaraka Day, the first time in the North Eastern region, it was not merely a logistical decision. It was a statement about who this country belongs to. That statement gains its full meaning only when read alongside what else is happening simultaneously in the same region and across Kenya’s historically underserved counties.
The NYOTA Business Start-Up Capital programme has disbursed over Sh3 billion to 121,800 young entrepreneurs nationwide and crucially, Wajir, Mandera and Garissa are on the list.
For a generation of young people in the arid North who have grown up watching national programmes designed around the political arithmetic of more populous regions, the appearance of their counties on a State House disbursement map is itself a form of recognition that money alone cannot fully measure.
The structural argument for equitable national development has always been straightforward, even when the political will to pursue it has been absent. A country that leaves entire regions outside its productive economy does not merely fail those regions; it impoverishes itself.
The North Eastern counties, with their strategic location along the Isiolo-Moyale corridor connecting Kenya to Ethiopia and the broader Horn of Africa, represent not a burden on the national budget but an under-exploited engine of cross-border commerce, livestock trade, and regional connectivity. The 750-kilometre Isiolo to Moyale road is not charity directed northward; it is national infrastructure serving a national economic interest.
What distinguishes the current moment is not simply the intent to deliver. Every incoming administration has announced that intent. What is different is the visible architecture of follow-through. A 10,000-seat capacity stadium constructed for Madaraka Day in Wajir in 100 days, affordable housing units rising across all counties within 30 months, and road projects progressing on parliamentary-confirmed timelines all point to something more than a communication strategy.
They point to a presidency that has personalised the accountability chain, inserting itself directly into implementation and publicly confronting sector heads when delivery falters. This approach carries its own risks, as over-centralisation can hollow out institutional capacity over time, but its near-term effect has been to create a culture in which non-delivery carries visible consequences.
The test, however, is not whether the President shows up for the launch. The test is whether the state remains after the flags are folded. For Wajir and its neighbours, the relevant question is whether the NYOTA disbursements translate into sustained enterprise ecosystems rather than one-off capital injections that dissipate without a supporting infrastructure of business development services, market linkages and financial literacy. For the Madaraka Day gesture to mature into a durable policy, the government must institutionalise the North Eastern dividend. This means committing to consistent budget allocations rather than relying on presidential discretion alone.
–
The writer is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya
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By Abshir A Abdi