Kenya Ranked among Top 20 Best-Governed African States

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Kenya is ranked 17th out of 52 African nations in this year’s Ibrahim Index of African Governance, the first time the country has broken into the Top 20. New data released Monday shows the country has seen improvements since last year in three of four key areas of governance, moving up another four places.

Just two years ago, Kenya was ranked 25th on the continent. In 2013, strong scores in Human Development and Economic Opportunities saw the country rise four places to 21. This year, despite a lower score on economic opportunity, the country did well enough on all other measures to be ranked 17th.

This, the organisation behind the index reveals, is part of a general trend of better governance in Africa that has been noted over the past ten years.

“The results of the 2014 IIAG challenge our perceptions about the state of African governance,” said Mo Ibrahim, Chair of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. “Africa is progressing, but the story is complex and doesn’t fit the stereotypes. Even if the overall picture looks good, we must all remain vigilant and not get complacent.”

Kenya scores poorest on Safety and Rule of Law, with five years of low scores even as performance in the Human Development category continues to rise. This year, however, saw improvement in that measure as well as Participation and Human Rights. Only on sustainable economic opportunities was there a drop.

At the country level, the Mo Amin Foundation reported, the 2014 IIAG shows the potential of governance underperformers while revealing the weaknesses of current frontrunners. Countries in the bottom half of the rankings registered the largest improvements over the past five years.



Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Niger and Zimbabwe have changed course since 2009 from negative trajectories to become the biggest improvers on the continent. This progress has been driven in large part by gains in participation and human rights.

Meanwhile, the historically strong performers, Mauritius, Cabo Verde, Botswana, South Africa and Seychelles, have shown some deterioration in at least one category over the past five years, notwithstanding that all these countries remain on overall upward trends.

The IIAG provides an annual assessment of the quality of governance in African countries and is the most comprehensive collection of data on African governance. The 2014 IIAG combines 130 variables from 34 independent African and globalsources.

Countries are given scores in four categories -- Human Development; Sustainable Economic Opportunities; Safety and Rule of Law; and Participation and Human Rights -- as well as an overall score. - Business Daily

 

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Kenya's economy is believed to be 25% larger than previously estimated following a change in the way its size is calculated.


The recalculation means it will now be considered by economists and the World Bank as a middle-income country, rather than a low-income one.


As a result growth for 2013 was calculated to have been 5.7%, up from an earlier estimate of 4.7%.


It is now the fourth biggest economy in sub-Saharan African.


Nigeria, South Africa and Angola are the three biggest economies in the region.


Economic output was calculated to be 4.76 trillion shillings ($53.1bn; £32.8bn) in 2013 after rebasing, up from 3.8 trillion shillings, the minister for devolution and planning, Anne Waiguru, said on Tuesday.


Some of the most profitable sectors in Kenya - communications and property - were not considered in earlier calculations of GDP which used 2001 as a base year.


Authorities in the East African country have now changed the base calculation year to 2009 and revised the annual and quarterly national accounts statistics for the period 2006 to 2013.


Poverty levels
Standard Chartered Bank Africa economist Razia Khan said the recalculation confirmed "what we had previously suspected".


"The economy has demonstrated good momentum and has been growing faster than the official data indicated all along. It fits with much of the anecdotal evidence available to us - still-robust business confidence and healthy private sector credit growth."


Ms Khan said the rebasing lifted the average per capita income in Kenya to $1,246 "effectively meaning that the country moves to lower middle income status".


According to the World Bank middle economies are those with a GDP per capita of more than $1,045 but less than $12,746.


While the recalculation is expected to lower debt levels and increase foreign investor confidence, analysts said the figure will change little for much of the population.


Poverty levels in the country remain at 45.9%, and life expectancy is at 61 years, as estimated by a 2013 World Bank report.


Several African countries have recently been reworking their economy figures, a trend which the Africa Development bank has said will show the continent's economies collectively being one third bigger than previously thought.


Earlier this year Nigeria vaulted ahead of South Africa to clinch the number one position after it conducted a similar rebasing of its economy, placing the country's GDP at $522.6bn.
BBC News - Kenya's economy grows by 25% after recalculation