HOPEFUL: Young Kenyans look forward to a better future (XINHUA)

Kenya's march toward a middle-income economy within the next two decades got a much-needed boost with the promulgation of the country's new Constitution on August 27, 2010. The brand-new legal regime should firmly close the door on 47 years of bad governance and pave the way for long-term growth in East Africa's largest economy.

Since independence in 1963, Kenya, the regional hub for trade and finance has been struggling in its quest to achieve socio-economic stability. There have been many occasions – the most recent being the bloody political crisis after the 2007 General Election - when Kenya's stability threatened to derail. But always, somehow, the country was salvaged and the show moved on, to an extent that now, with a new Constitution, even the politicians and business leaders agree on one thing - it's time to prosper.

So, that chilly Friday morning, at a lavish ceremony in Nairobi's Uhuru Park grounds, Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki legally put pen to paper to usher in the new legal dispensation. His signature set the political stage for the rollout of Kenya's ambitious development roadmap, the Kenya Vision 2030.

The blueprint promises a future where everyone will have money in the pocket, where food won't be a problem, where the hundreds of hitherto unemployed graduates will have jobs, and where businessmen won't have to be worried about the next elections.

The new law is explicit in the way it tackles the intricate issues of corruption, land ownership and distribution of resources. The three issues have been at the center of Kenya's failure to emulate Malaysia and Singapore - the two countries that stood shoulder to shoulder with Kenya at independence as far as the economy was concerned. While Kenya is still mired in the "developing" category, the two Asian countries are ambling towards the "First World."

The new Constitution bars foreigners from having freehold entitlement to land, as was the case before its enactment; instead, this is capped at 99 years. This provision has sent jitters among foreigners with freehold titles to large tracts of land, for they are now compelled to surrender their titles in exchange for leasehold ownership.

Similarly, the devolution in the new law is a major shift in resource allocation for Kenya. Under the new regime, 15 percent of the national revenue will be distributed to the grassroots. Going by the experience of the Constituency Development Funds - where 2.5 percent of the revenue was sent to the grassroots - the new laws would certainly unlock a prosperous future.

The view in Kenya is that the new Constitution puts in place stable governance structures that are more likely to give room to long-term investments, with multi-billion-dollar projects trooping in. The hope and belief in the business community is that investors will no longer plan in five-year cycles and cross their fingers every time the country goes to the polls (every five years).

Professor Michael Chege, who sits in the National Economic and Social Council, the government think-tank that drives the Kenya Vision 2030, noted that the "country cannot afford to lose the momentum of economic growth."