It is clear that Kenyans are generally a very hard working lot and all they need is a chance and half an opportunity and they will do the rest.
On the other hand the chief success rule in this life is that one uses what they have. A balding man who wants to catch the eye of some girl and realizes that they don't have the looks but have a fat wallet will make use of that wallet to meet their objectives.
In the same way the nation of Kenya has plenty of idle labour and plenty of idle land. By making use of these two assets which we have plenty of, we can revolutionize things pretty quickly.
How about launching labour for education or work for education programs countrywide? The idea is to give disadvantaged poor Kenyans an opportunity to further their education through secondary and university level by having special institutions where instead of paying tuition fees, able bodied men and women are admitted and grow food and cash products generally work on some huge tract of land. The harvested food is then sold in the open market to pay for their education and upkeep and cover all costs. Lecturers can be loaned from leading universities and these centers can even be affiliated to existing universities. Growing and selling the agricultural products will also be a practical skill that all the students can pick up whether they are pursuing medicine or law and will help them in the event that they do not quite make it.
Skills required to make such a program successful are not only in growing and harvesting crops, but more importantly in marketing them and getting a reasonable price for their efforts. The basic law of supply and demand comes into play and one has to grow and harvest a product whose demand will be higher than the supply at the time it arrives in the market.
While there is nothing wrong with Kenya wanting to be an industrialized nation, we need to look soberly at what we have on the ground and agriculture can be developed seriously to a level where agri-based industries can also be established to process and add value to the farm produce harvested.
The government can even set up these centers and then get a private sector management team to run it on a viable scale because past experience has shown that it is virtually impossible to get government run programs to pay for themselves.
Such a program would have huge benefits to the country because apart from taking many idle youths off the streets and giving them a second chance to become professionals, it will also boost production tremendously and in the long term bring down the prices of basic food stuffs. Then there is also the fact that the country now has a competitive edge in terms of supplying skilled labour worldwide, which can be sustained through having such programs spread in every province countrywide.
Such programs can also be a practical way of financing free secondary school education rather than the current proposals that would still leave parents burdened with school building funds, boarding fees and other costs much higher than tuition that are involved in secondary schools.
The current approach of financing free education is too dependent on donor support. (In a future post I will talk about donor support, in essence we do not really need it, if we can get our act together.)
Additionally the land can be put to further productive use by, instead of leaving idle land to be grabbed by the rich and powerful, the government giving short-term leases to ordinary Kenyans of say 35 to 40 years. If the recipients are able to generate enough profits from the land, they can then be given the option of purchasing the land at market rates later. Otherwise they will have a limited option or renewing the lease at a higher fee than what they paid for the original contract. These land-leasing rates can be a major government revenue generator and reduce the need or pressure to increase taxes.
This is the kind of creative thinking we badly need amongst our presidential aspirants rather than going for populist proposals that will be difficult to pay for.
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“Chris”, it’s obvious that you didn’t archive an “A” in economics. In essence what you are laughably offering as a solution is rounding up the vagabonds in Kayole and Runda, Kibera and Kitusuri, shipping them to state farms with instructions to plant and market flowers, maize and sukuma wiki. On their free time, you will teach them a course in accounting/ electric engineering. According to your stats, the proceeds from their produce will be of national economic significance, living standards will rise, education will be boosted and skills shared as crime is reduced. All these positives by simply repossessing idle land and forming “Kibutz” like camps. How about this idea; let us forego heavy road construction equipment and instead hire the youth alongside heavy “mallets and jembes” and have them manually build the Kisumu- Buisa road. Ha ha ha. This will reduce pollution, maybe lower costs and of course provide employment. Ha ha ha.
ReplyDeleteMight these be some of the brilliant economic recovery advice you had impregnated your “Candidate of Choice” with? Well. I’m glad he/she chose to drop out and will not be giving birth to such brilliant ideas at Pumwani maternity ward any time soon. So, between you and I, was there really a “Candidate of Choice”?
Nuff bashing. Truly, we are a country of extremely low expectations (per yesterday’s paper). Here we are in the 21st century, population is exploding, no jobs etc and people are still talking of agro-based economies? Whereas our “supposed to be equals” are focusing on hi-tech technologies, selling service related labor (telemarketing/help desks.. Kenyans speak great English you know) we still want to produce the best coffee/tea? Has anyone noticed how South Africa is slowly overtaking Kenya on the tourism front.. with minimal govt. help? Why is our govt. spending billions laying down high-speed cables whereas it’s evident that wireless communication is the way of the future? Shouldn’t we be thinking of launching a satellite? Oh.. and don’t start with “every journey begins with a single step”.
My whole point is this, the solution to Kenya’s problems lye squarely on the innovation of its citizenry. No matter which side of the divide you are on, the progeny of Raila and Kibaki (though distasteful) will not deliver you from your woes. You can choose to spend your day running up and down Moi Avenue, flashing the orange or roses salute/flag with anticipation of manna from statehouse or you can identify three or four of your most brilliant friends, lock yourselves in a small room and refuse to come out until you come up with a feasible sound idea of making a livelihood, money etc.
>>>If your vehicle had a flat tire, two streets away from your house which neighbors Railas’ Kibakis’ and for that matter Kalonzos’, who of these chaps would stop by to give you a helping hand?
You hit the nail on the head Anonymous. Chris has his economics turned inside and he must stop peddling rusty theories. Kenyans have enslaved themselves to their past 'glory'. We are busy hutling backwads at breakneck speed as everydody readies himself for the forward economic leap.
ReplyDeleteWe are no different fro our dinosaur leaders who fiht tooth and nail to maintain status quo under the fake belief that if it is workin don't fix. We are consequently runin on empty but for how long?
@ annonymous
ReplyDeleteActually I got something very close to an "A" in economics and by the way I know your kind of brainwashed economist type. You guys have been runnng the Kenyan ecoomy for the last 20 years via the World Bank. How come you no longer talk about the Structural Adjustment programmes that were supossed to solve Africa's problems
I believe my ideas are practical and suitable for the Kenya I understand well.
And while you are punching holes in my ideas, how come you don't seem to have any ideas of your own, even the text books ones?
Chris I wont say your idea cant work, but it will require more than Kibaki's government to implement it successfully.
ReplyDeleteYou mention two assets - idle labour + idle land. Is that all? How will you persuade today's urban population to return to rural areas to support the program? How about all the other resources required for successful and sustainable large scale agriculture. eg. research institutions,climatic suitability, sufficient rainfall / irrigation, fertiliser and herbicides, ploughing tractors, storage and transport facilities and finally the market to sell / consume the end product.
Maybe your proposal can be started on a smaller scale by first offering incentives to our villagers and subsistence farmers just as a start / trial, if only to improve food security and then take it from there, but not with this government.