The spat between Dambisa Moyo and Bill Gates and its relevance to Mrs Kenyatta’s #BeyondZero

So Bill Gates claimed that Dambisa Moyo’s book Dead Aid ‘promotes evil’ and that she knows little about aid. And Dr Moyo responded (in her blog) that she got a PhD in economics and wide experience, how about Bill?

Reading through the articles about this confrontation, I couldn’t help but relate with the ongoing debate in Kenya regarding the appropriateness of the #BeyondZero campaign aiming to mobilise donations to improve maternal health sponsored by Kenya’s 1^st Lady Mrs Kenyatta. There are those who laud the good lady for such a noble initiative. Then there are those like my friend Rita Oyier who rightfully ask: ‘Why should I pay taxes then run again” – alluding to the fact that if public finances were better managed, we would not need marathons and donations to fund maternal health.

The tragedy with the aid debate remains the fact that there are a bunch of skeptics (the likes of Bill Easterly and Dambisa Moyo) on one side and another lot of maniacs (the likes of Sachs and Gates) on the other end shouting at the top of their voices and preventing honest, factual debate on aid.  We know that neither of them is absolutely right.

Whilst aid has alleviated suffering (especially in humanitarian crises), improved infrastructure and promoted better institutions for governance and management of the public sector in Sub-Sahara; it has also distracted governments from effective Domestic Resource Mobilisation, economic diversification, or private sector development that would provide sustainable solutions to the problems aid has dealt with.

But aid skeptics (like Dambisa Moyo) fail to provide practical, logical, credible alternatives.

Dr Moyo benefited from aid in the form of scholarship to earn her Havard education (like many Africans continue to do). Bill Gates should know that countries like Burundi have up to 40% of their budgets funded by Official Development Assistance not because they cannot increase domestic revenues but more because aid has been made available.  

So calling aid ‘dead’ (Dr Moyo) or claiming that the book ‘Dead Aid’ promotes evil (Gates) does not help.

On the Kenyan example re - #BeyondZero. I think the campaign is well intended but the First lady could use her influence (being the person who goes to bed every night with the holder of the policy pen), to institutionalize a stronger, more effective and sustainable solution to financing maternal health in Kenya. 

She could begin with sponsoring a bill to increase and ring-fence maternal health funding in the annual budget. 

What happens when another 1^st lady comes who doesn’t give a rat’s ass about maternal health? Michael Jackson and a constellation of stars sang ‘We are the world’ in 1995 to mobilise resources for Sudan. Is the problem solved today? Billions of dollars was donated to support Haiti after the devastating earthquake, but has the problem been addressed?

I am for complementarity. Neither aid nor the market/growth focused approaches will succeed in isolation. But if we complement prudent Public Finance Management with effective development cooperation, we have a chance. 

My 2pence!

On the ensuing Digital Migration debacle - Kenya Govt (CAK) Vs ADN Consortium

1.  It’s simple arithmetic – who loses most from the continued switch-off of SG, NMG and RMS? Ask yourself what immediate gains the GoK would accrue from the hasty migration to digital; in terms of revenues? media space for Kenyans? investment? trade? And what does the government lose: - revenue dips, eminent job loses, shrinkage of media space as the coalition members continue the shutdown. Do the math. It is not the government, neither is it so much the media - its Kenyans on the losing. Those of you who will soon be laid off; those of you who are bored stiff because you have no DSTV to watch todo sobre? Those of you who will not get public services because KRA failed to reach revenue targets because in some month in 2015 – some media houses were making loses.

2. Whilst governments elsewhere, in both the developed and developing world endear themselves to investors, make doing business easy, ours is actively stifling business and pushing away existing investors and crowding out potential ones. Why, because of egocentric tea-cup storms between a state agency and private sector!

3.  Granted we need an effective and efficient regulatory environment for the media – but at what cost? Granted we need to open up to the opportunities that digital migration portends, but at what cost? It is in the interest of government and the obligation of government to ensure that a speedy and lasting solution is found.

4.  So you hear Information Cabinet sec ranting how right government is and how wrong the ADN coalition is, you wonder why finance cabinet secretary – and all the folks that spend endless sums of tax payer money ‘wooing investors’ aren’t say a thing.

5.  These media houses have themselves succeeded in showing Kenyans how much they don’t matter. This should serve as a lesson to them – that as much as its business, it is the kind that is dependent on effective institutions of governments - which ‘the people’ have a way of influencing. A decade ago – people would have been on the streets protesting this switch off. But the ordinary Kenyan today has been showed the middle finger so much by these media houses, in the conduct of their coverage that no one gives a hoot.

6.  This is from my conspiracist closet. Come to think of it – aren’t these media houses the same ones largely controlled and bankrolled by Kenya’s cabal of current politicians? Why haven’t people pulled the ropes to save their businesses? 

Kenya's Start-up tragedy:

Pilotitis, policy failure and the absent domestic investor confidence in young entrepreneurs

Two days ago, I attended a World Bank sponsored consultative forum on the World Development Report – 2016. I got myself caught up in a riveting discussion on scaling up start-ups and why it has thus far been problematic in Kenya. I have banged my head ever since about this. I couldn’t resist ranting the two pence opinion I didn’t get a chance to dispense at the forum. Well, here it is:

Investors and young entrepreneurs – two worlds apart

There is a fundamental disconnect between Kenyan young entrepreneurs and possible domestic investors. Notably, the typical (prospective) Kenyan investor is wired for hard concrete investments: real estate, construction, agribusiness, and manufacturing. Tangible investments that come with lesser risks of uncertainty. Not 'faith' in some 'pizza ordering' 'direction pointing' 'weather predicting' or 'breathe alcohol level calibrating' app developed by a weird spectacle, jeans-tshirt-trainer wearing 19 year old at iHub least known to him.

Make no mistake, Kenyan investors have serious dime. Some of the machines these folks show up with in town; some of the homes we see on TV after some Karen-Runda tragedy - they spell BLISS, BLING, BALLING. Some of them were acquired by giant multinationals, others learnt the genius of business in +254, and some in mind blowing hereditary wealth.

A quick census - they are 60 - 70 year-olds who do not understand and care least about ICT revolution, big data, new media, the internet, yadda yadda. They are traditional conservatives who hang out at analog exclusive membership clubs and enjoy the country, game, and choma more. You sure won’t find them at Nairobi Java, or Brew Bistro or Michael Joseph Centre or Strathmore or Nailab or Mojos where our start-up entrepreneurs elect to quaff their chaff as my good friend Tom Osanjo puts it.

‘Pilotitis’ – too poor to sustain start-ups

We are too poor. Our young people survive on very thin limited resources that can never support their maintenance (food, transport, accommodation) as they concentrate on C++, python, SQL, Java etc birthing some bad-ass Sportify-alibaba-uberlike idea.

People have got to eat; it is only logical that entrepreneurs will pursue projects for as long as they meet their immediate rudimentary needs; not the Facebook or Apple the project could metamorphosise into a decade from today. Maybe our entrepreneurial culturing is still inept - in shaping the correct attitudes and discipline needed to see through an idea to its fruition however long it might take, however frustrating it could be. So that we don't drop ideas as soon as they fail to meet our immediate expectations. 'Pilotitis' - that's what my friend John Kinuthia calls it.

Maybe our investors as well aren't ready to cough out million after million into projects without obvious direction towards success, surplus.

‘Expat capture’ – domination of the start-up scene by foreign social entrepreneurs

Then there is the clever 'mzungu'. The bearded, man-bag carrying, sun loving MIT, Stanford, Georgetown, Oxford student that jets in with substantial funding, and fancy save-Africa social entrepreneurial ideas. From the 'brick' to every other M-something (M-kopa, M-changa, M-ngombe, M-Gormahia) these folks have clogged up the start-up scene in Kenya (no Nairobi, it seldom leaves the capital).

I am a staunch proponent of knowledge transfers and spill-overs, but am also well aware of the dynamics of multinational domination and crowding out of local enterprise and innovation. Lord! that might have come across a tad bit too leftist!

There are the awesome ones - I hear the genius of M-Pesa was born by their ilk. Then there are the stealthy borrow ideas-pimp ‘em up-come back to Kenya-bang new idea kinda guys. And of course the mundane-nothing to write home about-boring ones with ideas not worth the visa or Nairobi mahindi choma lot.

Point is, all these folks play in a concerto of domination that easily and unknowingly downgrades Kenyan start-ups, unfairly competes for investor limelight/attention and could demoralize budding home-grown talent. I sound ridiculously political on this right?

Policy failure

Controversial as it may sound, the role of government, institutions, policy, or legislation in propping up start-ups is profound. Whether in setting up the requisite infrastructure (like broadband), guaranteeing funding, or providing the regulatory environment (for example protection of intellectual property rights).

Am willing to argue that the government of Kenya has equally failed our start-ups (someone said that 'government' is an amorphous nothing entity). Yes this is stuff that is best executed by the private sector and facilitated by market dynamics. But for a country with such an acute youth unemployment problem, it is in the interest of government to put together a working framework for nurturing and supporting homegrown entrepreneurs especially after proclaiming our intentions to build a knowledge economy - Konza, Tatu City blah blah.

And I don't mean dishing out Kshs 50,000 to young people hurdled into groups of 50 to hatch one day old chicks in the name of Uwezo Fund, Youth Enterprise Development Fund, Kazi kwa kijana and the likes.

The Missing link between knowledge and post-class work experience

A few weeks before exiting the University of Birmingham, I had the opportunity to attend free seminars and tutorials on penetrating the job market. Resume building, pitching, presentation skills, the works. No offence, but the education system in Kenya (can’t speak for other Sub-Saharan countries) fails flat in preparing students for the post-class work experience.

This largely explains the inability of many of Kenya's young entrepreneurs, with brilliant ideas to market, sell their genius; to speak to the right audience and to win investor confidence.

Yes, you learnt programming at JKUAT and are extremely good at it - developing apps. Yes you studied design at Maseno University and you are superb at crafting Ankara-African apparels. But you end at that. You cannot explain yourself in 2 minutes to a Chris Kirubi at a cocktail at Alliance Francaise or to a Bob Collimore at the gents at Ngong racecourse, or to a Vimal Shah on the elevator at Lonrho House.

How will you ever get your idea funded? scaled up?

The missed opportunity in industrial clusters

What we sure lack, and which kick-start, sustain and encourage entrepreneurship especially in knowledge driven economies in other parts of the world are industrial clusters. Where knowledge meets industry and investors and policy support.

Across the globe start-ups thrive in such unique clusters. See the ICT & Biotech clusters in Massachusetts, the engineering clusters in Batten Wurttemberg Germany, the Silicon Valley, Emilia Rogmana & Tuscany's automobile and apparel clusters in Italy; Toyota City in Japan, Scotland's Silicon Glen, Sinos Valley in Brazil, Daegu South Korea, the French Sophia Antipolis, the examples are plethoric.

What is Kenya doing to get there? The famed Thika town of our high school days?

Skewed focus on tech start-ups masking other entrepreneurs

I will say one last thing, then shut it, before I cause me trouble. This one will not go down well with some of my tech and media folks.

In Kenya, there is a skewed focus on tech oriented start-ups. So much so that it makes entrepreneurship today almost synonymous with an ICT oriented something. And it need not be so. Mainstream media most often highlight techy stuff, maybe because tech is sexy and savvy, or they are easily accessible, or because of elite capture or simply because they are the more of our young entrepreneurs. I don't know!

But surely, this near obsession with tech start-ups almost masks substantial developments in other areas like agribusiness, art, new media, that could do with the light.

Maybe if we broadened our focus, coverage (now am talking to the media hehe), we could discover more young Kenyans, struggling with marvelous ideas that could create employment and get our young people off want and trouble. Remember the pencil portrait super-guy who did President Kenyatta the other day. Imagine how many more of such are out there unnoticed.

I rest my case on Kenya's ‪#‎Startuptragedy.

Yours truly - Okwaroh Ja Paprombe

They gave us a 'non-NATION'

I want a neo-KENYA. Give me my Kenya – OUR Kenya. 

They gave us a 'non-NATION' - a country; a state - patched up space inhabited by conveniently settled ethnicities.

They gave us a ‘non-NATION’ - lands and wealth they already stolen from us - owned by them; not us.

They gave us a non-NATION - a creed; a prayer to cram; an anthem to brainwash us and our children and our children’s children to the fakeness of a NATION that never existed.

They gave us a non-NATION – a flag; an insincere symbolism of fake blackness (Afrianness); fake redness of blood of just a few important ones; fake whiteness of non-existent peace riddled with undertones of deep hatred; fake greenness of the lands – flora and fauna not ours but theirs.

They gave us a non-NATION - already deeply unequal; deeply divided; deeply sectarian.

They called it Kenya; but there was never a NATION. Just a country - an engineering of the people who wanted it to stay that way – a country, coordinates on the world map, an enterprise; a corporation; GDP; because they profited from it and planned to profit from it further. Not develop us.

So forgive me when I disregard that freedom twaddle. That self-decided heroism. 

I am Kenyan; but I do not know what Kenya really means; what Kenya truly stands for! Because that’s the dishonest vagueness that was handed down to me by our greedy; selfish fore-fathers; our ‘heroes’. And am expected to pass it down that way – religiously to my unsuspecting children.

What did they free us from? Poverty? – NO. Disease? – NO. Ignorance? – NO. Gave us better institutions to govern ourselves? NO – in fact they screwed up some of the white man’s better legislation/laws.

So what are they heroes for? Fighting for they stomachs and their children's stomachs? Or for conquering their subdued folks?

So why should we sing their names; why should our children be condemned to cramming; reciting the names of a people so selfish they took our nation even before we began. Why should our streets, our schools, libraries, hospitals, bridges be named after them?

They gave us a non-NATION – Luo, Kikuyu, Kamba, Kalenjin, Luhya etc NOT Kenya. But they baptized us Kenyans. Divided us into ethnic little-hoods but remembered to balkanize us into a fake ‘nation’ – Kenya.

A Kenya to refer to when legitimacy to plunder further is needed; A Kenya to summon when authority to dominate is required; A Kenya to call on to when sovereignty to protect themselves and their perverse wealth is of the essence.

They gave us a non-NATION. Hungry; sick, ignorant and esteem-less beings - oppressed by the white man and fleeced, raped, maimed and killed by the black 'hero' – the Shujaa!

I want my nation; our nation. A redefined meaningful sense of nationhood - that inspires genuine patriotism - not forced; fake sense of sovereignty - Kenya one-ness that never exists.

I want our 'nation' - of fairness in opportunity;

I want our ‘nation’ – of greatness in aspiration and discipline to work and live our dreams;

I want our 'nation' of inalienable rights to own something; to share our prosperity;

I want our nation of some sort of ‘true morals’ – not shameless double standing.

I want a neo-KENYA. Give me my Kenya – OUR Kenya. 

10 Kenyans be sure to find down the comments section

For Kenya, sometimes when there is little time to read the whole thing, go to the comment section and have some fun. Thou shalt find:

1. The sectarian, ethnocentric tribal lieutenant. Does not give a rat's shit who said it, what it was, how it was said - so long as the title says something against 'baba' or inches close to Uhuru-not-good. You can predict the rest of the text.

2. The wannabe PLO. The cheap, ordinary Kenyan who just found some space to excise with the few words they picked up off the thesaurus. 'Cantankerous' 'Idiosyncratic' 'Exasperating' 'Plebiscite' 'Achondroplasiastic' etc. Too many disjointed grotesque jargon devoid of substance (notice am trying to do it).

3. The verbose one: - hehe the one who should just go write a rejoinder or response to the article. Missed the communication skills class on 'summarising'. Comments always close to the size of the main article itself. And they can do many of them by the way.

4. The intellectual conman. The truly intelligent one with no sense of occasion. This one will tire you with theories of Walt Rostow and Socrates and Niccolo Machiavelli and Adam Smith. Has a point but fails to notice the diversity of the audience. Will easily loose you in their argument. Most of the time it is for show (you can bet his/her name will begin with a vowel 'O' or 'A' hehe).

5. The vulgar fraction. Do not spend time looking for the point. It is all about insults and abuse and shameless vulgarism. You either get pissed off if you are new to this stuff or learn to see the humour. Their comments are full of 'F' and 'D' and 'P' and 'C' words.

6. The shameless pitcher: This one smells opportunity. Never mind the article was about maternal mortality - they will post a link to their facebook fan page advertising their 'Ongata-Rongai world-class fumigation services'. They obviously never read the thing - they just saw so many people who are worth the pitch.

7. The know-it-all, ‘diasporic’, well-travelled, seen-it-alls. Their exemplification is full of "in the west" "in Europe" "in the States" "Go to Abu Dhabi you will see' etc. They will demean all other comments with their global views and self-righteousness.

8. The sorry slow-head. Never gets it. Bad spelling; terrible grammar. Arguments always out on a tangent. Lacks even the simplest and most obvious facts. You wonder why they showed up on the comment box.

9. The ruthless, die-hard debater. Has too much time. Probably lives on the net. Commenting, debating, hating is their job. Must have been in those upper-primary debating clubs of "a teacher is better than a doctor" Do not start an argument with them. It never ends.

10. The crack-head clown. Funny chap who draws humour out of even the dimmest most mundane comments. There is always something to make fun of and people like their comments a lot.

What kind of audience are YOU?

Living Kenya's real politik: 

Of Gladiators, Transitionals and Spectators

Verily, verily I tell you. Hark my voice. If you had anything in any way to do with the installation of President Uhuru, and you haven’t yet gotten your piece of the meat, or bones - YOU ARE TIME BARRED. The King wound up the rewards, rents and favours machinery last night with decorations for the oldies - the likes of Mwakwere, Ongeri etc.

So check yourself; you there. You who were so mad about the 'young' savvy president you were willing to butcher your neighbour, abuse and insult your friends on social media.

DO THE MATH. What have you gotten in return for your loyalty? For your grand standing? For your tribal fiefdom? Maybe chronic insecurity - you and I still living scared in the same Nairobi. Maybe poor public transport – You and I still chocking in dust, traffic jam packed rowdy matatus? Maybe the ingering spectre of poverty - its 15th you and I worried about our pockets?

Next time you go wearing party colours and chanting people’s names and reciting their awesomeness, remember me. I am your countryman, I might not be your brother, or your friend, or your tribe, but I got KENYAN blood running deep down my vena cava. I got the resilience and go get it attitude, same as you, that defines who we are as Kenyans.

Remember me. Remember that we will still share the same Matatu to wok, to town; that we will still share the same dingy pubs downing a Tusker, drowning our sorrows, chanting our frustrations at poorer bar maids and reliving our aspirations in our drunken selves. Remember that they shall have found themselves perks - all friend and foe - somewhere in government, in some state authority, department, embassy etc. sipping on their Moet, Chivas Regals and Hennessies in Karen.

Folks it is never that serious. Politics I mean. It is you and me, lowlies who haven’t gotten the hang of it. It is you and me, desperate with our sorry sore cheap lives that go on hating.

My political science professor at Maseno University, Tom Mboya taught me Basic concepts in political science. He said there are three levels of Political participation: 1) Gladiator stage, 2) Transitional, and 3) Spectator.

Gladiator stage my friend is where you find the folks on the news last night, receiving jobs and accolades. The ones you defended so hard when they were accused of hate mongering – like Makwere, or presiding over misapplication of state funds – like Ongeri. The ones the electorate rejected at the ballot at the ballot like Gitahae. Yes, despite all that, they are in government, ambassadors – the true face of Kenya out there - in DC, India, UN etc.

You my friend, my brother, my countryman – you are down here with me – in our Spectator life. Ordinary Kenyans, cheap, but not too poor to afford 10MBs for hate mongering on face book. Busy hustling for our survival but not too occupied to buy party emblems, red ribbons, oranges and yellow hats to show up at Kamkunji, Uhuru Park, Tononoka, Bukhungu, 54, Afraha, Kericho Green etc. That is our role – showing up for the numbers on TV later on. Singing ‘baba’, ‘shiyenyu ni shiyenyu’, ‘kamwana’. And of course the solemn one, showing up at 4am, standing on long ques for 7 hours to do the sacrosanct duty – VOTE.

I won’t say much about the Transitionals – but take care, they are the ones that look almost like you and me, but they are not us. They have access to the Gladiators and are in ‘transition there’. And they have access to us – so they can peddle all the falsehopes and whip emotions. They are the ones who block you from accessing ‘our man’ – ‘baba’ – ‘omundu khumundu’ when they ascend to power and we need to be rewarded.

My 2pence counsel to you this morning: - Do the arithmetic. Does the math add up? Elect your level of participation and live it, knowing the true consequences and opportunities that come with it.

#Okwaroztake - I am a spectator – at least for now; an open minded one, am I?

You kill me Kenya!

You kill me Kenyans; with your shameless double standing, with your selective reasoning; with your insolence and ethnic chauvinism. You are poor (just like me). You own no land (just like me). You will die poor (just like me). Your children will inherit nothing (just like mine). But you are rich in your ethnicity – you are Luo, Kikuyu, kalenjin, Kamba, Luhya, Gussii, Ogiel bla bla. If ethnicity were monetized we would be billionaires! But you will die for your tribesman; what he owns you own too right? When you go home to your humility, you dine with him right?

Kenyans hark my voice. What your president and his company want you to do (and he's sure you will), is resign to the cheap lazy conversation of chest thumping and ethnocentrism and forget the real issue. How the point shifted from the chronic land grievances in the Coast instigated by historical land injustices to the guilt of former Lands Minister James Orango for not detecting illegal allocations, I wonder.

The point that people want to bury their heads in the sand and wish never existed is how a group of people found themselves in the Coast, settled in land that never belonged to them, but to people who were originally there, born there, displacing and disenfranchising them.

Kenyans it happened, all these will not end until we acknowledge that these injustices occurred. They have been well documented in the Truth Justice and Reconcilliation Commission report and the Ndungu report - of the Commission of Inquiry into the illegal/iregular allocation of public land. They will have to be addressed my fellow countrymen.

We all love Kenya. If you are young, take note that these folks in high office today will tear down this country to dust and leave us and our children this filth that they call Kenya and we will have to live in it or die in it. Wake up, we all hustle today to own 1/8ths of land in Nairobi when people are talking of thousands of hectares of land. But you are willing to defend them on social media, abuse, and murder and kill your 'facebook friends' because they are your fathers? Your brothers? Your mothers? Your tribe? Painful indeed!

Uhuru and Ruto are doing a great disservice to this nation. If they had no interest in addressing the 'sensitive' land issue - they should have kept off it and let Kenyans deal with it like we always have - accepted and moved on. Not open up a dangerous conversation they are not willing to honestly engage in. 

I hope no one finds this - hate mongering'. Am poor, I cannot afford 5 million Kshs bail. I only got my voice, my mind. Those are free, bequeathed to me by Ochieng Okwaroh (who never owned land) - no law, no man, can ever alienate or take them away, so long as they are just. I got no land and am not obsessed with land.

I am Okwaroh Ja' Paprombe. Good day Kenyans

Mr President: - focus on the real issues

Implement recommendations of TJRC and Ndungu reports

As Okwaroh I refuse to let people in public office insult my intelligence like Uhuru Kenyatta is trying to do. 

You show up on TV claiming to revoke titles for some 500K hectares of land allocated by the Government of Kenya when there are deeply rooted, chronic land grievances all over the country; fuelling ethnocentrism and threatening our nationhood that you are NOT saying a thing about. And we all know why!

IMPLEMENT the recommendations of the TJRC report, the Ndungu Report - "Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Illegal/irregular allocation of public land. Public money and time was spent conducting investigations and gathering historical information for these two reports. But you want to rely on politically expedient 'new' investigations right?

This is the same president whose lieutenants told the International Criminal Court (ICC) that there are no records of his ownership of land in Kenya. Then he demands respect from Kenyans?

We passed the days of whimsical presidential decrees eons ago. Address the real land issues at the Coast not hiding behind LAPSSET if you want respect.

http://www.africog.org/reports/mission_impossible_ndungu_report.pdf

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-171707/what-tjrc-report-said-about-lamu-violence

Kenya’s Catch - 22

When the country is tense, about to burn and prophets of doom - smell genocide, violence: - the country is 'ours' - us all Kenyans. And we must exercise restraint, and we must let reason prevail, and we must respect institutions, and we must remember that we have nowhere else to go after it all burns down. There are things that cannot be said (no matter how truthful - they are inflammatory; they are ethnocentric; they are war-centric). We must soberly find solutions to our problems - Together as one nation. All that matter is PEACE and Kenya. So we gag ourselves and crucify those who attempt to speak. We are all Kenyans - we must be one.  

When the country is calm and we have our institutions, and our laws and our policies and our resources. When it is time for resource allocation. When it is time for reflection on our inequities and poverty. When it is contracts time; when it is public appointments time; when it is development decision time. Wither REASON. Wither NATIONHOOD. There is no such thing as nation/country/Kenya. Everyone for himself - God for us all. Let lazy people feed on their laziness. Let those outside political power wait for their turn in government, wait for 2017; 2022 whatever. It is every Kenyan and his/her pocket; it is every Kenyan and his/her family; it is every Kenyan and his/her business. This is what disturbs PEACE; threatens NATIONHOOD.

The hypocrisy in Kenya is chronic. You see people of influence (based on their business acumen, or their intellectual standing, or their political capital) administer half truths. You see intellectuals interpret events in this country like we began yesterday – like our problems have no cradles. It is a pity. 

I have watched a talk show considered ‘sober’ re #Sabasaba. The problem with talk shows is the correctness, the fence sitting and clever posturing that they demand from panellists. They make people look good even as they give naive, 'agreeable' impractical solutions. They make people say things they don’t believe in – speaking for debate-sake.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD1cPElagbc&feature=share

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHZHKVOzZWY#t=97

Until we fix the poverty and inequality (economic, social and political); ours is a non-nation and will remain on the brink of the precipice; always unstable, squandering our wealth and opportunity and mortgaging our future generations. If we truly care about Kenya, and genuinely want solutions to our problems – we must be HONEST and OPEN with one another.  

Does saying GOD bless Kenya help? If it does, then Amen!

God help us, forgive us for we have sinned.

Deliver us from the yokes of shameless PR, waste & kleptocracy

Dear Uhuru, Jubilee and Co. 

Next time you feel inspired and fired up to take Kenya to the lord in prayer, please, just kneel down on your well manicured office floor and pray, or in the car, or in the gym or on the plane now that yours is an airborne presidency.

Spare us the extra expenses of prayers at 5-starred hotels. The spectre of Safari Park Hotel wont rocket the prayer items to the almighty. 

We pray every day for our beloved Kenya - on the jam chocked in dust fumes and noise; in the quiet of our humble homes; in the sanctity of the many shrines that we have built with our honest kind contributions. Some of them are actually spruced enough to suit the ostentations of your stature and honour. And we believe God hears our prayers, we believe God sees our tears. He does respond! 

This is how God commands us to pray sir:

 "Matthew 6:5-12 - But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words"

"1 Timothy 2:8 - I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting"

I have hosted events in these starred hotels like you hosted prayers yester. A breakfast meeting like that costs at least 2000 Kshs per head. I saw on TV dignitaries well over 1000 sir, praying for Kenya at Safari Park. We spent at least 2million bob praying, even if we discount all the other costs of taking you and your convoy to Thika road and back, the time wasted on the jam for the rest of us lowlies.

I am hurt sir, that whilst prayer is good, and God asks us to pray and take all our tribulations (terrorism, Anglo leasing, ethnicity in public service etc) to him in prayer, we spent so much in a shameless PR exercise. I am not judging - I leave it to God! I am not righteous.

Amen.

742,800 'new' jobs? huh!

Who'se taking that load of bullcrap that the Kenyan economy generated 750K new jobs in 2013? ‪This Jubilee government thinks it can fool everyone. Planning and Devolution Cabinet Secretary now wants Kenyans to believe that some 742,800 'new' jobs were created in 2013, alone. My question is, which economy is it that Ms Waiguru is talking about? Which Kenya? Where are these jobs? 

Even if we believed those dodgy figures:

According to statistics released yesterday, from the Economic Survey 2014, in 2013, Kenya purportedly generated some 742,800 'new' jobs. The same survey indicates that Agriculture and Tourism two of the main sectors that contribute the largest proportion of GDP, and contribute the largest share of employment reported a decline in growth. Agriculture sector grew by a marginal 2.9% compared to 4.2% in 2012. Tourism numbers continued to dip in 2013 (1.5 million arrivals compared to 1.8 million in 2011). Growth is thus attributed largely to the private sector in areas of manufacturing (grew by 8.9%), retail, wholesale and construction.

So if we take it that manufacturing was the largest driver of growth of jobs, meaning the other sectors contributed less we should see manufacturing contributing the largest chunk of the new 742 thousand jobs. However in the same survey, manufacturing jobs only expanded from 271,000 in 2013 to 280,300 thousand in 2013. That’s a marginal difference of only about 9,000 jobs. 

Yet overall new jobs jumped from 665,800 in 2012 to 742,800 in 2013 (difference of 77,000). So here begs the question: 

“If manufacturing, contributing the largest share of new jobs, also registering the greatest growth (8.9%) only contributed 9,000 new jobs (above 2012 new ones), where else did we source the other 68,000 that account for the 77,000 difference between growth in 2012 and 2013? The other dwarfing sectors that registered dismal growth or decline like agriculture may be? 

If anything with the Kenyan economic circumstances 5% growth can produce no more than 30K new formal sector jobs. So even if we had such an awesome informal sector with super job creating ability it could not have created 200 times what the 4.7% growth would have realistically produced in 2013 in the formal sector.

Just wondering what voodoonomics happened between 2012 and 2014 that could change things so dramaticaly. See the graphs below, even when the economy grew exponentially from 2.7% in 2009 to 5.8% in 2010 the rate of growth of new jobs in the formal sector was never as sharp as we are being made to believe it happened in 2013. New jobs grew from 53,400 in 2009 to 57,200 in 2010 compared to Jubilee's 78,700 to 109,900 with just 0.7% (4.6% to 4.7%) difference in economic growth. The math just doesnt add up. There has to be a correlation between economic growth and jobs creation.

Problem is, in this day and age, not even the powerpoint that Ms Waiguru used to release the Economic Survey 2014 yesterday is available online on KNBS website or Planning and Devolution Ministry. We are relying on snippets from media reports that do not provide the real picture. I desperately hope that for want of evidence to demonstrate progress attributable to the Jubilee government people arent cooking growth figures and hoping to conceal it from the public. 

Let them release the full report, plus the data used to arrive at those conclusions so Kenyans can judge the credibility of those growth figures accordingly.

Corrupt Kenyan immigration and inept security officers must take responsibility for rampant terrorism

There are Somali refugees all over the world; in the UK, US, and in many European countries. They do not hurl grenades into public places, or take people hostage, kill and maim so invariably as it is happening in Kenya. 

The problem, is clearly not the refugees. You can ethnically profile, deport, harass and humiliate Somalis in Kenya but that won’t solve the problem. That wont stop terrorist attacks and infiltration of more hardened cells of terrorist establishments, sympathisers of Shabaab and Al Qaeda.

Corrupt Kenyan immigration and inept security officers must take responsibility. Immigration and security is treated with so much secrecy. Loads of money spent yet these busybodies cannot prevent dodgy characters from getting into our country and jeopardising the lives of tolerant Kenyans who've been living with hundreds of thousands of refugees for decades - Somali, Sudanese, Congolese, Rwandese, Burundian. 

Somebody yapped about an impending shake-up of the entire security apparatus in Kenya after West Gate (NSIS, internal security, military etc). It still remains IMPENDING, 6 months down. 

Bunch of talkers right?

How Uhuru Kenyatta has missed the point on the wage bill debate. Focussing on salary instead of the chronic wastage, pilferage and missapplication of resources in the public sector in Kenya

I am so sick in the stomach after reading this article. I dont know whether to weep or be annoyed for this country. These are just excerpts of an article by Paul Mwangi - former civil servant in the Government of Kenya giving a graphic account of the obscene wastage of public resources presided over by the national government. The article is crossposted after these quotes.
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"Standard lunch order in most of the meetings I attended was Chinese"
"I was also entitled to an official car, armed driver, armed bodyguard and two Police guards at the house"

"And though I took only about three to five cups of tea in the office, I learnt that my secretary was entitled to pick Sh20,000 to Sh40,000 to make my tea every month"

"At the end of the month, I received my airtime allowance in the form of cards from various service providers. The total amount was Sh27,000. If there is one thing my relatives, friends and subordinates miss from my service in government it is free airtime. Because try as I did, I couldn’t spend more than Sh7,000 of the allocation. And I got new cards every month."

"I don’t know but I have heard that the President’s confidential account often runs into billions of shillings and in the last regime was the cause of the short and tumultuous tenures of many a Comptroller of State House under whose office the account is operated"

"And when the work is done, the committee members would be paid an allowance for serving in that committee. This goes anywhere from Sh10,000 to Sh50,000 per person. If it is a gazetted task force, the sum would be a few hundred thousand shillings. Never mind that these allowances are being paid for work that everyone was employed to do in the first place, and will be paid for with a salary at the end of the month."
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"Every day is party time in government offices - By PAUL MWANGI

For slightly over 12 months since January 2012, I served as the Legal Advisor to the Prime Minister. It was a position that placed me at the highest levels of the Civil Service, with a pay grade of Job Group “U”, otherwise known as “PS level”.

What I learnt and observed about government in that short period of time makes me conclude that the President’s attempt at bringing down the wage bill by taking a 20 per cent pay cut, and enforcing the same across the board, is incredibly naive. (READ: Backlash meets Uhuru’s move to take salary cut)

The problem with the exorbitant public wage bill is not the salaries. In fact, I think it is a good thing that the government is now able to attract competent staff and Kenyans will benefit from good public service, less corruption and thus a more productive private sector.

The problem with Kenya’s wage bill is wastage and abuse. All the way from State House to the tea room at the ministries, tax payers’ money is lost through wasteful use of resources and abuse of authority.

The first encounter I had with waste was when a requisition was made for furniture to my office. As a senior government officer, I was entitled to my own colour printer, computer, laptop, ipad, television, document shredder and water dispenser.

I have never seen such wasteful use of resources in the private sector in Kenya. In the commercial sector, printers are shared by many offices, as are water dispensers, shredders and televisions. And laptops are only issued to persons engaged in field work.

AIR TIME

At the end of the month, I received my airtime allowance in the form of cards from various service providers. The total amount was Sh27,000.

If there is one thing my relatives, friends and subordinates miss from my service in government it is free airtime. Because try as I did, I couldn’t spend more than Sh7,000 of the allocation. And I got new cards every month.

And though I took only about three to five cups of tea in the office, I learnt that my secretary was entitled to pick Sh20,000 to Sh40,000 to make my tea every month.

I was entitled to tea, coffee or hot chocolate as I desired and to a choice of sugar or honey for my sweetener.

There were no less than ten senior offices to whom this allocation was made and many of us never got to know how much was picked or spent on our office accounts.

The fault, I came to learn, was not with the senior officers. The rules of service set these entitlements and they accrue as a matter of course.

This account is just a tip of the iceberg.

I was also entitled to an official car, armed driver, armed bodyguard and two Police guards at the house.

Personally I did not think anyone was looking out to harm me so I only took an official car and an armed driver which I used during working hours. But I have observed that since the NARC government of 2003, the use of police security has become increasingly abused.

It is surprising that in the Moi government, with all its excesses, one never witnessed the almost comical spectacle we are being treated to everyday on our street where every minister, senator and governor is running around with several chase cars blaring sirens and a security detail at the expense of the taxpayer.

Without doubt our Cabinet Secretary in charge of internal security and his Permanent Secretary need to be accorded some serious security but who wants to harm the cabinet secretaries in charge of such mundane responsibilities like fisheries, sports or economic planning?

Sometimes in the process of work, it requires ad hoc committees to be formed by members of the same department or ministry, or sometimes members from various ministries, to see through a process or discuss an issue.

When this happens, tea must be served at 10a.m. and at 4p.m. together with snacks. The snacks will be a samosa, a sausage and a ndazi per person. And lunch too. Standard lunch order in most of the meetings I attended was Chinese.

I think it is sad that for the level of service the civil service gives Kenyans, it would be having Chinese lunches at the tax payers’ expense.

ALLOWANCES

And when the work is done, the committee members would be paid an allowance for serving in that committee. This goes anywhere from Sh10,000 to Sh50,000 per person. If it is a gazetted task force, the sum would be a few hundred thousand shillings. Never mind that these allowances are being paid for work that everyone was employed to do in the first place, and will be paid for with a salary at the end of the month.

But to make this bad situation worse, there are kingpins in the accounts offices of almost every government department that control all payments with absolute discretion to pay or deny.

These big wigs’ names must be put in every payment list for money to be approved. So for every committee or task force requisitions, these kingpins earn sitting allowances as a matter of course.

Their names must also appear in every list of per diem payments for people travelling out of station.

I heard of accountants who make at least Sh500,000 in a dry month through these illegal payments.

But it is not just the lower cadre bigwigs who exercise these abuses. I learnt that all senior government Ministers have confidential accounts that run into millions of shillings from which they are authorised to spend money without the scrutiny of the Auditor General, or the Controller of Budget, or Parliament.

These monies are allocated directly from the Treasury and are replenished as they are spent at the direction of the Minister of Finance.

The worst abuser of this confidential spending was the Office of the Head of the Civil Service and the Presidency at State House.

I don’t know but I have heard that the President’s confidential account often runs into billions of shillings and in the last regime was the cause of the short and tumultuous tenures of many a Comptroller of State House under whose office the account is operated.

In this day and age, it is unbelievable that any office in the public service can spend millions of shillings at its discretion without any budgetary approvals and with immunity from any form of scrutiny, even from Parliament.

This picture of abandon, waste and abuse would not be complete without mentioning two other practices.

One is foreign travel. We have too many Cabinet secretaries, permanent secretaries and other senior government officers are flying out to attend meetings that are not critically necessary to the tax payer or that can be attended by diplomatic mission representatives.

In many instances, the President, Deputy President and Cabinet Secretaries are accompanied by staff and other people )whose presence and services are totally irrelevant to the taxpayer who pays for their travel.

There is no guideline in government regarding what is essential travel or who are essential personnel. In many instances, the work being done during these travels can be completed by foreign missions and the knowledge being sought can be learnt from the internet.

RETREATS

A similar wasteful practice is the going for retreats to do work that can be easily done at the office. In these retreats, all manner of staff members jump into the bus for the free tours. They collect allowances for these attendances while others, who never left the office, are also on the allowances list. But let’s not go there.

The second practice that I must mention in closing is training at the East and Southern Africa Management Institute at Arusha, Tanzania. Popularly known as ESAMI, this institute is a regional training centre owned by ten member governments to train senior government officers in critical areas of management.

However, this Institute has become the place where some Permanent Secretaries sent their sycophants at the ministry and their girlfriends to while away their time and earn allowances. Many senior officers who qualify and deserve to go don’t get a chance.

Some people are known to have attended many times over while others wait for a single chance. And when they attend, they are not only paid full salary but are paid allowances that run into hundreds of thousands of shillings for being out of station.

These are just some of the wasteful practices that are a culture in Kenya’s civil service which the President should be addressing. I want to believe that he is not being briefed on the full picture but I remember that he has served for more than a decade as a Cabinet Minister and five years as a deputy Prime Minister."