Is Ours An Economy Or A Theatre Of The Mighty?

Happy Father's Day to all daddies out there who do their best.

The world has a way of stupifying what in our view locally, makes perfect sense. And in equal measure, we have a way of stupifying what would make perfect sense at the global level.

Up until the ’70s, Angola was a leading producer and exporter of coffee in the world. But that came to an abrupt halt, and not because their fertile soils suddenly turned burren but because selfish forces filled up every available inch of arable land with landmines. As you mourn, others are celebrating the ungodly event that has robbed generations of their livelihood.

Let's get home. 80% of our wheat requirements are met through imports. And it is not for lack of sufficient land to grow the cereal. We also import plenty of maize, yet we have a whole region that we have known for years as the bread basket of our country.

We are told that the colonialists exhausted the fertility in our soils before granting us independence, hence the reason that our arable lands crave for all manner of fertilizers. In itself, fertilizer is big business here in Kenya—and is yours for the taking if you are a big boy.

Conventional wisdom shows us that every government in the world exercises a level of protection over its agricultural sectors in the form of subsidies and market access controls if indeed it affects huge populations. The sugar sector at the production level has literally been run over in a manner that millions of growers can no longer depend on what once was a source of economic pride.

The maize sector has endured consistent whipping from the unrelenting competition occasioned by huge importers. We may say the same of other crops that are exported from here. Big men have forced their way into the value and supply chains.

The farmers are forced to work as if a landmine would explode should they fight the big boys.

That we have found ourselves at the mercy of Ukraine to access wheat in a country with its own capacity to produce the same, is to stupify the principles and foundations upon which this country was formed. Everyone else except the farmer is winning. Imports were meant to be rare emergency measures triggered by failed crops or other disasters that impede production. But today it is the norm rather than the exception. And nearly everyone tasked with keeping us winning has been a true tumbocrat on the job.

Intrinsically, the economy is a shared space where productivity is monetised as it happens. But we have a club-run section of the economy that is not open to the majority, who would have done well to exploit it without exhausting demand.

We seem to have a theatre from where the big boys stage their plays unabated. The shows get people yawning and growling. Many sleep hungry as they are out of a job and a meal.

We have all the traits of a cartel-run economy but the level of awareness within the populace now ensures that it is headed to breaking point. The amorphous structures holding the big boys and their exploits together are under severe pressure from a resurgent electorate hungry for change now with plenty of energy to force through aftershocks thereafter.

A falling shilling against hard currencies means that our debt is growing in the same proportion as the loss of value. Besides global forces, I deduce that some big boys want a weaker shilling today because they are now exporting more of locally produced stuff. It works to their advantage to have a weak shilling.

On the contrary, besides the free roadside vegetables that thrive in the rainy season, the common man is subjected to the pain of higher prices in the imported stuff needed to survive.

Every Kenyan needs an elementary course in economics if they must cross the tribal decision-making threshold. It's high time we all migrated from a dweller status to a citizenry with entitlements. We must partake beneficially in the economic activities on an equal footing.