The Right Things That Are Wrong With Kenya

As unhelpful as it may seem, most rains fall in the oceans, meaning those who have more, even much more either finds them or gets added to them, and often.

Let's cut to the chase. In Kenya, whilst the majority work their way within the law, for some, the laws work around them, and when they don't, they must be adjusted to suit them.

When the Breton Woods-induced liberalization policies came into being, many sectors of the economy suffered at the expense of cold-hearted wheeler-dealers who've since morphed into cartels.

Back in the day, sugar cane growers were admired for their enterprise and money. The same went for cereals farmers, coffee and tea growers, as well as pyrethrum growers too. These groups of energetic people are today languishing in abject poverty, thanks to a liberalization experiment gone bad.

The laws were adjusted to suit cartels who today influence politics from the comfort of their unfairly gotten wealth. The thing is, they are within the law when importing commodities that have wreaked havoc on millions of peasant farmers. They are protected by the right thing that is wrong with Kenya.

Granted, some imports are of a higher quality than many things grown, made, or mined locally. Competition is a healthy element of successful free markets but in Kenya, some people are protected from free market forces. This group has no idea that we are facing harsh weather. They have no clue that times are hard for the majority of Kenyans.

And still, in agriculture, we have multinationals occupying huge tracts of land and still paying colonial-era rates for them. They pay such rates because the law has kept them that way for a long time.

And still, within the colonial-styled agreements, we have many locals who've died or live miserable limbless lives after getting maimed by deserted explosives carelessly left in Nanyuki and surrounding training fields. A relatively higher ratio of mixed-race people is found in this area owing to the inconsequential liaisons between desperate local women and British army soldiers.

Unfortunately, none of these soldiers have ever been held responsible for their children because clauses in the agreements with the Kenya government protect them. Their wrongs are righted by the agreement in place. And if I am wrong about this, then why have we not seen any British soldier brought to take responsibility for the kids they've sired? You cannot hide a mixed-race kid. They stick out better than a sore thumb.

As I write, there is a raging debate about tax exemptions. We don't know how it will pan out but time will tell if that deserves a paragraph in this blog.

All in all, for as long as others are 'more equal' than others, the lives of many citizens will continue to occupy the unstable part of an equation that never balances.