The questions our policy makers, read politicians are unable to answer is how to make a critical number of Kenyans affluent, now that affluence integrates us, we even build houses closer to each other through estates or gated communities, even forming residence associations.
Economists have also toyed with the same question for generations.
The easiest way to create wealth is to let wealth creators create wealth. That is the essence of market system. But in Kenya, we seem unimpressed by some people making money, yet we want to make money ourselves.
Entrepreneurs bore the blunt of post-election violence. We offer few incentives to those who try hard to make money.
Talk to any businessman or entrepreneur in Kenya. They are treated more like thieves than wealth and job creators. Just witness a City Council askari clamping a car worth Sh2 million for failing to pay Sh200. Our legal system has not evolved much from the colonial era when keeping natives down was the main objective. Our laws and regulations must be revised to make it easier to do business. The county council by â laws should be revised by economists not lawyers.
The laws and regulations, conspire with our education to make us think small and worthless. We think too much of kiosks not multinational corporations. More ominous is that those who make it economically spend too much time keeping the rest down to keep their class undiluted.
Cohesion and integration are also enhanced by sharing. That is what taxation is all about; those who can make money share it out with the less endowed ones leading to access to basic services like education and health. In developed countries, the poor get more access to basics through welfare checks making their involvement in crime and violence unlikely.
Philanthropists enhance this cohesion further by sharing wealth with the society.
The US is awash with foundations that reach out to blighted regions including some in Kenya. Such sharing reduces the zero-sum game thinking.
Where do we go from here?
We could be doing more in discouraging cohesion and integration than enhancing it. Are our counties not constitutionally recognised tribal enclaves? Tribal statistics on jobs are hardening tribal feelings.
Two, we must make it easier for entrepreneurs to pursue opportunities wherever they can be found in the country and in the world. Our diplomatic services must go beyond issuing visas.
