Technology turning life upside down

Recently when the teachers went on strike demanding 60 per cent pay rise, it got me thinking.

Are they aware of the new direction the world is taking? Soon, we will have virtual teachers on demand to replacing the controversial holiday tuition. With a mobile phone, electricity and units, a student can learn algebra from the comfort of their living room.

Since independence, Kenya's economy has gone through periods of transformation and shocks. During the Cold War, Kenya's alignment to the Capitalist West shielded our economy (artificially) from market shocks because of the foreign aid and balance of payment support to the Treasury.

Most sectors of the government received support from friendly nations. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1991, the reality downed on the Kenyan leadership that the days of the freebies were over.

The usually friendly countries, the United States and Great Britain started supporting voices agitating for democracy and pluralism. Under former President Daniel Arap Moi, the government later yielded to the voices of change and Kenya eventually adopted multi-party democracy and grudgingly embraced the much-maligned Structural Adjustment Programme in the 1990s.

Today, by any standards, Kenya can be considered a free market economy. Since the introduction of multi-party democracy, the role of the state in regulating the market forces has significantly reduced. With support from the Bretton Wood Institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the role of the government has been reduced to that of making policies and creating an enabling environment for business to thrive.

Many government-owned companies were privatised including the giant Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation which was split into two.

It is this split that ultimately gave rise to Safaricom, one of Kenya's icons of free market and free thinking. The comparative advantage of the centralised economy versus the free market can be seen from the revenue the Exchequer receives in form of taxes.

Big corporations such as Safaricom and the East African Breweries are among leading tax payers. Compare this to the loss-making State-owned firms where mismanagement was the common denominator. Even today, the management of most State parastatals is wanting with most of them fully dependent on funding from the Exchequer.

In the 21st century, like the rest of the world, Kenya is again at a point in time to learn how to adapt to the new disruptive shocks to the economy. Due to technology, the country is undergoing another transformative phase. Technology has thrown wide the boundaries of the free market.

And what is more, modern technology is likely to make many institutions irrelevant.

The Post Office, once a corporate behemoth employing hundreds of thousands of people has seen better days. It is a shell of its former self.

The tale of the Post Office is the story of how more and more people are likely to lose their jobs because of a web-based economy.

Today, people are able to buy anything through virtual companies. Firms like Jumuia, OLX are the new market kings. Even Mpesa has given the banks a run for their money. Business is shifting from physical location to the cyber market.

More and more companies are using the Internet to provide services. You can get any service from the comfort of your home. Even healthcare facilities have not been left behind. Doctors can consult online from India and give prescription.

With this emerging challenges and opportunities, the government needs to initiate a new economic pathway. A re-evaluation of our economic model is required.

As things stand, in the near future the State will have little or no influence over how business is being conducted because everything will have moved to the cyber market. Of course new technology also offers opportunity especially to the youth. With a huge army of unemployed youth most of them well educated, the State can help the youth develop a system where they can tap into this market.

The Konza Techno City needs to be reactivated and the model replicated across the country. And because everyone is vulnerable to this disruptive development, the options are either; adapt or perish. It is ruthless.

What to do therefore? Most importantly, the new economic model must take cognizance of the new realities where a horizontal consultative process is the rule rather than the exception. It might be tempting to shut down the cyber space, but that is futile.

Consultation and public participation are the hallmarks of the post-2010 Constitution. Technology complicates matters. The democratic space today makes it difficult for the government, on its own, to determine the pathway we should envisage.

Add technology and you have a monumental "situation." Many people some even in positions of influence don't seem to understand the challenges at hand or the promise that technology holds.

Adapt or perish!