Bad fiscal policies to blame for Kenya's economic downturn

NAIROBI: I don’t take it for granted that I am a free, simple folk who occasionally grouses on this space. I don’t envy President Uhuru Kenyatta’s exalted position as head of state. In his place, I would have cracked by now. But all said and done, I am perfectly content to add to his headache. After all; isn’t he the father of the nation, the personification of our frustrations and miseries when we can’t hit out at anything else?

I hold that experimenting with youthful leaders at the apex of the country’s political management, in spite of the proven fact wisdom comes with age was a costly mistake for Kenya. Critical leadership decisions that impact on the lives of millions demand the application of proven wisdom.

A lot that is not in the interest of the common man is happening. But nothing seems to faze the President, his deputy and their retinue of vociferous loyalists. Nothing seems to bother our leaders; and therein in lays the danger. Writing in this column last year, I opined that the President has led a sheltered life and cannot really understand first-hand, what it means to be poor and constantly in want.

He will never understand the desperation of a father who wakes up every morning knowing he has nothing to offer his family; no food, no schooling, no clothing yet everybody looks up to him to provide. He will never understand the agony of a mother who watches her children die of treatable diseases and hunger. He cannot fathom the anguish of parents who watch their children walk half naked begging from relatives and friends because destitution is what defines them. Neither will he imagine the despair of a parent who raises children whose bleak future promises to be worse than their own; individuals who thank God profusely if they make as little as Sh100 a day from menial jobs.

One doesn’t have to be an economist to understand that our economy is in the red, yet all the government says is that the opposition is playing politics whenever they call it to account. Granted, the intricacies of finances can be quite daunting to the un-initiated, but everyday experience dictated by soaring commodity prices, unaffordable services and a breakdown in service delivery tell a dismal story of a country destined for greatness but whose leadership would rather mark time at a comfort zone and tell implausible tales of great developmental advances nobody outside the circle of a select political elite see.

Medical and educational services are grinding to halt. At the nucleus of it all is money. County governments have not received funds from the National Treasury for three months. Remitting capitation funds to schools is a struggle. The Kenya shilling is withering even as some commercial banks fold.

Issues on the Euro bond that was recently floated have tactfully been evaded by those who owe us an explanation. The government cannot finance an over ambitious budget and has reportedly resorted to local borrowing, driving interest rates through the roof. The risk factor makes local banks prefer the government to the individual. How then do we fight poverty and encourage business and entrepreneurship?

Kenya appears headed the Greek way if the government does not open up and admit its fiscal policies have been a disaster. It will not wash for the country’s top leadership to simply shrug off the opposition’s concerns at public rallies. The country needs tangible proof the economy is robust. Kenyans deserve better than the empty rhetoric and falsehoods they are constantly subjected to.