Today marks 47 years since the establishment of the Republic of Kenya. As is the norm, there would be a lot of stocktaking—where are we from, where are we now and where are we heading?
As a matter of fact, a lot has been achieved since Kenya attained its independence. Gross Domestic Product has increased, education and health facilities have expanded and the rural folks can now access electricity.
Our roads have also penetrated deep inside the villages and the middle class is growing, fast. All these have spiked free movement of goods and services thus boosting entrepreneurship in the country.
But even as we celebrate these "developments", it is important to appreciate the fact that they have been sluggish, full of corruption and at times led to lose of lives.
The filthy hands in this Republic have never failed to amaze; they would bleed even the helpless in the society, to fatten their own bellies.
It is out of such vices that, this week, the US-based Washington Post splashed what would ordinarily be seen as a silly story — Richard Branson, in a two-hour Nairobi traffic jam, sees Africa’s business shortcomings firsthand.
The Virgin Atlantic billionaire sat in a car for two hours last week, snarled in city’s maddening traffic while trying to reach a conference where business leaders discussed the barriers to commercial success in Africa.
At the summit, one investor noted that in order to ship her goods from West Africa to East Africa, her products had to transit through Europe.
DEAL WITH THREATS
So how can we get out of this mess? As the last week’s issue of the Economist argued, Africa still needs deep reform. Governments should make it easier to start businesses and cut some taxes and collect honestly the ones they impose.
On the other hand, politicians need to keep their noses out of the trough and to leave power when their voters tell them to.
For Kenya to be a middle-class income country by 2030, it is imperative that it fully exploits its strength, evaluates its weaknesses and strategises on how good to deal with them. More critical is that it should continuously scan the environment for investment opportunities and deal decisively with its threats.
