If you could write a letter to the President of Kenya, what would you tell him? Five Kenyans did just that.
INTERNATIONAL BODIES STEAL OUR IDEAS AND THE GOVERNMENT DOESN’T HELP
My main concern, Mr President, is unemployment among the youth. We need employment opportunities and mentorship for the young people. I support the fight against corruption fully and I am happy that it is finally happening, but I feel like young people have not been comprehensively included in the conversations about development in this country.
Beyond the Youth Fund, beyond all the forms of funding that are there, what kind of opportunities is the government is giving to help young people conceptualise innovative projects, innovative businesses and how far is the government going to actually support young people to actualise whatever dreams and innovations they have?
I feel that right now young people have to struggle a lot. We are told that the way out for young people is to be entrepreneurs, but nobody is telling the story of the suffering that comes with entrepreneurship, the kind of sacrifices young people will have to make in order to make it, because for one, as an entrepreneur you do not have a monthly income. So how does this person pay rent? How do they eat?
Is there a place that we can go to? Mentors that we can get, and not those that are brought by non-governmental organisations (NGO), because this is what happens: the few who struggle and actually come up with innovative products do not have the kind of knowledge to deal with investors. So international companies come and take over young people’s companies in the name of investment and connection to international markets or expansion. After that, that is when those young people realise they had good ideas but there was nobody to help them wade the waters of investors. That person has no environment where they can nurture their dream, so they are so geared towards employment yet they have ideas that could develop Kenya. The few that get there do not have the kind of knowledge needed to deal with investors or to manage money, so investors take advantage of them. Too many Kenyan innovations have been bought off by young investors from other countries.
You can’t tell us that the future is entrepreneurship without giving guidance. It should not be just about having a Youth Fund. It should be about having public incubation systems, mentorship and avenues where young people can come together and discuss the challenges they have. The money should be accompanied by mandatory mentorship.
Yours truly,
Doreen Achieng’
An aspiring entrepreneur
SIR, BEING KENYAN IS VERY TOUGH
Dear Mr President,
I am a recent graduate of the University of Nairobi, class of 2016. After being unable to find a job for almost two years after my graduation, I decided to be an entrepreneur and started my own company. Being an unemployed youth in Kenya is very difficult as you can imagine. Striving to make ends meet by running personal hustles is not any easier and can be an extremely daunting task in this economy. The costs entrepreneurs incur in trying to set up a business in Kenya can be disheartening especially given the difficulty in raising money for start-ups. Unemployed citizens have no benefits in this part of the world and the ones like us who are trying to help curb this situation have almost zero incentives, added onto the hurdles we face in the process.
And If I got a job, the mwananchi’s wages are almost stagnant as government officials keep looting public resources as they increase their already hefty salaries and allowances. We lose a lot of money through corruption every year yet the high-profile culprits are never brought to book. Loose ends that if tightened, we would never have needed to take loans that seem to be crippling the economy. Can we do more about this?
Mr President, life as a Kenyan is very difficult.
Respectfully yours,
Silvester Otieno,
Entrepreneur
GOOD JOB! YOUR SECOND TERM IS BETTER THAN YOUR FIRST
Dear Mr President,
It is an honour to write this though unsure you may ever read it. I am proud to say I have lived to witness your father’s leadership, as he led us out of the colonial era filled with much insecurity and uncertainty, and now your Presidential terms.
You are a great leader and of much importance to the times we live in, witnessed now through your fight of graft. I must admit your first term left me expectant and frustrated due to all the politicking that took place. Now Your Excellency; you are working and I am sure by the time
your second term is complete much change shall have come to pass.
My take as a retired civil servant is that we should go back to the centralized system of government as we as a country haven’t matured enough to accommodate all the Counties including the salaries and payments due to them. Let us pay back Kenya’s Local and International loans without this strenuous burden. Thank you sir!
Yours truly,
Jennifer Mwangi
Retired civil servant
A NEW STRATEGY IS WHAT WE NEED
Dear Mr President,
I voted for you since I believed in you but not anymore. We appreciate your efforts since our Nation seems well-knit together. However, this is in poverty, so Kenyans are joining hands to sink in unity. The economy is in a mess and hope seems to be very expensive when a government ignores its own debts to its citizens. Auctioneers are running the show and a university degree is now just a paper. Taking some steps backwards, our public debt stood at Sh5.04 trillion in June 2018. This is up from Sh4.41 trillion in June 2017, Sh3.62 trillion in June 2016, Sh2.83 trillion in June 2015, Sh2.37 trillion in June 2014 and Sh1.89 trillion in June 2013.
Henry Rotich whose tenure has been interrupted in the helm of Treasury over this period plans to spend Sh870.5 billion on debt repayments this year ending June 2019 from a Sh435.7 billion for the year ended June 2018 against expected taxes of Sh1.76 trillion.
We need a change of plan before we perish, sir.
Kind regards,
Samuel Njiri
A businessman
YOU NEED A SELF-EVALUATION SIR
I expected that the digital era you promoted in your campaigns would translate into my life personally. That by dealing with issues that affected the common mwananchi as a departure from what the old order did would change my life. Yes, a few things have changed and are changing, but it had been a harder set of years. I wish you kept your word about dealing with systemic corruption and wanton public wastage. I also wish the officers under you in all spheres did the same.
Remember why you became President and the promises you gave. Ask yourself why you have failed or succeeded. What have you done well? What can you do better? The bills you will have signed into law by the time you leave, will they represent what you set out to do? My prayers and wishes are with you.
Sincerely,
Alex Mwango,
Lawyer
COME TAKE A WALK WITH ME SIR
Dear Mr President,
I am a pedestrian. We make up approximately 54 per cent of the population in Nairobi. This is nearly all of Paris or to put it in the African context, the whole of The Gambia! The numbers are even understated because those who combine walking with public transport are excluded from the figures. We have, however, faced a lot of neglect. Majority of the roads are high risk for us. It is unnecessarily dangerous and sometimes impossible to walk. More than 300 deaths recorded in Nairobi each year involve pedestrians and the numbers continue to rise with each passing year.
I am also an urban planner by profession and I know how beneficial and paramount it is to plan for the city based on the movement of people rather than vehicular movement. In Nairobi city, it is evident that people with cars have more capacity to influence design. It has become common practise to react to traffic flows exceeding road capacity by expanding and growing the existing roads. However, this only favours more car use, but does not contribute to better flows in terms of persons moved within the city. The private vehicle has been placed at the centre of decision-making and we, the pedestrians, have gotten the least share of the bargain. What we get in place of zebra crossings are footbridges that take us four times the amount of time it would take to cross at a zebra crossing. The footbridge is inconveniencing for me, as a pedestrian and costly, for the you, as the government.
In Nairobi, 95 per cent of roads have high pedestrian flows yet only 20 per cent have pedestrian footpaths. I would like to invite you to take a short walk with me along Argwings Kodhek road from Yaya Centre to the Department of Defence (DOD) and try crossing the road with me. You will see that it is unnecessarily dangerous and sometimes impossible to walk. Crossing the road is a gamble to stay alive and walking requires a balancing act. The pedestrian paths have been divested, used up as parking places forcing the disabled to pull wheelchairs on the same road space as the motorists and in very poor condition.
I would like to believe that the government cares for the least vulnerable people like me but it is hard to believe this when the transport system only benefits certain social classes yet it should be available for all and meeting the demands for all.
Dorcas Nthoki,
Urban planner
