NAIROBI: Kenya has joined middle level income economies, thanks to the rebasing of the country's economy last week.
Every society, whether developed or developing, has a vast amount of knowledge in various forms: explicit and tacit, formal and informal, oral and written, procedural and declarative.
The knowledge is passed over from generation to generation while each generation adds new knowledge to the existing body of knowledge.
This collective knowledge, if utilised well in society, leads to great leaps in economic development.
The symbiotic relationship between the society and knowledge can positively or negatively affect development. If there is synergy between accumulated knowledge and the functioning of the society, then development is greatly realised.
This happens when society effectively imparts — through its formal educational institutions— knowledge, skills and capabilities to those who later take up management positions in various institutions of the society.
All leaders and managers in various sectors can keep on learning through reading books, internal training and mentorship as they benchmark with other societies that managed to develop under similar challenges.
Succession management programmes ensure proper continuity and sustain knowledge in the sectors.
Strengthening the institutions that pass this knowledge from one generation to another strengthens the ability of a society or any organisation to tackle whatever problems it faces.
Conversely, if the institutions that pass over knowledge are weak, then a vicious stagnation or underdevelopment occurs.
This has to be done under certain principles and values. Integrity, a national value, is a must for everybody who is involved in the process of conserving knowledge as it is central to sustenance development. One cannot think crooked and act right in development of society.
Crooked thinking produces crooked behaviour.
If the processes are compromised, then sustenance of different development becomes difficult.
Examinations, one of the processes in education, are critical in measuring (regularly) the extent to which knowledge, skills and attitudes the students acquire while in school or being passed over to the next generation.
It is expected to be a true reflection of their abilities for further training and placement in different sectors of the society. However, cheating is detected in national exams every year. Those involved in examination cheating need to learn how to learn for the benefit of the entire society.
This vice, if not detected, gives people jobs where they cannot conceive ideas, design programmes and make decisions for development of society.
Expressing integrity as a value for them is easy but they have no convictions of working accordingly.
Their negative input, together with those who lack integrity, works against efficacy of knowledge and values in society.
The growth of Gross National Product, which should translate into higher standards of living — better housing, better health care, better road network and all facets of life — becomes impossible.
The effects of negative mutuality — tall buildings under construction collapsing, quacks selling expired drugs and operating clinics, dilapidated roads in spite of heavy investment and rampant corruption — are experienced.
The human well-being cannot be realised fast enough in such conditions. Proper use and conservation of knowledge needs to be guarded jealously. Otherwise, ignorance, poverty and disease that we began fighting at independence 50 years ago will remain tall issues.
