Work to improve Kenya's poor human development record

The United Nations (UN) 2017 Human Development Index (HDI) report says Kenya, the biggest economy in the region, is creating far less jobs than it ought to. Kenya’s unemployment rate stands at 39.1 per cent while Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia stand at 24, 18.1, 17.1 and 21.6 respectively. For Kenya, what this means is that out of every ten adults, four are jobless.

What could be the problem? The predicament facing Kenyans is both man-made and natural, but most of the former. Obviously, the collapse of the agricultural industry – once the backbone of our economy- is to blame. Sugar, tea and coffee have been adversely affected as farmers opted for high-yielding crops and commercial endeavours like real estate.

The fledgling tourism sector is yet to recover from the threat of insecurity. The uncoordinated marketing of the industry is also to blame for its dwindling fortunes.

Yet, nobody can miss the irony of an economy reported to be growing at 5.8 per cent annually scoring the lowest in terms of job creation. Surely after splashing so much money on projects like the Sh300 billion Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) or the new Lamu Port and tarmacking thousands of kilometres, even constructing new roads, shouldn’t the picture be more pleasant than it is? Is it the consequence of a bandit economy?

Today’s picture shows the rich getting richer while the poor languish in poverty. The country’s income inequalities, standing at 33.1 per cent, make it clear that Kenya is a country of ten millionaires and ten million paupers. Only a handful of individuals hold the country’s wealth, accounting for the high unemployment rates.

Government policies that have been hyped to possess the capacity to create millions of jobs annually have failed. Among Kenya’s youth alone, unemployment stands at 17.6 compared to Tanzania at 6.3 per cent.

One may therefore ask, what is it that Tanzania does right that we cannot get right ourselves? Whatever it is, these statistics are a real concern and action needs to be taken now.