Inequality’s the bane of development

One percent of the world’s population currently enjoys four fifths of the world’s wealth [Courtesy]

A couple of years back, Koch Festival organisers invited Kilimani residents or Kilimanians as we now call them, to visit Korogocho on the other side of Nairobi County. That trip and others like it since, always remain vivid for me. The gap between these and other neighbourhoods across Kenya remains grotesquely huge. We live in the age of greed as some have argued in Davos and Dandora this week. This is the greatest challenge before President Kenyatta’s new Cabinet. The world’s most powerful men and women spent the last four days discussing the world’s challenges at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Climate change, terrorism and a looming global finance downturn preoccupied their speeches. Inequality was also on the agenda. 

One percent of the world’s population currently enjoys four fifths of the world’s wealth. Since 2010, the number of billionaires have increased by 13 per cent, six times more than ordinary workers. By contrast, half of the world have seen no real change in their lives. As Oxfam International’s Winnie Byanyima argued, “We are creating a world in which wealth is valued over productivity and hard work.”