Change only comes with strong desire to build a better future

Progress, whether for an individual or people, is not an accident. It is deliberate and starts with a desire for something better than the current. This is then followed by a decision to pursue the 'something better' and sustained efforts towards making the dream a reality.

Just over 102 years ago, my father came to Kenya. Armed only with the vernacular education acquired in India, he could barely speak, read or write English or Kiswahili.

He would later venture into business, running a shop, but always leaned heavily on others for help with official correspondence, bank transactions and other errands that required reading or writing. My mother too, was illiterate.

It is against this background that my parents decided that if the future of their children had to be different from theirs, they had to be educated. No effort was spared and eventually, all the children not only went to university, but also went on to build a successful family business.

From this foresight of investing in our education, we were able to transform the small Mombasa-based family business that employed only 40 people into a behemoth with about 40,000 workers, with operations in 40 countries. It all started with my parents’ strong desire to make their children's lives better.

Deliberate decision

Similarly, a decade ago, Kenya took a deliberate decision to improve the quality of life for its people. Coming just after the unfortunate post-election violence that led to loss of life and property, and a general economic slump, the country wrote what would become the Vision 2030 development blueprint to do more than just restore it to its heyday.

The desire was for a newly industrialising, upper middle-income country providing a high quality of life to all its citizens by 2030. I had the honour of participating in the development of this vision, together with other individuals from the public and private sectors; the happiness of our people as our driving force.

It was about the private sector becoming partners, rather than adversaries, with Government in order to deliver greater good. The first step, flowing out of the creation of a National Economic and Social Council, just as it is in other emerging economies, was instituting a longer-term blueprint, as opposed to the five-year plans of that time.

This was critical even for the private sector because once a decision is made on a policy direction, businesses can plan and invest, safe in the knowledge that all is stable and predictable.

It was thinking about the future of our children and how to make it better; considering the future population and how to look after it by delivering amenities such as education and health. It was imagining the lives of children born in 2008 and the years to come, creating what we desired for them as adults, and planning for it in a manner that guaranteed them a better future.

Decent living

It was ensuring that these children don’t go to bed hungry, do not live in slums and are also able to attain their own aspirations. It was making sure that every Kenyan could earn a decent living to take care of their families.

A decade later, huge strides have been made towards delivering the Kenya that was envisioned. We probably would not be where we are if we neither had a dream, nor aggressively worked towards achieving it. Progress is the difference between doing something to improve the lot of our children and doing nothing.

If my father had not thought of the future of his children and pushed himself to work towards it, we probably would have ended up like him. Progress does not happen overnight – and neither will Kenya’s economic transformation. The vision had to be planned for, thought about, borne, and steadfastly implemented. So much has been achieved over the last 10 years, and a lot more still remains to be done.

Most importantly, we need to cultivate local industry by fixing its challenges and ensuring it is big enough to look after all Kenyans by creating jobs. We need to bring back the cobblers and tailors who previously dotted the streets to fix shoes and clothes. This change can only happen if people are effectively doing something that cumulatively adds up to national progress.

Thankfully, the foundation to facilitate an economic take-off has been laid by implementing Vision 2030. We are inching closer to delivering the Kenya we want to our children.

Dr Chandaria, OBE, CBS, EBS, is an industrialist and social worker