Why ‘mkokoteni’ should keep economists awake

Men join hands in pushing mkokoteni full of foodstuffs from the Ferry in Mombasa County

The mkokotenis or human-pulled carts are found on our highways, streets and in unexpected places. They are found in every town and hamlet but more so in big towns. Their design often changes from town to town. Mombasa mkokotenis are smaller and their handling is different from Nairobi. Mkokotenis have resisted technology and regulators. They defy Schumpeter’s gale of creative destruction.

With all the cars, tuk-tuk and boda-boda, why are mkokotenis still on the road? 

Their longevity almost makes me suspect they have religious or cultic significance.

It might be economics, they still have a market! If no one demanded their services, they would be long gone.

They can also reach places where other means of transport can’t reach. What of the popular rumour that they are all owned by one person in Nairobi and that ensures economies of scale? And why does mkokoteni attract customers with agricultural goods?

Is it dirty or connection to the roots; working on land is as hard as pulling mkokoteni?

The by-laws might also be a factor; you can’t bring in donkey, bull or horse carts to the city.  By the way, mkokotenis are not necessarily cheaper than cars or boda-bodas.  Their key advantage is allowing pooling where two or more customers can hire one mkokoteni.

Watching a young man pulling or pushing mkokoteni along Uhuru or University Way defies the internet age.

It, however, shows how the lofty ideas in our textbooks often do not reflect the economic reality on the ground where the underclass still lives off human sweat and brow.

This year’s Nobel Prize in economics partly looked at how innovations or new ideas have led to economic progress. The winners are William Nordhaus and Paul Roomer. 

The mkokoteni shows how economic uniformity remains an illusion. Some players sprinting ahead with the latest technology as others are left clinging to old technology. Who is to blame?

Most will quickly say it’s the mkokoteni pusher.  He never worked hard enough in school.

Dig deeper and it’s more than schooling. Lots of Kenyans and in other s globally end up on the streets because of the modern economic system that mimics biological systems; survival of the fittest.

Biological systems

It mimics ant colonies with the queen, soldiers, and drones. Think of your job description wherever you work and those terms have equivalence. Throughout history, man has tried to institute socio-economic reforms away from such biological systems, making it easier for one to move from one social economic class to the next. But more often, they entrench the classes with upper echelons taking charge of such reforms, even when bloody. Those at the bottom of the pyramid are often too absorbed with biological functions like getting enough to eat and think of broader ideas that occupy the minds of elites.

Analyse reforms in Kenya since uhuru. Are they lead by the proletariat or the bourgeoisie - to sound learned?

The monopolisation of opportunities closes many gates for upward mobility.

It is not just in transport, it also found in other sectors from education to hospitals and even in marriage.

How many citizens were outfoxed and never got the lady they wanted to marry partly because of their wallets?

How else do you explain the presence of mkokoteni after uhuru, four presidents, a new constitution, and the gale globalisation and space exploration? How did time stand still for some citizens?

How can human beings still be beasts of burden when electric cars are threatening the engine? The famous mkokoteni symbolises the failure of social, political, technological and economic reforms to trickle down to the lowest echelons of the society.  The purveyors of such reforms are not just politicians but professionals who spawn new ideas that should benefit a maximum number of people.  In Kenya, we have left everything to politicians; they have taken full advantage.

Superior positions

We then complain. How did the Teachers Service Commission get into the constitution and not Universities Academic Staff Union? Unfortunately, even professionals take advantage of their superior positions and knowledge to safeguard their interests.

They have voices in the many professional associations, some protected by acts of parliament. The rest are left by themselves, only mobilised to vote.  Even in their economic activities, they are on their own like the lonely mkokoteni man, rarely ladies!

Interestingly, the majority at the bottom of the pyramid often don’t understand the forces that conspire to keep them there including learned helplessness, religions, and pre-packaged views on life, cultures, and traditions.

As I celebrate more birthdays, I keep wondering in the privacy of my thoughts if we shall ever carry out reforms that will give the opportunity to all; not as espoused by Karl Marx but by the reality of human behaviour and progressive thinkers.

What do tourists and visitors think of mkokoteni? Where did the name come from?

Shall the mkokoteni owner one day own a Bentley? If not himself, his children? Or am getting carried away by lofty ideas? What do you think?

-The writer teaches at the University of Nairobi