Don: Oil find could become a blessing or curse

By Jackson Okoth

A leading economist has warned that discovery of oil in Kenya presents an opportunity of a lifetime, but could also become a nightmare.

Speaking in Nairobi at the launch of a major new initiative – Africa Means Business – Paul Collier, an expert on economics in Africa, said Kenya could avoid oil revenue becoming a curse, but that there were dangers.

Prof Collier said if Kenya wanted to avoid the mistakes made by Nigeria after it discovered oil in the 1970s, the country needed to take a series of steps to protect income for future generations.

He cited the three key areas where action was needed: the Government should put rules in place to ensure sound economic decision making and that Kenya should establish dedicated institutions to reinforce the rules.

He told his audience at Strathmore University, "You know your natural resources have been plundered in the past and you don’t want them to be plundered in the future."

Collier was speaking yesterday at the launch of a three-day training programme bringing together 64 economists and journalists in Kenya and Ghana.

Hard subject

Opening the session, Henry Chakava, East African Educational Publishers chairman said, "Economics is seen as a hard subject, but it is vital the media cover the area in a serious fashion.

"We should enable journalists to be serious in their work and to present things in a sympathetic and balanced fashion.

"What we are involved in and what we are looking for in writing and broadcasting on the economic and business world is information and analysis presented in a way which is accurate, balanced and accessible to the non-expert citizen," said former editor of The Financial Times Sir Geoffrey Owen at the launch.