Kenya was on downturn even before Covid-19

From his re-election for a final term in 2017, President Uhuru Kenyatta (pictured) has lurched from one crisis to another. First were the probity gaps in his win, considered illegitimate because his arch-rival Raila Odinga pulled out of what he claimed was a rigged contest. Next came the makings of a fall-out with Deputy President William Ruto. In a diatribe, the president accused Mr Ruto of “kutangatanga,” Kiswahili for loitering aimlessly.

But Mr Kenyatta’s wounds are self-inflicted, if recent splenetic rants by legislators from the Orange Democratic Party are anything to go by. They reflect the dominant views of many; that the Jubilee administration has failed on many fronts. One legislator compared President Kenyatta to his predecessor and lambasted him for project failures. Another one accused the government of taking Kenyans for a ride. Yet, another claimed that the government was unable to feed its people.

While it is true that the coronavirus has had a debilitating effect on the economy, it should not be used as a convenient crutch to prop up failure. Even before the pandemic, Kenya was on a downturn with key drivers of the economy in a flux. The country’s level of indebtedness shows just how broken the economy really is. With domestic and external debt cumulatively at $63 billion against a GDP of $90 billion, Kenya has breached the 60 per cent debt-to-GDP ratio considered the prudential limit for developed countries. Global rating agency Moody’s recently downgraded Kenya’s rating to negative from stable.

The Jubilee administration is wholly responsible for this turn of events. Runaway corruption and profligate borrowing have a stranglehold on the economy. Which is why it is baffling that given the penury to which many Kenyans have been reduced, the government proposes new taxation measures that might be further deleterious to a broke citizenry. In a bid to collect Sh128 billion, the government proposes, among other steps, taxation of pensions and overtime.

Whilst taxation is necessary for the running of government, it must be commensurate with services offered. Other countries similarly affected by coronavirus have offered their citizens exemplary mitigatory measures. These include withholding of taxes and cash returns for the severely afflicted. The German government has disbursed €600 billion to its citizens under lockdown within a week. Singapore has similarly disbursed funds from its reserves. In Dubai, all Covid-19 patients have been treated for free whether or not they have health insurance.

The story is different in Kenya. Public policy is made and executed on the hoof. In a copy and paste imitation of other countries, curfews and lockdowns have been initiated in an ad hoc manner. Citizens locked down in Eastleigh in Nairobi and Old Town in Mombasa have not been given food or the resources to pay for utilities like water and electricity.

Until recently, those afflicted by Covid-19 were made to pay for their quarantine and treatment. Nationally, the most vulnerable in the informal sector are yet to see the government's much-touted rescue package. In an increasingly worrying trend, rights are trampled upon by the custodians of law and order, and allegations of misappropriated Covid-19 funds persist.

Burst of conscience

It would serve the nation well for the government to heed the words of Winston Churchill who said, “we contend that for a nation to try and tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”

It would also serve well members of ODM who criticised President Kenyatta recently to realise that few have been taken in by their sudden burst of conscience. Fewer still, believe their calls to the government to “wake up” or that there is still a minority in Parliament that “will continue to play its oversight role.” No one doubts that at this juncture, any opposition to the government is not for altruistic purposes but for nuisance value necessary in bargaining for positions in a rumoured coalition government.

As President Kenyatta goes for broke in determining the direction the nation takes in the next few weeks, may he beware of those best described by French economist and writer Frederic Bastiat who said, “when plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over a course of time, they create for themselves a legal system that authorises it and a moral code that glorifies it."

Mr Khafafa is a public policy analyst