There will be no winners if Kenya turns into a failed state

While developing countries are often marked by economic slowdown during election periods, Kenya’s 2017 election, especially the presidential election re-run, is turning out to be in a class of its own in terms of the damage it is doing to the economy. Already, we have seen GDP growth slow down markedly to 5 per cent in the immediate pre-election period, a trend that is expected to worsen when updated numbers taking in the election period come out.

Our super-heated political rhetoric and hard-line positioning by politicians, accompanied by threats of chaos and implied violence, are now a serious threat to the continued economic wellbeing of this country and, by extension, to our hopes of lifting our people out of poverty. Because of the negative impact of our current political situation on investment and spending decisions, we have already entered economic slowdown: factory shutdowns are likely to be witnessed, mounting corporate and personal debts, international conference cancellations with their direct effect on tourism and related labour intensive activities, corporate distress and increased unemployment - all these are undeniable and all-too-predictable effects of our dysfunctional politics. We cannot discount a descent into a complete economic growth standstill, or even a recession. It is not for the business community to stop Kenyans from engaging in healthy democratic political competition; too much was sacrificed by too many for anyone to wish Kenya back to those politically repressive days, which also saw gloomy and increasingly anaemic economic growth rates.