My African call is uplifting people's lives

BARONESS LYNDA CHALKER has been a member of the Lower and Upper Houses of the UK Parliament for over 30 years. She now dedicates her time and energy to charity especially in Africa. She spoke to NJOKI KARUOYA

I have been involved with Africa for 30 years. Starting from the big picture, I think investors are looking to benefit from investing here. There is still anxiety about corruption, counterfeit goods, lawlessness, drivers—you need to see the matatu drivers in Nairobi to know that.

I think things are improving in Kenya but corruption is still rampant. I don’t think most people understand that counterfeit goods aggravate people’s suffering. When trademarks are stolen, those counterfeits coming into the country do not pay dues to the Kenya Revenue Authority.

 It may not matter to you when you buy counterfeit plastic but you are putting the legitimate manufacturers out of business. It has been one of the biggest tragedies for Kenya because it is splashed in televisions across the world. It has therefore taken long to convince people that one can do business in Kenya.

 It also destroys people’s confidence in the system. It is interesting that parents prefer to send their children to school out of the country because the system here is not good.

The 2008 post-poll chaos was a serious blot but I think Kenya will recover since you now have a good Constitution, but as I said earlier, it has to be enacted properly and reasonably fast.

Ordinary Kenyans can help in good governance by not giving bribes and making sure poor governance does not go unchallenged.

I think your governance is not as good as it ought to be, but it has improved. I see better governance in businesses than they used to be although they are struggling.

To improve efficiency, the Government needs to get out of areas it does not need to be in, like the sugar industry where it is considering privatisation. There is no need for some of these concepts, which have gone out of fashion in countries like Asia. Unless African countries get rid of restrictive practices, you will not compete on a more global scale.

There were concerns on what happened in Kenya in 2008, but with the new constitution, you will have a smaller Cabinet, with professionals leading the Government departments.

Another good thing that ought to be developed in Kenya is community trust. After watching keenly how Constituency Development Funds are being spent by MPs, I hope the counties with their governors will encourage wise spending. Kenya gets support from other governments but at times there are curious things that happen. Kenya should understand its obligations to the rest of the world just as we have understood our obligations.

Respect law

I worked for Ian Mclaud who was the last Colonial Secretary in Kenya and who presided over the legislation that got rid of the colonial era and I learnt the differences between Kenya and other countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa.

People should respect the way the law is written and see what is in their best interest.

I believe in some excerpts of Tony Blair’s recently published memoirs that Gordon Brown is partly to blame for the Labour Party losing the recent elections.