Uhuru, don't believe your own hype, country isn't doing well

President Uhuru Kenyatta makes his remarks during the opening of the MAS Intimates Kenya, EPZA, in Machakos County. May 11, 2022. [PSCU, Standard]

The dictionary defines hype as “the promotion or publicising of a product or idea intensively, often exaggerating its benefits.”

Students of business are often taught that whereas it may get them desired sales and marketing outcomes, one must never be taken in by their own hype. Yet this is a lesson that seems lost on Kenya’s ruling elite.

From his Madaraka Day speech, President Uhuru Kenyatta comes across as a believer in his own hype. Arguably his longest speech, it was a glowing self-assessment. He described his tenure in office as having, “seen so much emphasis on transformative programmes and reforms.”

He side-stepped the issue of Kenya’s exacting debt burden, saying, “the question was not whether debt is good or bad,” adding that, “in the hands of a visionary administration, debt is a catalyst for rapid development.”

In what appears to be an ode to self, billboards have been put up all over the city as visual reminders of Kenyatta’s flagship projects; the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) and the Nairobi Expressway, among others. Yet to the ordinary citizen, these shiny accoutrements of success do not translate to money in their pockets.

Neither do they hold the promise of an enhanced quality of life. How, for instance, will a dweller from one of Nairobi’s ubiquitous informal settlements benefit from the SGR when they may never, in their lifetime, go to Mombasa on holiday? Or how does the Expressway benefit the boda boda operator when motorcycles and handcarts are expressly forbidden on it?

These are the sort of investment decisions that have characterised most of the Jubilee administration’s tenure; big on aesthetics but very low in terms of the greater public utility. This is aptly captured in the irony of so much military hardware on display at the Madaraka Day fete even as sections of the country are overrun by murderous cattle-rustlers.

The Jubilee administration does not take too kindly to criticism, with cancel culture vocabulary like "pessimists”, “cynics” and “anti-African” directed at those who raise valid questions. Yet there is a radical new awareness that is now solidified by the Kenya Constitution.

This awareness will not be cowed by those who attempt to impinge on citizens’ fundamental rights and liberties. In fact, it demands answers from the government underpinned by the Access to Information Act.

SGR Mombasa terminus, May 2022. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

There are hot-button issues that cannot be dispensed with by hype. Neither will they be dispelled by withering broadsides from the highest office in the land. Foremost is the notion of heavy borrowing for big-ticket infrastructural projects without any visible trickle-down effects.

The deleterious effects of such borrowing are now becoming evident, with Kenya’s debt to GDP ratio at 70 per cent against a maximum of 64 per cent recommended for developing countries.

There is cause for concern when onerous repayment of external debt appears to put the country in the unenviable trajectory of failed states. It is feared that like Sri Lanka, Kenya may have hocked its premier port to predatory lenders from the Orient.

Parliament now wants President Kenyatta to renegotiate the SGR contract with the Chinese government. A report tabled by the Public Investments Committee says, “Kenya would lose the Mombasa port should the country fail to pay its loans as agreed with the Chinese government which financed the project.”

Other worrying signs include the government’s delay in settling pending bills to local contractors, the recent fuel crisis, and shortages of dollars necessary for the country’s import needs. It is ordinary citizens who bear the brunt of the government’s over indebtedness. Restructuring, staff rationalisation, which is corporate-speak for job cuts, and outright closure of companies have ensued.

America’s second president, John Adams, said, “There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. The first is by the sword. The second is by debt.” Clearly, Kenya is headed down the latter rabbit hole. Perhaps Kenyatta should tone down on his own hype, cognisant of the pithy Kiswahili saying, ‘Kizuri chajiuza, kibaya chajitembeza!’

Mr Khafafa is a public policy analyst