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| What kenya needs to spur growth and development: a youthful perspective |
 PRINTABLE VERSION |
Israel is basically an arid nation but has developed mechanisms of, and for fresh water harvests and irrigation to become one of the leading global suppliers of foodstuffs such as fruits and even vegetables. Northern Kenya, which has the same problem but is fortunate enough to be nearer to fresh water bodies, has much more potential of producing enough food to not only feed the country, but also to be exported to other parts of the world to earn the country foreign exchange. Nevada, a once dry and unproductive part of the United States was prioritized by the US government and developed to become one of the best tourist havens and destinations of the world. The Kenyan government can also do the same to its Northern region to make it the Las Vegas or Dubai of Africa and even the world.
That there is abundant solar and wind power in the Northern part of Kenya should in fact make the government drool for an active part in developing the region. The country’s over reliance on hydroelectric power has often brought with it industrial stagnation due to frequent power outages and the lack of sustainability in its utilization. Considering the threats to environmental biodiversity and in effect, catchments and forests, the country should divert and tap into solar and wind power, which is abundant in the Northern regions. This would ensure that there is a regular supply of energy in the nation; while at the same time, help conserve environmental biodiversity by eliminating the reliance on wood fuel (especially in rural areas) and hydroelectric power.
In the prospect of all of these, improving the security of the Northern corridor should be at the top of the development agenda. This would ensure that the development of the region goes on uninterrupted and achieves full self-sustainability. The region parse is a highly potential GDP promoter for Kenya, even though it has been regularly ignored in the numerous development deliberations of the country. The policy makers should also improve the remuneration of its most vital national security machinery, the police force. A scheme whereby the policemen and women are given tax rebates in the purchase of daily consumer products such as foods should be implemented like it is in the military. In this, a government-sanctioned canteen should be constructed in every police post and station whereby only the police personnel will be allowed to purchase commodities at subsidized rates. This along with a substantial salary increment will go a long way in reducing corruption and improving the living standards of this important security-maintaining sector. A well taken care of police force definitely spells success for the improvement and maintenance of security, a crucial requirement for the achievement of proper economic growth within the country.
There should also be a concerted effort to improve the quality of education in the institutions of higher learning in Kenya. This will be an appropriate conduit for propelling national development to greater heights: there will be more appropriate research, which will be relevant to the country’s development agenda. Currently, it is quite saddening to note that the Kenyan government has been ambitiously creating higher learning institutions, where barely any substantial research is going on due to lack of adequate facilities such as laboratories, residential rooms and even lecture halls. This has been detrimental to the aspiring researchers in the affected institutions, as many of them go through their entire study periods without the requisite practical expertise.
Rather than creating many unproductive institutions of higher learning in the country, the Kenyan government should work hard to strengthen the capacity of the existing ones, after which they then can build and empower more institutions of higher learning. There should also be prioritized funding of research projects relevant to Kenya’s socio-economic situation and development agenda. In this line, such currently moribund projects as the ‘Numerical Machines’ should be highly promoted to spur industrial growth in the country. It is with such projects for example, that the Asian Tiger economies started off their development agenda with the famous ‘Five-Year Plans’. These economic development plans have so far propelled them to the echelons of industrial growth to such an extent that many of them could now compete favorably with several developed countries.
Kenya’s main GNP contributing areas of development focus on agrohorticulture, tourism, heavy and light industries, mining, communications and transport. Investors willing and able to invest in all of these and other vital sectors should be obligated to sign agreements to the effect that they will fully process the resources in the country and only take them out as fully finished products for marketing. This will give the country a better bargaining power in the world trade arena. Investors will not be allowed to come in and perennially exploit the country’s resources, taking them abroad for further processing only to return and resell them back to the nation’s population at exorbitant prices of as much as five times their initial costs. Such an agreement will ensure the creation of jobs for Kenyans; ease the complaints of poor world market prices for its generally unprocessed products; earn Kenya good foreign exchange; and improve its balance of payment at the global trade arena.
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Antony Felix O. Simbowo
TakingITGlobal has never been more apt than it is now in providing a forum for expression. This is because the dynamic world has undeveloped challenges that pose a great problem to the growth and daily life of any youth in the global society. What with the incessant wars, poverty, HIV/AIDS, pornography, racism and several other vices creeping into the society in a culture best objectified as vicious gradualism.
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