Despite
what our revered men and women of the cloth claim, the most important
relationship outside of the family structure is between labour and
capital: someone has the capital to pay for a service and someone has
the skills to sell their labour to the one holding the capital. This is
the predominant relationship between persons and the duty of the State,
indeed the sole reason for the existence of the State, is to mediate
this relationship to guarantee maximum returns for the owners of capital
and minimum exploitation of labour. Everything else hinges on this
basic relationship.
The Ministry of Industrialisation estimates that there are 21 million Kenyans of working age, of whom 2 million are employed in the formal sector while 7 million are employed in the informal sector. The Ministry does not state how many are employed in the diaspora or how many have taken a sabbatical and are pursuing education opportunities or are otherwise outside of employment. However, let us place this number at 1 million; therefore, there are approximately 11 million out of 21 million Kenyans of working age out of employment, whether formal or informal, a 52% unemployment rate. At the same time, The Treasury indicates that as at January 2012, the public debt was 46% of GDP (external debt was about 21% of GDP) at about sh. 1,496 billion. Finally, despite the hundreds of newsprint inches dedicated to their rhetoric, politicians have failed to demonstrate that under their stewardship after they succeed Mwai Kibaki, how they will accelerate Kenya's economic growth from sub-five percent to double digits.
It is therefore, odd that the politicians campaigning to succeed Mwai Kibaki in 2013 have failed to address the sorry state of affairs regarding our economy, unemployment and the size of the public debt. The government is the single largest employer in Kenya. Its influence over the market is huge and therefore, its inefficiencies affect the economy in myriad ways. It is now becoming apparent that the management of public funds in the National Treasury is getting more and more complicated with the three arms of government claiming independence from the other two and thus refusing the constraints of compromise or reasonable prioritisation. The recent grab by the Judiciary in order to finance a lavish lifestyle for the Judges of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal and the High Court is only rivalled by the avarice of the National Assembly, voting to give each member a whopping 10 million shillings as a send-off package. The Executive has been on the receiving end of industrial demands by doctors, teachers, nurses and university lecturers and the Minister for Finance has had to dig deeper into taxpayers' pockets to finance the settlement of these demands.
The next five years are going to make or break this nation. The demographic benefits of having a very large pool of youthful persons of working age is going to be heavily discounted if the three arms of government only think of the comforts of the rulers of this nation. Economic policy should be geared not just towards achieving the lofty objectives of the Vision 2030 programme, but towards ensuring equity and justice in the expenditure of national treasure. The likes of Ms Shollei and Willy Mutunga for the Judiciary or Kenneth Marende for the National Assembly or even Mwai Kibaki of the Executive have failed to explain in the simplest terms possible why it is just and equitable for our rulers t enjoy a quality of life rivalled only by that of persons living in the developed West while tens of millions of Kenyans live in squalor, are unable to access affordable healthcare or quality basic education for their children. Why must the poor labour under the yoke of ever-rising tax demands from the state if these taxes are not put towards making their lives easier?
The history of successful revolutions is the history of the working masses getting fed up with being exploited for the luxury of the rulers. When the Bolsheviks finally toppled the ruling Tsars of Russia, it was economic as much as political considerations that were at play. The American Civil War, sparked off by the Boston ea Party, was much about the inequity and iniquity of paying taxes without being represented in deciding how those taxes would be employed. The Quit India Movement was founded along the same lines as was the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya. Kenya's rulers may continue to labour under the mistaken belief that they can manipulate the peoples of Kenya along ethnic/tribal lines for the sake of political hegemony. But when enough people go without food, when enough children die of easily preventable diseases, when enough children go to school under trees or in dark caves...when it is apparent that the lives of our rulers have nothing to do with the reality of the Kenyan Situation, the Second Liberation will be well and truly born and no one will get out unscathed.
The Ministry of Industrialisation estimates that there are 21 million Kenyans of working age, of whom 2 million are employed in the formal sector while 7 million are employed in the informal sector. The Ministry does not state how many are employed in the diaspora or how many have taken a sabbatical and are pursuing education opportunities or are otherwise outside of employment. However, let us place this number at 1 million; therefore, there are approximately 11 million out of 21 million Kenyans of working age out of employment, whether formal or informal, a 52% unemployment rate. At the same time, The Treasury indicates that as at January 2012, the public debt was 46% of GDP (external debt was about 21% of GDP) at about sh. 1,496 billion. Finally, despite the hundreds of newsprint inches dedicated to their rhetoric, politicians have failed to demonstrate that under their stewardship after they succeed Mwai Kibaki, how they will accelerate Kenya's economic growth from sub-five percent to double digits.
It is therefore, odd that the politicians campaigning to succeed Mwai Kibaki in 2013 have failed to address the sorry state of affairs regarding our economy, unemployment and the size of the public debt. The government is the single largest employer in Kenya. Its influence over the market is huge and therefore, its inefficiencies affect the economy in myriad ways. It is now becoming apparent that the management of public funds in the National Treasury is getting more and more complicated with the three arms of government claiming independence from the other two and thus refusing the constraints of compromise or reasonable prioritisation. The recent grab by the Judiciary in order to finance a lavish lifestyle for the Judges of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal and the High Court is only rivalled by the avarice of the National Assembly, voting to give each member a whopping 10 million shillings as a send-off package. The Executive has been on the receiving end of industrial demands by doctors, teachers, nurses and university lecturers and the Minister for Finance has had to dig deeper into taxpayers' pockets to finance the settlement of these demands.
The next five years are going to make or break this nation. The demographic benefits of having a very large pool of youthful persons of working age is going to be heavily discounted if the three arms of government only think of the comforts of the rulers of this nation. Economic policy should be geared not just towards achieving the lofty objectives of the Vision 2030 programme, but towards ensuring equity and justice in the expenditure of national treasure. The likes of Ms Shollei and Willy Mutunga for the Judiciary or Kenneth Marende for the National Assembly or even Mwai Kibaki of the Executive have failed to explain in the simplest terms possible why it is just and equitable for our rulers t enjoy a quality of life rivalled only by that of persons living in the developed West while tens of millions of Kenyans live in squalor, are unable to access affordable healthcare or quality basic education for their children. Why must the poor labour under the yoke of ever-rising tax demands from the state if these taxes are not put towards making their lives easier?
The history of successful revolutions is the history of the working masses getting fed up with being exploited for the luxury of the rulers. When the Bolsheviks finally toppled the ruling Tsars of Russia, it was economic as much as political considerations that were at play. The American Civil War, sparked off by the Boston ea Party, was much about the inequity and iniquity of paying taxes without being represented in deciding how those taxes would be employed. The Quit India Movement was founded along the same lines as was the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya. Kenya's rulers may continue to labour under the mistaken belief that they can manipulate the peoples of Kenya along ethnic/tribal lines for the sake of political hegemony. But when enough people go without food, when enough children die of easily preventable diseases, when enough children go to school under trees or in dark caves...when it is apparent that the lives of our rulers have nothing to do with the reality of the Kenyan Situation, the Second Liberation will be well and truly born and no one will get out unscathed.
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