The Joneses Kenya is attempting to keep up with are not in the same income or social bracket. They are out of Kenya's league. Way, way out of Kenya's league. It is rumoured that the President of the United States has an annual salary of $400,000. It is also rumoured that his stay at the White House, the president's official residence, is not free; he is handed a bill at the end of each month for meals and entertainment. The President of Kenya has an annual salary of $425,000. He is not handed a bill at the end of the month for living expenses at his official residence, State House.
India has a 1.2 billion-plus population. It is rightfully called a sub-continent, covering a surface area of 3,287,590 square kilometres. It is divided into 28 states and six National Capital Territories and has a bicameral national parliament of 790 members. (About a million and a half people are represented by one elected representative.) Kenya has a population of approximately 42 million and a surface area of slightly under 500,000 square kilometres. It is divided into 47 counties and has a bicameral national parliament of 416. (Which roughly works out to 100,000 people for every elected representative in Nairobi.)
The City of Sydney in the state of New South Wales in Australia has a population of approximately 3 million people. It has some of the most swingeing taxes in Australia and some of the most (to my mind) repressive traffic rules ever visited on the driving public. It can be argued that because of its great wealth, Sydney residents can afford the taxes and will abide by the draconian traffic rules so that they can enjoy the rest of the day. The data seems to back this up. Violent crime is at all time low; road traffic accident fatalities have been dropping for a decade at least. Pedestrians do not have to fear for their shoes or clothes from overflowing drains or burst sewers.
Nairobi City has a population of approximately 3 million. (Statistics' collection has never been its strong suite.) The Government of Nairobi City County has been busy imposing ever harsher taxes on its residents and businesses. The Governments of Kenya and Nairobi City County have joined hands to "enforce the Traffic Act" by going after every single drink-driving driver they can shove a breathalyser into. Violent crime seems to be spiralling out of control. Pedestrians not only have to fear for their shoes and clothes from the uncleaned drains and the permanently gushing sewers, but they have to contend with shit-wielding (yes, SHIT!) street people looking for a handout.
The Joneses in our league, this blogger is attempting to demonstrate, are not to be found in the advanced bits of North America, the Antipodes, Asia or Europe. They are not to be found in South Africa, Egypt or Nigeria. They are, and shall forever be (unless we change), Tanzania, the Sudan, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Perhaps even Pakistan and Bangladesh. Save perhaps for Tanzania, what all these Joneses demonstrate is a complete lack of motivation to reform their political or economic environment with the aim of lifting the millions of their peoples living in abject poverty.
Kenya has always had a "plan", a "strategy" for the "alleviation" and "eradication" of poverty. The language has evolved as each attempted plan and strategy has floundered, foundered and been sabotaged. In the fifty years of self-rule, Kenya has made hundreds of promises to itself and kept very few of them. It adopted and perfected a system of entrenched inequity and iniquity from the colonial administration. Its recent internal dialogue on cutting down on public sector salaries is a reflection of the pernicious influence that the colonial administration has had on the leadership of the nation fifty years since it chose to hand over the reins of power.
The elite in Kenya has always adapted fashions promoted by the leisure classes of the West. Their latest fashionable activity is weeping tears for the decimated carcasses of elephants and rhinos. The Kenyan elite cannot see the irony of asking communities that cannot guarantee jobs for their sons, medicines for their children, food for their families, to sacrifice their land and their right to live just so hundreds of millions of dollars the communities will never see are delivered to the coffers of the National Treasury by the leisure classes of the West that the Kenyan elite hopes to emulate. The fact that the Kenyan elite cannot see the irony spells doom for the rest of us. But what should scare the shit out of you is that it is this selfsame elite that is in charge of the Government of Kenya.
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