Wednesday 9 January 2013

[wanabidii] THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC INDICATORS OF DEVELOPMENT-KIBAKI'S LEGACY.


As I continue to explore the President's legacy, I want to now focus on the much touted economic development record of the President. It is said that we have experienced unprecedented economic development under the Kibaki Presidency. What we must make categorically clear is that there has been development, but it was never development for the poor, this was development designed to benefit the rich political elite and capital owners.

Let us consider the following. Firstly, economic development is measured among other things by the cost of living and living standards. If we have been developing in the last 10 years, how come we have also experienced the greatest number of strikes from public servants unlike any other time in our 50 year history? Teachers, doctors, university lecturers, nurses, dock workers, civil servants among others have all gone on strike, some almost on a monthly basis. This can only explain one thing. Those public servants among other Kenyans are unable to cope with the cost of living and dissatisfied with the salaries they earn. The cost of basic foodstuffs, fuel, and transport are on an all time high without commensurate increase in wages. This level of inflation hits the lowest paid hard. In the meantime, political elite among them the President continued to get increases in allowances, salaries and all sorts of goodies that cushioned them. In societies where equity rules, the highest paid public servant would not earn more then 10 times basic salary of the lowest paid public servant. What is our per capita income currently? Does it measure up to international standards of a growing economy? Now, try to imagine the salary of a tea girl in public offices and that of the President or PM. It must obscenely range around 400 times that of the tea girl. I am using a conservative figure of Ksh. 10,000/ for the tea girl. That tea girl pays PAYE on that salary. Meanwhile, the President will have his daily worries like transport to work, housing, Medicare, workers etc paid for. He even gets hospitality and entertainment allowance! To that tea girl, cleaner of messenger, is there development to talk about? This kind of disparity cannot be called development!

Secondly, if indeed we have experienced unprecedented economic development and that Kenya now services 95% of our GDP through our taxes, how come we have continued to seep external debt which now stands at 3 trillion shillings? Would it mean that while we are servicing our expenditure as a nation through our taxes, someone is borrowing on our behalf and pilfering? Why is our debt growing this much while we are using our own resources?

Thirdly, while we are exploring the rapid growth in infrastructure, it would be prudent to understand whether the expansion was serviced by our taxes or that these were grants/ loans that we will be repaying. While this is not bad in itself since we have had governments that borrowed and squandered, it would put into perspective the notion that we have "developed."In comparison, the Asian Tigers such as India, Malaysia, Singapore, etc developed not from massive borrowing but rather internal generation of wealth, international positioning to supply goods and services and a balance of trade in their favor.

Fourth, the level of insecurity in Kenya is alarming. When crime rises to levels we witness currently, we can only deduce that many people are out of work or that citizens fight over scarce resources. This unemployment indicator can only mean that the touted development is a mirage. Today, unemployment stands at an all time high. To this unemployed youth streaming from colleges and universities, how can we lie to them that the country has achieved unprecedented development? Where are the jobs to justify this "development" talk?

Fifth, in the meantime, we still have floods ravaging several parts of our country when it rains, causing havoc and leaving a trail of death and destruction in its wake. This has been a yearly ritual in several parts of the country. When the floods subside, we then have to contend with starving families. How can we claim development in such food insecure circumstances? Haven't we been asked to contribute money every so often to initiatives such as Kenyans for Kenya to save starving lives? To this lot that we occasionally raise relief food, can we still boast development? How many parts of Kenya currently survive on relief food from agencies such as the Red Cross, The Red Crescent, UNHCR,WPF, UNDP, etc. Actually, Kenya is a plethora of such relief agencies. Just visit Turkana, Garrissa and much of North Eastern; these agencies are now moving even into traditionally food secure regions such as Western, Nyanza, and Central among others.

Corruption is a vice that characterizes poorly managed economies. The corruption index for Kenya does not portray that we have managed to develop watertight systems that safeguards public coffers. In essence, President Kibaki has done very little to fight corruption especially at the top. The resignation and exile of his key economic advisor Mr. John Githongo after implicating the President's close allies in mega corruption scandals only affirms what I am saying. This was a government for the rich political elite to make money for retirement. How else can one explain that Kibaki, elected on an anti corruption and  reform platform in 2002 is leaving office without a single person involved in mega corruption being sent to jail? The reality is that his lieutenants and other political elite took over the scandals, revived them, concocted new ones and made good use of the same. That is why we are unable to arrest anyone on the Anglo Leasing scandal, Triton, Maize, Cemetery, Foreign Embassies scandal etc. None of these scandals have been resolved.

On the sovereign front, we must not forget that it is during Kibaki's time that 2 gun wielding foreigners came to town, like the Wild Wild West cowboys, raided a leading media house, caused stampedes and security scare at our international airport, called press conferences to arrogantly abuse Kenyans and for all their efforts, they were awarded Senior Commissioners of Police status and were guest of the state for quite a while! Then we had the little matter of Migingo Island which the President cowered away from discussing.

On the overall, Kibaki has only acted when the interest of the rich are threatened. That is why he addressed the Mombasa Republican Council during national days very strongly when they began talks of seceding. Mombasa is strategic for anybody doing international business. Strong action forestalled MRC. Similarly, Al-Shabaab threatened business interests especially for hoteliers, investors and property owners. He quickly sent troops to hunt down and crush the terrorists.
Consider why the President has not taken similar stern action even when 50 police officers were massacred. Kibaki has not found it fit to address the continuing massacres in Garrissa, Tana River, Baragoi, etc seriously. In fact, one such massacre found him on a foreign trip. I thought he would do what other Presidents do when their subjects die in such numbers. Pack bags and come back home to address the situation. He went on with the tour! Has he even gone down to these areas to assure those Kenyans that his oath to protect lives and property still stands? Instead, he is busy opening business interest every other week! To folks in Tana River, Garrissa, Baragoi etc, can we still proclaim development when they do not know when the next bullet will strike life out of their frightful lives?

In order to reflect of President Kibakis performance, one must isolate these issues and ask, has he left the country better in terms of cost and standard of living, employment, security, fight against social ills like tribalism, corruption, disregard for the rule of law? Are we a more united, cohesive society than when he took over? Do we believe we have resolved some or any of the historical injustices that bedevil this country?

His failure to deliver a constitution within 100 days of his election as promised in 2002 and then attempts to water the Bomas draft in 2005 cost us 10 years of delayed devolution. Even after passing the Katiba, he is one of the culprits who keep breaching the same with flagrant arrogance. These coming elections would have been the second under a new constitution and devolved governments would have been in place for 5 years. This cost of delayed reforms and devolution far outweighs anything else he has done for we would be much better of and far ahead in terms of equity, devolved governance, reformed institutions and above all, cohesion, integration and reconciliation.

Kenyans expected more than what Kibaki's legacy is as he retires. He has let us down badly on corruption, fighting tribalism, uniting the country and ensuring equity.

Otieno Sungu is a commentator on socio-political issues.
 

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