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President Uhuru Kenyatta leads the Kenyan delegation in bilateral talks with the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industries led by its vice president George Petrov in Moscow. PSCU
By George Omondi
Posted Sunday, August 18 2013 at 16:22
In Summary
- The Russian deputy Prime Minister, Dmitry Kozak, said his government would ensure Kenya gets fertiliser directly from producers without going through middle men.
- Kenya's fertiliser demand stands at 500,000 tonnes a year.
- Russia is one of the world's top exporters of fertiliser and is also reputed for its long experience in running manufacturing plants.
Russia has pledged to assist Kenya in accessing fertiliser at an affordable cost, securing a major deal for President Uhuru Kenyatta who sought a partnership with Moscow on imports and a manufacturing plant.
The Russian deputy Prime Minister, Dmitry Kozak, said his government would ensure Kenya gets fertiliser directly from producers without going through middle men. The two leaders met on the sidelines of the IAAF World Championships.
Kenya's fertiliser demand stands at 500,000 tonnes a year.
Agriculture Secretary Felix Koskei will visit Moscow in a week's time to discuss the deal further, said a dispatch from the Presidential Strategic Communications Unit.
Russia is one of the world's top exporters of fertiliser and is also reputed for its long experience in running manufacturing plants.
"In the short-term, I would like to encourage Russian manufacturers and exporters to supply the required high quality fertiliser to Kenya", President Kenyatta said at meeting with officials of Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Moscow on Friday.
He, however, asked his host to buy more tea, coffee, vegetables and flowers from Kenya in exchange. "In addition, it would be mutually advantageous to partner with us in establishing a fertiliser plant in Kenya," said Mr Kenyatta.
Kenya has been struggling to set up a fertiliser plant with a capacity to process at least 1.000 tonnes per day since the 1970s without much success. Last year, former president Mwai Kibaki upped the stakes when he gave his administration a target of up to December 2012 to identify a strategic investor.
Had the plan succeeded, a plant estimated to cost between Sh30 billion and Sh50 billion would have been up and running by 2015, saving billions of shillings spent in subsidising the input for farmers every year.
With a recently passed public-private partnership law, Kenya has kicked off the campaigns afresh. On Friday, President Kenyatta maintained that attaining food security remained a top priority for his administration.
To achieve this, the government will irrigate large tracks of land and make fertiliser accessible and affordable, Mr Kenyatta told Russian investors.
"I am happy to note that the Russian business community has recognised Kenya's potential as one of the most promising investment destinations in Africa, and wishes to deepen the existing trade and economic relations with us," he said.
Apart from the national demand, a plant set up in Kenya will have access to the five-member East African Community market, which has also been struggling in vain to set up a joint regional plant.
A study conducted last year by consultants hired by the Agriculture department projected that fertiliser usage would increase from 500,000 to 739,662 tonnes a year
Eventually, the uptake of the input will grow steadily to 1.26 million tonnes per year by 2030. Apart from agriculture, Mr Kenyatta also sought to woo Russian investors to put investment capital on the Lamu Port, tourism and energy.
The Friday meeting brought together more than 40 top Russian companies including manufacturers of fertiliser Akron and Uralchim.
Georgy Petrov, vice president of the Chamber of Commerce of the Russian Federation said trade between Kenya and Russia, with an annual turn-over of about Sh17 billion ($200 million), was currently way below optimal potential. He cited energy, infrastructure development and tourism as some of the sectors that Russian investors were keen to explore.
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Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Paying unemployed graduates the worst policy idea of the year----(No Brainer, No Logics, No intelligence, No Priority, No Wisdom - Sad!)
In Summary
- I award the worst policy idea to the expressed intention to pass a motion in the National Assembly to ensure that unemployed graduates below 35 years of age are granted a monthly stipend of Sh15, 000 until they find employment.
- Proponents of this preposterous idea are obviously unaware of what the unintended effects of this policy would be.
- Consider that the average annual income in Kenya is a much less than the Sh15, 000 monthly, its maintenance would need a very large number of wage workers for this idea to be possible.
By Kwame Owino
More by this Author
With nearly nine months into 2013, it is possible to pass judgment on what the worst policy idea that has gained media coverage.
During an election year in a country in which public fact checking and calling out of candidates hardly ever happens, there are almost a dozen ideas that the Institute of Economic Affairs identified as not only wrong-headed but also based on the most scanty thinking.
Perhaps Kenyan voters may make peace with the idea that during the intense campaign period, some wacky ideas will inevitably be expressed to get public attention and highlight the policy boldness of political parties. The elections were settled and the thinking caps transferred from the political operatives to the citizens with the claim to solve one policy problem or another.
I award the worst policy idea to the expressed intention to pass a motion in the National Assembly to ensure that unemployed graduates below 35 years of age are granted a monthly stipend of Sh15, 000 until they find employment. No doubt, the National Unemployment Scheme for Graduates is an unbelievably bad policy idea.
Granted, it is based on a simple truth that unemployment in Kenya is an indisputable policy problem. It seems that the proponents of the idea thereafter think that by placing a self-evident truth about unemployment then excuses flawed thinking about its implications effects. In this instance, the mere statement of the obvious should not be allowed to cushion a bad idea from featuring in policy discourse.
For instance, unemployment and inadequate opportunity for work affects many more Kenyans than those who have university education. So what makes the latter more entitled to public subvention than the rest?
Added to the partial truth argument above are the twin beliefs in government ability to solve all problems on the one hand, and the expenditure of public money as the panacea. This can be referred to as the throw money at every policy problem fallacy.
Not only should it be evident to any person in possession of a college education that the government of Kenya will have very tight finances for the foreseeable future, but Kenya would have few policy problems if money were the solution to all policy challenges.
Thirdly, the proponents of this preposterous idea are obviously unaware of what the unintended effects of this policy would be. A study carried out by the Institute of Economic Affairs revealed that 80% of the students attending public universities in Kenya are from the richest 20% of Kenya's households. In essence, public university education is still a preserve of the wealthiest Kenyans.
Yet the proponents of this idea are brave enough to demand that having educated this privileged group from public funds, they should still be supported through taxes by the provision of stipends for no work for up to 12 years after graduation. Thus university education policy will be about creating greater inequality among households in Kenya.
Income subsidy for mere completion of a university education would be a perfect signal for all secondary school graduates to find university places. Universities too would expand admissions knowing that students would merely have to pay for four years, worth of tuition, and then begin to collect monthly stipends at the taxpayers' expense.
The fact that the expenditure would easily overwhelm the national government seems to have escaped the fertile imagination of the originators of this policy. Consider that the average annual income in Kenya is a much less than the Sh15, 000 monthly, its maintenance would need a very large number of wage workers for this idea to be possible.
Anybody who takes time to examine the number of the employed in the modern wage sector would know that that slice of the working population is really this.
In the pantheon of bad policy ideas, the National Graduate Unemployment Scheme for certifiably atrocious. And yet it represents the absence of policy innovation and the belief that all policy problems are about inserting government into an area to spend public money making privileged people even more so.
Recycling incomes from poorer and working Kenyans towards others just because the latter have spent four years in college makes no sense and shows surrender from tackling the real bottlenecks to employment growth.
This idea should not go any further than a discussion in the National Assembly primarily because it is both bad and expensive. Bad and dangerous.
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Court annuls election of Siaya County Governor Cornel Rasanga
Updated Friday, August 23rd 2013 at 12:49 GMT +3
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| Justice Muchelule cited cases of irregularities into the election of Governor Cornel Rasanga pictured |
By Maureen Odiwuor
High Court Judge Aggrey Muchelule has nullified March 4 election results for Siaya gubernatorial seat.
In his ruling, Justice Muchelule cited cases of irregularities into the election of Governor Cornel Rasanga. He said the Governor was not validly elected and called for a by-election.
The Judge said the petitioner; National Alliance Party of Kenya's candidate William Oduol had succeeded in convincing the court that the election was not free and fair.
The court also slapped Rasanga and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) with costs of the suit amounting to Sh3million to be shared between them.
He also ordered for the security amount that Oduol gave for the petition to be released.
"The credibility of results in Siaya County were smeared and taunted," said Muchelule.
The court relied in the recount of votes in Gem, Bondo and Rarieda constituencies, and Nyasanda and Awelo Primary schools in making its verdict.
Muchelule noted that the ballot boxes were tampered with before the recount was ordered , saying IEBC was mandated to safeguard the votes having been the custodians.
"IEBC did not inform the Deputy Registrar of courts that there might have been tampering with the votes," said Muchelule.
He said one of the witnesses told the court after the recount that they realised the warehouse in which the ballot boxes were kept had an opening on the iron sheet.
"It wasn't noted that seals were missing or replaced from the ballot boxes," said Muchelule.
He also pointed out various instances of election malpractice evident during the campaign period after nomination of candidates.
He said the act whereby the petitioner's portrait was superimposed with those of President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto did not favour the candidature of Oduol because Siaya is a pro-ODM area.
Doctors Investigate Indian Baby for Spontaneous Combustion
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