Economic Empowerment of Kenyans Not at the Behest of Deputy President Ruto and Ilk

William Arthur Ward once said that, ‘…The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. This words are truer to our Kenyan experience.

Our leadership has failed totally to transform this country for better. PR has been the tool that has put wool over our eyes. Tomatoes have become a luxury. Imported apples are cheaper than tomatoes from Chwele market.

According to IPSOS, 31% are sleeping hungry. 52% of us don’t have enough to eat and only 17% eat three meals a day. Poverty seems to have gone up by at least 50% in the last couple of years. Food security is a rising concern across the country as farmers look at the dismal harvest they will be expecting next month.

Corruption in Kenya is like the F1 racing. Too fast even for our EACC to catch up and prosecute anyone. Everyday our dear GOK is accumulating debts that I believe my great-great-great-great-grand kids will have a problem paying. We are a net import country. We produce nothing that we can talk of in any international forum, except maybe processed milk. So, how are we going to pay for these loans?

Not to mention World Bank, encouraging us to keep taking more of the same, if am not wrong, our debt level stands at 58% of of GDP. World Bank is like that friend that is toxic for you, but you keep them around to massage your ego and feel good because they come from a better family.

I have listened to our enchanting DP Ruto criss cross the country and talk of unity and development if we join Jubilee. And every time he talks, a little of me dies at our gullibility and ignorance we show in the face of his utterances.

I thought since we voted in a new constitution in 2010, we devolved the essence of power and by extension development from Nairobi to the villages. This means, irrespective of which party one belongs to or what their political ideology, development, economic empowerment, equity, fairness and justice is theirs by right. That no one needs to be close to the National government to get development.

Read: Jubilee Scorecard- Part II: Uchumi Pillar

Under the same realm of constitutionallity, the essence of peace, unity, equity, fairness and justice are espoused in our laws and we don’t need to belong to one party to achieve. This because peace is a by product of fairness, justice,fair distribution of resources and the national cake and the belief that the Presidency and the Deputy Presidency are symbols of national unity or did my GHC teacher in primary school deceive me?

Our dear DP Ruto comes forth as a mediocre leader because he has a knack of telling us what to do. Making fun of us, ridiculing our leaders, sharing the national cake based on those he considers friends and ignoring those he considers enemies and subtly says if one is not in jubilee, then there is no development for them. This in essence is a coup de tat against our constitution but who is there to hold him accountable?

As a Kenyan, I desire for a great DP Ruto who inspires us to be better. One who is above the ridicule kind of politics and respects the eco-system of democracy instead of the archaic colonial tactics of divide and rule.

It’s 2016, yet we talking about 2022 and we sleeping hungry, we are a net importer of everything we consume and every single day we are fundraising to send someone for treatment to India. Where is the economic empowerment that we were promised? In every 10 Kenyans you meet, 9 are employed in the informal sector. A sector that has received no support whatsoever from the government yet our beloved KRA is seeking for ways to breach and break laws to find ways to tax it. How can you milk a cow you have never fed?

Lack of vision, purpose and desire to truly empower the ordinary Kenyan is the bane of this government. We are the most regulated country in Africa. Anymore regulation, will make this country totally business unfriendly according to Kenya Association of Manufacturers. The only people whose businesses are growing seem to be the top two gentlemen. The rest of us it’s hand to mouth. Taxing the informal sector will see the death of the sector by over 40%. Where will over 10mn go to? We survive through hand to mouth. But does our leadership see this?

Read: South Sudan at War Again: Economy in Shambles

Our dear leadership cannot hoard development for their cronies alone. That’s a coup de tat against our constitution and by large the people themselves who empower the constitution. Devolution is the institution that creates balance, equity, fairness and justice and we must demand accountability to ensure that it’s a success.

DP Ruto cannot purport to hoard development in his hands and give purported development through roadside declarations as if we are in the 11th Century. We need sustainable policies that will lead to true agrarian and industrial revolution to change the true economic aspect of this country from a net importer to a net exporter. Maybe he should stop ridiculing the likes of Wetangula and focus on delivering on their promises. Economic empowerment is not beholden to him or his ilk but through our endangered constitution.