Post by Onyango Oloo on Oct 13, 2005 21:43:21 GMT 3
onyango oloo pursues the "economists" to their own territory...
it is strange, surreal and ludicrous to hear people recycling daniel arap moi's tired comment about "how many sufurias of ugali" will a new katiba bring.
actually, there is a DIRECT correlation between a new katiba and less or more sufurias of ugali, mbembe, muthokoi, wali and should we add, kadzora, omena, odhadho, obambla, kamongo, irio, senene, nyama choma, lipokha, kisamvi, sukuuma wiki,boko boko, mutura, nyama ya punda, damu ya kukaanga, mahamri, chapati na dengu, mkate wa sinia, terere (Kikuyu) aka lidodo (Luhya) aka ododo (Luo) aka kelichot (Kipsigis) aka w’oa (Kamba)aka emboga (Kisii) aka kichanya(Dawida),malenge (Kiswahili), marenge (Kikuyu), lisebebe (Luyha), risosa (Kisii), ulenge (Kamba), bododa (Borana),mlenda (Kiswahili), murere (Luhya), chikosho (Kambe), namale (Turkana), omotere (Kisii), vombo (Giriama), ntereryan (Tugen), otigo winyo (Acholi), mutere (Lusoga),matoke etc....
how?
the constitution is the supreme law of the land. among other things, it helps to create the legal framework for economic development, industrial production, commerce, technology and other productive activities.
let us start with the ugali question.
recently we saw reports of
ugandan maize flooding the kenyan market.
the kenyan economy is not only agriculture based- maize production is absolutely essential for national food security and self-sufficiency. why should kenyans have to import maize from uganda when we know that places like kitale and elsewhere are more than capable of providing not just for our national needs, but perhaps even go head to head with uganda's maize in uganda itself?
what incentives do kenyan maize farmers have to be competitive against our neighbouring banana republic?
why is it cheaper for kenyan businesspeople to market ugandan maize in kenya as opposed to our own locally produced maize?
should there be legal safeguards that ensure that kenyan maize production is valorized and prioritized over cheap imports which leave our own maize farmers with a glut of maize that they are unable to offload?
related to that, why should kenyan sugar cane farmers be struggling to eke out a subsistence existence just because some government connected fat cats are importing sugar to a country where our sugar production is operating under capacity and sugar cane often left rotting in the fields?
and speaking of food, why should a south african fast food chain rapaciously knock out our own homegrown culinary entrepreneurs just because they have deeper pockets, may or may not be connected to government insiders?
can we grow our own rice or must we import every single grain from india or pakistan?
can we can our own beans or must we give in to highly processed, pricier imports from the west?
why is it that
south africa(ceres)
egypt and
brazil- three third world countries- are competing aggressively with canadian and united states fruit and packaged juice companies in toronto, montreal, vancouver and calgary supermarkets when we in kenya have not just abundant fruits but the capacity to can and market our own fruits to the same markets?
do kenyans in kenya need to buy
corned beef from new zealand in nairobi supermarkets when we have an allegedly robust ranching and meat processing industry?
where are our national priorities when we go on an extreme privatization binge to attract "foreign investors" at the expense of our fledgling home-grown industries?
mitumba clothes may be cheap and a few business women and business men may be making a killing via the importation of second hand clothes from the goodwills, value villages and thrift stores of north america, but what is this doing to our national cotton industry, our national textile industry? are we incapable of producing quality and affordable t-shirts, trousers, pants, panties, shirts, jackets, caps, socks, and other items of clothings for kenyans in kenya to wear at a price competitive or even lower than the faded mitumba discards from the wardrobes of north america and europe?
must we import
nescafe and
earl grey when kenyan tea and kenya coffee is listed among the gourmet and designer beverages in starbucks and other high end cafe chains in the west?
all the above questions presuppose a proactive government taking proactive steps to stimulate economic growth, national industrial production, robust commerce, fair trade and protect kenyan farmers, kenyan workers, kenyan business(wo)men, kenyan inventors, kenyan start ups.
obviously this will not happen if we are more interested in farming out our national airline to the dutch, one of our most lucrative mobile operations to a foreign multiinational; this will not happen if we invite the chinese and the canadians to bid for the right to run our own national land line telephone services or celebrate when we give our national railways network to goodness knows who. when the best our government can do is to countenance a canadian mining company bribing a few digo elders with motorbikes in order to secure a titanium concession that has potentially disastrous effects for the people, the local economy and the ecosystem; when kenyans abroad have to do their own private investigations to uncover the fact that we are potentially one of the most oil rich nations on the african continent and our own government has been cutting secret deals with australian prospecting firms; when we find our economy open to business to everybody except the kenyans themselves; when our own government officials collude with shady zimbabwean telecom executives to grant the third mobile licence to a known corporate hoodlum bypassing more credible bids put together by hardworking, honest consortium of highly qualified kenyan entrepreneurs with a lot of exposure to the international market and first hand experience in the telecommunication industry itself; when our own government colludes with foreign based tour operators to maintain northern kenyan peoples in pre-colonial conditions of squalor to fit with racist stereotypical expectations of how " the noble african savages" are still maintained in living cultural museums by an allegedly independent african government; when all this happens it tells us, at least it tells me, onyango oloo, that as kenyans we are second class citizens in our own country when it comes to setting national economic priorities.
and how do we redress these inequities and iniquities?
do we do it through piece-meal, patchwork and knee-jerk legislation- often spurred on by the diktats from the evil bretton woods twins rather than our own indigenous aspirations- or do we something more long term, more substantial, more sustainable?
i argue that we pursue the latter, not the former option.
and what does this imply?
it implies that we locate all these discussions within the context of the kenya we want, kenya tuitakayo.
kenya tuitakayo is not just about who will be president and who will be prime minister as the technocrats like reminding us.
it is about how much muthendi, in literal ngotore terms will end up in the mifuko of the wafanyi kazi and wafanya biashara;
it is literally about how many sufurias of ugali we can afford with increased disposable income, lower or higher taxes, direct and indirect incentives- including where need be, subsidies, affirmative action and other proactive actions to make sure there is not just political democracy in kenya, but economic democracy and social justice as well.
so when we do get serious, as opposed to idly regurgitating a nonsensical remark from daniel arap moi, we truly see that a new katiba will literally add the number of sufurias of ugalis in our kitchens.
kapish?
i rest my case.
onyango oloo
toronto
it is strange, surreal and ludicrous to hear people recycling daniel arap moi's tired comment about "how many sufurias of ugali" will a new katiba bring.
actually, there is a DIRECT correlation between a new katiba and less or more sufurias of ugali, mbembe, muthokoi, wali and should we add, kadzora, omena, odhadho, obambla, kamongo, irio, senene, nyama choma, lipokha, kisamvi, sukuuma wiki,boko boko, mutura, nyama ya punda, damu ya kukaanga, mahamri, chapati na dengu, mkate wa sinia, terere (Kikuyu) aka lidodo (Luhya) aka ododo (Luo) aka kelichot (Kipsigis) aka w’oa (Kamba)aka emboga (Kisii) aka kichanya(Dawida),malenge (Kiswahili), marenge (Kikuyu), lisebebe (Luyha), risosa (Kisii), ulenge (Kamba), bododa (Borana),mlenda (Kiswahili), murere (Luhya), chikosho (Kambe), namale (Turkana), omotere (Kisii), vombo (Giriama), ntereryan (Tugen), otigo winyo (Acholi), mutere (Lusoga),matoke etc....
how?
the constitution is the supreme law of the land. among other things, it helps to create the legal framework for economic development, industrial production, commerce, technology and other productive activities.
let us start with the ugali question.
recently we saw reports of
ugandan maize flooding the kenyan market.
the kenyan economy is not only agriculture based- maize production is absolutely essential for national food security and self-sufficiency. why should kenyans have to import maize from uganda when we know that places like kitale and elsewhere are more than capable of providing not just for our national needs, but perhaps even go head to head with uganda's maize in uganda itself?
what incentives do kenyan maize farmers have to be competitive against our neighbouring banana republic?
why is it cheaper for kenyan businesspeople to market ugandan maize in kenya as opposed to our own locally produced maize?
should there be legal safeguards that ensure that kenyan maize production is valorized and prioritized over cheap imports which leave our own maize farmers with a glut of maize that they are unable to offload?
related to that, why should kenyan sugar cane farmers be struggling to eke out a subsistence existence just because some government connected fat cats are importing sugar to a country where our sugar production is operating under capacity and sugar cane often left rotting in the fields?
and speaking of food, why should a south african fast food chain rapaciously knock out our own homegrown culinary entrepreneurs just because they have deeper pockets, may or may not be connected to government insiders?
can we grow our own rice or must we import every single grain from india or pakistan?
can we can our own beans or must we give in to highly processed, pricier imports from the west?
why is it that
south africa(ceres)
egypt and
brazil- three third world countries- are competing aggressively with canadian and united states fruit and packaged juice companies in toronto, montreal, vancouver and calgary supermarkets when we in kenya have not just abundant fruits but the capacity to can and market our own fruits to the same markets?
do kenyans in kenya need to buy
corned beef from new zealand in nairobi supermarkets when we have an allegedly robust ranching and meat processing industry?
where are our national priorities when we go on an extreme privatization binge to attract "foreign investors" at the expense of our fledgling home-grown industries?
mitumba clothes may be cheap and a few business women and business men may be making a killing via the importation of second hand clothes from the goodwills, value villages and thrift stores of north america, but what is this doing to our national cotton industry, our national textile industry? are we incapable of producing quality and affordable t-shirts, trousers, pants, panties, shirts, jackets, caps, socks, and other items of clothings for kenyans in kenya to wear at a price competitive or even lower than the faded mitumba discards from the wardrobes of north america and europe?
must we import
nescafe and
earl grey when kenyan tea and kenya coffee is listed among the gourmet and designer beverages in starbucks and other high end cafe chains in the west?
all the above questions presuppose a proactive government taking proactive steps to stimulate economic growth, national industrial production, robust commerce, fair trade and protect kenyan farmers, kenyan workers, kenyan business(wo)men, kenyan inventors, kenyan start ups.
obviously this will not happen if we are more interested in farming out our national airline to the dutch, one of our most lucrative mobile operations to a foreign multiinational; this will not happen if we invite the chinese and the canadians to bid for the right to run our own national land line telephone services or celebrate when we give our national railways network to goodness knows who. when the best our government can do is to countenance a canadian mining company bribing a few digo elders with motorbikes in order to secure a titanium concession that has potentially disastrous effects for the people, the local economy and the ecosystem; when kenyans abroad have to do their own private investigations to uncover the fact that we are potentially one of the most oil rich nations on the african continent and our own government has been cutting secret deals with australian prospecting firms; when we find our economy open to business to everybody except the kenyans themselves; when our own government officials collude with shady zimbabwean telecom executives to grant the third mobile licence to a known corporate hoodlum bypassing more credible bids put together by hardworking, honest consortium of highly qualified kenyan entrepreneurs with a lot of exposure to the international market and first hand experience in the telecommunication industry itself; when our own government colludes with foreign based tour operators to maintain northern kenyan peoples in pre-colonial conditions of squalor to fit with racist stereotypical expectations of how " the noble african savages" are still maintained in living cultural museums by an allegedly independent african government; when all this happens it tells us, at least it tells me, onyango oloo, that as kenyans we are second class citizens in our own country when it comes to setting national economic priorities.
and how do we redress these inequities and iniquities?
do we do it through piece-meal, patchwork and knee-jerk legislation- often spurred on by the diktats from the evil bretton woods twins rather than our own indigenous aspirations- or do we something more long term, more substantial, more sustainable?
i argue that we pursue the latter, not the former option.
and what does this imply?
it implies that we locate all these discussions within the context of the kenya we want, kenya tuitakayo.
kenya tuitakayo is not just about who will be president and who will be prime minister as the technocrats like reminding us.
it is about how much muthendi, in literal ngotore terms will end up in the mifuko of the wafanyi kazi and wafanya biashara;
it is literally about how many sufurias of ugali we can afford with increased disposable income, lower or higher taxes, direct and indirect incentives- including where need be, subsidies, affirmative action and other proactive actions to make sure there is not just political democracy in kenya, but economic democracy and social justice as well.
so when we do get serious, as opposed to idly regurgitating a nonsensical remark from daniel arap moi, we truly see that a new katiba will literally add the number of sufurias of ugalis in our kitchens.
kapish?
i rest my case.
onyango oloo
toronto