The two key areas of growth in Kenya today are tourism and horticulture. These areas of the economy are registering big numbers in revenue. Now a simple question; how much of that money is going to wanjiku, the village woman anywhere in Kenya, the family in the slums of Nairobi/Mombasa/Kisumu or any of your neigbours and mine? Very little, if any.
Let's start with tourism, the big money maker. Where does the money go? First, a lot of it never sets foot in Kenya, figuratively speaking. The money stays abroad with the owners of tour companies and some of the big hoteliers and franchised tour companies in Europe and North America.
Then the hotel chains get their cut. The tour companies in Nairobi and Mombasa get into action and of course the transporters. Unfortunately because of insecurity and general lawlessness in the country your local matatu transporter and the environs where they work and live can forget about tourists and their dollars. Unless some celebrity wants to go to Kibera with state escort.
In all of these lucrative business pieces related to tourism, ordinary Kenyans' best shot is to be a driver, a maid, a bartender, a sex worker etc, to catch a piece of the action. Oh yes and we supply them with food, fruits, crafts. Not bad, but my point is that is very little. Actually too little of the tourism money ends up in the pockets of ordinary Kenyans. It won't in the next hundred years if we don't rethink the dynamics. Can we afford that? May be NOT, right now.
Kenyan economists, government policy makers, the Ministry of Tourism should be burning the mid night oil working day and night to figure out how to share this big pie. Don't just tell us, go get your own pie this is mine or make scandalous statements about fighting against "distribution of poverty" like I read somewhere in the Standard from my friend Matunda.
www.eastandard.net/archives/cl/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143967427&date=17/4/2007Tourism is part of our national pie. How can we divide it better. We have to think outside the box of fundamentalist neoliberal economic framework. Don't worry about Karl Marx, lets just work with the tools we have.
Let me give you an example. In the province of Ontario where I live, one of the biggest sources of income is the cottage industry. I am not talking about making cheese and jelly in the backyard. That is good too. But, no, that is not my topic today. I am talking about one of the biggest tourism industries in North America, the cottage industry in Ontario, Canada.
Most Canadians live in the cities. In summer everyone is headed to the cottages. People come from all over the world. So obviously the big hotel chains are there. They own resorts and theme parks that rival Disney Land in every aspect.
But through structured efforts of the government of Ontario there is a very efficient system of small unit family run resorts everywhere. They are cheaper and mostly more private and better. Anytime I can check the net and get a thousand of them wherever I want. They will tell me exactly how to get there from the highway or from easily available public transit, they will assure me they have clean running water, electricity and the works. Needless to say the system has sustained a vibrant and growing number of local entrepreneurs to benefit from an industry that thrives on the beauty of the Canadian country side.
In Kenya on the other hand I was just reading an article about a guy who was in some place in NEP. He was awed by the sheer beauty of the landscape. He was praying other tourists could get a chance to experience NEP. Personally I think the potential for tourism in NEP is immense. So why is nobody going there? We all know why, don't we?
What do they over there offer for transport from Nairobi, the tourist centre of Kenya? They have Marsabit Airstrip which some say is the most unsafe place to land a plane. May be that explains why we can't get the Marsabit Air crash report that killed some very prominent Kenyans. And after you alight at Marsabit Airstrip where do you go and how do you travel? May be you need camels and donkeys to travel; loaded with body armour and bullet proof jackets na kadhalika. How far is that going to take us as a country?
With a little imagination we could change things. Let's take the area of eco-tourism which is a big selling point with tourists today. Few countries in the world have the potential we have in that sector. The whole of Rift Valley with its magical landscape, NEP, Western, Nyanza etc all have great potentials.
But we should learn from the mistakes we have made around Mt Kenya area tourist resorts, where almost all revenue generating units and activities are owned by non locals. All the locals can do in the present frameup is to be escorts into the secrets of the mountain.
There is nothing to prevent the government from assisting the local communities with funding programs to set up resorts, help them create their own unique facilities for the tourists and basically put some money in their pockets. Such places can be made secure, reliable and desirable to the tourists with good infrastructure and proper networking.
But we are talking about a government that can't build badly needed roads at Masai Mara Game Reserve, one of the tourist wonders of the world. Now and then (during elections) the government comes up with the idea to give this national park or the other to the "local community". That is not what we need. We need a system that enables the local family investor to put up a lodge, a resort etc and have these facilities connected with the right infrastructure and come with plans to market these facilities to tourists.
Just briefly let me comment on the other big money maker in the country. Horticulture. We all know this kind of enterprise needs huge initial capital. Naturally it is the other exclusive club for foreign owned companies and rich Kenyans. The best the ordinary Kenyan gets here is to be a labourer at the flower farms or the peddle the roses (hahaha them roses again) at Koinange and make a "killing" on valentine's day. Why can't the government for example help those youths through the Youth Fund set up flower farms, or assist groups of women to set up communal flower firms? Is that a sin under capitalism? No.
Let's remember a few things; the orange farmers in Florida wouldn't produce one orange if the United States money and resources were not used to sustain the water systems that feed the farms. Also an average cow in the US gets more subsidy per day than most people in our world can get for survive on for a week.
My point is that our vision for the economic future of our country is completely flawed. It is time to think outside the box.
Look at the much heralded Micro Finance Loan Agencies all over the country. They are corner stores in Kenya today and on the surface they are supposed to be the ultimate success story. Now little Amina and Masumbuko can get a loan and start a business. In reality they are a disaster. Their interest rates are arbitrary and very high. In fact sometimes they change interest rates mid course. They give money to the poor sectors of the entrepreneurial world but the price is heavy.
A few days ago I had to deal with a woman who took a Kshs 30,000.00 loan, paid diligently and was unable to pay the last few thousand shillings. They gave her a weekend to get the money or they would come to her house take all her furniture including the bed and everything in the household which is what she had offered as collateral. There is always collateral in loans by the way.
We were able to avert the disaster, but the sad part of it all is that the woman had invested in a small project of making ice for distribution to a ready market in her home town, using some cooling system. She was doing great until her "waterboy" took of with everything including the machine. The micro finance agency knew the whole story and sympathized with her, but that is the way the system is structured. Did I tell you the micro finance crew was going to take her assets worth the total amount of the loan Kshs 30,000.00 and not the little amount owing? May be not. I also think two thirds of this money, I will check it out, is actually interest.
My point here is that access to capital for the ordinary fella, is suicide. You are going to loose your land or whatever it is you offer for the loan. The Kibaki government has just been clearing billions in loans from coffee farmers (no word yet for cotton and other farmers) but I can tell you, there will be another round of clearing unpayable loans. We need new ideas in enabling small scale investors to access affordable capital, preferably interest free financing for promising undertakings for first time investors. Just checking.
The last thing I want to say is to express my utter disappointment with the way CDF money is being misused. I don't mean misappropriations. That is straight up crime and people who do it should face the law.
First of all, the big pats in the back about Kibaki giving Kenyans CDF are dishonest. Kibaki never proposed the CDF, in fact they opposed it, but it became so popular with the M.P's because they could see their campaign piggy bank and everybody supported it in the end.
But that is not my gripe today? Let them pat themselves sore in the back. My problem is I think we are wasting this money. All of it is going to pay shoool fees, build schools, build a road here and there or build toilets in some place in NEP or in the case of Kamkunji constituency as Hon Joe Nyaga would tell you buy a TV and a DVD player for the social hall.
I have no problem with paying school fees and building schools but what worries me is that ten years from now the same kid we are paying school fees for will be an unemployed slum dweller in Nairobi waiting for his break which probably will never come. Why should local communities spend a big part of the budget allocated to them to educate future slum dwellers in the cities of the country. Of what value is that to the local communities. On the other hand if that education would give our communities, their future doctors, mechanics, engineers, the carpenter or artist who could work in the community an add value to their people, this would be a great investment. As it is now it worse than a black jack gamble at the casino in Les Vegas.
Besides, if we are going to use the CDF to build roads, dispensaries, bridges and those toilets, what the heck is Kibaki doing with the other 97.5% of our national budget. If the CDF is going to be responsible for all social, health and education infrastructures in each constituency then lets get at least 50% of the national budget. the central government can fool around with the other 50%.
What I am trying to suggest is that we need to have clear guideline on what are the roles and jurisdiction of the central which as we speak holds almost all the money and what ar the parameters for CDF operations.
The shocking thing about the CDF is that the M.P's have taken it as their personal pocket money to buy the electorate. I know sometimes we are cheap, but can't the politicians at least buy us with their own money instead of picking our pockets and then saying here, give me your vote.
I have a suggestion on this matter. Let all Kenyans demand that one of the legislations in the minimum reforms be to remove M.P's from having any control on the C.D.F money. Let us have a professional team headed by a qualified development manager in each constituency. Let the M.P be one of the individuals in the planning committee and let us ensure that all sectors of the communities are represented.
Of course we need to harmonize constituency projects with regional and national projects. You see now why I can't wait for our new constitution with all its devolved powers.
To be continued.
Adongo