Sugar and Long-Maturing Politicians

One of the most pressing and high-ranked problems facing Kenya's sugar sector is the problem of low-yielding long-maturing crop varieties. Ironically, the most pressing and high-ranked impediment to economic growth and social progress in Kenya is also political immaturity. We have a pressing and high-ranked problem of narrow-minded low-yielding long-maturing politicians.

My Advice to President Uhuru

Mr President, after several years of writing opinion pieces for the SIASA pullout, this will be the first time I address myself to you in person. I trust you will find my thoughts most helpful.

I'm not a prophet, but long before you and your deputy Ruto were an item, while both of you were for all intents and purposes nemesis, I knew you would team up in order to fight the ICC and even wrote about it in this very pullout.

Back then, I foresaw that the only way to defeat the ICC was for you to team up with Ruto and fight the ICC. I will admit that I don't know whether it was my opinion piece that opened your eyes to this fact or not, but the fact is that you teamed up and successfully seized power - fairly and squarely.

And just as I thought would happen, you out maneuvered the ICC prosecutor and she was left with no choice but to withdraw the case against you citing a lack of sufficient evidence to proceed with the case, never mind that she cited a lack of cooperation from you.

The Rise and Inevitable Fall of Njeru Githae

I must admit, I am not easy to impress but Robison Njeru Githae, the minister for finance has pulled off that extraordinary feat; he has won my admiration! Unlike his predecessors, the minister is actually a dynamic and forward-looking man. Personally, I did not know much about the ill-famed man whose bizarre gastronomic proposal on how Kenya should deal with the problem of food shortage became a rich source of biting political satire. Given what was clearly a lack of judgement on his part through his ill-timed and deeply repulsive culinary proposal, I did not know what to make of his appointment to the crucial docket.

Be that as it may, the highly imaginative finance minister is a man with a mission and his forward-looking nature has come in handy in his current assignment.

Konza Technology City: Keynesian Economics or a Grandiose Vanity Project?

There is absolutely no doubt that Kenya is determined to become a prosperous, newly industrializing country that is globally competitive by the year 2030 and the futuristic Konza Technology City, is concrete proof of this great ambition. The Technology City is designed to feature world class civic and commercial architecture including Business Process Outsourcing, Technology Park, Science Park, international finance centre, shopping malls, hotels and accommodation facilities. Konza City is billed to become one of the most successful cities in Africa, competing economically and culturally with the best cities in the world.

Naturally, governments play catch-up with the private sector on matters of development but Konza is a rare exception. When the government officially unveiled the plan to build a specialized city from a scratch, complete with 3-D models, the private sector and indeed the entire country was taken by surprise.

Popular Participation in Political Economy

Believe it or not, the most persistent obstacle to attaining Vision 2030 is not the seemingly insurmountable physical barriers besetting our nation or the plethora of unfavourable global dynamics but rather it is fear. This actually is not a far-fetched opinion given that the failure to achieve sustained economic growth and development is as much a political and social phenomenon as it is economic. President Franklin D. Roosevelt assumed office in November 1932 at the depth of the Great Depression in which 13, 000, 000 Americans were unemployed and almost every bank folded. Borrowing from Charles Dickens literature -it was a season of darkness, it was the winter of despair, it was the worst of times in America but FDR as he is fondly referred, helped the American people regain faith in themselves asserting in his first Inaugural Address that, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." And sure enough, he helped lift the U.S. out of economic despair and revolutionized the American way of life.