We need productive people, not jobs

James Shikwati

April 1, 2009: She is called Salome. She has walked on Mbagathi Way and crossed Mombasa Road to Enterprise Road for the last 30 years to work at a food packaging plant in Industrial Area.

Her status has remained just that; one of the hundreds of thousands of Nairobians who stream out of Kibera as early as 4.00 am to work for around $2 a day. Close to 200 kilometres from Nairobi is a market town, Il Bissil where ole Seteu's cattle have faced the ravages of drought and he is now selling them for $10 each, down from $ 200.

My drive to Il Bissil last week forced me to reflect on the efficacy of the development system Kenya adopted for its people. Early in the morning it will be thousands of workers (labourers) walking to Industrial Area for a pay package that simply keeps them alive to walk the next day.

Later in the morning there will be hundreds of automobiles of all shades queuing in early morning traffic as workers head to their offices to receive pay packages that sustain a market that does not liberate the country.

The Il Bissil market has witnessed thousands of cattle sales from pre independence Kenya. Its operations have remained basic. The Maasai sell less when the climate favours them and dispose in a state of panic whenever drought hits.

Salome and ole Seteu's predicament mirrors that of Kenya and Sub- Sahara African countries in general. According to the UN, Sub -Saharan Africa has 75 per cent of its population living on less than half a dollar a day; in other words Africans wake up early to offer labour and raw materials to developed economies and earn just enough to wake up another day.

Development strategy
Ole Seteu is trapped in a situation where he has to sell one cow to raise money to provide water and grass for the remaining herd. Only nature can determine whether his stock can be rejuvenated through onset of rains.

Salome's dream was to one day join the SUV driving class while ole Seteu's big dream is to keep his stock well fed.

Sub- Saharan countries dream of changing their city skylines to mirror New York as a measure of development. In cases of the individual and the country; they both remain on the highway of dependence while yet another class swims in wealth— courtesy of their labour.

I tracked Salome for years, and unfortunately, she passed on, having accumulated few basics such as mattresses, cooking utensils, a radio – what one may call household goods. Her employer recorded improved profitability and high standing at the stock market.

I have been tracking ole Seteu for three years and what I have noticed is that his colleagues are now selling off hundreds of acres of land and opting to migrate to the city as security guards.

Clearly; we have not created an African development strategy that can build on existing knowledge of the people, borrow selectively from successful economies and increase productivity of our people in order to create our own market system.

Our education system gives us “wrong dreams.” What Kenya urgently needs is a productive population.

A reframed educational, political and financial system will enable ole Seteu to manage his thousands of acres efficiently by drilling boreholes among other options. Focus on productivity will liberate Salome's team not to depend on pay packages, but become investors in their own right.

Kenya's dream ought not to be creating jobs; but pushing her citizenry to be productive and respond to the needs of their environment. A Kenyan Obama must liberate this country from the ritual of simply keeping people alive to walk tomorrow.

Shikwati is Director, Inter Region Economic Network [email protected] e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it