Economic slowdown calls for reflection

As an individual, you can tell things are not good when calls from your landlord, water meter man, the reddykilowatt electrician, and the garbage collector, and estate security among others compete for space with the plate of githeri in your house.

Hooked to a global system that had degenerated into a “pyramid scheme type of capitalism,” the Kenyan and by extension African economies find themselves in a similar predicament to those who find themselves at the bottom when such schemes collapse.

Our turn to eat culture has led to disappearance of genuine wealth creators. How can Kenyans and Africans get the man with the motor that turns the world?

The government ought to competitively lease out the idle land held in trust to farmers to produce food for both local consumption and export.

Instead of leasing out millions of acres of land to foreign countries, Africans ought to grab this opportunity and engage in large-scale farming.

Recognizing that each has different abilities, what the government ought to do is to facilitate a competitive environment that rewards talent and skills as opposed to one that freezes talent on the queue awaiting “our turn to it.”

With over 75 per cent locked up in small holder farming, a transparent competition to win tender to graduate to large scale farming will spur agricultural output.

Each one has a motor that contributes to the turning of the world – just don’t let it belong to everyone.

Shikwati is director Inter Region Economic Network james@irenkenya.org