Africa’s disease is idleness

Whereas Africa is known to rely on rain-powered economy, communities in Western Kenya are known to thrive on “entitlement” powered economy.

That is, they would rather wait for their children and siblings to support them while staring at acres of idle land.

The old lady narrated how she quit the habit of waiting and became a successful farmer in Kitale.

“Where they said women cannot plant trees, I planted; where they said women must offer food to neighbours/visitors, I insisted I will only feed those who have worked on my farm; and, above all, I just stopped being idle and I do not regret it,” she said.

If Africans are not careful, the $10 billion offer from China will grow the “entitlement” culture instead of developing the continent.

China is successfully exploiting the bad seed Western countries planted on the continent: that money is the solution to the continent’s challenges.

Money is not synonymous to expertise; if the continent has to thrive economically, we ought to invest in the quest for skills that can enable our people to exploit resources for the benefit of Africans.

Western Kenya witnesses long M-Pesa queues to receive money, but their “natural resources” still remain underexploited.

If peer orientation made Luhyas (and pardon me) “lazy,” Africa can blame its “laziness” on the haste at which it imbibed alien values without reflection.

Africans should not fear the Chinese but simply develop a strategy to gain from the new found option.

Mr Shikwati Director Inter Region Economic Network james@irenkenya.org