I would encourage many more professionals to consider putting up rural homes.
Last week, fellow columnist Bitange Ndemo wrote about dead capital. His arguments were based on the work of famous Peruvian scholar Hernando De Soto who published the book
The central argument by De Soto was the existence of dead capital across most of the developing world. Dead capital in his assertion explains why capitalism does not thrive outside the West.
Ndemo drew from the central thesis in this book to demonstrate the dangers of our cultural practices of building rural homes purely as burial sites. In his view these homes are dead capital and consequently wasted investment. I normally avoid commenting in this column on what fellow columnists have written.
However, the article on dead capital must be an exception. I have always held De Soto’s view of African property rights falsely assumes that the only function of property rights in society is an economic one.
Any student of property theory is aware that an economic conception of property as propounded by such scholars as Demsetz exists. However, there are other contending views on the function of property in society.
When I built my rural home, I was not concerned about its economic value. Yes, maintaining that home costs me money every month, but that amount is not equivalent to what my family could spend on a week’s holiday if I spent it away from my rural home.
Many of my late father’s agemates never built rural homes. They preferred to spend their life in the city. However, when they retired they found their way to the rural set up. Reintegrating back to society became difficult leave alone the cost and hustle of having to put up a house after retirement.
A society is built on many foundations. Culture is a critical component of such a foundation. A lot of the rural homes serve several non-monetary functions that have to be taken into account in deciding whether one should build rural homes or not. With the state of our development and economic status, not many of us are able to afford homes in the cities where we work.
If one spent the whole of their working life living in rented houses, for example, what would happen to them when retirement beckons and they have no income to continue paying rent.
Secondly in the West, there are those who buy holiday homes near beaches or in other countries. Several people who have rural homes use them as holiday destinations too.
If you are in the village over the Christmas holiday you will find many such people who have come to spend one or two weeks to rest, have their children bond with their grandparents and other relatives and generally relax.
From an economic perspective these peoples’ decision to build in the rural areas may not be misguided. Secondly, that home serves purposes outside economics.
The construction of those buildings in many parts of Kenya also helps to uplift the face and eventually economic status of several rural areas.
They create employment for those employed there and for some folks who would otherwise not invest in their rural villages they get challenged to start thinking of investments they can have to make their sojourn to the villages economically sustainable.
This also enables them engage in the affairs of the village and contribute to the quality of governance.
What may be more preferable is to explore how to put such homes into better use. With devolution many of the former rural areas are developing into towns. Some of these houses may be rented out to those working in the local areas. Secondly people should consider building slightly smaller homes.
I would encourage many more professionals to consider putting up rural homes. They will serve many purposes, inspire young people in the village to work hard, give professionals a reason to go back to the village regularly and contribute to discourse and development of areas they hail from.
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