Ideas & Debate

Our development model is fine, graft is the spoiler

expressway

The ongoing construction of the Nairobi Expressway along Mombasa road. FILE PHOTO | NMG

There have been very interesting and welcome debates about what Kenya’s development model is and what it should be going forward. This is welcome because national development is a dynamic process that shifts with evolving human and national needs, changing demographics, and new knowledge/ technologies.

Manifestos for parties aspiring to form new governments essentially aim at realigning development priorities to address specific needs of the time, and this is why five-year development plans and longer-term plans and visions have always been prepared.

The intentions of the national development model crafted in 1960s by Kenya’s pioneer economic team (Tom Mboya, Mwai Kibaki, Philip Ndegwa, John Michuki etc.) defined the guiding development goals as reduction of ignorance, disease, and poverty so as to uplift quality of lives while increasing household incomes.

I believe these basic deliverables have remained the guiding development planning principles. The ongoing debates appear to be how to achieve these deliverables.

What has also not changed and is unlikely to change is that rapid development is achieved when individual and community efforts are enabled by appropriate policies, regulations, relevant skills, efficient local and national value chain systems, and facilitative infrastructure. All these plus private sector partnerships.

Devolution was meant to increase focus and efforts to marshal and multiply local resources and opportunities especially in areas of agriculture, commerce, and various enterprises. And as long as the Counties are sufficiently funded from national coffers they should drive grassroots development.

Any incoming national government should therefore aim at strengthening and supporting counties to deliver on their development roles, especially provision of efficient national value chain systems and infrastructure.

There is nothing sinister about focus on infrastructure if it serves to facilitate national production, distribution, local/regional trade, and tourism, all of which directly and indirectly support grassroots livelihoods.

Irrigation dams empower grassroots agriculture, highways enable local and regional commerce and trade. Lapsset corridor will open up sleepy fractions of Kenya.

Dongo Kundu project will empower Kwale county economy while expanding coastal and regional trade. The Expressway and by-passes in and around Nairobi will support a high GDP Nairobi economy which generates most tax revenues which in turn fund grassroots development through county allocations.

These are examples of many ongoing infrastructure developments which will directly and indirectly open up local socio-economic opportunities and jobs.

An honest review of why Kenya has not sufficiently delivered on jobs and household incomes, will confirm that high level corruption continues to hijack public resources meant for development.

Corruption has also stripped bare many public productive institutions and systems, significantly disabling grassroots efforts and public confidence. This is why the words “revive” and “rebuild” appear in nearly every page of national plans and budgets.

Correcting many historical deficiencies caused by corruption is a big burden for the current and next government.

Bottom/Up/Down development theories do not make much sense in an environment at the mercy of systemic corruption. No development model, however intellectually crafted, will survive the forces of systemic corruption. Monies will be budgeted, released, and then stolen or wasted with limited results to show. Electoral manifestos should first and foremost demonstrate how to reign in corruption to ring-fence taxpayers’ money in national and county budgets.

Going forward national development should be a well lubricated partnership between the national government, county governments and private sector players, all targeting to increase national productivity and wealth. This way Kenyans will have an opportunity to participate and share in the form of grassroots production, enterprises, and employment..

Productive sectors (agriculture, mining, manufacturing, SMEs) and general commerce have the greatest development multiplier effects.

These should be prioritised and supported with equitable budgetary allocations, enabling regulatory frameworks and facilitative infrastructure. This is in addition to socio-infrastructure (education, health, recreation) which enhance the quality of lives.

Finally, I believe there is nothing amiss with the development model that has guided Kenya for the last sixty years. What we need is to address the “spoilers’ of which the most devastating is public resource leakages.

Prudent management and allocation of public resources will be critical, especially if we intend to sooner than later free our country from the grips of IMF, which will continue to limit development planning flexibility.