The Fight against poverty and wealth inequality in Kenya.

Famous Italian economist Ferdinando Galliani once quipped that from manufacturing you may expect the two greatest ills of humanity and slavery, to be healed (Galliani 1770/1959), since the Narc Government took over the realms of power from the second president of Kenya Mr.Moi way back in 2003 there has been tremendous growth in infrastructure and real estate development  is on the rise ,in the country despite the political bickering  embedded in any political system which normally pits the capitalists against what ails the common mans needs for those who believe in Abraham Maslow motivational theory. Today we are living in country where land that is meant for food cultivation and animal husbandry faces fierce competition from those willing to set up property, Industries and infrastructure without conducting  proper due diligence plans for posterity though Vision 2030 purports to address it. Humanity is playing second fiddle to artificial demands created by economic blocks that are driven by profits a system set up by the proponents of free trade theory who are driven by self interests. In Kenya the expansive Rift valley region often referred to as the food basket of the country you encounter dairy and cereals farmers crying foul of low prices for their farm produce which can be attributed to the global chain trade system of rich countries subsidizing their farmers against the perfect market conditions prevalent in developing countries, the same applies to central, western and parts of Nyanza province where hunger is not priority but finding market for their farm produce is a puzzle , the Economic Stimulus package launched by then Minister for Finance now head of state  Uhuru Kenyatta in 2009 saw many farmers diversify from crop to Fish Farming in order to boast their incomes following the aftermath of 2007 post election Violence effects to cushion them against losses economic but not against the Franz stangel effects.

Come July 2011 the Kenya Red Cross society had raised a red flag that at least 3.75 Million Kenyans in arid and semi-arid lands especially in northern Kenya were threatened with death due to the threat of starvation because of drought to the contrary nature has conspired to bequeath this region with the black Gold. Malnutrition rates in Northern Kenya were at emergency levels with more than 385,000 children below the age of 5 years in 13 districts suffering from acute malnutrition. Furthermore, many schools without school-feeding programmes had been closed. Other visible indicators included increased livestock deaths and erosion of livelihood and survival options available to the affected pastoralists. The worst affected districts included Wajir, Mandera, Marsabit, Turkana, Moyale, Eastern Samburu, and Northern Isiolo although certain districts in rain dependent Lower Eastern Region such as the northern parts of Mwingi and Kitui districts and the Coastal Region, which had also sank into the emergency phase classification of food insecurity. Further, at least 20 people were reported to have lost their lives as a result of drought-related effects. It was at this point that the Government declared drought a National Disaster. This led to birth of local idea by the name Kenyans for Kenya Initiative which saw Kenyans through the mobile payment solutions MPESA and some of the leading corporate firms in the country led by telecoms leader Safaricom  raise charity funds close to over $10 million dollars in a span of one month this goes to affirm that synergies between public private sector partnerships can offer a lasting solution to the health, Nutrition and other related problems that bedevil our economies, it also demonstrates that Africa no longer needs aid but trade ,the initiative is a living demonstration of how PPPS can transform a society, the mid- to long-term plan for the initiative was to focus on integrated food security, water and sanitation, and health with a specific objective of ensuring resilience to the effects of drought for populations in Northern Kenya and its already bearing fruits as result of constructing  various dams, boreholes and the introduction of irrigation in the so called ASAL areas is but a noble cue  to be embraced .The new constitutional dispensation heralds new era in Kenya’s quest for equality and equity in terms of income distribution to the various devolved governments units who can take advantage of the Kenya open data government portal https://opendata.go.ke/ to enhance social justice prosperity inter alia , however the fight against poverty will need more action in terms of having more educated women, statistics have indicated that the more a woman is educated, the less number of children she would bear – which the economy can support , Vision 2030’s main aim is to transform Kenya into a newly industrializing, middle-income country providing a high quality of life to all its citizens by the year 2030, all in a clean and secure environment however as a  society adopting a model similar to the  Chinese model  or rather some western child policy needs take into account the plight of the minority groups and future industrial and economic needs this explains why cheap odd immigrant labour  is rampant in the west against an ageing populace. The level of unwanted pregnancies can be tamed by way of having more women in classes and better equal employment opportunities; with a population that injects over a million newborn babies annually against a GDP per capita of $800 per annum it spells doom on the nation’s ability to achieve the aforesaid vision as my grandmother once told me to share is to care but not necessarily to bear the consequences of our neighbours actions.