Addressing the tribal and ethnic symptom in our Kenyan politics through introduction of Minority Taxes

I know it  may sound a bit awkward but it does as well provide room to critique and synthesize  our problems from a financial perspective in dealing with a social and cultural problem whose genesis lies in unfair distribution of resources compounded by plutocracy, to the externalities of the 1884 Berlin conference where  German Chancellor Otto  von Bismarck  convened a rendez vous of imperial capitalists  to divide Africa and the subsequent lack of belief in established institutions of governance by the native leaders.

Me thinks that the tribalism is not the problem in this country but  rather a tool or platform used by tribal powerbrokers to a mass wealth at the expense of their ethnic identity , the common Luo,Kikuyu,Luhya, Kamba and the rest of the other ethnic formations in the slum areas and other parts of the country  co-exist peacefully  but come the ballot period its ones surname that matters but not what his or her  candidate stands for . Once the powerbrokers get into power they appoint  a few ethnic henchmen usually business associates so as to exploit the goodwill of their blinded supporters.

Many at times have blamed the Kikuyus for being tribal  but what they fail to realize is that even under President Moi, he had his own Kalenjin brothers  and the same would replicate to the various ministries, parastatal appointments. What we ought to realize is that criminal gangs such as Mungiki arose as a  result of historical injustices and further hardened by being misused by politicians who gave false promises, In Luo Nyanza we have seen the occasional clashes between the Chinese and American gangs in Kisumu fighting for the control of the city  at the coast we had the Movements such the Mombasa Republican  with claims of marginalization, Al shabaab a branch of Al Qaeda seems to have sympathisers in the formerly   Northern Frontier district, The Taliban group in Nairobi’s Eastland Area, to the Gusii led sungusungu, chinkororo etc., all the groups have one thing in common they are trying to fill a vacuum  which the government has overlooked , that of suppression which in turn they find solace  in religion fanaticism, criminality due to abandonment by those charged with running the  institutions of governance.

Having said that , As nation we need to  critically address  this issue ideologically rather our usual short term impulse approach to issues , though gains are being made by the current constitution through devolution of resources to county governments, the limit set  on the ethnic composition of public sector employees in various state agencies,the equalization fund under the  current  constitution are  just but just a few measures put in place to curb unfair employment practices and unequal distribution of resources . However the continuous emergence of the private sector which  offers higher incomes should be wrapped in the process . There is need for the government to introduce tax breaks for home grown companies  and provide tax incentives  for Kenyan companies retaining jobs locally, having said that it should be made mandatory for companies to file audited employee reports tallied against Paye As You Earn at the end of the year  , this report would assist in formulating  and  imposing Tax penalties for companies that are ethnically imbalanced , however for this to be achieved a formula for determining the percentage of unfair employment  practices has to be worked out and legislated , however in my opinion this kind of premium penalties will kind of address unfair employment practices  in our private sector that is mainly run by the same power brokers , for public sector we need to have a capping on the procurement of tenders and contracts based on number of tenders issued and the ethnic composition of the stakeholders for the tenders awarded during a particular fiscal year and the magnitude of the tender at hand as Saint Thomas Aquinas once said said  “Justice is a certain rectitude of mind whereby a man does what he ought to do in circumstances confronting him”.

Understanding Chinese infrastructural Aid in Africa in the wake of Geopolitics

Flying Geese Model

The recent itinerary by the Chinese premier  to some of the key African economies  namely  Angola, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Kenya  with a combined population of  around 325 million people might have rattled the Bretton Woods affiliates against the increasing presence of  Brics investments and lending  to the African continent led by China in key infrastructural projects. There has been an outcry based on comparisons  between Sino Aid and Western Aid  towards Africa which in my view is based on one hand, the perceived lack of human rights ,substandard products/services,negation of Social and Environmental Impact Assessment and corruption  as  terms and conditions for advancing loans to key African countries  by the Chinese in the eyes of the Bretton Woods wing  while on the other hand, there has been a growing resentment  by the African states on the tough conditions attached to funding of key projects with terms ranging from Privatization, addressing public expenditure through employment freezing and or retrenchment  inter alia. However it must be noted that the west's presence on the continent has been that of exploitation during the colonial days and neo colonialism through major international aid agencies that  mainly practice palliative economics. With the ever rising levels of educated middle income earners across  the African continent there is bound to be great awareness on the type  of diplomatic and trade engagements  that will yield high returns and drive these budding economies into self-sustaining economies. Yes China does realize that it needs  oil from Angola and Nigeria to energize its economy and for the Ethiopians  to leverage on cost of production  while Kenya is seen as source of food and (entry to the landlocked states) for its over one billion people inter alia while Africa needs capital expenditure to spur trade,the trade between these countries is largely skewed in favour of china and more ironically to the west whom they trade with more compared to china  , the trade between Africa and the west  is based on comparative advantage economics with no technology transfer.

China itself  received over  USD200 million in 1978 from Japan in terms of development aid though these was halted twice , first in 1989 after the Tiananmen Square incident, and secondly in response to China's nuclear testing in 1995  and eventually the agreement by Japanese authorities to stop  new soft-yen loans to China from 2008,based on projections that china would not  require any soft loan by then and that it will have come  of age economically, a leaf that African countries can borrow from (Angola has been funding Portugal's banks though through individual capitalism), China has and still is a recipient of donor funding despite joining the big brothers table. The big question is can Africa assume the role of china when it was still getting aid from Japan. Back to Geopolitics as China was signing loan agreement with Kenya totalling over USD 5 billion on key infrastructural projects so was the World Bank advancing over USD300 million to Tanzania to improve and reconstruct its railway line a case of  balancing business foes and friends  in the wake of the rising new business frontiers and realignments hence the emergence of  coalition of the willing  in tandem with the Ethiopian, South Sudan,Uganda, Rwanda and Nigeria approach taken by his excellency Uhuru Kenyatta on the African front while on the International front the West have been busy investing in high end software technology thence the presence of IBM research  centre in Kenya to the hardware infrastructural development in terms of roads, rail , airports to access the markets for raw materials inter alia by the Chinese .

As a cautionary , the Chinese did reiterate that they are not only after minerals but on wider development mission;could this trigger the reduction  of non-governmental organizations ? Moreover African authorities need to understand that Chinese are experts in Escrow Agreements meaning that they would want clear understanding on repayment terms as the loans are managed  by a third party but not the recipient and that they have a lot say on whom the projects will be contracted to  this has its own disadvantages and merits as the funds are kind of tied to the lender and the recipient loses on procurement processes, quality assurance and labour issues.

What African states need to realize now is that opening up infrastructure opens trade to goods and services however a caution has to excised on creating tax haven policies that favour foreign firms when they land into a flying geese economy.

The Kenyan Security system;addressing patriotism and personnel welfare

The various spontaneous report running in our mainstream media like the recent  High Court orders on KDF to release 26 former soldiers who had been accused of  dissertation of duty in search of  green pastures offered by foreign security firms as reported by the standard newspapers , to the case of the two  police officers arrested with cache of ivory ferrying it to Nairobi from Meru and other undercover cases that go unnoticed by the general public underscores  the need  for the state authorities to revitalize the wheels of justice with an aggressive  but diplomatic Maasai rungu.

Towards the end of last year parliament tabled the Military Veterans Bill 2013  that was meant to establish and institute mechanisms of rewarding benefits to the military war veterans and their dependants there of  , I hope that the National Police Service Commission extends the olive branch to the police force too. However of critical importance is the need to shift away from short term measures  whenever we are struck by war crimes or security disasters; there has been a tendency  to mobilize funds for the fallen victims through Paybill Numbers running on various Telco’s  platforms such as MPESA, it must be noted that  however philanthropic it is , it negates the whole reason why we pay for taxes  for services not rendered. Our men and women in uniform as they often referred to, do deserve dignity and honour in rendering services to wananchi , the cases of  police and military who find themselves  dismembered by acts of war  do not need to be dismembered by the state when it comes to paying their benefits , remuneration  and most importantly their dependants and the methodology of reincorporating and intergrating  returning soldiers suffering from psychological effects in our mainstream society through well thought out counselling plans before reuniting with their families and the general public . In today’s changing African society there is a great correlation between pecuniary motivation and patriotism , for patriotism is being eroded by graft and diminishing  cultural virtues. The externalities we are experiencing today in terms of terrorism are partly due to economic mismanagement of public resources and the effects of Geopolitics driven by resource control.

Though various laws do supplement  the form in which the Military Veterans Bill was intended more needs to be done  , for instance the calculcation of  GPA is usually based on Permanent Total Disability under GPA - Eight Years (Basic Salary + House Allowance + Medical Allowance) x Percentage awarded  as provided for under the Insurance Act cap 487 , what props in any sane  mind is the entry level salaries and the prevailing salary at the time of death  , are they worth given someone’s age and period of service.

The introduction of  medical and life insurance covers by the government last year following upon recommendations  by the task force chaired by Justice (Rtd) Philip Ransley that  introduction of the comprehensive medical insurance cover to take care of the health of the police officers on account of their high-risk exposure was a good step forward however there is need to invest more in security education , better remuneration, new forms of technology   and above cutting of wastage public resources our security spending is the highest in the horn of Africa region  but at the same time it beats the purpose of communities having  to invest and build  police posts yet each and every year we have slightly over $2billion dollars that goes unaccounted for by the government, the Controller of Budget Audit report for  FY 2011/2012 explains it all  where kes 300 billion was unaccounted for. What the government needs to realize that having more police officers and boots on the ground is one thing,on the contrary just use of resources for educating  and empowering the citizenry is a noble solution for our safety building a purely individualistic capitalist society won’t take us anywhere.