It's not always what competing interests "want" directly, but also what they want to keep us out of. Say Kenya decides (in all seriousness... it's just an example... bear with me now) to start the Nyayo factories back up, and some engineers from the diaspora and local engineers team up with a crew of jua kali mechanics and start building power switching equipment and transformers. This would create direct competition for Siemens. Now, we can't have that, now can we? They are pretty much guaranteed to be mired in mountains of paperwork, bureaucracy, financing, and infrastructure issues AT HOME, in order to prevent a foreign company from loosing market share. In order words, it won't happen, and if it does, there will be some sort of political pressure, a la Mwau.

In addition, with all that geothermal going in, who will provide the turbines and power-switching equipment?

This is how politics REALLY works in the real world, not the circus we see from certain characters. Any first-world government will spend any amount of money to keep exports high and job creation ongoing, even if it costs more upfront to do this, because A) it' a long term investment, and B) it's the people's money- the tax base, fueling corporate profits, so it's a nice transfer to the wealthy.

We have to make the decision to control our own destinies, and realize that with a well-coordinated effort, we can make MORE money than the handouts by building our own industries. The issue is self-doubt. We doubt and laugh at ourselves when I even mention the Nyayo Manufacturing Complex. But this is 2011, and it can be done.

Like a teenager just turning 18, yes it's comfortable digging through mom and dad's fridge and living in the extra DSQ, but, we have to go out on our own. It will be tough at first, but all the better for us later.

Best,

Hill