PK wants in too

[quote=jaggernaut]Discussions cannot be held in public rallies. The people of Kenya have elected their representatives who are in parliament and senate, and those are the only 2 places that dialogue should happen. Non elected persons including Raila and kalonzo can sit at the public gallery in bunge and follow the dialogue.

Our leaders seem to oscillate on the idea of a National dialogue over a number of issues including tribalism, national security and the ever-increasing public sector wage bill.

If they pass the existing institutional framework and the agenda is adopted, then I am afraid they may not do much. To begin with, and beyond institutions, more stakeholders need to agree on the agenda because the issues that have been proposed are consequences of underlying root causes. What we need to deal with are the root causes, not symptoms.

>>> The root cause of our problems is the scarcity of resources. Resources are scarce because we are not as productive as other countries. In simpler terms, we are not working smart enough and perhaps that is why others say Africans are lazy. Let me elaborate on these statements.

With the Ministry of Lands is when the Banking Hall was automated. The revenue at the Ministry jumped from Sh800 million to Sh9 billion a year. It was only the front end that had been digitized, but at the same time it generated great resistance. Once the back end is digitized with the current exercise, the Ministry could generate as much as $1 billion or at least 10 per cent of national expenditure.

If the same were replicated in all other registries, revenue to the Government would markedly improve and with same resources deployed, it means we would have improved our productivity levels. Productivity too is one of the variables that impacts on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth.

In the mid-1980s in Kitale (the breadbasket of Kenya), a farmer could easily harvest 40 bags an acre, but today productivity has dropped to below 10 bags an acre. That is why we are importing maize at this day and time.

It defeats logic when the GDP of a natural resource-poor and small country like Belgium is equivalent to that of Sub Saharan countries with enormous amount of natural resources. We have some 60 per cent of global arable land yet we go out there to beg for food. Just what is wrong with us?

So if we want to deal with National Security, let us deal with the root cause of the problem >>>> managing the youth – for economic transformation.

Tribalism too can be traced to scarcity of resources. If everybody had food, shelter and clothing, they would rarely brave the night to go and steal from a neighbour, or even care where the next neighbour comes from. >>>>Countries that have managed to provide for these basic necessities generally are stable and prosperous.

>>>>So instead of putting tribalism on the agenda, let us discuss how we can improve food security through mechanization of farming, how we can start land consolidation in order to create sustainable land use, how we can provide social services such education and healthcare to all, how research at our universities can come up with affordable housing for all, and finally, how we can take advantage of the youth bulge to become the global manufacturing hub and rid our people of buying mitumba (used clothing). The public sector wage bill is not ballooning; it is GDP that is not growing faster than inflation. We must therefore ensure that we work very hard to make the economy grow faster and justify the current wage bill