The Challenge of a “Handouts Transactions Economy” in EMC

Friday 26 April 2019

 Paul Kipchumba

 It is certain that it will not come to anyone’s surprise that not a single smart person in our society has managed to live up to their expectations of a reformed society or optimum participation in society affairs since independence. The space between smartness and socio-economic transformation in our society has been taken over by a “handouts transactions economy” conducted by illiterate masses and ignorant politicians.

 Ideally, the professionals are a significant link between the masses and the politicians (who happen to represent a retrogressive trend of professionalism). As soon as these crop of professionals join the “handouts transactions economy” as key stakeholders, they begin to take instructions from illiterate masses and champion their interests, chief among which is to unempower the professionals to sustain a backward economy which is amenable to their outlook in life.

 This “handouts transactions economy” is about KES 50 mentality marketed by politicians and adopted by the masses. The politicians give the masses about KES 50 note every time they have an encounter. This exchange corrupts the minds of the masses and the politicians. Thus it ensures that a codified economy is created and sustained.

For our society to progress there is need for the professionals to take their rightful place to restore the balance. At the moment there is a socio-economic disequilibrium that makes it impossible to transform. If you take the productivity math of our dependency economy you will realize that one professional is equivalent to one thousand masses, or, to be precise, one thousand masses depend on a single professional. But the professionals are not part of the county transformation agenda. So, it means that all the dependency financial remittances send by the professionals to the county end up being consumed by the masses, and that way a vicious cycle of poverty is sustained, while everyone nurses a false hope of a socio-economic transformation in our lifetimes.

While this observation seems rude and arrogant, it is the blunt truth that we rarely confront about our society. For instance, we have got to banish the hand hoe in order to modernize our agriculture. For us to reach a factory system where we export industrial goods, we have to work with talent which is absent among the masses and politicians. Therefore, the responsibility of transforming the society in substantive ways rests with united professionals.

I know that there is some misconception that corruption and other underhand deals can create wealth. In my reading of history I have not come across an example of a corrupt person becoming a first-rate wealthy. They can only escape poverty, sometimes just for a short period. To create brands and products in the market needs a conducive environment that is based on thought and labour. Nearly all individuals who have managed to do anything meaningful in life have done so because they have worked exceedingly hard. The price of everything in life is determined by the amount of labour expended. Where there is no labour, there is no price.

Similarly, I know that such weird suggestions as asking smart people to immigrate to other societies where there is overcapacity is both cowardice and irresponsible. Without a strong local economy it is impossible for immigrants to compete and rank out there. The best hope, therefore, is for the professionals to fight to reform the local economy by taking their rightful position in the society, with dignity and decorum. The masses and the politicians have to be guided.

There was also the question of leadership positions in the society. There is another misconception that political positions are the only major positions of leadership in the society. There are very many of them outside politics. The only problem is that they have not been developed to be even bigger than political positions. I said a while back that we can aspire to have the next pope from EMC, a Bill Gates, an Isaac Newton, a Beethoven, etc. Already we have the finest athletes. But they need to be institutionalized in order to play a dominant role in the society. If we develop all other positions of leadership to reach their rightful influence in the society, political positions will be left to career politicians or to idlers.

But why haven’t the smart people managed to reform their society? The proponents of the “handouts transactions economy” harbour a higher sense of inferiority complex that works on blackmail, negative gossips and scare tactics; however, if the professionals take time to observe keenly and see through, they will realize that the proponents of the “handouts transactions economy” do not have the capacity for a sustained onslaught. Therefore, united professionals can effectively put a stop to the “handouts transactions economy” in EMC.

Banditry in the Kerio Valley is a Community Investment

Paul Kipchumba

Monday 27 May 2019

To be at the receiving end of the reprimands of the Pokot and the Marakwet communities in the Kerio Valley is to utter a couple of statements:

(i) all residents of the Kerio Valley are bandits, save for the degree of banditry;

(ii) all bandits are community properties because since 1900 there is no bandit that has been handed to the government for prosecution;

(iii) there is no way that an illiterate and cashless bandit (except a few) can procure a gun, a hand grenade, and a bullet;

(iv) all dead bandits are community martyrs or heroes and are accorded a funeral honour, and all wounded bandits are supported by the communities; and

(v) all bandits in the Kerio Valley are normal citizens who transact with the government in very many ways and are known by the government.

The government is reluctant to stamp out banditry in the Kerio Valley because it will be tantamount to fighting a whole community; therefore, banditry in the Kerio Valley can only be ended by the two communities involved at their own time and of their own volition. There is already a lot of financial allocation from the national exchequer channeled to the two communities. But their local leaders and policy-makers are reluctant to invest the money in priority areas that can promote economic development in the Kerio Valley such as joint community agricultural and industrial projects, model joint settlements, joint churches and schools, among other innovative approaches.

In my view, the only hope for ending banditry in the Kerio Valley is to promote harmonious coexistence between the Pokot and the Marakwet. However, the beneficiaries of banditry have used it to impoverish the local communities in a way that will sustain a “handouts transactions economy” to guarantee re-election.

I grew up in the Kerio Valley and have researched widely among the Pokot and the Marakwet communities as exemplified by my latest paper “Prof. Wanjala in Culture Work: A Reflection on the Socio-Cultural Profiles of the Pokot and the Marakwet Communities” (Education Tomorrow - Kenya, Issue 5 number 1, January-April 2019). I have established that 70% of the local communities want to see a transformed Kerio Valley, whereas the remaining 30% want to continue using the 70% to champion their selfish interests centring around participation in local politics.

Thus there are two measures for ending banditry in the Kerio Valley: (i) encourage the two communities to fight a lot more until they realize the full picture of sustaining banditry in the Kerio Valley, and (ii) to eliminate the 30% who sustain it. And these are the choices that have put the national government security policy-makers in a dilemma.

The Dangers of Cattle Rustling Terrorism in the Kerio Valley

There is a developing brand of deadly terrorism in the Kerio Valley section of Baringo (Tiaty) and Elgeyo Marakwet (Marakwet East) counties out of violent cattle rustling activities. It is violent cattle rustling marred by serious disinformation by both local communities and government officials. This threat of cattle rustling terrorism has instilled fear among the local residents and has brought about standstill to development in the region.

Marakwet East and Tiaty sub-counties practise some form of violent cattle rustling using illegal small arms and light weapons, picking from an age-old cattle raiding tradition between the two communities. While there are witnessed vanishing herds in many regions of Kenya, demonstrating some steady transition into modern economy, there is a diametrically opposite development out of the Kerio Valley – cattle rustling terrorism. At the moment it is not clear how far it will go, hence the need to nip it in the bud.

Marakwet East is an economic embarrassment to Elgeyo Marakwet County, whereas Tiaty is an economic embarrassment to Baringo County. However, the leaders of the two sub-counties, especially their members of parliament, are proud individuals. One would have imagined them being demeaned by leading backward regions and so should be at the forefront of fighting cattle rustling terrorism through creative mobilization of their people through joint economic activities and people to people exchanges in such forums as church functions, economic and educational fairs.

It is on this account that I propose national and international sanctions against the members of parliament for Marakwet East and Tiaty Hon. David Kangogo Bowen and Hon. William Kassait Kamket for holding back their people from the much needed economic empowerment, thus compromising with the viability of and trickle-down benefits out of the county system of governance. They should shoulder the ultimate political responsibility for the developing cattle rustling terrorism in the Kerio Valley under their watch.

What is this developing cattle rustling terrorism? The residents of Tiaty depend on the Kerio River for watering their livestock and also for drawing drinking water out of improvised sand dams. The residents of Marawket East depend on the main Biretwo-Tot-Marich Pass Road for active mobility and commerce. The Marakwet cattle rustling terrorists keep ambushing innocent Pokot at the river point, killing them. The Pokot cattle rustling terrorists keep ambushing innocent Marakwet travellers at the main road, killing them, as exemplified by the recent killing of a clinical officer riding on a motorbike. However, the Pokot of Tiaty have paid the additional price of extreme marginalization, and lack of media coverage.

I have had an opportunity to interview both the Pokot and the Marakwet, having lived at the Kerio River between 2012 and 2016 at the Kipchumba Foundation educational settlement at Chepchoren at the border of Marakwet East and Tiaty. Since December 2018 I have managed to engage members of the two communities through social media where I made relevant observations until I published a book: Lessons for Economies in Transition: The Case of Elgeyo Marakwet County (EMC), Kenya (2019). I have scaled up those discussions these past a few days by enabling operationalization of Pokot-Marakwet social media groupings and by adding key Pokot leaders into a premier Elgeyo Marakwet County ideas forum on Whatsapp called EMC Agenda: SWOT Analysis.

While every one of the members of the discussion groups believed that the local police officers knew all the cattle rustling terrorists, it was difficult to ascertain the existence of such data in the hands of the local police. However, the participants strongly recommended empowerment of the National Police Reservists (NPR) by being paid some remuneration from local sources of finances such as Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and allocations to the affected wards. With political and community good will, the NPR should be able to cross the borders to pursue and arrest culprits like in the case of the Pokot and the Turkana counties. There is also some need to recruit more educated NPR and procure advanced security facilities such as night vision goggles and (armed) infrared surveillance drones, within the law.

The peacebuilding efforts between the Pokot and the Turkana, as spearheaded by the governors of West Pokot and Turkana counties, centred on political good will, empowerment of National Police Reservists (NPR), recruitment of peace ambassadors, and massive joint educational investments at the border areas. The Pokot-Marakwet peacebuilding suggestions included identifying and stopping the flow of illegal small arms and light weapons to the Kerio Valley, and borrowing from the northern Uganda case between the Pokot and the Karamojong, where communities were asked to surrender their illegal firearms in exchange for development through the Ministry for Karamoja Affairs.

There were also some suggestions such as adoption of modern livestock breeds, land demarcation, paddocking of grazing areas to create multi-layered barriers, allowing Pokot herders to graze on the vast abandoned Marakwet meadows at a fee, and prevention of the violent cattle rustling activities from degenerating into cattle rustling warlordism, perpetrated by organized armed militia, as there are enough illegal small arms and light weapons in the region to make it easy to form a highly capable fighting force.

Finally, there is need to mobilize the counties of Baringo, Elgeyo Marakwet and West Pokot to invest in joint development projects along the Kerio Valley in a bid to redirect their people into meaningful economic activities. The prevailing aloofness of duty bearers amid emerging cattle rustling terrorism should be punished for being a major encumbrance to the attainment of the goals of the county and national governments, and the aspirations of the people of Kenya. One way to do this is move the residents of the Kerio Valley to the nearest commercial centres by building low-cost houses for them, using locally available materials; ensuring that all local government officials who lie about the developing home-grown (cattle rustling) terrorism in the Kerio Valley should be dismissed forthwith.

An Ode against Convenience Leaderships in Elgeyo Marakwet County (EMC)

In a discussion last evening in a Whatsapp group I promised to write this brief protest note.

The problems bedevilling EMC include

1.      capital outflow – as a result of convenience leaderships, and

2.      lack of capital inflow – as a result of unproductive staff.

The county leaderships view occupying a leadership position as a lifestyle convenience, not sacrifice and commitment like in the case of Christian missionaries who built most of the structures, especially schools and health centres, which we take pride in.

At the moment EMC does not have full-time senior staff but part-time consultants operating from Uasin Gishu County (Eldoret Town). By this measure alone EMC is a big corruption pipe that is used to siphon money from the national exchequer to develop neighbouring counties.  And it is the most serious happening in 21^st century – leaders who do not have confidence in the regions they lead.  Until we address this glaring pilferage of public resources, EMC has no moral authority to tax her residents whom they don’t buy from.

In addition, there is no concerted effort towards attracting investments or carrying out viable and productive investments in EMC. There is only a talk of increase in allocation of finances from Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA), even though it is clear that going forward such formulas used in the allocation of monies to counties will only favour producing counties, not consuming and wasteful ones like EMC.

I suggest that

1.      EMC should curb capital outflow by employing only those who are committed to live, work, and operate within the county, and

2.     all future discussions about EMC, especially with the professionals and other stakeholders, should include mechanisms for curbing capital outflows and inducing capital inflows.

#Say No to Convenience Leaderships in EMC!