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.