Sunday, June 10, 2012

Aspirants should tell us how they will grow economy


Aspirants should tell us how they will grow economy

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By KWENDO OPANGA
Posted  Saturday, June 9  2012 at  17:34
The single most important challenge facing Kenya’s youth today and, therefore, people intending to get into the next government and leadership positions is unemployment.
Therefore what we should be hearing from the political parties is how to create employment for the youth of Kenya in particular and Kenyans in general.
Job creation is tied to wealth creation which, in turn, is tied to expanding or growing Kenya’s economy.
When an economy is growing, opportunities for investment pop up; when an economy is growing, businesses expand and diversify and small businesses stand to realise the dream of becoming big, national, regional or even global players.
Therefore when an economy is growing, there are opportunities for individuals and businesses to save, invest and grow.
Investment opportunities
When an economy is growing, people have money to spend and, in turn, help to grow the economy. Indeed, a growing economy will unleash the entrepreneurial spirit in people, further unlocking investment opportunities.
Entrepreneurs flourish because they are creative and innovative; entrepreneurs thrive because they have access to affordable loan and credit facilities.
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Yes, entrepreneurs increase because governments have created environments for business to emerge and prosper. In a word, it is not governments that create jobs, it is entrepreneurs that do.
What we should be hearing from those who want to lead Kenya and its 47 counties should be about education and training programmes that will equip Kenya’s youth for jobs and the spirit of creating jobs; economic plans that will create wealth and therefore jobs; and blueprints for attracting local and foreign investments in specific areas.
What we should be hearing from our political parties and leaders is how they intend to make Kenya a 24-hour economy.
This means we should be told, for example, how they intend to make electricity and other forms of energy available and reliable for a 24-hour economy to succeed.
It means they should be telling us what they intend to do to guarantee investors and Kenyans as a whole security on a 24-hour basis.
It is a sad commentary on our politics that we spend four years after every election building our economy and then, when we are going into the next election, the economy goes south.
Impact of insecurity
None other than Prime Minister Raila Odinga reminded media editors of this troubling feature of our politics last year. That speaks volumes about the impact of insecurity on the economy.
Businesses thrive because there is security; businesses collapse because of insecurity.
Kenyans are a resilient people and have demonstrated that they are ready to pick up the pieces and get back to work every time they have been hit by man-made disasters, and especially politically instigated disasters. Kenyans want to be assured of adequate security.
We should by now have established which one of our parties could be tagged the law and order party; party of financial prudence and probity; of education and technology or agriculture and food security, for example.
We would have known this from the pronouncements and platforms of the parties that dot the landscape. Not yet and the way things stand we will not know our parties, which means what they stand for.
Programmes and ideas
This will happen when, one, the politics shifts from discussing personalities to discussing their programmes and ideas. Things will change when, two, politicians change their attitudes towards political parties. Parties stand for — and stand up for — something.
But I may be asking too much of our parties and politicians. May I just ask them to tell us what they want to do for Kenya’s economy in order that it may grow at between 7 and 10 per cent.
May I ask them to tell us what they intend to do to create jobs especially for the young people and or enable the young people to create jobs.
Lastly, may I remind them that in 1963, the founding fathers set themselves the goal of ridding Kenya of poverty, ignorance and disease.
Now, because next year Kenya will be 50 years old as an independent country what would they want us to do in furtherance or realisation of this ideal? That is, what have we achieved and how can we make Kenya better still?
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I have heard it said we should vote for the devil we know than the angel you do not. Good people, don’t vote for the devil because he is evil.
Vote for the angel and then hold her to her word. It’s her word and deed that would have made her an angel. Yeah?
Kwendo Opanga is a media consultant opanga@diplomateastafrica.com

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