Memorandum submitted by Development Through
Media
As Kenya steps into the year 2004, the new government's
commitment to the fight against corruption, the introduction of
free primary education among other measures of reform, continue
to fuel optimism about improvements in the well being of the citizenry.
Development through Media (DTM) concurs with
both the Government of Kenya (GoK) and the DfID that indeed the
key challenges facing the country are economic recovery, the eradication
of poverty and inequity, the involvement of the citizenry in decision-making,
and the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
The DfID-Kenya Country Assistance Plan 2004-07
is commendable, first, on its commitment to working with the GoK
through supporting the Economic Recovery Strategy (ERS) for employment
and wealth creation; and second, in its commitment to supporting
the efforts of the civil society in strengthening the citizen's
ability to call the GoK to account for its actions.
DTM would like to make several comments on several
issues in the Country Plan in the areas of:
(ii) equitable redistribution of the benefits
of development; and
(iii) the international context of the GoK
Economic Recovery Strategy.
EMPOWERMENT
That the country has come up with a sound ERS
is without question. The ERS, coming in the context of promises
made to the citizenry by the NARC government, holds promise for
the improvement in the welfare of the common person.
Promised reforms such as that made by the government
to fight graft, may be sustained through trusting in the goodwill
of the governing elite. Yet examples from countries that went
through the same experience as Kenya show that this approach rarely
works. The reform process by its very nature threatens the vested
interests of the elite and as such they are bound to pay only
lip service to the promises they make.
The way around the problem therefore remains
to empower the citizenry to hold the governing elite to task over
the promises made. It is only when the common person is aware
of their right to exercise life's opportunities that they can
demand that the government deliver on its promises.
In the context of the DfID-Kenya Country Plan,
the relevance of sustained empowerment efforts targeting to enable
the poor and disadvantaged groups to demand an equitable distribution
of the benefits of economic growth cannot be gainsaid.
EQUITABLE REDISTRIBUTION
OF THE
BENEFITS OF
DEVELOPMENT
It is indeed true that Kenya suffers a regional
disparity in terms of poverty and gender inequalities. This situation
seems to have arisen, as the DfID-Country Plan so rightly analyses
it, as a result of Kenya's deep-rooted culture of political and
economic patronage. Socio-economic development in Kenya was previously
determined by the carrot and stick principle whereby a region
that was seen as pro-establishment was rewarded generously, whereas
those regions seen to be anti-establishment were punished by being
denied a share in the national cake.
The NARC government is currently implementing
reforms that will hopefully lead to an equitable redistribution
of the society's resources towards the poor and disadvantaged.
These will include employment creation, land reform, construction
of affordable housing units in the urban centres, free education
and provision of affordable health services.
Yet despite these positive indications, the
challenge remains to put in place measures that will ensure that
when economic recovery is attained, that accruing benefits will
be shared out equally between all the groups in Kenya.
THE INTERNATIONAL
CONTEXT OF
THE GOK
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
STRATEGY
The challenge of economic recovery facing Kenya
must be addressed in relation to factors pertaining to the international
operating environment. It is a fact that for Kenya to lift herself
out of its socio-economic decline, it must either cut down on
government expenditure or increase its foreign exchange reserves.
The government is currently bracing itself to rationalising the
public service, through sacking approximately 23,000 civil servants.
The challenge of increasing the country's foreign exchange reserves
is however a little tricky as shown in the subsequent paragraphs.
Agriculture, the country's major foreign exchange
earner, is besieged by a highly competitive and unpredictable
world market. First, the prices of coffee and tea are dictated
by the whims of players in the international market, often to
the detriment of the local farmers.
Second, the farmers have to contend with unfair
practices from international trade partners, such as dumping,
use of subsidies by competitors, tariff barriers and World Trade
Organisation (WTO) rules.
Third, despite such an unfair trade environment,
the country is arm twisted by the IMF and the World Bank to comply
with these rules as conditionalities to receiving aid. In late
2003, one of the conditions put up by the lending institutions
was that the government had to open up the country for maize and
sugar imports, before resumption of lending.
Tourism, Kenya's other foreign exchange earner,
has been equally embattled by factors in the global operating
environment. The threat of terrorism and the travel bans slapped
on Kenya by the USA and the UK have further crippled tourism and
related industries such as the audio-visual media sector. Further
the audio-visual media industry, an important vehicle for information
and cultural exchange, continues to get little or no support from
both the government and development partners. Despite the fact
that the sector has been appreciated as a key facet of development,
development partners are yet to include the sector in their priority
funding areas.
It is a fact that Kenya spends more than half
of its GDP on repaying foreign and domestic debt. The burden of
foreign debt therefore continues to put hurdles on efforts targeted
at lifting the country out of poverty.
The price the country pays for these international
forces is predictably borne by the poor and disadvantaged. The
DfID, through the Kenya Country Assistance Plan is well positioned
to facilitate the readdressing of these issues through convening
a forum to discuss the way around these issues.
February 2004
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