By Dorcas S
Not only has Jubilee’s “dabber-in-chief” led Kenya into becoming the region’s most corrupt country, the recently-published 2017 World Bank Global Economic Prospect has confirmed that for all the hubris and chest-thumping of President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto, the two have steered the region’s former #1 economy backwards – to #2.
Ethiopia’s economy, Kenya’s northern neighbor to the north used disciplined and competent governance (relative to Kenya’s) to post double-digit economic growth and overtake Kenya’s economy.
And aside from slipping to the region’s #2 economy under Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Ruto, Kenya also became the first country in the world to have TWO crimes-against-humanity suspects as a president and a deputy president.
The self-described “meat-eaters” have also given Kenya another 1st – the region’s most corrupt country (Transparency International 2016).
Consider this for a minute:
That even though Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Ruto inherited East Africa’s premier economy from the Coalition Government of PM Raila Odinga (and President Kibaki), the two loquacious meat-eating “dabbers” somehow managed to steer that economy backwards, placing it BEHIND Ethiopia and barely ahead of the sleeping giant on its southern border – Tanzania.
Adding insult to injury, Rwanda, a country that experienced the modern era’s only genocide twenty-three years ago is not far behind the self-described “Silicon Savanna”.
And under their management and leadership, Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Ruto somehow managed to transform Kenya, a former regional bread-basket, into a desert bowl of emaciated livestock, bone-dry farmland and sparse oftentimes empty store shelves.
What is even more stunning is the amount of money the Jubilee Administration has borrowed during their time in office even as the economy slipped behind Ethiopia’s and struggled to keep ahead of Tanzania.
According to the “Quarterly Economic and Budgetary Review – 2012/2013”, Kenya’s public debt stood at KSh.1.9Trillion in 2013. That amount has almost doubled and stands at an alarming KSh.3.2Trillion. or a public debt-to-GDP ratio of 49.7!
That amount of debt would be palatable if the benefits and improvements in the lives of everyday Kenyans was visible and obvious for all to see not to mention commensurate with the reckless amount of debt.
It is not.
A back-of-the-envelope comparative analysis of the most visible and touted outcome of the massive borrowing – the standard gauge railway (SGR) – fully explains why Ethiopia’s economy has surpassed Kenya’s and is poised to further widen the gap:
Massive cost overruns driven by what the former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga described as a “bandit economy” and regardless of how one spins it, for roughly the same cost, Kenya’s KSh.327Billion SGR is more than 100 kilometers (62.3 miles) shorter than Ethiopia’s and the MAIN accessory i.e. trains are ponderous re-manufactured and outdated Chinese locomotive technology.
All told, only the hyper-sycophants can dispute these numbers and the story the numbers tell:
That under President Uhuru Kenyatta and DP William Ruto, Kenya has lost its spot as the region’s top economy while becoming it most corrupt.
So summarized, Kenyans are angry, hungry, thirsty and scared thanks to the two primary causes of the sagging economy:
– Gross corruption and malfeasance,
– Nepotistic and ethnocentric-induced incompetence.
Keep that in mind when you cast your vote come August 8, 2017.
I know I will.
Leave a Reply