Move fast to reverse decline in vital sectors key to Kenyan economic growth

The core business of any government is to offer basic services in health, security, sanitation, education and agriculture. These services must be seen to work to the satisfaction of the common (wo)men who pay taxes to make it possible for the government to serve them better. It is also the business of government to facilitate the creation of wealth through policies and systems that work.

A critical look at these services reveals that there are serious shortcomings that have disadvantaged the common folk and impacted negatively on the economy. Even as we decry the slow pace of economic growth; trailing the Asian tigers, especially Singapore and Malaysia with whom we were at par at the time of  independence in 1964, it is our own policies and government lethargy that hold the country back in economic terms.

Leaders find it easier to politic and mudsling than to create an environment conducive for spurring economic growth. Health and security have taken a serious beating as the national and county governments bicker over who should be in charge of those dockets. Over 2,000 doctors have left Government service over disagreements on pay and promotions in the last year alone. Hospitals have been turned into death beds as more and more health workers join or threaten to join widespread strikes.

Education has its own challenges; with the teachers' unions, the Teachers Service Commission and the Ministry of Education rarely agreeing on anything. Cholera cases still pervade nearly all major towns because sanitation is not taken as a primary concern. Safe clean drinking water and a litter-free environment are still hard to attain.

Agriculture, the backbone of the country's economy, has been left to go to the dogs. While in the 1970s to the late 1990s the country produced enough food and cash crops for local consumption and for export, more than 1.6 million Kenyans face starvation today because of food scarcity. This sad situation can be attributed to an increased population, poor planning, vagaries of nature and poor security; all which point an accusing finger at the Government.

Over-reliance on rain-fed agriculture as opposed to irrigation has seen food production go down. Unsafe environments in the food basket of the Rift Valley have made farmers wary of tilling and tending to their land.

While Kenya used to produce tea, coffee, rice, tobacco, cotton, maize, pyrethrum and coconut in abundance, it is shocking to find that farmers in Central Kenya have abandoned coffee farming for other crops that do not bring in much revenue. Whereas in Western Kenya and Nyanza tobacco growing has dwindled, in the expansive Rift Valley farmers have threatened to move away from tea and maize to grow other crops to make ends meet. Cane farming is also on its death bed in Western Kenya.

If the Government does not step in to arrest the worsening situation, it will have failed in its duty to the taxpayers. The once great factories that created wealth and employment for many Kenyans; the Rift Valley Textile Mills, Mumias Sugar, Sony Sugar, Kisumu Cotton Mills, Kitinda Dairy in Bungoma, Kenya Meat Commission and many others were run to the ground because of bad management, political interference, poor policies and brokers.

These have conspired to ensure farmers don't get value for their hard work on the farms. In the end, farmers have stopped growing cash crops out of frustration.