Creating quality jobs in Kenya: Part II

By XN Iraki

Kenya: Why have we not created jobs from sports despite 42 per cent of the population being 14 years or younger? Why is there no Kenyan equivalent of the English Premier League? Why is golf not big when we have sunshine 365 days a year? Why don’t we win gold medals in javelin, yet we have had spears for thousands of years?

Some of our sports or games like ajua can be internationalised. Again, leveraging on what we have. We can create thousands of jobs because of our location along the sea. Have you noticed that almost all the world’s greatest economies have a shoreline?

Highest bidder

How much of our GDP comes from the Indian Ocean? Sadly, our coastline is more famous for beach plots sold to the highest bidder, which does not happen anywhere else in the world. Even the beaches of Manhattan Island are public.

Why don’t we have mobile fish canning factories (ships)? How can we be talking of inefficiency at the Mombasa Port in the 21st Century? Which water sports take place along our 500km coastline?

Kenya Airways has taken advantage of our location to serve as bridge between Africa and Asia, but we need to be more like Dubai. How much shopping do transit passengers do in our airports? If we could be a bridge between Africa and Asia, and between South and North Africa, we would create lots of jobs.

We are yet to exploit our location mentally. Lots of our neighbours think we are better off economically, but we don’t take advantage of that.

One sector we have lagged in is higher education. We should be attracting lots of students to our universities from neighbouring countries. How did Uganda do it, going down to even high school? Education is Australia’s second-biggest export. How many tourists come from neighbouring countries?

We have created few jobs through our culture. Think of the jobs created through Zulu music. We look down on our culture, even our names.

Why don’t tourists come to our homes and experience our true selves, from Tero Buru to Ngurario and cock fights? Every Kenyan culture can be packaged and sold. Didn’t Emmy Kosgei make it big in music by singing in Kalenjin?

Colonial past

Safaricom has leveraged on our culture, including our landscape, to endear itself to us and become the biggest company in Kenya (and creating plenty of jobs) in less than 20 years. Other firms are trying to do the same by using symbols like Mt Kenya and the flag in their adverts.

Our culture includes our colonial past. At South Africa’s OR Tambo Airport in Johannesburg, there is a curio shop called Out of Africa — and the same country is exporting a wine to Kenya called Mara! There is another one called Kanu, but I have not seen it in Kenya. Yet.

How many jobs have we created  from our colonial past — from “Happy Valley” to our contribution to British victory in World Wars I and II?

To create more high-valued jobs, we need to mystify the country, US style. Why are Kenyans fascinated by the US to the point of buying its products, watching its movies, using its consulting firms and visiting it?  How come Kenyans know the name of President Obama’s wife, but are not aware if the Chinese president is even married?

Patriotism

How come 1.5 million people visit Alcatraz, the 40-acre former prison off San Franscisco Bay?

The answer is simple: few have not seen a movie or documentary about Alcatraz.

Kenya, with all its beaches and 500km of coastline, gets the same number of visitors as Alcatraz!

France gets about 70 million tourists, almost the size of its population, each year.

Suppose we used our media to create a mystique around Kenya so that the whole world is fascinated by the country and its products and services, rather than Nairobbery?

That was probably one of the objectives of the Brand Kenya Board. Jobs are created when your products are services are bought. It is possible to influence what people buy through adverts and creating a sense of mystery.

A bit of patriotism will add lots of jobs. That goes beyond buying our own products and services. We need to protect our strategic interests, particularly jobs. Is joblessness not our number one problem?

Think about this: How come there is no money transfer service between the US and Kenya that runs like M-Pesa despite all the Kenyans living there? Hint: Who does the transfers today?

We cannot forget the pooling of both mental and financial resources. Equity Bank and Microsoft were started by more than one person. The Uwezo Fund, as well as youth and women funds, encourage the pooling of resources.

Hard reality

The hard reality is that most jobs will be created, not by the Government, but by you and me, through our sweat. But still, we appeal to the Government that would only create about 500,000 jobs if all its workers were declared redundant and over-employment were allowed.

Jobs are created when we reward work. Brokers and middlemen destroy jobs by disincentivising work. It’s time we set up a Kenyan work ethic — akin to the American or Japanese work ethic. We need to start celebrating our job creators like our athletes.

To confront terrorism and create social stability, we must create more quality jobs and start now; 50 years has been a long enough wait.

Next week: Advice to the youth on jobs.

The writer is a lecturer and MBA programme co-ordinator, University of Nairobi.

[email protected]