Why State optimism is misplaced

The government’s decision to disburse a Sh3 billion cherry revolving fund through the New Kenya Planters’ Co-operative Union (KPCU) is its latest manifestation of the triumph of hope over experience.

Analysts are surprised by the government’s preference for the status quo even when evidence on the ground suggests the need to break with the past and follow a new path.

This is compounded by past failed attempts to revive the collapsed coffee sub-sector.

These failures continued even when foreign players, including the European Union, lent money to stabilise coffee production.

Logic should have dictated that the State first solves the problems that led to those failures. It is common knowledge they revolve around governance and transparency across the entire value chain.

In the past, the government sought to deal with these problems by allowing competition in the milling and marketing of the crop, which incidentally is the second-most globally traded commodity after oil.

This led to a proliferation of marketing agents and dealers.

The sub-sector has eight marketing agents and 63 dealers, with a long waiting list of applicants who want to make money from farmers’ sweat.

Industry insiders suggest the best way to put the sub-sector on the recovery path is to first implement the recommendations made by various task forces set up to chart the way forward.

Ideally, this should include bringing to book the perpetrators who brought the sub-sector to its knees.

This clean-up should cover the entire value chain from the pulping factories and societies, unions and statutory bodies, such as the Coffee Board of Kenya and New KPCU.

The State needs to send a clear message that there will be no exceptions when dealing with individuals who commit what can only be described as economic crimes because they leave the country and Kenyans poorer than they were before these saboteurs assumed office.

Kenyans need to recognise that when they ask for or accept money to vote for an individual to run their society, union or country, they are signing a death warrant.

The recognition by the government and Kenyans of their respective roles will set a good example when the time comes to resuscitate other key cash crops, such as sugarcane and cotton.

The hurdles in resuscitating pyrethrum growing should have taught the State a lesson - to avoid falling victim to the tyranny of the familiar old ways of doing business.

 [Mbatau wa Ngai; nmbatau@gmail.com]