The State can’t convince us that coffers have run dry

NAIROBI: While the refrain in government has been ‘can’t pay’, ‘won’t pay’ and complaints of a ‘bloated civil service’ and a ‘huge wage bill’, all indications are that there is enough money in the country to make everybody, not just the political elite, happy. There is a maxim that figures don’t lie, but I don’t fully subscribe to it. Take the latest World Bank report that says Kenya’s economy will be the fastest growing in Africa in the next 15 years. The projection is that the country will register a steady 6.2 per cent economic growth rate all the way to 2030. So far Rwanda is the only country in Africa that has enjoyed a steady economic growth in the last ten years where it has averaged over 6 per cent growth annually.

In Rwanda, all systems work and government delivers services. There is no disconnect between the citizenry and the leadership of the country, which operates within strict political and economic regimes. Economic gains trickle down to the common man. Rwanda is the only African country that can assuredly preach gender parity and equitable distribution of wealth. Women representation in politics is the highest anywhere in the world. But, interestingly, the World Bank report now says Rwanda’s economy will decline without giving plausible reasons for it.