Handouts, tokenism then poverty is made a control instrument

Traders display school items in Kisii town, on August 25, 2025. Most traders have decried low sales as schools reopen for 3rd term. [Sammy Omingo, Standard]

From independence, African states inherited economies that were politically centralised but economically thin. Production systems were weak, industrial capability limited, and fiscal space constrained.

Faced with the twin imperatives of political stability and social control, many governments adopted a governing logic that prioritised distribution over production. Over time, this logic hardened into institutional design. Poverty came to be treated not only as a social condition to be addressed, but as a political condition to be managed.