Kenya’s future is the Savannah lion, not the domestic cat

SHORES BEYOND

With

Donald B Kipkorir

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Our Kenya@50 celebrations came and went. It was a time to reflect on our past achievements and missteps, and chart a future that will reach its apogee in 2030, when we will be a middle-income country. Hopefully. We have the potential to succeed, but I don’t know if we have the will and the oomph to succeed. We may not go far, if we want to behave like the domestic cat, and not break out as the lion in the Savannah.

Kenyans take pride that we are the biggest economy in eastern Africa. But this pride, though founded, has to be contextualised. A domestic cat thinks he is the king because his enemies are mice and rats. So, is a fish in a pond. As long as a fish in a pond is provided with its flake food, it thinks it rules the seas. Wait till the cat goes out and meets dogs, or the fish is released to the sea where sharks swim.

President Jakaya Kikwete asked us to be proud because we are the biggest economy in eastern Africa. I demur with deference. Like our coat of arms, which we used in our Kenya@50 logo, Kenya must be a true lion. The lion, though a cat, lives in the wild Savannah. It is the King of the Jungle, not for nothing.

In Asia, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan had unprecedented and sustained economic growths in 1960s and 1970s and broke through to be industrialised countries and have been so ever since. They were labelled the Asian Tigers, for tiger is the king of the Asian Jungle. And Ireland had spectacular growth up to 2008 and was known as the Celtic Tiger.

The lion roams the whole Africa Savannah, and Kenya has to be the Savannah Lion. Kenya has the ability to be at the top of Africa’s economy chain. But only if we get out of our comfort zone in the pond. When growing up in Cheptongei, a small village in Elgeyo Marakwet County, there were only two cars, no three, because the third was for the parish priest.

Our neighbour who was principal of a Girls High School owned an old model and smoking yellow Volkswagen, and the owner of the only bakery, had a beaten green Toyota pick-up. Then, I thought they were the richest men in the world, because we didn’t even have a bicycle.

And I think both men, may have entertained illusions of grandeur. It is only when I left Cheptongei that I knew they were not the richest men in the world.

We have many things that make Kenya ready for takeoff. Our political democracy with its weaknesses is the most advanced in Africa, bar South Africa. A true liberal democracy is the seed for genuine and permanent economic transformation.

Our education sector has had unprecedented growth in Africa. Our tropical climate is the envy of many countries. Our geographical and time position makes us ideal for airline and ship hub and for Business Process Outsourcing. The expansion of Mombasa Port and JKIA, and the new railway line, Lamu Port, and Lamu-Ethiopia Road are growths in the right direction.

Countries that transformed in a generation owed it to the charisma of one leader or a paradigm shift in the national consciousness. In Africa, we have had only two such charismatic leaders; the late Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia and Paul Kagame of Rwanda.

Kenya is basically two countries: the literate and vibrant urban population, and the rural population that is still steeped in 15th Century practices. To move forward, our country needs a combination of democracy and benevolent dictatorship.

President Uhuru Kenyatta, in this Jubilee Year, has to lay the foundation that makes Kenya a Savannah Lion, and not an excited domestic cat or a tall pygmy.

Our peers are not our neighbours. Our peers are the Asian Tigers. Tiger and lion belong together. Kenya only looks rich because it is still within a village of poor nations. We have to break out to the Savannah. There, the lion reigns.

— The writer is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya