Azimio's manifesto excites me; I believe it can change our country

Raila Odinga is a man on a mission. Make no mistake about that. The first time I heard of the 'Third Economic Liberation' from Raila was at a roadside meeting with the students of Pwani University in Kilifi.

The students were riotously noisy with acclamation and support until Raila started talking about the Third Economic Liberation and suddenly the students went silent listening intently.

All university students like the idea of liberation. It has a sexy anti-establishment ring to it and students by nature are rebels.

I left my student days decades ago, but I loved the idea of economic liberation. If there is anyone who can claim a right to bringing liberation to Kenya, then Raila owns the copyright.

After all, he instigated the collapse of the single-party state in Kenya, ushered in the Second Liberation and midwifed the birth of the new Constitution.

So, when he speaks of a new Economic Revolution we need to sit up and listen.

Manifestos are a boring rite of passage in any political campaign and when I was invited to join the team working on the manifesto, I also expected a boring weekend in Naivasha.

That was the last place I wanted to be. After all, the campaign was in Mombasa and I have no voters in Naivasha.

I was even more surprised to see that Raila was taking off two whole days to concentrate on this manifesto.

Why? He already had a team of highly experienced professors, technocrats, businesspeople and politicians working on the document.

Then I realised that he was very serious about the document, and was keenly following up and actively contributing to all the issues.

This presidential manifesto was clearly not a box to tick, but a very serious commitment to the people of Kenya. You too as an educated Kenyan should read it carefully.

Kenya is at an important inflection point. In economics, an inflection point is where either the country could continue going up or begin a downwards spiral.

In Raila, I see a man with a sense of great urgency to make his final liberation come true, just like Mandela wanted his people to be free. There are five key themes in his manifesto.

First is the recognition that we need to do more infrastructure projects, encourage manufacturing and attract investments into the country. This is the key to job creation.

As India approached independence in 1948, there was a debate as to whether they should focus on developing the agriculture-based villages or turn to manufacturing.

Kenya today has to also decide whether we should focus on the jua kali sector which accounts for over 60 per cent of our jobs or encourage bigger projects to employ our large number of unemployed youth.

Raila believes we should do both and the manifesto has clear strategies on how to grow and sustain both.

Second, there is a sharp focus on our key problems. We lose over 30 per cent of our agricultural produce because of a lack of proper storage and then turn around and import over 400,000 tonnes of food.

Our coffee farmers are going bankrupt, and we proudly proclaim to be Africa’s third-largest coffee producer of the best coffee.

We make $265 million per year for our coffee while Germany, which doesn’t grow a bean of coffee makes $2.65, billion or 10 times what we make because of value addition.

Tana River district fluctuates between drought and hunger and then regular seasonal flooding, yet we have more than a million acres of land lying unused.

Mombasa is identified as Africa’s third-best Special Economic Zone, yet we go and invest in the least potential area.

It is not that we don’t know our problems and where our solutions are, we have some of the brightest people on the continent but the political will to make corrections has never been there.

We have no shortage of ideas, but we are poor in implementation. So, what do we do about it?

Third, is Raila’s answer to the above issue. We need to deal aggressively with corruption and stifling government bureaucracy.

Government employees doing business with the same government they serve to face a dangerous conflict of interest that leads to corruption.

You will either work in government or be a businessman – not both. Kenyans have now grown immune to corruption scandals because not a single big fish has been jailed or made to pay back his ill-gotten wealth.

The courts have been complicit in supporting corruption because people know that you can keep a case in court for a generation. Our government needs to become more entrepreneurial with service delivery devoid of excessive bureaucracy.

Finally, Raila wants to bring in the welfare state. We must come to terms that so many Kenyans today are beset with too many problems and need help.

The unemployed youth will need sustenance, hence the Sh6,000 subsidy, the vulnerable, people with disabilities, the single mothers, students who are thrown out of school for lack of fees and the sick with no money for medical services–hence the 'Babacare'.

A welfare state is an expensive affair and will divert resources from development. But what is the value of infrastructure with its long-term benefits if people are starving?

The government needs to find ways to finance and manage these social services. This will be the biggest challenge that we have to face.

The social welfare state is increasingly necessary. Social problems turn into political and security problems that eventually undermine our entire system.

Hungry people are angry people, and they cannot be trusted to vote wisely.

History is replete with demagogues with populist promises that destroy their countries on the back of popular votes.

Children out of school become society’s vicious problem and single mothers are a direct result of economic problems. We have no choice but to ease their suffering.

As we go out to vote in a few weeks, let us look at these manifestos very carefully. I for one will follow the gospel of the Third Liberation. It’s time to change our country. Think about it.

Mr Shahbal was a member of the team that crafted the Azimio manifesto.