Having lived in the USA for a while now, I have observed that all human beings are the same. To be honest, no government builds a country. The country is built by the people: starting up small businesses and creating employment for others. Creating new technologies and building machines to improve our lives. All you need to do is empower your people to think and let them implement their thinking.
America has very little to do with its government but much to do with individual innovation and creativity: The biggest companies in the world: Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing, Apple, etc are not government-owned like our Safaricom. American Airlines: Delta, American Airlines, etc are not public companies like Kenya Airways. They’re all privately-owned companies and they employ millions of Americans through technology and innovation.
The best universities in the USA (Ivy League: Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Duke, etc) are not public universities like the UON. The best and most technologically advanced research hospitals (John Hopkins, Mayo, Cleveland Clinics, etc) are privately owned and run. The military technology you see America flaunting across the world is not built by the government: the planes, aircraft carriers, bombers, missiles, etc, are developed and built by private companies as sold to the army.
So my point is, the development will never come from Statehouse! Statehouse can only divide the cake it collects from Boda Boda riders, matatu operators, government employees, peasants, etc!
Mitsubishi, Mazda, Toyota, Isuzu, Daihatsu, Nissan, Subaru, etc are all privately owned Japanese car manufacturers that have single-handedly built the 3rd biggest economy in euros.
My point is: we can whine and complain about the government but until we do the real work, the thinking, the innovation, etc, and create our own technologies to sell to the world, we will continue being poor and hungry.
We must stop the stupidity of growing labor-intensive, minimal return crops like tea and coffee, and invest in technology instead. We sell Japan a whole ton of tea leaves to be enjoyed by all of Tokyo in a month and in exchange they give us one Subaru
The UK sells Kenya one Land Rover for 2million shillings(Remember to build one Land Rover every 5 minutes!) we give them 2 tons of tea picked for a whole week by 2000 people processed over another two weeks by over 100 people. In short, we are engaged in a colonial activity that generates almost nothing for our people while paying with our blood for one item of technology from Europe!
One iPhone (just one) costs Ksh 100,000! How much milk will a Kenyan peasant sell in exchange for an iPhone? How about a pair of Nike Shoes? How about a rocket launcher for the military? (Just one gunship from South Africa, is equal to the total TRA bonus for 100 tea farmers). Think about how we are wasting ourselves. Our jobs, our economy, our future is in our hands not in the government.
They’re building a highway 1 mile from my house. Everything they use(tractors, lorries, equipment, etc is America built). That cuts the cost of construction by more than half.
Take Kenya for example: even if we have the most efficient government we shall still be poor if all the equipment for building the railway of foreign-built. Simple and clear. They built such railways in China for a 10th of the cost we incurred.
Take for example Mpesa, a tech that would have given Kenya a breakthrough in the money market across the world. Why didn’t Safaricom patent the technology and expand it to cover all the world? America did the same with Western Union and Moneygram
.
Why isn’t Mpesa a world leader in moving money electronically across the world? All major companies in the world are hiring Mpesa to move their money across the world and Nairobi would be an international hub with about 500,000 employees working here.
So what did we do? Mpesa is still confined in east Africa although it was a pioneering technology. Now, 100s of Americans have noticed and stolen the technology and are making money off of it.
In short, until we built our own technology and homegrown skills we will continue being poor. I say this because I watched Donald Trump debate, Joe Biden, last week, and Mike Pence debate Kamala Harries last night.
After watching the two debates and for a long time watching and listening to American politicians, I can tell you Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto are better and soberer. The difference? We can’t build our own equipment. These guys have built amazing stuff even with weird politics. They can therefore provide jobs to their people and we can’t. That’s the difference
Opinion by concerned Kenyan Diasporan
Click to Support KDRTV by Donating. Advertise with us. Contact Us, press releases.
