Date Posted: 11/16/2017 10:29:24 AM
Posted By: Jonmhumble Membership Level: Gold Total Points: 2362
Do you know that in 1960s Kenya and the Asian tigers, such as Malaysia and Taiwan were in the same level of development? But to date these Asian tigers are far much ahead of Kenya in terms of development including their GDP and people living standards. Do you also know that some of the policies they used for development borrowed from Kenya?What is causing all this difference? As an economist my view is that there several reasons which have distorted the Kenyan economic growth and economic development. When we talk about economic growth we look the economy in terms of GDP whereby there are some increase. Economic development is looked at in terms of economic growth accompanied by indicators of quality life such as better education and better health facilities which include enough hospitals which are in good conditions. In that case of these Asian tigers borrowing our policies shows that we have nice policies which can lead to mass economic growth and economic development but we don't have the best implementors to put those policies into reality. We may have good implementors also but the resources may be misappropriated since Kenya is one of the countries with abundant resources. The main reason why there may be resources misappropriation is because those to utilize the resources may have got inadequate skills. This can be further caused by inappropriate education system in Kenya. Bravo to minister of education professor Fred Matiang'i for coming up with the best policies in education whereby the education in Kenya will not be exam - oriented like there before but it will be skills- oriented. In this education system being introduced, there will some importance attached to blue collar jobs. That's why there is introduction of technical schools. Also the policy of basic education being provided to every Kenyan child, will lead to improvement in the literacy levels and eventually contribute to economic development. In these Asian tigers scholars are sent to other countries where they gain knowledge and go back to their home countries to utilize the knowledge gained. In most cases here in Kenya most people who go abroad as scholars rarely come back and dwells in those countries where they are gaining the knowledge and in long run helps those countries in development rather than helping their mother countries. Also the policy of leaders in Kenya such as governors being a holder of a degree in a recognized university, will help in development of the country since they will have a mentality of developing their areas rather than embezzling of the funds and resources required for the development. Another major reason which is leading to low levels of economic growth and development is the size of the population. The population is increasing rapidly compared to the resources available to cater for that population. The population has been estimated to about fifty million people. The number of working population is very few compared to those depending on them. This leads to high consumption level and hence there will be low levels of savings. Low levels of savings will lead to low investment and at long last there will be low or no development at all. Am not in the view that people should not have children, but am advocating for people to have manageable families whereby they will have enough for consumption and saving. Also another serious reason for low development is the presence of political instability. Right now Kenya is facing a serious problem of political instability. Businesses cannot do well in areas where there instability since they fear insecurity issues. Also the customers will not be in plenty leading to low profits and very few finance for business expansion and investment. The tourism sector will not do well as well in a politically unstable country. The tourist will fear attacks. Also the tourist will be fled away by the terrorism in the country although Kenyan government have considerably dealt with this issue of terrorism. Finally, the issue of tribalism in Kenya is killing our development. A person can be employed in a certain firm even though he doesn't have the required qualification only because he is from the manager's tribe. The firm we have the minimum production due to this problem. My take is that each and every Kenyan should be employed in accordance to his or her competence and qualification. This will leas to maximum benefits and profits hence improving the economic development of the country.
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