SHAKY PATH: Kenya’s economy, which hit its lowest ebb in 2008, is
quickly recovering. While growth is still slightly above half the 2007
levels, optimism is rising. How far will it reach? FILE| TEA Graphics
Nation Media Group
By CHRISTINE MUNGAI The EastAfrican
In Summary
- The book, Realising the Kenyan Dream, carries 40 articles published in the Economics for Everyone column in the Saturday Nation, and others in the World Bank’s Africa Can blog.
World Bank lead economist for Kenya Wolfgang
Fengler and Nation Media Group will this week launch a compilation of
his articles published in the Saturday Nation, a sister publication of The EastAfrican.
The book, Realising the Kenyan Dream, carries 40 articles published in the Economics for Everyone column in the Saturday Nation, and others in the World Bank’s Africa Can blog.
It will be launched on Monday, May 13, at Hotel Intercontinental in Nairobi.
The compilation’s message, expressed in seven themes, is how Kenya can realise its great potential.
Fengler examines this potential, which he has
studied in the four years he has been the World Bank’s lead economist
for Kenya, in the broader context of Africa’s economic renaissance, and
the East African region’s social and demographic transformation. He
looks at the crucial sectors and reform areas that will drive the
country’s economy.
“The key message is that the best is yet to come
for Kenya,” Mr Fengler said at a pre-launch media conference. “If you
look at the reforms that have taken place in the past few years, top
among them being the 2010 Constitution, this generation can realise the
Kenyan dream.”
The book has received positive reviews from Kenya’s top business leaders and policy advisers.
“Wolfgang has succeeded in simplifying complex
areas of development economics for ordinary readers while at the same
time raising the curiosity of academics… Some of us in policy-making
have used his comparatives to revise policy and take corrective action,”
said former Information permanent secretary Bitange Ndemo.\
“Wolfgang has a way of identifying the right
number that sheds light on an economic issue. His analysis of East
Africa’s demographics is especially illuminating. No political or
business leader can afford to ignore it, as the tidal wave of young
people hitting us will soon change the region forever,” added writer and
business adviser Sunny Bindra.
Mr Fengler singles out the port of Mombasa as a top priority for East Africa’s economic growth.
“Reforming the port of Mombasa is crucial. No
country has ever become rich without trade. Although there are some
visible, physical efforts to increase capacity — dredging, for example —
the focus shouldn’t be to increase scale, it should be to increase
efficiency,” he writes.
He says small improvements are not enough.
“It’s just lucky for Mombasa that the port of Dar
es Salaam isn’t performing as well. But Djibouti has taken big steps in
improving its port, and is now handling much more cargo from Ethiopia.”
The economist says the challenge for the
government is how to translate the many work opportunities into actual
jobs. “We should accept informal jobs as normal, and make them decent,”
he says.
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