Opinion and Analysis
Waste dumped at Dandora. The rich in Kenya can invest in sanitation projects to help the poor. File
By Caroline Mugo
In Summary
- Economists have generated historical data showing that extreme inequality is a threat to social, economic and political stability.
- As the number of home-grown super-rich increases and their control of the economy widens, there is an imminent risk of social, political and economic unrest.
- Power has to come with responsibility and the super-rich may not be able to distance themselves from the health and state of the common mwananchi.
Kenya just held the under 35 multi-millionaire
economic conference displaying some of the young and brilliant minds who
have braved the odds to achieve what has never been seen in this part
of the world.
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Stories about their journey to riches were nothing short of
dazzling. Their presence in practically every sector of the Kenyan
economy; commodities, real estate, construction, logistics, telecoms,
tech, services, transport, energy, agriculture, manufacturing,
recycling, private equity and banking, shows a high level of shrewdness
and tenacity—the two principal ingredients that define success in
business.
Official data shows that Kenya has less than 9,000
documented millionaires controlling nearly two-thirds of the GDP. Going
public by such individuals therefore often appears to present damning
evidence of growing inequality between the haves and the have-nots,
posing the danger of social friction.
With such a small group controlling so much in an
economy where more than a third live in abject poverty there is always
the danger of social disharmony that is specific to Kenya, but has
bedevilled all societies with similar distribution of economic
resources.
Economists have generated historical data showing
that extreme inequality is a threat to social, economic and political
stability.
History tells us that much of the equality is the
product of capitalism —the system that is hinged on competing in free
markets. It is the system by which the super-wealthy of the world have
arisen.
Yet, it is also the system by which millions have found themselves at the bottom of the pyramid—among the poorest of the world.
Capitalism has been blamed for the runaway
disparity between the rich and the poor and has been vilified as system
that fleeces the masses to enrich a few even as it degrades the
environmental, abuse of human rights and the emergence of a severely
individualistic society.
The concern shared not only by the experts is that,
as the number of home-grown super-rich increases and their control of
the economy widens, there is an imminent risk of social, political and
economic unrest.
How such massive control of wealth impacts on
politics of the day also remains suspect. This fact cannot be
under-estimated. With wealth comes influence and with influence comes
power. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
This is what the common man fears the most.
These sentiments though valid, only represent one
side of the coin. There is need to look at the opposing arguments that
this group of the super-rich actually create opportunity that is needed
to change the lives of ordinary people and lift them out of poverty.
It is important to note that economic inequality in
Kenyan is not a recent phenomenon. It dates back to the colonial times
when the colonialists pushed people out of agriculturally productive
land and settled there.
Today, many more drivers of economic inequality
have emerged to deepen the canyon between the have and the have-nots. It
is, however, important to note that these factors have absolutely
nothing to do with the rich getting richer.
Gender discrimination, HIV&Aids, ethnically
motivated politics all have a role to play in the emergence and
persistence of inequality where the poor have remained hopeless.
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