Opinion and Analysis
‘‘Do we still need to equip our police officers with long, unwieldy rifles in the name of tackling insecurity?’’ Photo/FILE
By Wallace Kantai
I think I owe Henry Rotich a cup of tea and a mandazi.
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Back in October, when this column was still young, I
expressed the fear that we may have held off on our sovereign bond
placement for far too long, meaning that we wouldn’t get a good price
for the bond, or realise the amounts we wanted.
Or, to put proper context on my mea culpa, I said:
“This may mean, then, that we get the worst of all worlds. We would
still be at the mercy of the international markets when we are finally
ready, but we would be entering these at a far less friendly time.
“The Fed’s new taper start date seems to be
December, still way before our scheduled date, and we may be looking at
double-digit percentages as the only way to satisfy the beast.”
The events of the past three weeks have proved me
wrong. We placed the bond better than successfully— four times the
orders, at a very favourable price.
So it is no surprise that President Uhuru Kenyatta
was displaying quiet satisfaction last Wednesday at State House, when he
led the Treasury honchos in confirming the results of the bond auction.
The bond was an unqualified success – at least by
most standards – and the government has every right to crow about that
element of its accomplishments.
The problem, though, is that Kenya is not a
one-dimensional country. The success of policymaking can only be fully
celebrated when it leads to largely positive outcomes, and so
cherry-picking celebratory moments will only be illusory.
And Kenya has challenges. Whereas many of them are
either intractable or only remedied by long-term solutions, others are
self-imposed, or compounded by inaction or dangerously inexpert
policymaking.
Our feet are quickly looking like colanders, given how many times we have inadvertently, or deliberately, shot ourselves.
Take a look at a few instances. Tourism has come
close to collapse, supposedly because of the compounded effect of
insecurity. Our problem, though, is that we have not thought through
what it means to attract tourists in the 21st century. The insecurity
and travel advisories have given our policymakers the perfect cover for
their lack of imagination.
Our product, even now, is about getting groups of
middle-aged white people from JKIA, into safari vans, and thence to the
Maasai Mara (or Tsavo or Amboseli), to the Coast (don’t forget your
sunscreen) and back to JKIA.
All the while being serenaded by tired-looking
“Maasai” warriors. Look at old photographs of Kenyan tourism. Except for
the number plates and the hairstyles, little has changed.
Insecurity, as well, is also an area where lack of
imagination, or undue complacency, has led to less than optimal
outcomes. Set aside the depredations of terrorism (and the complex mix
of failed intelligence, politics and military strategy).
At the simple level of keeping citizens safe, we
are stuck with the same ineffective strategies that we have had for
generations.
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