My proposal last week to brand Kenyan athletics yielded many
responses. Before proceeding to make another proposal for this week, I
want to share just two of the comments elicited by last week’s column.
The first one is from Gerald Lwande. Writing from Eldoret, he had this to say:
“Good afternoon Prof. Ndemo. I am impressed with your article on today's (26th Dec, 2016) with emphasis on the concept of an Athletics Hall of fame in Eldoret. I would like to bring to your attention Precise Genomics R&D Laboratories that has partnered with Strathmore University and University of Brighton - UK to set up a centre of excellence in Sports Medicine and Research in Eldoret town (Nandi road opposite Nandi close). The facility currently hosts high [calibre] endurance (Marathon) athletes such as Wilson Kipsang and Geoffrey Kamworor for training and rehabilitation. As a facility, we had not considered setting up a hall of fame, but - why not? Next time you visit Eldoret, please pay us a courtesy call and we could partner with one of your venture capitalists friends to set up this new idea of a hall of fame.”
I must confess that I did not know
that a facility like this one exists in Kenya, but it strengthens my
position that we don’t always have to look to government to start
projects. There is a major role for the private sector and research
institutions to take the leadership through collaborations in exploiting
opportunities that exist in the country. If we fail, someone else will
take care and leave us complaining.
My colleague at the
University of Nairobi and fellow columnist Dr X.N. Iraki posed these
questions: “Could we possibly open our eyes in the coming year to deal
with our own poor judgement, greed and self-centeredness, which have
impoverished the people of Africa? Are Africans poorer in judgement,
greedier, more self-[centred] than other races?”
POVERTY OF DECISION-MAKING
I don’t know the answers to these questions but in many forums
people have asked similar questions. And as always we fear dealing with
such questions, often choosing to move with the crowd even as we witness
the suffering of people due to poor judgement by our leaders in
virtually every sphere.
However, let us not just blame
politicians. For example, our universities, public and private, are
failing across the country, yet they are managed by the best brains the
country can offer. A recent report by the Commission for University
Education (CUE) revealed glaring maladministration at several
institutions but the matter was politicised and tribalism unleashed to
protect the status quo.
We need much more than rhetoric to deal with the rampant poverty of decision-making.
Let me reveal this week’s proposition. It is an idea I came across while visiting Cape Town with some friends.
Although
I am a teetotaller, I escorted my friends to a wine-tasting outing at
one of the many Cape Town vineyards. Later we moved on to a nearby a
brandy-tasking estate.
I
took lots of notes. I began to reflect on why in Kenya we don’t do the
same with tea farms in Limuru or Kericho; coffee farms in Kiambu or
Nyeri; and even sugarcane in Awendo or Mumias.
THE SAME OLD WAY
More
than 50 years since independence, we have not challenged or disrupted
any processing and distribution mechanisms that were left behind by the
colonists.
Over time, returns from virtually all cash
crops in the country have fallen, leaving the farmers poor and
frustrated. Too many agencies were created in the middle, further
squeezing the farmers into poverty. The Coffee Board, the Tea Board, the
Cotton Lint and Marketing Board as well as the Sugar Board failed in
their mandate to brand and market the Kenyan produce.
Some
of these boards were infiltrated by cartels that virtually killed the
industries. We also sacrificed these agencies on the altar of ethnic
balancing. As a result, they are all in a mess.
Take the coffee industry, for example. Recent media reports revealed how a whole sector was brought to its knees by price-fixing cartels.
The tea industry is no better; it is beginning to falter and incomes are declining.
The tea industry is no better; it is beginning to falter and incomes are declining.
The
sugar industry was politically introduced by Kanu in Nyanza and western
Kenya to give farmers some form of cash crop like those in tea and
coffee-growing areas. It didn’t matter that feasibility studies showed
that it was not feasible in the absence of large plantations. Even a
casual observer will tell anyone that Kenya will never be competitive in
sugar for as long as it is dependent on small-scale farmers.
Yet
Kisii County, with no sugar plantations, is in the process of building a
new sugar factory even with the fact that several factories have
collapsed in the recent past. Just a few more cases where we have made
or are making poor judgements.
BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY
Although
many coffee farms have gone to real estate, new technologies can help
us revive them, rejuvenate tea farming and make sugar farming
worthwhile. The emergent Blockchain technology is enabling decentralised production while taking advantage of centralised or crowdsourced development.
This
new concept is known as distributed production or manufacturing and
leverages local manufacturing in a decentralised format by enterprises,
creating geographically dispersed manufacturing entities brought
together by information and communication technologies. It mimics the
cottage industrial model but the product remains uniquely the same.
For
example, a new, unique blend of tea can be developed through
crowdsourcing. This product can be produced in several geographically
disbursed locations but giving basically the same taste.
Some
coffee blends are only manufactured elsewhere from the raw material
that we export. We then import the finished product. In distributed
production, the product will be produced locally using the same
formulation used elsewhere. The cost will be minimised while consumption
will be enhanced, thus benefiting the farmer.
While
this modern method of production may be acceptable in the tea sector, it
will be very difficult to disrupt the existing order in coffee and
sugar. Ethiopia, however, fought the big boys to gain global recognition
and benefits to her coffee. Kenya has yet to understand the global
cartels that control the commodity.
ENTREPRENEURIAL OPPORTUNITIES
It
is the more reason we need to disrupt the existing order, cut the many
middlemen and let the farmer benefit. There is a need for policy change
to protect whatever is remaining of coffee.
The endangered Kiambu farms should be turned into tourist locations for coffee tasting just like wine tasting in Cape Town.
The
thousands of people who turn up each day to taste wine end up buying
and promoting the brand locally and internationally as well as creating
employment at every stage.
The sugar sector will be
more controversial since it will seek to destabilise local
multinationals. It is my contention that sugar production in Kenya would
in the long run impoverish the farmers.
What needs to
be done is to focus more on manufacturing brandy just like the South
Africans do with vineyards. Some of the best brandies exported from
South Africa are from wineries.
The more I listened to
the descriptions of the brandy, the more entrepreneurial opportunities I
saw for young Kenyans. At some point they said the brandy had a woody
smell and that made it special.
This indeed reminded
me of the clay pots that used to store water, and its beautiful earthy
taste. They are likely to produce some unique earthy brandy. This will
revive the art of pot making in Kenya with a powerful purpose.
It
is time we dealt with the propaganda by multinational companies that
local production of liquor is illicit. What is lacking is regulation of
liquor production. Americans dealt with bootlegging through production
regulation.
LIMITS OF CRIMINALISING LIQUOR
We
must face the reality that no amount of criminalising local liquor
production will stop its production. The sooner we perfected production,
or leveraged Blockchain technology to produce globally acceptable
quality liquor, the better.
This brave decision will
create multiple jobs as well as improve the safety of liquor in the
country. It does not need a genius to build a distillery knowing that
the concept has been the same, just like the one below:
I
write this knowing that there are moral consequences to such
propositions. Yet again it is the act of facing reality that breeds
prudent decision-making. We can reasonably talk about responsible
drinking. It is utterly irresponsible and poor judgement to think that
drinking can be stopped by destroying drinking dens or manufacturing
facilities.
John Quincy Adams, an American statesman
who served as the sixth president of the United States from 1825 to
1829, said, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more,
do more and become more, you are a leader.”
There is much to learn from other successful economies and we can emulate them to jumpstart our development.
South
Africa offers us the opportunity to increase demand for our coffee, tea
and sugar. It also offers us ideas for spurring local production as a
strategy for creating more employment and sustainable development.
The writer is an associate professor at University of Nairobi’s Business School. Twitter: @bantigito
No comments:
Post a Comment