Playing An Inferior Card in the 8-4-4 System to Keep Dominion

Just because the rich took their kids to Brookhouse doesn’t mean 8-4-4 is inferior, it is a matter of class. We all meet at the Maseno University or Oxford at the end of the day. Why do you think most politicians' kids study in the USA or in the U.K and not at JKUAT(Junior Kenyans Under Academic Torture)?, Is it because JKUAT is inferior, no. They want us to believe Kenyan education is inferior so that they can keep ruling, then hand over to their sons and daughters. It is all about dominion! But what they don't tell us is that ,their kids attend low quality colleges and universities abroad and yet they went to Brookhouse for high school.

The issue of 8-4-4 being inferior was manufactured by Kenyan politicians(Ecoke-Canaan) and technocrats who feel beseeched by the new wave of university graduates and want to play the inferior card to keep their dominion over us, the masses. Period.

There is nothing wrong with the 8-4-4 system and it is not the issue of money. The same fools will spend over Kshs.20 billion writing a document in the name of the constitution something equivalent to a master’s thesis. Why not spent such on education?

Definite Demography Disaster!

Institute of Economic Affairs(IEA)Kenya chapter after conducting a nationwide study revealed that Families headed by youths aged 15 to 24 are on the rise in kenya.Will share a few insights of this findings which have raised concern over the modes of parenting being practised in the country that boasts a population of 38 million in Ecoke and further analyse the implications of the same, The study that sampled more than 10 million youths in 2009 attributes this to early sex among teenagers indicating 11 per cent of young women and 22 per cent of young men aged between 15 and 24 had their fist sexual intercourse before the age of 15.
The report says that teenage pregnancy is higher in urban than rural areas, and casts blame on parents over negligence of roles.32 per cent of uneducated teenagers had begun child-bearing compared to 10 per cent of those with some secondary education. This is a nightmare to policy makers, who are forced to change strategies more often to address the rapid demographic changes. From these findings it can be argued that Lack of education and poverty is the lead component behind the rapid upsurge of young families. Other factors responsible for the early marriages according to the report were high unmet need for planning by women, and low use of contraceptives. The underage-led family, according to the study, indicates that young people living in rural areas tend to initiate sexual activity earlier than their counterparts in towns.
More young men than women in all the regions sampled engage in high risk sex with respective percentages in Nyanza 88, Central 86.8, and Western 86.4. Condom use, according to the report, was regarded unpopular among the youths. About 41 per cent of men aged 15 to 34 believed that use of contraceptives among women could lead to promiscuous behaviour with 15- to 19-year-olds believing use of contraceptives is the business of women. Another disclosure shows that more men aged 15 to 49 engaged in transactional sex, which involves exchange of sex for money. Despite the high risk of contracting HIV, men aged 25 to 29 years have an affinity to procuring sex.
Young women aged 15 to 34 in town preferred to have three children whereas their counterparts in rural areas prefer four said the report. The study also showed that spousal violence was common among the young families with more of the women approving of being beaten by their spouses over reasons such as burning food, child neglect, going out without their spouses’ consent, with refusal to have sex taking the lead. In the report, less women feared death than men, but both men and women equally feared failure. Other fears and worries from the report that youth dread are HIV, poverty and rape. Youths aged between 17 to 19 years heavily spent their pocket money on snacks, airtime, cyber café, food, clothing, transport and outings.
Youths drinking alcohol according, to the report, shows that 67 per cent of 17- to 19-year-olds are bought alcohol by other people, and 75 per cent are bought for cigarettes by friends. Self-buying alcohol stands at 33 per cent and that of cigarettes at 25 per cent. Further insight of the study reveal that 31 per cent of 17- to 19-year-olds influenced themselves into drinking and 17 per cent into smoking. This shows that most drinkers were self influenced contrary to mob influence.

A Big Gamble As Kenya Entrepreneurs See Opportunity, Risk In Rapid Urbanization

Producers of consumer goods were are still scouring the Kenya’s census results for new market opportunities or major shifts in demand for specific goods and services with the changing demographics. Top in the radar of many entrepreneurs and companies was the shocking finding that Kenya's urban population had risen by more than eight percentage points in a span of 10 years to hit 32.3 per cent potentially creating a large pool of consumers of essential goods such as maize meal, wheat products, milk, cooking fats, soaps, beef, clothes and footwear.

The newly urbanised population, which the census revealed are aged between 15 and 34 years, is mainly made up of primary, and high school leavers looking for jobs in towns. This is the segment of the population that economists refer to as constituting the "demographic dividend" that will open huge opportunities in the consumer goods and services markets. Though a large segment of this newly-urbanised group remains unemployed for an average of three years, a recent national household survey showed that the highly dynamic lot is able to significantly grow their purchasing power and become active consumers of goods and services produced and priced for the low end market. This means that entrepreneurs and manufacturers of consumer goods must deepen their recent foray into the small economy - the sale of consumer goods such as cooking fats in tiny low priced bits - to capture the 13.7 million market that is mostly made up of people aged between 20 and 35 years.

Essentially, the population figures point to both opportunities and threats for as the opportunities go, the potential benefits of a young and rising population is the possibility of kick-starting a virtuous cycle of rapid industrialisation, increased employment, enhanced productivity and ultimately rising prosperity. Citing the example of populous countries such as China that have benefited from similar demographics moving the economy to the critical point where the maximum number of people are in the working age bracket and therefore reducing the dependency ratio. Kenya’s dependency ratio has consistently dropped over the decades from 115.4 in 1980 to 85 according to the 2009 census. Seizing this opportunity however sooner than later would be critical for Kenya because fertility rates tend to fall as economies grow limiting its use as a driver of human development in the long term. Threshold is fast approaching for Kenya and if managed well could see the emergence of an invigorated and far more competitive economy. Although the last few decades have shown that a large and rising population is no guarantee of success, Africa's pattern of population growth is not the main constraint to the continent's development and could even become a positive force.

"Population growth and urbanisation go together, and economic development is closely correlated with urbanisation," that’s why. "Rich countries are urban countries."As is the case in many developing economies, Kenya's population is a pyramid structure that stands on a wide base of young people and very thin at the top. Nearly 33 per cent of Kenyans now live in the urban areas compared to 23.6 per cent in 1990, meaning an additional eight million Kenyans became urbanites in a decade. An interesting finding of the census is however that Kenya's urban population is wide in the middle with those aged between 20 and 34 as the majority. For the government, rapid urbanisation promises a policy and service provision nightmare that is also potent with risks of mass impoverishment, social tensions and insecurity.

Mass market
But consumer market data shows that Kenyan businesses - from manufacturers of fast moving consumer goods to commercial banks - have seen immense opportunities in the newly urbanised population targeting them with the bottom-of-the-pyramid goods and services. In this segment of the market, the business model is movement of volumes in competitively priced small quantity goods to reach the multi-million customer base that has grown by 25 per cent in the last 10 years.
Equity Bank blazed the trail for banks with its micro-lending business model that has seen it grow from a non-banking outfit to the country's fourth largest bank by asset base in six years. Kenya’s top mobile service provider Safaricom has captured its portion of this market with the sale of small denomination scratch cards that have helped popularize mobile telephony among rural population. These companies have captured the bottom end of market consumers with catchy jingles and witty phrases that target the youth with a large measure of success. Aggressive marketing has, for instance more than doubled the number of youths aged between 24 and 30 years opening a bank account in the past one year, according to a recent banking sector report."This group provides the bank with many years of business with the same customers," said a strategy paper produced by one local commercial bank as it rolled out an aggressive marketing campaign. Expectations are that the purchasing potential of this market will grow as the youth gain employment and seek out business opportunities.

Economists say that compelling drivers for an increase in Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) into the country and region as firms look to tap into the swelling consumer class. The potential of this growth is evident in the rise of telecommunications across East Africa. Despite relatively high levels of penetration, Kenya still offers abundant opportunities for growth in this sector, as well as a variety of others, such as financial services, tourism and BPO.Rapid urbanisation also has the potential to lift overall productivity and shift the economy from its reliance on agriculture to prop up output. According to the official statistics, Kenya is becoming increasingly urbanised .In 1950, less that 6 per cent of the population lived in urban areas. Since then urbanization has increased fourfold to 32.3 per cent in 2009.However, achieving the demographic dividend is not a foregone conclusion. In general, Africa's economic growth has largely failed to generate employment and significantly reduce poverty due in large part to low factor accumulation and low productivity growth.

Economists, however, argue that should Kenya's youthful population fail to find meaningful employment, the thrust of development will be reversed and the potential benefits of such an increased population will convert into an intensified burden on the state to provide support. The UN predicts that by 2050 Kenya will have around 85 million people, with the economically active population swelling to 55 million of 65 per cent of the total. While observers contend that this does provide a unique and abundant opportunity for growth, the critical policies need to support industries with high labour absorption capacities across the region in order to unlock this potential.In this, intensified investment in critical infrastructure is an absolute must, particularly power.

Most Unequal in the world? – Yes we are!

Talking with my good Kenyan friend on how he was coping with his new employment after campus,I was shocked with the findings cum revelations, as a new graduate employee who is yet to get into the big firms’ payroll, this gentleman survives on 2 bananas which is 10 Kenyan shillings (0.7 dollars) for lunch which is far below the ‘a dollar’ a day for a poor african.Disturbing even most is that his boss uses 20 dollars each day for lunch. I feel like sharing this economic disparity in a third world economy.
Kenya has been ranked among the most unequal societies in the world, indicating that steady growth that the country realized in the past five years has done little to bridge the wide gap between the rich and the poor.
A new report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on the quality of life across the globe says up to 60 per cent of Kenyans live in poor conditions with no access to quality education and health services, while a further 23 per cent are on the borderline of poverty.
Kenya ranked 103 in the list of inequality out of the total 169 countries surveyed – making it the 66th most unequal country in the world.
Distribution of benefits of economic growth has been one of Kenya’s biggest challenges in its quest for long term prosperity and stability putting the suitability of the trickle-down economics that President Kibaki has used since coming to power under intense scrutiny.
Kenya’s economy expanded from Sh1.17 trillion in 2005 to Sh1.39 trillion last year, but an estimated 38 per cent of the wealth remains in the hands of 10 per cent of the population, leaving 90 per cent of the citizens to share out the rest.
The landscape gets even more skewed when viewed from the bottom end of the pyramid where the poorest 10 per cent of the population control only 1.8 per cent of the national wealth.
This level of income inequality has pushed 86 per cent of Kenyans into poor living conditions while causing serious obstacles to accessing health and education – and ultimately hurting Kenya’s score on key development indicators.
The finding on inequality only confirms the yawning gap between the haves and have-nots across the country linked to high unemployment rates, failed policy interventions, and high of corruption on government that diverts large sums of public resources meant to lift those at the bottom of the pyramid from poverty.
A number of policy interventions like youth empowerment programmes and land reforms that needed to spur growth in key agricultural sector have either failed or are yet to be implemented. More recently, the Kenyan government has responded to mass poverty with the roll out of multi-billion shilling plans meant to create jobs and shield the poorest from mass starvation.
The government spent Sh3.8 billion on small and medium sized firms last year but most of the projects have suffered under the weight of corruption and poor execution.
Large sums of money was also spent in the maize subsidy programme meant to cushion the vulnerable from high food prices but the state is estimated to have lost Sh23.4 billion to bureaucrats and political wheeler-dealers leaving the targeted segments of the population in a neutral position.
Persistence of the high unemployment rates pose the risk of widening the income gap even further.
The government estimates that the youth, in particular, suffer from a 21 per cent unemployment rate, excluding those in colleges.
A large number of people outside gainful employment mean a slide further into poverty while the few who have jobs continue to build mountains of wealth year-on-year. While reducing unemployment is a huge challenge, the government could use the tax system to stimulate job creation. The current tax system is unfair

Baringo County to break the poverty cycle with aloe Vera

For long regarded as an irritant shrub, the aloe plant is turning into a route out of poverty for residents of the arid Baringo County.
Aloe sap’s growing commercial appeal in the world market has attracted the interest of the residents with help from the government and other partners. The county has been sleeping on a gold mine for many years, but now they have something to boast of.The project has a website, http://www.baringoaloe.org, through which customers from around the world can contact them.
The project was revived three years ago after it kicked up a storm on establishment in 2004 with a Sh10.5 million grant from the European Union. Then, the local community protested that it was being run by foreigners.
Despite fears on revival that the aloe produced in the area was not enough to support the venture; farmers are now rushing to domesticate aloe because of its high economic value.
The project is being touted as a solution to poverty in semi-arid areas such as Baringo, Laikipia, Koibatek, Mogotio, Marigat, Keiyo, Marakwet, East Pokot, and Rongai districts. An estimated 10,000 hectares of land have been put under the plant.
Aloe’s juice is boiled leaving a dry substance that is used to make soap and other products. The price of aloe sap has increased from Sh35 to Sh50 per litre.
Upon payment on delivery. Farmers can now buy basic commodities like sugar without a lot of hustles. According to the Kenya Forest Research Institute (Kefri),its estimated that Sh6 million is spent on aloe research each year. It can therefore be said that Aloe is a resource with economic value.
Baringo Aloe Bio-enterprise hopes to produce 10,000 tonnes of aloe in a year’s time given that 1,000 litres of aloe sap is processed at the factory each day though its capacity is limited by manual processes.
Demand
The plant also has nutritional value besides being an important component for both pharmaceuticals and cosmetic industries, with this there’s high demand for the product.
The leaves are applied to wounds to assist healing. Its sap is drunk as an appetizer.
Diluted leaf sap is drunk as a cure for malaria, typhoid fever, diarrhea, oedema, swollen diaphragm, nose bleeding, headache, pneumonia, chest pain and as a disinfectant.
The sap is also applied in eyes to cure conjunctivitis and nipples to wean children. The basal parts of the leaves are used in the fermentation of local beer. The leaves are pounded and added to drinking water for preventing or treating coccidiosis and Newcastle disease in poultry.
Two products from aloe can be used commercially in the manufacture of medicinal and cosmetic preparations.
One is the gel from the centre of the leaf, and the other is the exudates from longitudinal vessels situated at the outer sides of the vascular bundles of the leaves.
The plant can grow in poor soils and tolerates drought, making it invaluable in rangelands.
Although farmers are banned from harvesting wild aloe under a 1986 presidential decree, increasing commercial value has exposed the species to over-exploitation.