Author Topic: I wrote this many years ago  (Read 2889 times)

Offline KenyanPlato

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I wrote this many years ago
« on: November 09, 2020, 07:54:44 PM »
https://njamba.wordpress.com/2015/01/24/lessons-and-reasons-for-kenyas-governance-missteps/

Offline RV Pundit

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Re: I wrote this many years ago
« Reply #1 on: November 09, 2020, 08:01:52 PM »
Tanzania is all that and yet it one of world poorest nations.
Although politics and economy are interlinked.
They are actually separate issues.
You can achieve both - which is great.
But you can also achieve on of them - economic transformation is possible in a dictatorship.

Personally I think we have nailed political end.

We have problem of poverty...we need to focus there.

Offline KenyanPlato

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Re: I wrote this many years ago
« Reply #2 on: November 09, 2020, 08:36:20 PM »
Tanzania didnt have an established settler colonial economy. Kenya strategic location worked for us before and post colonial period. Read my article. I am addressing goverance issue not economic ones

No goverance is an issue in kenya. We need stability in rv and coast. We need kikuyus and other expansionist tribes to be allowed freedom to live everywhere without victimization

Offline Nefertiti

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Re: I wrote this many years ago
« Reply #3 on: November 09, 2020, 09:02:41 PM »
Stale news. seem no one reads your boring blog
♫♫ They say all good boys go to heaven... but bad boys bring heaven to you ~ song by Julia Michaels

Offline RV Pundit

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Re: I wrote this many years ago
« Reply #4 on: November 09, 2020, 09:14:42 PM »
So settler colonial community that stayed here for few years and run mostly loss making enterprises were the make or break.
Uganda was one of richest colonies in East Africa - thanks to Cotton and Copper.
Kenya was ever on the begging list of British colonial office in London - even whatever Delamare was trying was not profitable - and he was a butt of jokes in London. Most settlers had borrowed in Britain - to try everything - sheeps, goats, maize, tea, dairy - and most never broke even. Some who had sold family jewels - were now condemned to stay in Africa forever.
Countries like Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana - never really needed money from London to run it's affairs.
Place like Congo were super-profitable for Belgium.
Kenya has literally nothing - just baren unfertile land teeming with wild animals, crazy tribes fighting each other and pretty much no industry could take off until 1940s-1950s with maybe tea and coffee getting off ground.

Anyway I digress. Suffice to say Kenya was mostly a loss making colony - a drain on the British Exchequer - unlike Uganda that had a thriving cotton industry from 1900! Then copper in Jinja and generally great climate.

I think we have talked so much about politics and governance; it's easy stuff; just talk and talk.

The hard stuff is building roads, bridges, railways - and that is REAL GOVERNANCE missing.

We have classified basic gov services - like gov giving us paved roads, piped water, and electricity - as DEVELOPMENT.

Which is a big mistake in my view.

People should start rioting because they don't have a paved road, garbage is uncollected, electricity missing and etc - rather than BBI or Raila or NO peace.

That is paradigm shift that is missing in Africa.

Tanzania didnt have an established settler colonial economy. Kenya strategic location worked for us before and post colonial period. Read my article. I am addressing goverance issue not economic ones

No goverance is an issue in kenya. We need stability in rv and coast. We need kikuyus and other expansionist tribes to be allowed freedom to live everywhere without victimization

Offline KenyanPlato

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Re: I wrote this many years ago
« Reply #5 on: November 09, 2020, 09:20:14 PM »
Stale news. seem no one reads your boring blog
It get lot of hits from all over. You like wagging tails. I am a longcterm view type of guy

Offline Nefertiti

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Re: I wrote this many years ago
« Reply #6 on: November 10, 2020, 02:24:50 AM »
Government vs economy is a very large stretch called "development." If you stick to government as service enterprise- then you can say security, roads, water as the main job. Dissociate poverty or economic well-being and it becomes easier service provision. This model can borrow massive debt or century bonds and lay steel everywhere. Pundit loves this.

Enter economics and you have harder problem. Because it becomes a for-profit enterprise that cannot just borrow; cannot build housing for the homeless. Capitalism favors rewarding the successful which grows overall pie with inequality. Ndii loves this.

Government mandate is not coded into the law instead you have BoR and many sketches. What would an economist's constitution look like? Development models are ultimately the way governance should be designed. But competitive politics do not allow the incubation needed for this national experiment- Mao Tse-tung, Deng Xiaoping, Fidel Castro kind of free-hand. Benevolent dictatorship is misconceived as politics but I think it more economics driven. China vs India contrast as primers for this "political holiday" vs "democratic deficit" drastic outcomes. Budding economy needs a break just like business.

Start by distinguishing the two: governance. Economics. Is government role services or development or both? Is development a service?

Ps - Americans are rich but divided and hateful... is our "governance" better than Kenya's? This Proud Boys, QAnon, Charlottesville racist madness... "culture wars" is great economics with very bad sociopolitical relations. There are angrier, unhappier people here than RV warriors or ODM Kibera goons.
♫♫ They say all good boys go to heaven... but bad boys bring heaven to you ~ song by Julia Michaels

Offline Nefertiti

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Re: I wrote this many years ago
« Reply #7 on: November 10, 2020, 02:27:10 AM »
Stale news. seem no one reads your boring blog
It get lot of hits from all over. You like wagging tails. I am a longcterm view type of guy

2 likes is a monologue.
♫♫ They say all good boys go to heaven... but bad boys bring heaven to you ~ song by Julia Michaels

Offline RV Pundit

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Re: I wrote this many years ago
« Reply #8 on: November 10, 2020, 03:07:55 AM »
Polemics. Capitalism doesn't apply to gov. It applies to individuals and private sector. The whole idea of gov is at it core a social enterprise. Gov and NGOs operate on the same level. Gov is non-profit with regulatory arm and a strong arm to enforce law and order. Trump obviously never understood this - imagined his job was to make US money - and he got voted out for a socialist.

Sustainable development comes from freeing private sector and individual to pursue profit motive.

People who think gov should be motivated by by selfish profit motive like private sectors are morons.

Gov is a social enterprise - and it does best - when it tries to lift the poor - and victims of capitalism.

But ultimately the private sector will do more for the poor than any gov will ever do...in their selfish pursuit of profit...they spread happiness...more happy people..more money for them.

I believe gov job as far as private sector goes - end with facilitate them, regulating them, ensuring stable macro-economics and favourable enviroment - and finally leaving them to get on it.

Beyond that gov should not talk development - but provide gov services - roads, electricity, security - etc. Otherwise this nebulous term development is hard to define.

Government vs economy is a very large stretch called "development." If you stick to government as service enterprise- then you can say security, roads, water as the main job. Dissociate poverty or economic well-being and it becomes easier service provision. This model can borrow massive debt or century bonds and lay steel everywhere. Pundit loves this.

Enter economics and you have harder problem. Because it becomes a for-profit enterprise that cannot just borrow; cannot build housing for the homeless. Capitalism favors rewarding the successful which grows overall pie with inequality. Ndii loves this.

Government mandate is not coded into the law instead you have BoR and many sketches. What would an economist's constitution look like? Development models are ultimately the way governance should be designed. But competitive politics do not allow the incubation needed for this national experiment- Mao Tse-tung, Deng Xiaoping, Fidel Castro kind of free-hand. Benevolent dictatorship is misconceived as politics but I think it more economics driven. China vs India contrast as primers for this "political holiday" vs "democratic deficit" drastic outcomes. Budding economy needs a break just like business.

Start by distinguishing the two: governance. Economics. Is government role services or development or both? Is development a service?

Ps - Americans are rich but divided and hateful... is our "governance" better than Kenya's? This Proud Boys, QAnon, Charlottesville racist madness... "culture wars" is great economics with very bad sociopolitical relations. There are angrier, unhappier people here than RV warriors or ODM Kibera goons.