There's plenty of food in Kenya, people starve because they don't have money to buy food. ... Red cross is using Mpesa direct cash transfer to drought victims to purchase food in their area. Meaning there's food available for sale.
There is plenty of food, but the government is begging all over the place, grateful for small tokens and sending out even more urgent pleas to "our international friends". Right?
What kinds of morons are running said government? I think you fail to understand some very basic things. The unavailability of food does not literally mean that there is no food to be found anywhere. When you state that people "don't have the money to buy food", you seem to forget that prices and
affordability are determined by supply and demand. So, instead of thinking of "let's just use MPESA to send them a bit of money so that they can but food", there's an alternative:
produce food in such quantities that even a person with little money will be able to eat. Until that is done, handouts and begging from overseas ensure that a year or so from now, we will be in exactly the same position as now and every past year: the MPESA money will have been spent and donated food will have been eaten and pooped out. Countries that have solved their food problems have not done so just by handing out money to the needy; they have largely succeeded by addressing the cost/poverty problem from the supply side.
Here, let me give you a solid example: Consider right now the price of a "rotisserie chicken", nicely spiced and cooked, in a USA supermarket with a similar (or any other whole chicken) in Nairobi. Forget about the fact that Americans have more disposable income, and just compare on raw $ figures. Then, if you are so minded, you may scale for incomes.
Another example, since I spend quite a bit of time in Beijing: I can eat well in Beijing and lower raw/absolute cost than I can in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, etc ... compare the average prices of, say, a whole chicken. Why is that?
Hint here: the scale on which food is being produced and its availability! Your arguments are very similar to Pundits. I can't understand why it's so difficult for you guys to see the "supply" aspect.
Maybe this will help: Take a look at the stuff you have around you---from plastic drinking cup to that fancy electronic gadget. Here's a thought for you: Perhaps the reason you can so easily afford that stuff is not just because you have worked hard and earned them--which indeed you, being you and a real manly hard worker, have done---maybe it has something to do with all those factories in Guangdong, with their cheaply well-fed workers, endlessly knocking off all that cheap junk.
Here's one I remember from the maths class in Std. 5: A ratio has two parts; so if you want to change it, you look at both the numerator and denominator, not just one of the two. They taught good stuff in those days, and we absorbed some of it.
Solution is to increase productivity of farmers in all sectors of agriculture so that agri processing can increase hopefully employ subsistence farmers. Government already offers subsidized fertilizers https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001231051/farmers-scramble-for-subsidised-fertiliser-ahead-of-rainy-season .
GoK can actually do much more. As we "speak" USAID is working to get Ethiopian maize to feed Kenyans. Yes, Ethiopia. The place has done one heck of a job in maize production, and perhaps this will give you some idea of how:
Ethiopia has doubled its maize productivity and production in less than two decades. The yield, currently estimated at >3 metric tons/ha, is the second highest in Sub-Saharan Africa, after South Africa
...
...
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12571-015-0488-zNever mind, back to Kenya ...
The galana irrigation project which the government is suppose to put up infrastructure then lease land to private investors when completed Kenya will be a net food exporter. But even if it were operational today people who're starving would still be starving since they'd not have money to buy food.
This is the type of hard-core African mentality which explains why we are always starving and begging: the idea of planning for the future just doesn't exist; it's all here-and-now. GoK's budget for next year spends more than twice on tablets for kids than on irrigation for the whole country. What can one tell from that? 18 or so months from now, it wil be another round of "
Wah, wah! The rains have failed! What can we do about nature? International community, please help in these desperate times!". But putting money into irrigation won't help those who are starving
right now, so why bother? Right? We'll take it as it comes; the way we have always taken it. We've managed to wing it for 50+ year; why change, especially when change would require planning, discipline, and hard work. No, best leave it to the "international friends/community". Over here,
kazi iendelee.
As for Galana, it's all about noise and eating. Take a look at the project since it was conceived, how much money has been spent, how much has been achieved, complaints by even the MPig eaters ....
At the started of this thread
http://www.nipate.org/index.php?board=1;action=post2 I put up some numbers (for a couple of years, but one can go back 50+ years and see the same pattern):
the Government of Kenya declared an impending drought with an estimated 1.6 million people affected.
Aug 2014:
The acutely food insecure population increased from 1.3 million in February to 1.5 million by August.
Sep 2015:
Findings of the 2015 Long Rains Assessment (LRA) indicate that about 1.1 million people are acutely food insecure and cannot meet their basic dietary requirements, hence requiring immediate food assistance for the next six months
July 2016:
Food insecurity conditions are likely to persist throughout the outlook period, especially in the northeast, northwest, and southeast pastoral areas, and coastal and southeast marginal agricultural areas.
It's always the same story. Year after year after year. And it doesn't even matter if there are numerous advance warnings of what is to come. The response is always the same: wait until the last minute and go on a desperate begging trip. International community! International friends! Shit.
Finally: We can argue indefinitely about whether what is needed is just more money for the poor, whether there's plenty of food around or not, whether Galana is on track to save Kenyans, etc. etc. etc. blah blah blah, but the hard facts are these:* Kenyans are again starving and begging all over the place, led by none other than their president, whose excitement over some little handout is incredible. (Donated food first going to State House to be launched ?!?)
* What on earth do people get from pretending and claiming that all is well when it's the same desperate crap year after year? This is how it has been for a long time, and it looks like it will be that way for a long time.So, to anyone who is minded to come up with all sorts of stories and "explanations", I say this: Pay attention to the
red, and wake me up when there is a real change. Instead of the absurd
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"we are desperately begging, as we always do, but actually we have plenty of food",how about
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"we have plenty of food, so we aren't begging anymore!"I know which of the two I would find more convincing.
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