I usually hear how we should support the jua kali industry because it is the easiest path to industrialization nacheka.
The low IQ artisans hata wapewe nini they’d never compete in a globalized world.
I usually log in to YouTube and see these jua kalis ambao wamejaa Pakistan na India making all sorts of things from brake pads to crank shafts to oil filters and I wonder why these countries are not rich.
Jua Kali is in efficient and can’t guarantee quality of products and resistant to professionalism and will hold on to manual labour as much as possible
Ukatoa matusi na self hate in your words kuna venye uko na half baked point.The jua kali sector is a sleeping giant not able to grow and compete because of cheap imports, cost of production and that they do not enjoy economies of scale thus end up with some substandard products.We have some of the most creative and hardworking jua kali people and if the industry is well invested can transform the country to a manufacturing economy.
You have to start there. Making a crankshaft requires someone nowhere short of college education and a passion for machining. Even Indian machine shops you see here have at least one college trained engineer. India has progressed. They have a growing manufacturing industry out of this and westerners are considering shifting there after chinku bombed them with a disease in retaliation to the Trump’s crippling shift of foreign trade policy.
There is a direct relation between the formal and informal sectors of any industry with the latter creating an enabling environment for the former to thrive.
Increasing carbon emissions from manufacturing pursuits will worsen the environment causing even more severe drought, pollute the rivers and soil with heavy metals which lead to cancer, lung problems and autoimmune diseases.
The western world ndio walichafua environment during their industrial revolution…now that they are rich…they dont want you to succeed. Thats why wame come up na environment conservation
Jua kali iko sawa tu. It needs more investment by the government.
Equip those vocational training centres, give more incentives for start up, like loans for equipment to encourage self employment.
Kijana akitoka kusomea kazi ya kuwa mechanic, anapewa tool box ya Tolsen worth 20k.
Then anapewa ile machine ya kuvalisha springs na shock absorbers kwa gari alipe mos mos.
Na aonyeshwe kiwanja penye atapigia hustle yake bila kukimbizana na kanjo.
There is alot of talent in jua kali. But our thieving leaders have never given the sector serious attention.
Actually, the problem is not the juakali per se but the surrounding factors. These factors include the purchasing power of the market, the availability of capital, the skill-level of workers, the education level of the general population, and the education level of business owners, among other factors. In countries like India, you will find that manufacturing outfits are engaged in a race to the bottom. The population has low purchasing power, the workers are poorly skilled, and the population is poorly educated. A barely educated business owner in India will hire the cheapest labor and produce at the cheapest cost. And since the market is poorly educated with low purchasing power, they will go for his cheap and low-quality products and make him a winner. So, the whole thing is a self-fulfilling cycle that will resist forward evolution.
We are also taking the same path as a country. For instance, locally manufactured wheelbarrows have remained at the same price point (Kshs 3000) for close to 2 decades. The only issue is that the quality has been dropping every year to keep the prices down. Today’s wheelbarrows cannot last more than a few construction jobs. This is backward progression, since businesses compete to manufacture the cheapest, and the market cannot differentiate between low and high quality.
Why do I say the Jua kali scale is not the problem? In countries like Japan and Korea, you will find thousands of small scale manufactures (less than 10 employees) using old machines but whose products are world beaters. The population in these countries have high purchasing power, the population is well education (will choose better quality products over lower ones), the workforce is highly trained, the business is well capitalised, and the business owners are well-educated.
The West was smart because they outsourced their dirty manufacturing to Asia before it caused irreversible damage to their environment. In Beijing and other cities across China, there’s so much smog in the atmosphere people have to wear masks. They have lung disease, cancer you name it. The seafood is all contaminated. We don’t have the financial muscle to treat our people if they fall ill with incurable diseases. Remember that Mother Nature will always fight back! We can manufacture just what we need in a green, sustainable manner. Planet Earth is the only home we have here. We cannot afford to sacrifice our children’s future health on the altar of quick gains.
Hakuna kitu hunibore kama peasant in bonobo land talking about carbon and the environment. Hio ni ujinga tunaambiangwa na mzungu ndio tuogope to industrialization. You can’t compare the carbon footprint ya Kenya na USA ama China.
