South Korea Vs Kenya

General
1

You’ve heard that half-baked argument that Kenya was at per with South Korea in 1963, but due to corruption Kenya was left behind.

In fact, the truth is slightly more complicated.

Between 1963-1982, Kenya was among the fastest growing economies in the world. Later, between 2003 and 2016, Kenya again became a very fast growing economy. So how come Kenya remains a poor country while SK is today an industrialised nation?

The answer lies in the [SIZE=6]rate[/SIZE] of population growth.

Consider this:

  • Kenya Population 1963: 8.9 million. Kenya Population 2016: 47 million.

  • South Korea Population 1963: 27.6 million. South Korea Population 2016: 50.6 million.

In other words, South Korea population has just doubled in the last 50 years; Kenya’s has increased 6 times!

FACT IS, NO COUNTRY HAS BROKEN OUT OF POVERTY WHEN ITS POPULATION DOUBLES EVERY 12 OR SO YEARS.

ALL DEVELOPED COUNTRIES HAVE POPULATIONS THAT DOUBLE, AT THE FASTEST, EVERY 50-100 YEARS.

The sad fact is, even the mega-infrastructure projects we are undertaking will not amount to much when far, far more resources are used to feed, clothe, educate, treat and generally take care of an endless flood of babies. And not when we expect ‘government’ to offer everything free.

During the recent measles vaccination campaign, the MoH managed to reach 20 million children UNDER 18 YEARS.

Think about that; 20 million.

We already have an unemployment problem so where are 20 million more jobs going to come from in the next 15 years?

9 Likes
2

I think corruption and poor leadership are bigger factors than the population growth

3

NIKO NA WATOI 8 TARGET YANGU NI 30 . TAFAKARI HAYO .

[ATTACH=full]57064[/ATTACH]

3 Likes
4

Expound!

5

What I mean is that even if we had a slower population growth rate but had the same levels of corruption and poor leadership, we would still be poor. There are so many countries that have smaller populations but are still dirt poor

6

@Grundy, please don’t make me tell you off - I don’t suffer fools lightly. I have clearly said “rate of growth” and made absolutely no reference to the population itself.

7

the key factor of South Korea’s rapid development lies on its geographic location and especially its proximity to the then soviet block, the western nations amassed lots of resources in South Korea just to prove a point to the rest of the world , South Korea had to develop a lot faster than the DPRK
Western capitalism is way better than the Soviet socialism

8

Okay, let me rephrase it, population growth rate is not the most important factor that determines how well the economy of a country is doing.
While you are at it, you do realise that if old economically useless farts like you were dying faster, it would really help in slowing down our population growth rate, right?

6 Likes
9

Poor leaderhsip and corruption arw the problem. That is why S.Korea is light years ahead of N.Korea in almost anything despite the lattet having almost half the population of S. Korea.

1 Like
10

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D KUKA UMEPIGWA TEN NIL , MEFFI WEWE

1 Like
11

Honestly, you people need to start facing reality. True, corruption and bad governonce has cost Kenya, especially during the Moi years when we grew at zero%. But the worst problem has been the unsustainable rate of population growth.

Central Kenya counties are starting to outgrow the rest of Kenya because the population there has stabilised, for example.

12

What makes Africans to be seemingly poor is currency! African currencies have little value against the USD and other major currencies. Also given the fact that we import majority of our machinery, cars and even refrigerators, it therefore makes them out of reach for the common mwanainchi.

13

OK Peruse through this, long read though…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1493489/Why-has-South-Korea-overtaken-Kenya-Because-its-rulers-can-limit-their-greed.html

[SIZE=6]Why has South Korea overtaken Kenya? Because its rulers can limit their greed?

This is closer to the truth than many on Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa would care to admit. East Asia has grown richer in spite of corruption because its rulers felt bound to not steal too much.
[B]Consider the cases of Kenya and South Korea. In 1960 South Koreans were, on average, poorer than Kenyans. They are now 25 times richer. What can account for this extraordinary divergence?

It is unlikely to be the legacy of colonialism. The British were disrespectful of Kenyan culture and crushed the Mau-Mau uprising with great ferocity. The Japanese were far more brutal, banning Korean culture and enslaving perhaps 100,000 Korean girls to work in military brothels.

Then, after the Second World War, Korea endured a civil war in which a million people died. Kenya had no comparable trauma.
Some of the differences must be linked to education. South Korean children thrash nearly everyone at maths and science. Kenyan kids do not.

That is not because Koreans are more clever. A more plausible reason is that Korean children do lots of homework. In the early 1990s I lodged with a Korean family in Seoul. The two teenage boys studied hard but never hard enough for their mother. And the father told the elder one that he had to study engineering, whether he wanted to or not, because that was the way to a good job.
Huku ni kupereka your STAR kid to an elite course at the expense of the rest, WRONG MOVE.
in Kenya, those with the power to hire tend to employ members of their own tribe, no matter how lazy or incompetent they may be. So the pay-off from diligent study is less certain; the country has legions of jobless graduates. Korea has tribal problems too. Those from the south-western region of Cholla suffered serious discrimination until quite recently. But there was nothing on the scale taken for granted in Kenya.

All in all, its not just a corruption thing, its like a complete overhaul of our societal values together with the economic aspect, our economy favours few people, in Korea there is something for everyone. Get it?
[/B]
[/SIZE]

3 Likes
14

Nobody touches the population angle - because they are going to called racist. Fact is, Africa’s population has reached a tipping point.

We either face up to the fact or perish in the Med trying to reach Europe.

15

The elephant in the room on the Kenyan Case is the ever growing population of kids between the ages of (0 - 14). Last time I saw the statistics, they made up about 42% of the population and birthrates have been tremendously growing.

Kenya’s economy is not growing fast enough to accommodate these kids when they come of age.

These kids are going to be out IMMIGRANTS because they will provide a lot of both skilled and non-skilled labour at very cheap rates.

Anyone in their late teens to early thirties living as if they have a grace period are in for shock.

2 Likes
16

Let us agree on this. South Korea outdid Kenya because of many many factors. However bad leadership, corruption, population boom and disease stand out.

1 Like
17

Kibaki said people should stop producing children everyday.

2 Likes
18

People really can’t handle the truth to talk of the effects of corruption on the economy as a “myth” is to be really delusional.

3 Likes
19

I couldn’t agree more. Corruption is everywhere. However, the primary factor that distinguishes the first world from us is the rate of population growth. Kenyans just procreate without considering the cost of living. I hope soon people will realize that raising a kid, especially in Nairobi is a VERY HUGE financial decision. I encourage any man to thoroughly think about the financial implications before deciding to have one…this is why I dont subscribe to the bullshit of marrying single mothers and bearing their burdens. It never makes sense to sacrifice your standard of living for children that dont belong to you.

3 Likes
20

@M2Random, you sir, are great Kenyan. People need to read about how SK became an economic powerhouse to start speaking sense. For years, the country was a corrupt dictatorship, but at least the dictators educated their people and put in place good economic policies. In Kenya, during Jomo we had something of the same, and the economy grew very fast. Things used to work. Unfortunately, even then our population growth would wipe out any gains made. When Moi took over and the economy stalled, we were ferked; people continued breeding. By the time Kibaki took over and tried to revive the economy, there were like 8 million unemployed Kenyans. Even if Kibaki grew the economy at 10%, there was no way the economy would have been able to mop up all those people.

Can you imagine the MoH immunised 20 MILLION KIDS BELOW 18 YEARS during the recent measles campaign? 20 million!

You know what made me post this today? I allowed random kids to come pick ‘lokwards’ - those tu-funny yellow fruits - in my compound this weekend. Within no time there were like 150 ragged kids fighting, scratching and climbing all over like little mankis.

We have a problem.