In 1963, Kenya had a Gross Domestic Product of about $930 million and a population of about 8.5 million.
In 2018, we have a population of 50 million and a Gross Domestic Product of $85 billion, making Kenya the 69thlargest economy in the world.
Essentially, our GDP has grown by about 90 times.
Why are so many of our people still poor (admittedly, the poverty of today is different from the poverty of 1963 when 94% of the people lived in grass huts)?
You’re pulling my plonker, aren’t you?
Kenya is making money but the common Mwananchi is not benefiting. Money, plus wealth, is concentrated in the hands of a few. It’s not trickling down. Besides, GDP is just a statistic and never a trusted indication on how well the citizens are doing.
True. ‘Rockets’ zinazidi kupotea.
Poverty has reduced from nearly 50 to 29%. But the funny thing and what they don’t say is that it’s the population (middle-class ) that has increased but we still have the same number of poor people.
did you know in bukusu PLONKER means penis , so angalau tunajua kitu fiudchieth hukufanyia
This is not the correct position. You have to factor in inflation. When you do that, you find that GDP growth is much much less than what you have stated. For example, what could a million do in Nairobi in 1963 compared to what a million can do in Nairobi today?
Just finished watching a documentary on Ukraine current situation after its civil war. Its GDP has dropped by half from $160 billion to $80 billion. That makes it lower than us. The country is divided by half, one leaning to Russia and the other to usa. Worse is the west half leaning to usa has no continental support since Germany which basically is EU decision maker was never in favour of the cia led coup there. They are stuck on a spiral downwards. The elites who led the coup have relocated to european capitals and most of its middle class. Only the poor remained. What’s worse the manufacturing industry left completely leaving tertiary industries only. East Ukraine basically shifted everything to mother Russia including using Rubles as currency. Its an unofficial province of Russia.
Moral of the story, don’t let your nation be the theatre of proxy wars by foreigners. They burn your country and leave. The wealthy take off with what they have leaving the poor to face the music.
Our GDP is actually better than most of the east European countries. Although I don’t want to compare but for a country that isn’t in the EU, we are actually punching above our weight. We just need to improve our HDI, reduce poverty and unemployment.
Tenderpreneurship
Chronyism
A bias for imports and FDI over locally made products
Failure to ensure young people acquire monetisable skills or tertiary education
Lack of support for small scale businesspersons in all sectors of the economy
Lack of access to capital for entrepreneurs
Concentration of wealth in the capital city
The bottomline: Government policy that is determined by the political class and their backers
In 1963, how much was an acre in westlands or upperhill? How much is it now?
Only a few are rich in our country but wasn’t not for corruption, wastages and other ills, we would be very far
I am not educated enough to offer any academic and clever analysis but if I have said it once, I have said it a million times…
The success of any society is measured by how well the most vulnerable amongst the society are treated.
Until wealth is distributed to meet the basic human needs of the most vulnerable, the whole society just looks fucked!
How does anyone enjoy driving a Lamborghini on the streets of Nairobi where women with babies on their backs are selling 1bob sweets at traffic lights just to feed their babies?
How???
And it doesn’t matter if you claim to have worked hard for it, chances are you benefited from corruption and the suffering of your fellow citizens!
You missed to ‘factor in’ inflation. You can calculates inflation to see what a US dollar was worth in the past and today. $1.00 in 1963 had the same buying power as $8.11 in 2018. .$930,000,000.00 in 1963 had the same buying power as $7,541,688,157.89 in 2018. This makes the GDP per capita in 1963 to be be approximately $887 and $1700 in 2018.
Woiye, after 50+ years Kenya’s GDP has not even doubled. I’m starting to understand why some people (including Trump, if I’m not wrong) call for Africa to be recolonized. Maybe we could learn a thing or two the second time round.
Calculate the Value of $1.00 in 1963. How much is it worth today?
Correct. If you factor inflation ,the GDP 'growth rate" has even not yet doubled since 1963.
Sad but true. The only thing that has doubled…no tripped…no quadrupled…no just multiplied is populashen.
Poor people tend to breed more.
As told above. Inflation and population.
SQNY , so because i have six kids i am poor despite driving an X6
Figsed
Chinese economy doubles after every six years.