Kenya at the moment is at a crossroads a financial balancing act if unchecked will tip towards the balance of IMF vultures and circling sharks. We either export and make Kenyans richer or we import and make ourselves poorer but allow individuals to become richer on our behalf. Which way should we go? Our stupid and selfish MP’s are truly unaware of the position Kenya is currently facing running for cheap prostitute bribes worse than the street whores, just makes me angry so they can protect sugar barons who are damaging this country. A few good men at the CBK and treasury are really holding this country together.
First, we need to reduce the import bill which is what is hurting our economy this year alone over 100Bn shillings worth of food was imported and yet in the farms in my area farmers were feeding bags of carrots to goats, pigs, and cows because they couldn’t find market for there products.
We’re importing tonnes of maize, unmilled wheat, and wheat flour, rice, and sugar etc. are slowly increasing the inflation rate and making our shilling useless against the dollar. We must take import policies that will not depreciate the shilling everytime there’s a drought or floods.
Solution to this is we build stronger cooperation with our neighbors. We should sign agreements with Tanzania and Uganda where we lease land from them and we grow maize and in return, we give them a slice of Mombasa port.
Second, we’re not exporting enough goods! It’s useless for us to build an SGR and guys are proud of imports yet that Railway should be ferrying our exports there’s no reason why we should be importing bulk cargo like cooking oil, clinker etc. when all those things are all here in Kenya laying idle and Kenyans complaining they’re no jobs when the country has some much wealth that i weep.
Last year we exported almost 5 billion dollars worth of goods. But we imported 15 billion dollars worth of good creating a 10 billion dollar deficit. Half of those imports came from China which is understandable since we imported SGR trains from them. But the rest are cell phones which can easily be made in Kenya at a much more cost-effective rate why are still importing phones?, Medicine we are importing simple drugs which we can easily manufacture in Kenya things like antibiotics, painkillers we’re importing even HRV’s we can easily make them here at home. And my biggest flash point is oil ever since the Mombasa refinery closed down the import bill on Oil has been too high and we have become complacent that the fact our energy requirements are controlled by foreigners is scary. And our Turkana oil cannot save us from that predicament. We need to increase our exports and reduce our imports and Kenyans will find themselves with a stronger shilling, more money in their pockets. If the current trend continues we will be FERKED because we’ll be trapped borrowing more money to cover our economy shortfalls.
We have the land to grow crops such as maize, rice etc.
Farmers withdrew from growing maize due to non payments and theft of delivered bags, such things are done in order to open the door way to importers who bring in low quality of farm rejects from elswhere.
It was reported earlier this year there was surplus rice in stores which they could not find a market for, large quantities of imported cheap Arsenic rice.
They can’t compete when the government is just going to import maize and yet our farmer’s grains are sitting in silo’s awaiting their paychecks. I have never understood by the CS for agriculture has to be Kalenjin? When there own tribes mates have been shafting them for years.
Radical changes need to happen because our neighbors are quickly catching up…
Simply put we are experiencing a B.O.P Deficit.
Kisha hapo kwa SGR proponents are lauding how fast we are able to evacuate goods from the port of Msa BUT not how fast we are able to transport export goods. Under this reasoning, once the line reaches U.G border, we will have built a railway line for our landlocked neighbours.
Mos importantly we should slay this demon of plundering state resources. Too much money is wasted in unnecessary projects/payments. Anyway tano tenaaaaa:D
This is my first contribution on this board. I come from an area where farmers grow a lot of onions. Sometimes our onions can’t even get anyone to buy because onions from tz have flooded nairobi. The crazy thing is that onions from tz are grown using chemicals that are banned in Kenya. Isitoshe our chick’s were burnt the other day in tz. What I ask is is it possible for anyone to be dumber than our politicians?!
No we do not.
Kenya is a high cost producer because you all keep insisting on growing Maize and Rice on small scale.
A bag of Mwea Rice of the Basmati variety costs sh 6500
The exact same variety from elsewhere is 2500.
Until a majority of Kenyans live in urban areas and leave farming to professionals,we will forever import food just to keep the cost of living down.
Most Youth SHOULD NOT be thinking about farming.Not more than 5% of the population should be thinking about farming!!
However when it comes to formal employment they should focus on creating and getting those jobs at the county level.
The problem with my generation is the obsession with getting a job in Nairobi.How about making Migori,Kakamega,Nyeri and Garissa places to live and work?
There is a reason why it is cheaper to transport a container (sh 25,000) from Nairobi to Mombasa as compared to Mombasa to Nairobi(sh 38,000) via SGR.It is to encourage exports
Thanks, will respond fully at another post, however in many countries they are encouraging small holdings to farm, to be self-sufficent and take surplus to the local markets to reduce imports. Large scale farmers are unable to meet food demands and some have switched from growing food to establising other activites i.e golf courses.
Large scale farming methods have destroyed the environment ecosystem and killed bees which has a long term effect on food.
The opposite is True.
Large scale farms keep a significant part of their land fallow in order for it to recover so it is good for the environment.Examples are Soysambu Ranch in Nakuru, Wambugu farm in Nyeri and Mutula Kilonzo’s farm in Mbooni. Small scale farmers have been the cause of environmental destruction .Starting with Mau Forest, the subdivision of land around Mai Mahiu after the 2007 violence that has turned the serene area into a dustbowl in the dry season .Central Kenyan towns in January are no better. Nyanza practically has no wildlife because of land subdivision yet the farms at the Coast do.,
Which nations, pray tell, are these encouraging small scale farming to be self sufficient???Please note that “Small scale for Americans is 40 hectares and not 2 hectares or less like in Kenya” and no noation that feeds itself relies on small scale farming.A spot look at the top ten food producing nations, except China(whose faremers are either poor on on subsidies), the rest have less than 10% of the population doing farming. In Europe, environmental conservation has gone so well that wolves, bears and the likes are making comebacks. This has not stopped France and the Ntherlands from being being the second and third largest food exporters on the planet, size notwithstanding. India with its small scale farms is an environmental disaster and its farms are of low productivity.
America still 33% forested and has lost only 30% of its forest cover since the Agricultural Revolution because only 2% of Americans farm.SMH. What are you talking about???A spot check of Soysambu vs the adjacent subdivided area can tell you the difference!!!And that one farm ,Soysambu, is giving us more milk than those subdivided lands put together(Delamere) because it is frigging productive!!
Which work best with LARGE SCALE FARMS!!
Mechanization does not work on a 2 hectare farm.
Again, we go back to Mwea where irrigation IS available.Itrs rice is three times more expensive because it is grown small scale while global producers do it on 10,000 hectare mechanized farms with only 30 workers or so, priducing sh 2500 rice while Mwea produces sh 6500.
The youth should be thinking manufacturing.How to take advantage of AGOA, given we only xport 5 of the 5,500 allowed products.What resources can I import from the region and use as raw material for a factory that is next to the SGR etc instead of farming!!We only need 5% of the population doing farming.