[kictanet] University of Nairobi Set Top Boxes

[bitange at jambo.co.ke]

Listers,
A total of 81 million manufacturing jobs are to move out of China in the
next few years.  Some jobs are moving back to the US and some are finding
their way into emerging economies.   In the past few weeks since the
ground breaking ceremony at Konza, I have met with six manufacturing
outfits that are considering Africa as their new manufacturing
destination.  Two are well known chipset manufacturers.  They not only
want to manufacture their chipsets here but would want to build a supply
chain by partnering with locals to manufacture hand-sets using their
platform.

The four other visitors are emerging American and European companies that
want to leverage on new opportunities arising in Africa’s burgeoning
mobile market.  Some of the questions they ask include whether we are
doing any light electronic assembly work.  Of course the answer is no but
I try to say good things about Dr. Gachigi’s work at the University of
Nairobi Fab Lab.  In my view we have collectively failed.  We cannot get a
donation from the MIT and seek for someone to take the risk by giving
further aid.  We cannot develop if we cannot take the risk ourselves.
The KictaNet platform has been great and we say good things yet in three
days we forget about them.  At times we revive the issues but we never do
anything that our children and grand children will remember us about.  The
forum we have is great.  We need to use it much more by for example
mobilizing resources to seize these emerging opportunities.  Our risk is
minimized if for example 1,000 people give 100,000 for production of
locally manufactured set top boxes or mobile handsets.  We shall never get
to do this unless we consider the opportunities our collective
responsibility to exploit them.

If you watched Johannes, the World Bank Country head’s press conference on
Friday, you should be worried.  The Bank is worried that the declining
food productivity especially maize will lead to severe food insecurity in
the country.  There are signs that we may not get sufficient rainfalls
next year.  This is no longer a surprise since the drought cycle in Kenya
is four years.  Subsistence farming is the cause of all our problems.  The
solution is that we must reduce those we call farmers from 80% to less
than 5% and increase manufacturing from its current contribution to GDP of
11% to more than 40%.  We must move to large scale and mechanized farming
in order to significantly improve on our productivity.

To achieve this, we must address land use in this country but we have
decided to burry our heads in the sand on the issue of land.  The problem
is not in the distribution of it or the size one owns but in land use.  It
is far much easier to tax the Delameres for not utilizing the land than
resettling 10,000 people on the land on the basis of ensuring equitable
distribution of land.  There is no country that has developed with
majority of its people spread throughout the country in what they call
Home Square.  There are more than 70 million people living in England
which is the size of Nyanza.  In Kenya, 20% of land is arable and can be
used without reliance on irrigation.  This is far bigger space than
England but due to our primitive sub-division of the land, we are not able
to use the land productively.  In Kisii which is the most fertile land in
Kenya, average land size has dropped to less than two acres.  Some
“farmers” grow less than 100 stalks of maize.  Clearly we are creating
problems as we see crime soaring.

As Johannes concluded, we must scale up our manufacturing.  This will
enable us to rapidly urbanize and hopefully leave land for farming. 
Manufacturing opportunities in Kenya are enormous with insatiable market
around us.  Can we for once wake up and try exploiting these
opportunities?  I shall be the first one to contribute Ksh. 100,000 as
capital for those willing to mobilize resources and take the risk of
venturing into manufacturing either in light electronics or in value added
services to our agricultural products.  There is a body of knowledge that
will help us minimize the risk.  I know for example if we met the
standards of potatoes we consume at KFC, we can begin to compete with
Egypt and Brazil.  This also provides us with the opportunity to develop
standards apps and further expand job opportunities.

It is my prayer that this time round we go past palaver and do something
not just for us but the country.  Kictanet will become part of history if
we pull this.  No donor or anybody can do this for us.  Let us just do it.


Ndemo.