[kictanet] A good piece by Dr. Bitange Ndemo

Tue Nov 19 21:39:58 EAT 2013

Mark,
At independence literacy in Kenya was below 20 percent.  This is why Jomo
Kenyatta made it a priority to deal with ignorance, poverty and disease. 
Today literacy in Kenya is approaching 90 percent but we still import
bicycles.  We import Kitenge and other African prints from the
Netherlands.  Why is cheaper to import from Netherlands where wage levels
are higher than Kenya?

This is because we theoretically dismiss everything without the benefit of
science (data). Let us do it and if we fail, we shall have learnt some
lesson.  Whilst you can sue a structural engineer for professional
negligence, you cannot sue an economist for the same.  That is why I said
that we defy economists since their guess is as good as yours.  Do not
look at a 40 million market.  Look to the 1 billion market in Africa. 
Economists have been failing us since time immemorial.  They failed
Hoover.  They failed Africa with the structural adjustment programmes.

If this thing called comparative advantage worked, then steel producers
would be the best car makers.  But we know this is not true since Japan a
non steel producer makes cheaper cars than UK yet UK has had plenty of
steel.  We must be good at producing something then figure out how we
sustainability be competitive.  If we do not try, we shall be like that
person hoping to win lottery without buying the ticket.

Ndemo.

> I agree with Adam albeit partly. Running to make everything under the sun
> is no a smart move. However building horizontal industries where products
> from one industry feed another and by products are the base of another
> shoulfd be encouraged. Building spare parts for local cars is an example.
>
> A knowledge economy is a good foundation but we still need to build and
> make stuff. e.g Swiss chocolate, german cars, American Missiles, Chinese
> iPhones etc. Am yet to see a stable economy that doesn't manufacture and
> export physical goods.
>
>
> On Mon, Nov 18, 2013 at 10:03 PM, Adam Nelson <adam at varud.com> wrote:
>
>> The first sentence does not lead to the second and third:
>>
>> "We cannot have high unemployment, and at the same time import clothes
>> from Sri Lanka or mitumba, when we can grow cotton and make our clothes.
>>  We must defy economic explanations on what works and what does not
>> work.
>>  If we deployed thousands of youth digitizing land records, we would
>> reduce
>> caseloads in courts, become more efficient, and create more wealth to
>> grow
>> our economy."
>>
>> Kenya should go towards counter-cyclical employment of youth doing
>> productive infrastructure work: being teachers, building railroads,
>> digitizing land records, etc...
>>
>> However, you can't forget Adam Smith who talked extensively of
>> Comparative
>> Advantage (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage).  Sri
>> Lanka (or really Bangladesh) has a far more economical solution for
>> producing cotton clothing than Kenya has.  This mostly has to do with
>> the
>> port of Mombassa being a stranglehold and the fact that a 40M person
>> economy (Kenya) doesn't have the same economy of scale as a billion
>> person
>> economy (a guess at the number of people a Bangladeshi factory can
>> export
>> to easily).
>>
>> Kenya is a small country and a small economy and if it wants to bring in
>> more money and reduce unemployment, the solution is around creating an
>> amazingly well-educated population and doing more knowledge work - not
>> producing more clothing.
>>
>> --
>> Kili.io - OpenStack for Africa: kili.io
>> Musings: twitter.com/varud <https://twitter.com/varud>
>> About Adam: www.linkedin.com/in/adamcnelson
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Nov 18, 2013 at 9:21 PM, Kivuva
>> <Kivuva at transworldafrica.com>wrote:
>>
>>> Dr. Ndemo has struck a cord that has been played in this list
>>> countless times before. I  remember him saying in another thread "you
>>> cannot have unemployed youth yet we have countless garbage lining our
>>> streets and estates!"
>>>
>>> His argument on us importing cloths yet we can do it here is basic
>>> economic that any country can master. India went that way through the
>>> leadership of Mahatma.
>>>
>>> But Dr. Ndemo, in the previous administration that you served so
>>> ardently, the government shipped billions worth of capital on works
>>> that could be done by Kenyans. I'm talking about the massive
>>> infrastructure development that took place in the last 10years. That
>>> capital could have done our unemployed generation justice if it was
>>> utilized here home. I believe Kenyans can build decent roads, brides,
>>> buildings and ports. What happened to national pride? It's the same
>>> argument of importing cloths or planting cotton and producing our own
>>> garments.
>>>
>>> We're still not out of the woods yet, remember the Korean firm
>>> implementing the PKI?
>>>
>>> My cent-less
>>>
>>> On 18/11/2013, Dorcas Muthoni <dmuthoni at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> > A good piece by Dr. Bitange Ndemo
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > *We must be more pragmatic to resolve Kenya's high unemployment*
>>> >
>>> http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/blogs/dot9/-/1959700/2077756/-/oodsogz/-/index.html
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> > Muthoni
>>> >
>>> > My Blog: http://rugongo.blogspot.com/
>>> > --------------------------------------------
>>> > Mahatma Gandhi once said:-
>>> >
>>> > First they ignore you,
>>> > Then they laugh at you,
>>> > Then they fight you,
>>> > AND THEN YOU WIN!!!
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> ______________________
>>> Mwendwa Kivuva
>>> twitter.com/lordmwesh
>>> kenya.or.ke | The Kenya we know
>>>
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>>
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>> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
>> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
>> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and
>> development.
>>
>> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
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>> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy,
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>
>
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Mark Mwangi
>
> markmwangi.me.ke
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> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and
> development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.

University of Nairobi
Business School, Lower Kabete Campus