Over a decade ago I
met a young man named Francis in a little village in Emuhaya, in what is now Vihiga
County. Two things about his story struck me. Francis was eleven years old and
in class three, with 85 other children about his age.
The world’s richest people, who share a
combined wealth of about $1.7 trillion – nearly double Africa’s 2012 GDP
estimate – could be crammed into Francis’ class. These 85 men and women,
according to an Oxfam report released last week, control as much wealth as the
combined wealth of the poorest 3.5 billion people in the world.
The Oxfam report, Working for the Few: Political
capture and economic inequality, suggests that massive concentration
of economic resources in the hands of a few is a critical threat to inclusive
political and economic systems. The report warns that the inequality is
impacting social stability and threatening security on a global scale.
Rising economic inequality is the most
urgent challenge of our time. In reference to the immense inequality and the
rich-poor divide in South Africa Arch Bishop Tutu said, “we have come a long
way, but this will go up in flames”.
President of African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka, has argued that if we ignore the
dangers of wealth disparities the consequences will be far more distressing
than a few sleepless nights for the wealthy. I have argued in this column that
the staggering income inequality in Kenya could append social upheaval,
exacerbate violent crime, stymie economic growth, corrupt politics and
undermine our fragile democracy.
In his
Apostolic Exhortation released in November 2013, Pope Francis wrote; “Some
people continue to defend trickle-down theories, which assume that economic
growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about
greater justice and inclusiveness in the world”. Rising economic inequality, despite unprecedented growth,
especially in the global south is the most urgent challenge of our time.
Achieving inclusive growth was one of the
nine programme sub-pillars of the 2014 World Economic Forum. This
year, in a message delivered to world’s business, political and civil society
elite gathered in Davos, the Pope noted that while economic prosperity yielded
remarkable poverty reduction, it often led to widespread social exclusion. Pope Francis urged the global elite to draw upon the great human
and moral resources and to tackle inequality with determination and
far-sightedness.
That inequality
was high on the Davos 2014 agenda is heartening. However, Davos is an embodiment
of a self-interested global oligarchy. They can achieve little beyond eloquent
and impassioned appeals. Global advocacy is necessary but tackling inequality
demands dogged local action. Kenya’s bewildering inequality must occupy the
center of our social policy debate. This debate has failed to gain traction. The
scale and depth of inequality in our society is an inconvenient truth,
especially among the privileged middle class and the wealthy business,
political and academic elite. But we can do better when we are less unequal.
Last year,
Society for International Development released a report “Exploring
Kenya’s Inequality: Pulling apart or pooling together? This
report provides a petrifying account of the anatomy of Kenya’s inequality,
driven mainly by extractive political and economic institutions. After reading
this report, I concluded that ours is a tale of three countries: the obscenely
rich country; the gasping lower to middle-income country, teetering on the
precipice; and, the miserably poor country.
I imagined that
the report would generate a dispassionate debate, given that the evidence behind
it was drawn from the 2009 population and housing census. But there was no debate.
Instead we got a discordant quartet; an activist, gotcha civil society,
self-interested academic mercenaries, a caustic governing elite beholden to
their own facts and a befuddled public.
At the age of 17,
before completing primary school, Francis dropped out of his class of 85. He is
now employed as motorcycle taxi (bodaboda) rider in Luanda Market in Vihiga
County. There are hundreds of thousands of children like Francis who belong to
the “lost generation”, excluded from promise of Kenya’s growth and prosperity.
Investing in our
children is our best chance to break the vicious cycle of poverty and
inequality. We must prioritize investment in high quality education and good
teachers, social protection through conditional cash transfers, equitable
access to finance, vocational training and skills development, support for
rural agriculture and infrastructure and provision of health services. We owe
it to Francis and his children.
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