The Kenya Business and Economics Times

    At the risk of being labeled a sadist, I’d like to state it here that I certainly think that the Kenyan economy is going through very interesting times. To paint the picture quite starkly, consider the following context; In just about 6 months, the government will be required to cough up to $ 3.6 billion to pay up for the first round of our monthly fuel imports in addition to that, in about the same time, multi-billion shilling loans will be falling due for payment. Now consider that, vis-à-vis the fact that the government is facing a revenue shortfall of about sh714.97 billion with only three months to the end of the current financial year.   This means that for the tax man to meet the full-year target of sh2.108 trillion, it would have to collect at least sh238.3 billion every month to June or about sh7.9 billion daily, a feat more impossible than trying to fit a camel through the eye of a needle considering that the highest monthly collection achieved in the pres...

                                              Photo credit: Atlantic Fellows for social and economic equity “We do not want a Kenya of ten millionaires and ten million beggars. Our people who died in the forests with a handful of soil in their right hands, believing they had fallen in a noble struggle to regain our land… But we are being carried away by selfishness and greed. Unless something is done now, the land question will be answered by bloodshed.” These were the words the populist, erstwhile MP for Nyandarua and assistant minister for tourism and wildlife, JM Kariuki, uttered while speaking at a political gathering in 1974. Shortly after, 700 acres of wheat on a farm in Rongai belonging to the founding father of the nation, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, were razed down by fire in an arson attack and several herds of cattle hein...

                                              Photo credit: Trade Finance Global The other day, I was following a conversation on some whatsapp group that I am in; one of those riotous whatsapp groups with more than its fair share of pseudo intellectuals. You know them. They are “Prof” or “Dr” so and so on their user names and they type ferociously and incessantly any time of day, veritable key board “warriors”. They punctuate the long paragraphs that they send with big words like sesquipedalian or verisimilitude and will be quick to dismiss anyone who questions their profound ‘intellect’. The prevailing discussion in our whatsapp group was about the Kenyan shilling whose value against the US dollar has been in a downward spiral for more than a year now. In response to the ensuing debate, a one Prof Robert Einstein suggested...

                                                  Image Source: The Kenyan WallStreet 2023, the year of our good Lord is here with us. Sure enough, I presume that most of you have your New Year resolutions succinctly put down. We are eight days into the year and I bet you are slowly and painfully coming to the realization that maintaining and achieving those resolutions requires the grit, self discipline and will-power of a Buddhist monk. I am no psychic but I know, without a doubt, that most of your new-year resolutions revolve around money and wealth creation. Because, let’s face it kuomoka is the ultimate goal is it? Granted, there are a myriad of ways to do this. Both legal and illegal- don’t pretend that you are ignorant of the fact that in this world of cut-throat capitalism, the end, most often justi...

                                                  Photo credit:REUTERS/ Francis Kokoroko Three years ago, Ghana stood out as the shining star among African countries. Ghana was what every other African country wanted to become. The big brother we all looked up to.   In 2019, Ghana’s economy was heralded as the fastest growing economy in the world. The IMF had estimated Ghana’s economy to grow by 8.8% that year, a jump from a growth rate of 5.6% in 2018, driven largely by flourishing oil and non-oil sectors. More to that, in December of 2019 the Ghana Cedi had appreciated by 14.81 % against the US dollar as compared to an appreciation of about 9.05% during the same period in 2018. Inflation levels were also considerably moderate at 7.9%. Looking at Ghana’s economy three years later, the wheels seem to ...

        Photo credit: First 100 days podcast. In the song Good Times , rapper Mbithi sings, “ utamu wa nyama choma nikukulia kwa mbao…,” I’d want to tweak that a little to, “ utamu wa mutura nikukulia kwa mbao…,” sounds better this way yeah? At least that’s what I thought when I passed by my mutura guy’s place last Tuesday as I hurried home to catch the presidential debate. It’s what I think to myself every time I eat mutura from his place. Because come on, where else would mutura be served from if not from a wooden chopping board? I’ve seen gentrified folk post photos on the gram of their mutura being served in some fancy bowls in the posh restaurants they patron. I want to state it here, categorically, that that’s an affront to mutura . It’s against culture and tradition. Heck, it’s even unconstitutional. Njoro, our street lawyer can attest to this. Njoro is a diehard patron of the Mutura base I frequent. He’s supposed to have graduated from law school like 1...

  With the government’s subsidy on maize flour in place, ugali sosa is set to make a comeback, much to the delight of many Kenyans. However, the move has elicited vociferous debate, on social media platforms with a section of Kenyans terming it to be a political move now that we are on the cusp of the general elections, while others query why the government couldn’t have intervened much earlier. The bottom line however is, if it happens that on your next visit to kwa Mathe the first ugali serving does nada to calm the pangs of hunger, you can afford to say “ Mathe, leta sosa!” without batting an eye lid. In the previous week’s post, I had opined that instead of using price controls to check the rising costs of living, as a section of Kenyan tweeps were earlier clamouring for, the government should instead use subsidies to lower the prices of key food commodities. Considering that ugali is a staple in the diets of many Kenyans, the move to subsidise its retail prices is laudab...

  Kenya’s year-on-year inflation rate accelerated to 7.9 per cent in June 2022- the highest level it has scaled since August 2017. A closer look at the consumer price index shows that the jump in inflation was largely driven by considerable upward movements in the costs of food and non-alcoholic beverages as well as the rise in fuel prices after a price review by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) in mid June. In early June, there was a clamour by Kenyans on Twitter for the government to intervene in curbing the rising costs of living by imposing price controls on key commodities such as food. While the distress by Kenyans who have been pushed between a rock and a hard place by the rising costs of living is understandable, it is important to understand the ramifications of price controls. Price controls are government regulations on prices or their rates of change and may take the form of setting either maximum or minimum prices. I shall make references to the...

  According to a report released by the Nairobi Metropolitan Transport Authority (NaMATA) in September 2019, vehicles stuck in traffic potentially cost Kenya about $1 billion a year in lost productivity. In May of that year, the Cabinet Secretary for Transport James Macharia, had announced that the government had dedicated sh 200 billion to projects meant to reduce traffic congestion in Nairobi area. Though there was mention of the rolling out of a bus rapid transport system and the laying of new railway tracks, overtime, the focus seems to have been heavily on the expansion and recalibration of roads within and around the city if the construction of several by passes and the expressway are anything to go by. However, urban economists argue that the construction of more and wider roads does not necessarily translate to reduced traffic congestion. If anything, building more roads further compounds the problem as it encourages more commuters to use cars to commute to work in the lo...

  About a month ago, during   president Uhuru Kenyatta’s   last Madaraka day address in office, he pointed out that since his government came into office in 2013, the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had risen from sh4.5 trillion in 2013 to close to sh13 trillion presently, making Kenya’s economy the   6 th   largest in Africa, up from position 12. While the growth in the GDP numbers is laudable, there are pertinent questions to ask about the same. For starters, it is expected that growth in GDP, which represents the growth of a country’s market output, will automatically result in the reduction of unemployment rates as more jobs are created. The creation of more jobs leads to a rise in per capita incomes which consequently leads to a higher standard of living among the population. How then is it that, for the longest time now, social media, newspapers, radio and TV news reports have all been awash with stories of Kenyans lamenting about the high costs ...