Both the Kenyan past and the world economy have had a massive part to play in the current economic situation of Kenya, which I contend can never be looked at in isolation. This is in how employment, technological advancements, industrial development, and resources are distributed. Policies form a critical part of the social struggles and are both the outcome and cause of historical development. Primarily the current situation in Kenya has been influenced by two distinct periods, the colonial era and the post-colonial epoch (Stewart, 1976). It will not be possible to discuss these two eras in detail. Still, it will briefly highlight a few essential things that I believe have led to the current situation and development pathway that Kenya adopted.
When the colonial settlers arrived, they took the white colonists’ most productive land and prioritized agriculture. While at this, the displaced Africans were employed in this agricultural land and paid meager wages. Africans’ right to own land was limited, and their right to access any form of credit and market. After that, the Asian population was brought to Kenya mainly to assist in constructing the Kenya Uganda railway to link Uganda, Kenya, and the coast. The Asian population was also supposed to provide skilled labor, which Africans had not developed yet (Stewart, 1976).
Kenya’s policy environment has constantly been changing. This has had an impact on approaches to managing the environment. The method of formulating policies involves many organizations. This process is done at the national level while implementing the policies locally is what is left to the counties. Kenya’s approach over the past years in its policymaking is
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arguably unsystematic and uneven, with substantial changes to multi-sectoral combined methods only in the late 1990s. The necessity to change from a disjointed policy formulation and implementation was articulated through Sessional Paper No. 1 of 1999 on Environment and Development, which defined a unified policy framework for sustainable environment, natural resource management, and poverty reduction, with precise goals for soil conservation, wetlands, forestry and water resources management. The policy paper acknowledged the extensive degradation of natural resources and its difficult links to economic productivity and poverty regressions. Additionally, it provides for approaches that seek to find a state of balance in achieving both conservation and development goals. The plans aim to find ways that the private sector, NGOs, and the communities can be well brought on board (Yatich et al., 2007).
Colonial inheritance has been a vital driver of inequality in Kenya and other factors favoring high productivity agricultural areas and the rural-urban divide. A fast-growing population has surpassed the informal sector's ability to generate adequate jobs to take in those new people looking for jobs. African Socialism purely influenced Kenya’s development pathway. It emphasized rapid economic growth, assuming that a robust economy would improve poverty, unemployment, and income disparities. There was little emphasis on human development.
Access to health services, education, and political participation was economically envisioned.
Implementation of the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP’S) radical measures involving a reduction in government expenditure and trade liberalization resulted in the imposition of user fees on such social amenities as health services and education. It reduced access to such services by the poor and vulnerable (Misati & Mngoda, 2012).
Kenya attained political independence in 1963, and at this time, the country was facing several challenges but, most importantly, poverty. The new government urgently had to reverse this situation with the high poverty level. Thus it came up with the Sessional Paper No. 10 of 1965 titled African Socialism and its applications to Planning in Kenya, a pathway to fighting poverty, ignorance, and disease. In its efforts to fight poverty, ignorance, and disease, the government has put development strategies and policies in the last five decades. Till now, all indications point out that the war against poverty is far from over (Achola et al., 2004). There remains a high level of exclusion and poverty despite the sustained economic recovery and declines in absolute poverty from 46.6% in 2005-2006 to 36.1% in 2015-2016. The poverty rate in remote, arid, and sparsely populated north-eastern parts of Kenya is still high and is approximated to be above 70%. There has been no significant decrease in income inequality in
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recent years.6 The current situation regarding poverty is painted in the year 2020 Comprehensive Poverty Report by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), which shows that a third of Kenyans (15.9 million out of 44.2 million) are poor when you only consider financial income. This scenario is illustrated by the fact that an average adult living in rural areas earns less than Sh3,252 and Sh5,995 monthly for those in urban areas. However, the multidimensional poverty index raises Kenya's poverty rate to 5%, compared to 36.1% when looking at money only.7 But why has the country not been unable to fight poverty? This question can well be answered by reviewing the development paradigm foundations that have been used to derive development strategies and policies.
Development strategies are derived from development theory, even though it is not the aim of this study to look at the development theories that Kenya has anchored its development upon for the last five decades. I nevertheless mention not in detail though that Kenya’s development models have followed theoretical underpinnings derived from the Western World. The study argues that this has been the biggest obstacle to fighting against poverty. Most of these models have failed to properly consider the unique political challenges and how this has evolved from independence to now (Achola et al., 2004).
The unemployment question, which has a very high correlation to poverty, for instance, is not a new phenomenon but dates back to the year 1971 when the International Labour Organization (ILO), with support of the World Bank and numerous UN agencies, sent experts to Kenya to conduct a study on the unemployment situation. In 1972 the team of experts arrived and later came up with a celebrated report ``Employment, Incomes and Equality: A Strategy for Increasing Productive Employment in Kenya`` this report suggested a radical shift in policies of development in the lines of the "poverty oriented" strategy adopted by Robert MacNamara as President of the World Bank in his policy speeches from 1970-71 going forward (Leys, 1979). The study is interested in looking at how the development strategy has been evolving since Kenya gained her independence and how different internal and external interests have produced the kind of development that currently exists as will be shown in the later chapters of the study. I do not get into the details of the development plans and the strategies but highlight them to show that the current plans have evolved with some forces and interests behind them.
6 UNDP Kenya Annual Report 2018
7 KNBS The 2020 Comprehensive Poverty Report
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