JUBILEE IS STRETCHING MANIFESTO CONTEST TOO FAR, @ 110K JOBS?
By P Wesonga
BELIEVE IT OR NOT, President Uhuru Kenyatta this morning announced “a record breaking new investment of Ksh 15 billion in Kisumu – a modern state-of- the art brewery by the East Africa Breweries Limited – on a fifty acre piece of land will create 110,000 jobs”.
That’s right, without batting an eyelid, he said the investment 110,000 new jobs! A good number to bait a disenchanted public
I know it’s the campaign season and Uhuru had to look for something to water down the NASA manifesto, what I do not seem to understand is how East Africa Breweries Limited – currently directly employing 1190 workers – will suddenly grow into the biggest employer in this part of the world and place 110,000 workers in its Kisumu factory payroll. Laughable and absurd!
To put it in perspective, Safaricom, which is the most profitable company in Kenya and with annual revenues that are just six times less that what the Government of Kenya collects, has a workforce of just about 3000 employees and less than 100,000 MPESA agents. Government of Kenya itself employs just 72,923 in the massive civil service via the Public Service Commission.
Thus, for the proposed new brewery in Kisumu, even if you look at the indirect supporting services within the supply chain, this number cannot reach 10,000. Mind you the factory itself is state-of-art meaning most production lines are automated with little human activity required. Uhuru speech writers cannot see the contradiction. So where will these 110,000 employees be working?
Jubilee has an obsession of talking big numbers but it’s in most cases it turns out to be all hype and zero substance. Endless public relations.
Stop lying to Kenyans..stop debasing our presidency and stop insulting the intelligence of people that you have subjected to so much suffering..stop it!
