By Anwar Sadat
Some of the reasons why we still lag behind:
1. We are shocked when Obado eats Sukuma Wiki for 3 days.
2. We are astonished when Uhuru Kenyatta, who is a Kikuyu, speaks Kikuyu. We call him humble.
3. We are mesmerized when Sonko, a public servant, delivers water to the public he is elected to serve. We call him a people person.
4. Fellows, these people are just regular people like us. In fact, they are our employees. Let’s not make them demi gods!
Personally, I decided long time ago that my respect for anyone and the way I engage them, will never be influenced by their titles or positions they hold.
The day the thurakus make a connection between their suffering and mῦthamaki, then the seeds of revolution will have been planted.
My blood used to boil whenever these people would agree with you that the country is being mismanagement only for them to conclude with the words “but it is not muthamaki to blame.”
This shocking inability to connect the dots and rightly apportion blame has been a serious problem with our current politics. I hope many can make that connection so that we can start on the path to progress.
Back to the Economy
A roadside kiosk is run better than our economy. Why would Treasury and CBK have different figures of government revenues for the same period? As of June 2018 Treasury says tax revenues were KShs 1.365 Trillion. CBK says tax revenues were KShs 1.261 Trillion.
On the other hand, Treasury says total revenues including appropriations in aid were KShs 1.487 Trillion while CBK says total revenues were KShs 1.539 Trillion. Hence a total disparity of KShs 52.178 Billion.
These disparities happen every year. KRA also usually has a different story.
The disparities do not end there, we have more than three versions of the budget. One is the much touted KShs 3.07 Trillion. Then we have another one of KShs 2.629 trillion as per Gazette notice on Treasury’s finances in July. Then there is another version of KShs 2.557 as per the Quarterly Budget Review. Now we have the new KShs 2.97 Trillion budget passed yesterday in parliament.
How do you run an economy when you can’t even have accurate data on basic issues like these?
You are powerful not because of your position but because you are you!
