Only in unity can we conquer problems

Kenya’s problems are Africa’s problems — power shortages, congested roads, gut-wrenching poverty — and if we can create solutions to these problems, then they become Africa’s solutions. FILE PHOTO | BILLY MUTAI |

What you need to know:

  • Kenyans seem to have collectively raised their hands and said: “It’s not my problem.”
  • Kenya’s problems are Africa’s problems and if we can create solutions to these problems, then they become Africa’s solutions.

To former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, there was no such thing as society. 

Jacqueline Novogratz, who is helping to create lasting change from the slums of Mumbai to the ramshackle huts of Nairobi, said: “A sustainable world means working together to create prosperity for all.”

And the old Kiswahili proverb goes: “Unity is strength, division is weakness…” 

Growing up in Nairobi, the importance of the community was always instilled in me. I did not just belong to the Macharia family; I was a child of the community.

Sadly, Kenyans seem to have collectively raised their hands and said: “It’s not my problem.”

As African business people, it is vital that we eradicate the tunnel vision that has the potential to create a glass ceiling for our accomplishments, such that they are limited to individual success.

For if all we aim for is solo endeavour that has no lasting impact on society, then we will never achieve true greatness.

We have to choose to see things beyond Kenya. I may be the CEO of a company, but I am much more than that because I am engaged in Kenya’s challenges.

As chairman of the Strategic Advisory Committee, which has given birth to Enterprise Kenya, I worked late nights and early mornings because I knew other people would benefit. If my house is clean, but my house help is struggling, I have failed.

Or, put another way, as English poet John Dunne said: no man is an island. Some of these ideas go a long way to answering centuries-old conundrums such as: what is the meaning of life?

Whatever the answers to such questions, surely love, and living a people-oriented life, are involved. This is the heartbeat of collective prosperity; after all, we are all living in the same ecosystem.

AFRICA'S SOLUTIONS

Kenya’s problems are Africa’s problems — power shortages, congested roads, gut-wrenching poverty — and if we can create solutions to these problems, then they become Africa’s solutions.

These are collective problems that we should all feel intensely. You can see the mindset of collective prosperity when some of the world’s biggest nations do business overseas.

When Chinese and Indian families go abroad, they go together. From the hugely successful Indian family businesses across the globe to China’s ever-growing tentacles in Africa, a bond, togetherness and solidarity, are the cornerstones of their success.

Kenyans, and Africans more widely, could learn a thing or two from this philosophy; we need to embrace this style of doing business, this style of living, now.

Technology will play an instrumental role, too. It is happening slowly in Kenya. With a collective change in our mindsets, it will happen more quickly. 

Sometimes we perceive an “otherness” in people, like the child on the street, sniffing glue, or the woman who prostitutes herself because she sees no other viable avenue to make money.

I do not know enough about their problems, their scarcity, because I am not a part of their world.

But these people — and their fears and hopes and aspirations — are a part of my world, a world in which hope wins out over hopelessness, in which a shared purpose beats individual glory; a world in which problems become solutions.

Mr Macharia is CEO of Seven Seas Technologies Group and chairman, Kenya IT & Outsourcing Society. Follow him on Twitter: @MikeMachariaSST