Rains are here, so why are we stuck in the mud of politics?

A Nairobi resident makes haste as the city experienced heavy rains on August 23, 2017. PHOTO | KANYIRI WAHITO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The bad news is that the rains are unlikely to address our dire food insecurity situation and this for two reasons.
  • The United Nations reports that out of the 815 million people who are malnourished in the world, 243 million are to be found in Africa.
  • But even in these times of mind-numbing political supremacy contestation, there are some basic things that we Kenyans must get right.

The weatherman has spoken; the rains are coming and they are likely to be heavy. This is the good news. The bad news is that the rains are unlikely to address our dire food insecurity situation and this for two reasons. Right now, few people are concerned about humdrum things like preparing their shambas for planting.

Their every waking moment is being taken up by court judgments, petitions, demonstrations and juridical histrionics — issues that can never put a plate of githeri on the table.

But even in these times of mind-numbing political supremacy contestation, there are some basic things that we Kenyans must get right.

Whoever emerges the winner in the election rerun, it is clear that this season of uncertainty and turbulence will have one inevitable loser – the ordinary Kenyan who will for sure starve if he does not take advantage of the rains and plant on time.

MALNOURISHED

The United Nations reports that out of the 815 million people who are malnourished in the world, 243 million are to be found in Africa. This is not surprising.

This continent is globally notorious for three things – hunger, disease and conflict. Though this may sound negatively stereotypical, barely a year goes by without drought and starvation being reported in one part of the continent or the other. One reason for this, of course, is endemic poverty, which does not allow our governments to mitigate the effects of drought without outside help.

According to the UN statistics, the continent comes second to Asia in that respect, but then Asia, with about 4.5 billion mouths to feed, has more than three times as many people as Africa with only 1.3 billion people, which does not say much about our ability to feed ourselves.

It is true that the eastern African region has been hardest hit by starvation this and last year, but then what can you say about our neighbours in North Africa, most of whose land is desert?

UNDERDEVELOPMENT

There is a definite link between underdevelopment, bad governance, internal conflict, and malnutrition in many countries south of the Sahara. It is a crying shame that more than 50 years since these countries gained independence, their dependence on others to provide for their people’s basic needs has increased. Why should this be so?

Take, for instance, our own country. It is true that most of Kenya’s land is arid and semi-arid, and it is also true that ours is one of the most water-stressed countries in the world.

But then how do you explain why a country like Egypt, which relies on a tiny sliver of cultivable land on the banks of the River Nile, has never known the kind of mass starvation that afflicts Kenya practically every year. Occasional food shortages can be understood, but perennial dependence on others for food aid is unjustifiable.

One can only hazard a few guesses why Kenya, like many African countries, is always in this predicament.

ARABLE LAND

The first is that too much arable land is owned by too few, and most of it lies idle. For some reason, every attempt to address the land issue comprehensively has failed because there has never been any political will to do so.

Secondly, our reliance on rain-fed agriculture has made it difficult to produce enough food for domestic consumption and for export. This is not because the majority of Kenyans are fascinated by watching their crops shrivel and die when rains fail. Most people would prefer to earn a decent living by growing things and selling them to those who can’t.

Thirdly, even those who do have the means to irrigate their land do not have the wherewithal to add value to their produce so that they can make more money and in the process create jobs.

DISRUPTIVE POLITICS

Instead, they are forced to sell their produce in its raw form at a pittance, in the process enriching further the already wealthy commodity speculators of Europe and Asia.

The fourth issue is our brand of dysfunctional and disruptive politics. Right now, we are bogged down by a disputed presidential election and nobody really knows what will happen. One side seems to be intent on plunging this country into an artificial constitutional crisis while the other believes it was robbed of a clear win. That is hardly the way to grow the economy and ensure that nobody ever dies of starvation.

Magesha Ngwiri is a consultant editor. [email protected]