The economic crisis is real in Kenya

By now, most Kenyans have experienced the rolling blackouts that were announced earlier this week. They are due to insufficient infrastructure, a relentless drought, and unusually high prices for petrol.

Combine this with the great human tragedy unfolding in the Horn of Africa and spilling into Kenya. Add a heavy dose of inflation that is making everything more expensive. And then throw in the frightening prospect that food shortages might be next.

This is real.

Here in America, our politicians are inventing a crisis. Instead of joining hands to battle a stubborn recession, our leaders in Washington have threatened to stop paying the bills. Among many other downsides, unemployment would skyrocket.

America has only enough cash flow to pay for 60 percent of its bills. Without the ability to extend its debt limit as it has done multiple times under both Republican and Democratic presidents, America will do more than sneeze. And the rest of the world could become very sick.
This is close to my heart. My parents, who are in their 80s, will not get their Social Security check. These monthly payments help with groceries and rent payments on their small home. They’ll be OK for a few months, but will eventually need family assistance.

All of this can be prevented with compromise, and it’s my hope that it will have occurred by the time that you read this. But who knows what kind of long-term damage that this fiasco has caused.

Sitting half of a world away in Africa, you must be asking whether Americans get it.
We take so much for granted. For example, the fact that my parents are in their 80s is a blessing in many parts of the world.

There are portions of South Africa where the average life expectancy has dropped recently from the mid 60s to the mid 20s due to AIDS.

In Nairobi, I went to petrol stations this summer where we were waived away.

There was no fuel. At the supermarkets, I was surprised at how prices for some staples had surpassed those in the US.

A good Kenyan friend told me that his people are survivors. They can raise their own chickens, beef and vegetables. They can go to the stream for water, and tap into the power lines for energy.
Kenyans can survive a long time without employment, he said.
My sense is that will change. With the electrical blackouts, everyone will have difficulty.

There may well be another citizen-led protest like those held earlier this year when the problem was a food shortage.

So I can imagine what the American squabble over the debt limit has looked like to Kenyans.

A German friend once told me that he was angry with America. I asked him why, and he responded that it was because Americans do not realise that the world is impacted tremendously by our bad behavior.

One thing is for sure. Just as Kenya’s economic issues will pour into next year’s elections, the debt fiasco will change the face of American politics. The impact of this nonsense in Washington is real.

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