We should stop eating the seed or we’ll have nothing to plant

A reader displays a copy of the Daily Nation. America could not build its empire, wage wars, and make money from us all without its huge media. PHOTO | JOSEPH KANYI | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The economy is growing at more than five per cent but not many of us are feeling it.
  • Whereas it is understandable when the government contracts Chinese companies to do big projects, it does not make sense to have a government that imports everything — and therefore exports taxes.

The media in Kenya are having a difficult time in the market. For the record, the Kenyan media are formidable businesses and are likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.

Kenyan businesses are hurting. Few are making money. The only people who are swimming in dough and snapping up properties and making flashy investments are tenderpreneurs and other leeches sucking money out of the public purse.

The economy is growing at more than five per cent but not many of us are feeling it.

The reason for this, in my humble layman’s view, is the import orientation of the government. In theory, the expenditure in these massive public projects ought to be a Keynesian boost, putting money in the pockets of the people, stimulating growth, and flooding the National Treasury with taxes.

However, we are only succeeding in putting money in the pockets of the Chinese.

Whereas it is understandable when the government contracts Chinese companies to do big projects, it does not make sense to have a government that imports everything — and therefore exports taxes.

How can we import powder milk when nearly all of us, including our President, have cows? What will we do with our milk?

Kenya will truly grow when the government stops procuring from abroad what we are making locally.

In my youth, I used to be an economic activist. I objected strongly to the Bretton Woods institutions and globalisation.

I never considered even for a minute working for the multinationals that came recruiting in my college.

While I had some rudimentary training in economics and I have been exposed to a little bit of knowledge, I am not an economist. But when I saw the budget deficit of Sh689.1 billion, I recoiled in dread.

Where I come from we say that the mouth that eats the seed is the one that whines, “Now what shall I plant?”

We are eating the seed. If we do not stop, we might have nothing to plant. This season our bellies will be full, but next season we will surely starve.

If the government comes into the market too strongly, then the productive sectors are in deep trouble.

MEDIA REVENUE

The Jubilee government is hostile to the media. It is intolerant of criticism and has implemented policies that undermine the financial health of media companies.

Some of the destructive policies implemented under then Cabinet secretary for Communication, Fred Matiang’i, and his then Information secretary, Ezekiel Mutua, involved slashing government advertising in newspapers.

So, rather than buying a page, they buy a thumbprint that tells a barefoot boy in Oloitokitok, where the networks are patchy and mobile phones are few and far between, to go to a website to check government jobs.

These policies arise from a misunderstanding of the role of government in media: it is not to regulate media, it is not to own media, it is not to control media; it is to facilitate the growth and independence of the media.

Strong and independent media are good for government; they are good for the country. America could not build its empire, wage wars, and make money from us all without its huge media.

If Kenya wants to amount to anything in Africa, it must nurture its media. There is no vibrant and prosperous democracy without a free press.

There are, however, plenty of banana republics, sharing one roast plantain among the entire population, with its handful of down-at-the-heel journalists behind bars.

Another government abomination, which I have single-handedly been condemning, is a communist structure called the Government Advertising Agency.

Rather than allowing government departments and parastatals to hire professional media buyers and place their advertisements in media that best suits them, the government set up this abomination that collects all government advertising and then decides where it should be placed.

This is a recipe for corruption, incompetence, and ineffective application of public resources.

SHIFTED PLAYGROUND

Finally, the media are going through a painful correction. One is the technological business of disruption. Digital technology has changed the way media are done and consumed.

Readers, viewers, and listeners are plugged into the news like a shisha pipe stuck in the mouth. They want to puff the whole day, and possibly night.

Advertisers, on the other hand, want to go where the audience is, although no one is quite sure where that is despite the many guesses.

So a lot of money is going online, to vernacular radio, and racy websites. It will take some time for the right connections to be made and the accurate value for money arrived at.

Related to this, with the proliferation of media, advertisers have become ever more powerful and they are putting their money in media that show them in glowing light, the kind of media which, like Groucho Marx will often say: “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them... well, I have others.”

I comfort myself with the thought that great generals do not distinguish themselves in peacetime.

[email protected]. Twitter: @mutuma_mathiu