Chinese restaurant saga revealed Kenyans' ability to accommodate contradictions

What you need to know:

  • One is tempted to ask how many private enterprises have provided employment or chosen not to employ people who fit a defined ethnic, economic or social profile.
  • Any restaurant that refuses to recruit patrons from any segment of society should be left alone because it is making the choice to forego the money of this group.
  • A diverse social structure is a good indicator of coming prosperity because it allows for specialisation among groups.

Among the virtues of free societies is the understanding that the unpopularity of an action does not make it wrong or illegal.

Take for example the public dispute of the last week that emanated from the decision by managers of a restaurant in Nairobi to bar a selection of Kenyans from entry into the premises.

Whatever the justification given by the owners of the restaurant, broad public reaction to this decision tells a lot about the state of public reasoning in Kenya.

There was condemnation of this action as racist and intended to demean Kenyans because the restaurant was owned and managed by a person from China.

Based on the most widely circulated responses to the incident, I remain unconvinced that any coherent argument against the private policy adopted by this restaurant was presented.

I am persuaded that while it is crass, a private facility such as a restaurant has the right to keep me and others who look like me away from their property. That private policy may make no sense to some Kenyans and we could characterise it as racism, but that does not make that action a crime.

During the rude condemnation of the owners and managers of the restaurant, Kenyans revealed their characteristic ability to live eyeball to eyeball with contradiction.

One is tempted to ask how many private enterprises have provided employment or chosen not to employ people who fit a defined ethnic, economic or social profile.

Yet once the client screening policy of this restaurant was known, a majority of the giants of social media and the conventional press chose to broadcast a false sense of victimhood. The popular refrain was that no Chinese person should be allowed to discriminate against a Kenyan in “our own country”.

Understandably, any facility that is run by the public sector may not apply an arbitrary standard against any Kenyan or resident of Kenya. This is because in the requirement for equal treatment of people, the public sector must necessarily be held to a higher standard than private enterprises.

LOGS IN KENYAN EYES

In truth, the inability to enjoy Chinese dumplings at a private restaurant is a mere inconvenience compared to the deprivation of public services provided by the state as a monopoly.

Any restaurant that refuses to recruit patrons from any segment of society should be left alone because it is making the choice to forego the money of this group. Note that there are more than a dozen Chinese restaurants scattered throughout Nairobi, and this inconvenience is bearable because a competing restaurant will benefit from that discrimination.

The strident reaction to the revelations of discrimination is a response that shows how much easier it is to gang up against minorities than to confront more harmful discrimination within Kenya today.

This tendency to blow incidents out of proportion reveals that this nation is made up of many people with fragile egos who are champions at taking offence. The problem is not who is allowed to dine in which restaurant nor the race of the issuer of orders, but our need to develop fortitude for unflattering comments about ourselves.

If discrimination is a problem in Kenya, it seems unreasonable to concentrate on the social injustice of a private firm that has not meted out any violence on others. This is a clear case of “removing specks from Chinese eyes” while forgetting the logs in Kenyan eyes.

MANY NEW CITIZENS

A diverse social structure is a good indicator of coming prosperity because it allows for specialisation among groups. Kenyans must grow out of their inherent hostility towards foreigners because knowledge networks that facilitate new enterprises are passed through cities that have different ethnic and racial groups.

It is also a contradiction to speak consistently about attracting foreign investment and then display evidence that the residents of Nairobi are unable to respect the fact that private firms can decide what goods and services to offer, and to which clients. All private firms must do is obey applicable laws.

Kenya’s racial and ethnic makeup is bound to change because Article 15 of Kenya’s Constitution allows for the acquisition of citizenship by registration. Some of the Chinese residents who were assailed with vituperation may thus have intended to register as citizens and double up on their investments in Kenya.

The excitement and subsequent damage to property that was generated by biased reports must make them and others think twice.

Tolerance is intelligence and we seem to be struggling with it.

Kwame Owino is the chief executive officer of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA-Kenya), a public policy think tank based in Nairobi. Twitter: @IEAKwame