Kenyan businessmen deserve to enjoy the fruits of their labour

What you need to know:

  • If the government is serious about promoting young entrepreneurs, then it needs to protect them from predators who use their goods and services, delay their payments or do not pay them at all. Kenyan entrepreneurs do not know where to report to or complain when they are not paid for services offered.

  • This is why we need mechanisms where organisations are compelled to pay entrepreneurs for work done within a specific period.

This week, Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs from some of the best performing American companies, issued a strong statement on how corporate organisations should ideally be run.

The statement by the 181 CEOs also made a very insightful observation: “Americans deserve an economy that allows each person to succeed through hard work and creativity and to lead a life of meaning and dignity. We believe the free-market system is the best means of generating good jobs, a strong and sustainable economy, innovation, a healthy environment and economic opportunity for all.”

CAT AND MOUSE

In my years as a journalist, one of the most profound stories I ever encountered was when, in 2017, I interviewed two young businessmen who were on the verge of bankruptcy. The pair had 10 years earlier left college and, after years of unsuccessful job-seeking, put together their little savings and started a small business. They started off small, from a tiny office in the CBD, and grew their client base to a point where they had the capacity to bid for ‘big’ government jobs.

A year before I met them, they had successfully bid to provide services to a parastatal. They took various bank loans to complete the job with the hope that they would be paid in time as they continued to service the loans. But things did not turn out quite as expected.

Upon completing the job, their calls to the parastatal went unanswered and there began a painful cat and mouse chase that one of the partners told me: “I have been through a tough life, but this has been the most difficult time of my life.” By the time I was meeting them, their office equipment had been auctioned off. One of the partners told me that the most humiliating aspect of all this was not that he could not pay his bills from time to time, but that he could not enjoy the birth of his daughter since he had to fundraise among his friends to pay his wife’s maternity fees.

There is a joke I share with my entrepreneur friends; if you want to grow your relationship with God, just start a business in Kenya. In a country where arrogant politicians and government officials have told young people to create jobs rather than seek out jobs, it is a deeply painful experience to be an entrepreneur in this country.

MORE LAYOFFS

In the next few weeks, nearly 1,700 Kenyans will join millions of jobless Kenyans after four firms — East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC), Telkom Kenya, Stanbic Bank of Kenya and East African Breweries Limited (EABL) recently announced layoffs.

This means that if they will not be lucky enough to get another job — which will most likely be the case — a good number of these Kenyans will have to use their savings to start small enterprises. They have no idea what awaits them. Because in this country, unless you are a corrupt individual or have the heart of a lion, it is nearly impossible to succeed from running your own business.

It is especially tough for young entrepreneurs — the freelancers — who have to depend on the goodwill of others to be paid for their services. It is not that these young people are so lazy that they have not applied for jobs or that they have not worked hard in school to earn their degrees. Most of them have been pushed into entrepreneurship as a last resort while a few are in it to pursue their dream of growing a business. Whatever the case, most of these young entrepreneurs spend sleepless nights waiting for that call that informs them: "your cheque is ready.” Their hard work hardly pays off. A good chunk of a Kenyan entrepreneur’s life is spent living the undignified life of a beggar — chasing your money and making endless calls to people who want to be bribed before they can release your payment.

DIGNIFIED LIFE

If the government is serious about promoting young entrepreneurs, then it needs to protect them from predators who use their goods and services, delay their payments or do not pay them at all. Kenyan entrepreneurs do not know where to report to or complain when they are not paid for services offered. This is why we need mechanisms where organisations are compelled to pay entrepreneurs for work done within a specific period.

Businesses are important to this country not just because they create jobs, but also because they are hubs for creativity, innovation and novelty. Small businesses supply our food, provide us with the technology support we need to run our organisations and generally spur economic growth. This is why entrepreneurs need to be supported and, most importantly, to be paid.

Kenyan entrepreneurs deserve to live a dignified life commensurate to the years of hard work they put in.

I’ll end with a minor modification to that previous statement; “Kenyans deserve an economy that allows each person to succeed through hard work and creativity and to lead a life of meaning and dignity. We believe the free-market system is the best means of generating good jobs, a strong and sustainable economy, innovation, a healthy environment and economic opportunity for all.”

Ms Chege is the director, Innovation Centre, Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications; njokichegefeedback@gmail.