Officially, I am currently in Germany on a study tour that aims at educating the group of which I am part on the virtues of the German ‘University of Applied Science’ model of higher education.
Unofficially, I am making a study of German attitudes towards an unprecedented — and on the surface at least, morally unambiguous — foreign policy initiative. By this I mean the unilateral decision taken by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel to allow about a million refugees from mostly Syria and Afghanistan to enter the country over the past one year or so.
Why German refugee policy should be of interest to a Kenyan, who certainly has no intention of staying here beyond the seven days of this study tour, is a topic for another day.
For now let me focus on why the good news of this high priority project of German development assistance is so crucial to the immediate Kenyan future.
To give a little perspective, let me first point out the obvious. The reason we have such tragically high unemployment rates among our youths in Kenya — estimated at anything up to 60 per cent even if we include university graduates — boils down to just one thing: Kenya has pathetically failed to industrialise, when we have reached a stage in our national development where only through industrialisation could we hope to create enough jobs.
It was one thing for our founding father President Jomo Kenyatta to popularise the idea of a “return to the land” in the 1960s.
At that time, economic opportunity very much focussed on land acquisition and small-scale farming. But 50 years have passed and such agrarian romanticism cannot possibly be a valid policy.
Two things have stood in the way of such industrialisation plans in the past three decades or so. First, and perhaps most crucial, is the cost of electricity.
As I have pointed out several times in the past, all our electricity bills — domestic or commercial — should really be about one-third of what they currently are. The only reason we are now moving steadily towards cheaper power is a case study of the ability of Kenya’s notorious “cartels” to hold captive an entire economic sector for their personal enrichment.
Going back to the mid-80s, and at the height of the power of the single-party state, the entire energy
sector was largely controlled by a small group of men whose personal financial interests were best served by tying the country to expensive diesel-powered electricity generation, even though Kenya had massive potential for the much cheaper hydroelectric and geothermal power.
Two of the most prominent members of this cartel are now fighting extradition to the offshore haven where they unwisely deposited part of their ill-gotten wealth.
Anyway, at last, we seem to be on the path to much cheaper electricity, which is one of the prerequisites for any kind of industrialisation.
That leaves us with just one other hurdle: We do not have the specific kind of technologically advanced manpower needed for serious industrialisation. This might seem paradoxical, in light of the legions of unemployed graduates who are desperately seeking employment in every major town. But if we are to be honest about it, those are mostly young men and women betrayed into acquiring degrees for which there is no demand in the Kenyan economy as it currently exists.
It may be a harsh thing to say to families who have heroically denied themselves comfort and even necessities to see one of their children get a college education, but the facts of the matter are uncompromisingly clear.
Appropriately enough, given our need for more technologically savvy manpower, Germany has put on the table a plan for creating precisely that which has given its technology a unique prestige globally.
Germany is now proposing to set up a new university in Kenya, tentatively referred to as the East African University of Applied Sciences, on a German model.
Why this development is such big news is something I will explain in my next column.