While hunting together, a Lion, Fox and Ass gathered a huge amount of food and had to decide how to divide it. The Ass divided the portions equally at the request of the Lion, who in anger killed the Ass.
The Lion then asked the Fox to divide the food. The Fox wasted no time. He quickly gave a huge heap to the Lion and only kept a small portion to himself. The Lion asked the Fox, who taught you to divide so fairly? The Fox replies, I learned from the Ass.
The misfortune or success of others can be a great lesson to us.
In the 1992 US election, Bill Clinton’s campaign team waged a successful movement against incumbent George HW Bush by focussing on the economy. Bush’s popularity soared to a high after the end of the Gulf War but the recession undid all this and Clinton used the economy as his rallying cry.
It was an important lesson to Bush, who is among the few one-term presidents in the US. It also serves as a lesson to many other world leaders: that you can have success in combating an enemy in a faraway land but the status of the local economy is critical to the public.
Like the US in 1992, the economy will play a big role in Kenya’s 2022 election because most Kenyans are focused on putting money in their pocket and food on the table. The leader that will give them the hope that this can be achieved will win their vote.
Jubilee will be seeking a ‘second term’ of sorts, with the high anticipation that the 2013 dream of 20 years in power will come to pass. If Deputy President William Ruto will be the Jubilee candidate, he must work with President Uhuru Kenyatta to ensure that the economy registers great growth and Jubilee gets a ‘second term’.
Last week, the World Bank released the Global Economic Prospects for 2019, showing that Kenya’s economic activity is projected to remain robust. This is due to high inflows, vibrant public investment and better output from agriculture.
Kenya’s positive prospects come at a time when the bank is warning of darkening skies for the world’s economies. We should, therefore, count ourselves lucky and put in all efforts to ensure that we remain on that trajectory.
So, what more can be done to transform our economy? There is no reason why Kenya should not be the leading economy in Africa, buoyed by vibrant manufacturing, agriculture, health and real estate sectors.
All key players must ensure that we put in place mechanisms that will grow the economy from single to double digits. We must come together and have a Kenyan economic dialogue aimed at setting up priorities for the country.
It’s unfortunate that most of our leaders have resorted to premature 2022 campaigns rather than seeing what they can do to play a part in the economic transformation of our nation.
Instead of telling us what their plans are for the economy, our leaders have over the last one week been calling press conferences to discuss an election that is three years away. Why are we cheering on those involved in early campaigns, only to realise later that there is no development? We are the ones to blame.
We have an opportunity to revolutionise the economy, transform lives, and build industries that will create jobs for our many unemployed youths. We actually have no option but to do this for all Kenyans to feel part and parcel of the country’s economic success.
With Parliament reopening next month, our elected leaders must prioritise the transformation of the economy on their agenda. They must centre their work on putting in place policies that will result in economic growth.
We must grow our economy.
Political and communications consultant.
Twitter @MachelWaikenda