The wealth of Kenya cannot be distributed to Kenyans under capitalism
Somehow, the absence of Kenyan socialists from the just concluded Presidential debate is responsible for lack of permanent solutions to key problems currently facing the country. Regardless of their stated or unstated ideologies, all the eight candidates practice politics from right-wing, pro-capitalist and pro-market positions, an inclination that sadly, deprives the Kenyan voter of radical socialist alternatives that could provide answers every Kenyan voter is seeking as a solution to the political and economic crisis facing Kenya. A look at one of the key questions (minimum wage) posed to the candidates could illustrate this point.
Although this question was repeated several times and rephrased for clarity, no candidate came up with a satisfactory answer. Raila called for dialogue, Dida called for a formula for wages, Kenyatta backed Raila and said that wages should remain competitive to avoid pushing the wage bill too far, Peter Kenneth reverted to the Constitution, Mudavadi called for a good wage policy, Martha Karua supported the idea of a wage Kenyans could live on while ole Kiyiapi was of the view that the Kenyan worker was under paid although he gave no concrete solution.
From a Socialist stand-point, calculation of wages must be pegged on inflation. In the Kenyan case, a reasonable minimum wage ought to be between Ksh 25,000-Ksh 30,000. This is the simple answer to this question followed by a detailed explanation as to where money will come from. Just in passing, a program of a minimum living wage can only work if the means of producing the nation’s wealth (including the commanding heights of the economy) are nationalized (with or without compensation) so that the billions of profits stuffed into private pockets or repatriated abroad by multinational companies and their local bourgeoisie collaborators can be channeled into the national economic basket to finance the well-being of Kenyan workers and to create jobs through active investment in infrastructure and industry.
This means that the bourgeoisie democracy (under capitalism) that puts wealth on the hands of a few greedy members of the capitalist class has to be replaced with a Workers’ democracy (under socialism) that enables the working people to run society and in their own interest. Under such a government, the wage of an ordinary worker should be equal to the wage of an MP. Wealth is created by workers and socialists believe that there is no reason why an MP (who represents the worker) should earn more than the worker. In short, the transformation of the wage policy to the advantage of the worker means a change of the system of government from deformed capitalism to revolutionary socialism. The lasting solution to the minimum wage issue is an ideological question and from what is known, it cannot be resolved within the frame-work of capitalism (or market system) which all the candidates represent. The perception that under capitalism, the wealth of Kenya will one day be distributed to benefit Kenyan citizens is a myth and the sooner Kenyans understood this point the faster they will begin to examine socialist ideas much more seriously. The reasoning is simple. A group of people cannot share wealth that does not belong to them.
The long and winding answers the candidates were giving were very good at the propaganda level but bankrupt at the solution level. If the minimum wage cannot be pinned down to a figure, the discussion is likely to continue endlessly as millions of workers continue to live on starvation wages.
From the answers the candidates gave, they will all be able to dodge responsibility once in power because any candidate will be able to argue that there was no pledge or promise that wages of workers would be increased. The argument (once workers take to the streets in a post-Kibaki regime) will be that the candidates “promised to look into the matter”.
Throughout the world, the capitalist class fear making concrete promises to workers especially on the question of wages because this class understands that such a pledge is not feasible without the abolition of the profit system which is designed to create JM Kriuki’s ten millionaires and ten million beggars. The gap between the rich and the poor is always widening because there is no way of bridging it under a system that allows a few people with access to capital to constantly use their positions to accumulate even more wealth that they will never need in their life times. The agenda of socialists is to eliminate the rich wealth grabbers from the scene by arming workers and the oppressed (aka the people) with ideas on how to wrestle power from the rich to pave the way for distribution of the national wealth.
If any of the candidates assume power, the Kenya Red Alliance can bet with 100% accuracy that strike actions by poor workers unable to live on starvation wages will continue well into the 2017 elections. The Manifestos the coalitions have been spewing have nothing to offer workers and after elections, no section of workers will be able to pin any Coalition down on the question of wages. This is the dilemma that will face workers in Kenya regardless of the Coalition that is elected to power.
The dilly-dallying by the candidates was understandable because the candidates represent the interests of capitalism, a system geared towards exploitation of the worker as a condition for raking in profits for the wealth grabbers. Under the capitalist system, pinning a minimum living wage commensurate with the rate of inflation is impossible and this is why no candidate could give a clear answer. Because of circumstances (which cannot be covered in this entry for purposes of sticking to the minimum wage topic), the two presidential debates have been incomplete due to the absence of the Left wing from the podium.
This situation has enabled the right wing to have a field day and although the impression created is that there is a line-up of different candidates to choose from, the bitter truth is that there is no fundamental change the candidates are offering in terms of a real political alternative to the rotten capitalist system that has failed Kenyans for more than four decades and that continues to be responsible for the current political, economic and social crisis in Kenya.
Okoth Osewe
Secretary General
Kenya Red Alliance
About the Author
how many socialist countries have wealth to distribute…..cuba, venezuela???…nope…this system just doesnt work on longterm cause it ignores incentives ….socialism wouldnt bring kenya forward cause the country wouldnt develop and generate more wealth to distribute and also socialism is not fighting corruption (same like capitalism)…..in socialism can find the same corrupt elite….nice day
KSB: The truth is that capitalism has already been tested in Kenya for almost 50 years and it is killing our people.
I think the second presidential debate was empty on economic solutions and in particular, concrete policy proposals on the living wage question. It is correct that inflation has to be considered in calculating minimum wages, while attempting to increase economic productivity. I was disappointed that Mudavadi, Uhuru and Kenneth who have served in the Finance docket, did not give this topic the punch it needed. As usual, the candidates repeated themselves or used each other’s words, save for some slight changes.
The International Labor Organization advises that countries should resort to internal and external “rebalancing” of economic shocks such as recession, while calculating living wages. For instance, how does a country juggle austerity measures by the World Bank and low productivity internally? Policy-makers must recommend ways of expanding productivity by urging investments in areas with high returns. An imbalanced wage bill such as the Kenyan one where the three wings of Government (Executive, Legislative and Judicial) milk the Treasury, can be checked by having the right authority, such as the one created under the new Constitution – the Salaries and Remuneration Commission. Also, MPs must be stopped from awarding themselves salaries arbitrarily.
Nobody challenged Uhuru Kenyatta who was recently mentioned as one of the 209 MPs that have not cleared tax arrears as demanded by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). It is mere hot air to promise economic growth while being the richest man in Kenya as per Forbes magazine in 2011, yet he cannot pay taxes. It is a crying shame that Uhuru is proud of the economic stimulus package he implemented as Finance minister a few years ago, yet that was also the time the Governor of Central Bank of Kenya, Professor Ndung’u, was voted the worst performing Governor of a central bank in Africa. Kenya is now on her knees because of the highest external debt being serviced, which is not equivalent to the GDP per capita.
On corruption and land ownership, there was a lot of self-exoneration and passing the back, yet most of the candidates adversely mentioned in various corruption scandals were eventually freed through cronyism, bribery or outright tribal voting in Parliament. I was dismayed that Raila did not grab the chance to tell Uhuru that his mother, Mama Ngina, currently has an alleged land grabbing case to answer in court. Why didn’t any question the strange circumstances of land allotment and purchases during the Kenyatta regime that favored him and a close group of the ruling Kikuyu class and a few non-Kikuyus? Records indicate that Kikuyus were evicted from various parts of Central province and their pieces of land taken by Jomo Kenyatta. Why couldn’t the candidates raise such examples? At least Dida tried to read out a letter by some Kiambu squatters condemned to live as squatters in a so-called colonial village, courtesy of Jomo Kenyatta’s misrule. Uhuru admitted that his family owns 30,000 acres of land in Taita-Taveta. The willing-buyer willing-seller defense he used should have been poked into by his rivals to question allegations of undervaluing of prime land in Coast province.
Musalia Mudavadi did not do his homework properly, and was challenged by Peter Kenneth who mentioned that he was never an employee of Prudential Building Society, but Prudential Bank. It is such laziness that made the debate boring because the candidates took things for granted and instead of throwing tantrums, ought to have been prepared in advance. Professor Kiyiapi should have dug deeper into the matter of Free Primary Education funds that were misappropriated and the government forced by the international donor community to refund over Ksh4 billion. He was a PS in the Education ministry after Prof Karega who supervised around the time FPE funds were looted. For instance, the UK government was refunded £1 million. Why couldn’t they question Uhuru Kenyatta on whose watch the fraud audit was undertaken? Were the culpable officers surcharged? It was only Paul Muite who mentioned the FPE cash theft briefly.
Anyway, the two debates were a good start and it is hoped that Kenyans have now understood their candidates beyond the empty campaign trail promises, and will therefore vote wisely on March 4th.
Current presidential candidates in Kenya can all be classified as rich according to the country’s social standards. This is the reason why they avoided straight commitment on the question of minimum wages to the workers. What is annoying is that despite the broad salary gap between the highly paid and the lowly, they share everything else. The prices of commodities are same to the poor and the rich with taxes imposed on all commodities required for primary needs to everybody. The required minimum wage to a kenyan worker should be Ksh.30,000 and a maximum of Ksh.100,000. Going with what is happening today, we have and are cultivating a situation where the gap between the rich and the poor will continue to increase as we risk having a few billionares and millions of paupers who will in future serve as slaves to the rich. We should therefore never dream of putting a stop to workers’ strikes year come year go. The economy of the country can never improve unless there are checks and balances on the amount of riches an individual is supposed to amass. As we look at the amount of land that lies fallow in a country full of squarters, we should also look at the amount of money stashed in foreign banks by a few individuals when the masses are living below poverty line with hardly a meal a day for survival. It is saddening for a country like ours to see people still dying of starvation and yet we talk of independence. The question of wages should not be ignored if we need lasting peace in our country. At this rate tribal animosity will be replaced with class hatred between the poor and the rich. Our politicians should address this issue with urgency.
KSB: We are together.
What happened in Kenya of only 2(two)tribes the rich and the Poor?
50 good years of oppression yet Kenyans are still making and repeating the same same mistakes by electing(returning same oppressors(Ma-Vultures) Note> a rich man/woman will never be an advocate or a spokesman for the oppressed poor masses!
In Kenya we end up going to bed (sleeping with filthy rich thugs)
In Civilized democracy we vote thugs out and remove them from powerBourgeois Capitalism
With due respect to the argument that capitalism has rarely conformed to a ‘classical’ pattern of development, and that it might yet stimulate industrial ‘take-off’ in neo-colonies like Kenya, we must state that we see little sign of that happening. In Kenya, the infrastructure is geared to meet the needs of outside interests. Productivity is low and falling. There is little indication that the country will develop its own capital goods industry, a vital component of industrial ‘take-off’. Instead, self-sustaining economic growth seems certainly as far away now as it was at ‘independence’. We thus have in Kenya an inefficient, deformed economy, with a small domestic market and weak regional trade links. The Kenyan economy is essentially unproductive: a kind of drain for the outflow of surplusses. Profits accumulate outside the country, in the hands of the international capitalists and members of the contemptible ‘indigenous bourgeoise’ who bank abroad. The latter bear little resemblance to the inventive, dynamic entrepreneurs whose risk-taking and ruthless sense of efficiency and thrift fuelled industrial ‘take-off’ in Nineteenth Century Europe and America.
.
Malipo ni hapa hapa
Sang said:
The perception created that Raila could have sent us to The Hague are lies. Senior government officials who were in office before the coalition, not Raila, coached witnesses to testify against Ruto and I in the case at the ICC.
We are away in a foreign land with my brother because of allegations made against us. The truth must be told. In my opinion, the people who masterminded and planned to have me and my brother taken to The Hague did not include Raila Odinga.
Kibakis secret life > women/Sex /scandles behind the scenes>
The End of a dictator Idi Amin Mwai Kibaki Forcing Othaya People to elect a Puppet >Hope othaya Poloi hoi will resist Kibaki choice>
Flower Slaves Flower Workers Flower bongosWill Vote, not Vot?
http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000078159&pageNo=2&story_title=Kenya-GSU-dispatched-to-Naivasha
mThe economy, foreign policy, devolution.and land – yes LAND – are the topics to be “on the table” tonight at the debate.
Now, as most of us Kenyans know, when the colonialists came to Kenya – in the 1800’s and early 1900’s – they forcefully grabbed choice and very fertile land from Africans FOR FREE. When independence rolled around in the early 1960’s, the wazungu’s were “paid’ via the settlement trustee fund to vacate the farms they had acquired (FOR FREE) so that the Africans who had been rendered landless could be resettled. Given the prevailing circumstances at the time, these intentions were relatively good (although I, personally, did not like the fact that the wazungus were being paid for land that they had obtained for FREE and by FORCE).
Now, instead of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta’s government settling the landless Africans who, by the way, were overwhelmingly from the Mt Kenya region – the Kikuyu, the Meru and the Embu, what did he do? Well, he and the gluttonous greedy cabal around him – the homeguards and sellouts during the fight for independence (the Kiambu mafia, the Michuki’s… e.t.c) – used their powerful and privilaged positions in government to acquire these lands for themselves at throw away prices and even for free in some cases, while their Mt Kenya kinsmen continued to wallow in landlessness and degrading abject poverty. So, there you have it. Instead of Mzee Kenyatta settling the landless and burying the land issue once and for all, he let his GREED and the rapaciousness of the HYENA’S around him to take over and, as they say, the rest is history.
LAND is the big elephant in this “room” called Kenya. This is precisely why Uhuru has developed cold feet, chickened out and evaded this second debate. Don’t be fooled, all those “reasons” that he has given for not attending are just EXCUSES. Nothing but EXCUSES.
We are hearing he may change his mind but it’s not yet been confirmed. It goes without saying that this topic of LAND is one that causes Uhuru to feel very uncomfortable/guilty. It’s also one of the reasons why he doesn’t want us to look in the “rear view” mirror. He’s very afraid and frightened that we’ll see the TRUTH about the happenings of the 1960’s and 1970’s when his dad was DOING what he was DOING – and the origin of the vast Kenyatta wealth. We will see that while he and the greedy HYENA’S around him were contemptuously telling the landless Mau Mau that “HAKUNA CHA BURE,” that it was actually Kenyatta and the greedy cabal around him who were actually getting things for FREE.
The phrase “THE GUILTY ARE ALWAYS AFRAID” can be very aptly applied to Uhuru. And as this is Kenya, where ABSURDITY reigns supreme, his “supporters” who follow him like blind unthinking sheep will create and spin all manners of crazy stories to justify why it is “correct” for Uhuru to skip the debate. Comedy central Kenyan style.
john