Innovation and Creativity are key to Kenya’s Growth

Posted on May 23, 2011 by waithash

Vision 2030 is just 18 years from now, but the question is, is vision 2030 a mirage or just a good plan on paper which is unattainable?

Kenya’s Vision 2030 will be unattainable and may end up being as worthless as a tissue paper which is used and flushed in the toilet if we do not Innovate, encourage creativity and reward hard work by all Kenyans from all sectors of our a growing economy.

Kenya’s Vision 2030 will not be attained if we collectively fail to fix our politics in order to attain a politically stable environment, tackle crime and insecurity, if we fail to systematically expose / punish corruption and impunity. If we do not as a matter of urgency strategically increase / harness environment-friendly energy sources: geo-thermal, wind and solar. Fix and expand our infrastructure: roads, rail system, telecommunication systems, expand / increase the capacities of our airfields, manage and effectively protect our natural capital (natural resources). Natural capital is among the five C’s that I need to just mention here albeit briefly.

For any business or economy to thrive there are Five C’s- Capital Model which forms a key framework for sustainability and they are: Natural Capital, Human Capital, Social Capital, Manufactured Capital and Financial Capital. We must understand the five C’s because many businesses / economies are struggling to understand the vast array of issues that they face and which are rapidly changing. Climate change, political upheavals, poverty, resource depletion, rising fuel prices, overfishing, a clogged and messy transport systems etc. Not only does the list seem to be growing but the items on it seem to get more complex and bewildering by the minute. That’s why a framework can be handy and provides a simple way of understanding the full range of seemingly unrelated and yet important subjects, which can be handy if you’re a busy person. These I will expound in great detail on my future articles. Continue checking this blog.

But even if all the afore-mentioned issues are addressed it doesn’t automatically guarantee Kenya into joining the league of Upper-middle-income economies ($3,946 to $12,195 Gross National Income per capita) such as Brazil and South Africa. To get to this level Kenya’s economy must grow at a rate of not less than 10% per annum in the next decade.

Innovation and creativity as exemplified in the ICT revolution and mobile-money, form part of the core areas of growth that we must focus on if our country is to become an economic powerhouse and is the reason why I have written this article. As a matter of fact Kenya has a more IT-savvy population as compared to its East African peers and we must use this advantage to spur growth in the EAC. Why can’t Nairobi become the “Silicon Valley” of East and Central African Countries?

We must innovate and come up with innovative / exciting solutions and products that solve our day to day problems. We must be creative in our businesses and encourage / reward hard work. Without creativity, innovation and hard work, our vision 2030 will only be as worthless as the many plans that continue to rust in dust in the government offices and will never see the light of day.

M-pesa, is an example of how innovation can be revolutionary as seen in how it has transformed people’s lives here in Kenya and globally. How many jobs have been created as a result of the innovation that is M-pesa? Hundreds of thousands if not millions. Remember that many local and International banks including Western Union have now embraced mobile-money / M-banking innovative solutions. But we must innovate something else, something new, something different.

What have you innovated as a person? Are you using your in-born ingenuity to make a positive change in your day-today work? How do you motivate your hardworking employees in your workplace? Must our Universities produce employment-dependent work-force which cannot come up with their own businesses? Is our education system/curriculum relevant to the 21st century? Suppose our colleges and universities taught students on how to be innovative from day one, how many of them would be tarmarcing today? What deliberate efforts is our government doing to harness / support the talented youths who are musicians, actors, sportsmen etc.

Innovation and creativity coupled with hard-work is priceless in creating more opportunities which means more jobs, less crime, less family / social conflicts and more products for export which eventually would increase our GDP.

Kenya’s growth is at a tipping point, but isn’t it time we have more of “Made in Kenya” products and less of “Made in China” ? Innovation is the central issue in entrepreneurship and economic prosperity

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About waithash

Francis Waithaka - @waithash Lives in Nairobi Kenya. A Consultant on Social Media Strategy, Policy. Internet Marketing & SEO. Intensely passionate about Blogging, Learning, IT trends | Hobbies- Photography, Swimming & Soccer waithash@gmail.com
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  • http://invest.info.ke/ Anthony Kahonge Mwangi

    Pin point. We need to be creative especially in creating sustainable jobs so as to reach a middle income country status although I do think the growth projections are far-fetched – sustaining 10% pa is not as easy as it sounds.

  • http://www.savvykenya.com savvykenya

    Certainly food for thought. We all need to work hard to achieve vision 2030, it’s not just a government thing! I think that is what is lacking, citizen involvement in the vision.

  • http://www.africareview.com Charles O Obbo

    I don’t think Kenya’s main problem is creativity. Just been to a conference in the UK where that was widely acknowledged and praised. The country’s greatest drawback is its politics. Secondly, Kenya has one of the world’s largest income inequalities, so you have a huge chunk of the population which is effectively locked out of the economy and cannot be customers.

  • http://www.coldtusker.blogspot.com coldtusker

    Politics in Kenya reflects the attitudes, stereotypes & prejudices of the population. A pity but tribal voting patterns means more importance is placed on ‘our man’ rather than meritocracy. Chinua Achebe wrote about these issues in Nigeria in the 1960s but he could have written it for Kenya in the 2000s…

  • Aph Juma

    Politics is our greatest undoing; the new constitution attempts to separate politics from governance.I had hope generational change (youthful leadership) would be an social economic driver but going by our youth leadership in Parliament one would think twice.

  • http://hudumabora.blogspot.com KW

    Nice Post. I am inclined to agree with SavvyKenya, citizen involvement is lacking. I would go further to say, the average citizen is not invested in the vision at all. It is just a vague set of numbers that somebody else (serikali) will look at and take care of.

    I think that as a matter of urgency, the vision needs to be broken down, simplified and really marketed to us. It needs to leave the boardroom and become a part of our everyday lives.

    For example, when there has been this recent political bickering, and the consequent political uncertainty, how was our path towards attainment affected? It is obvious there is no thought of this in the political sphere, but if the citizen owns the Vision, then the citizen would police the politician to stay within the confines of what is appropriate and what is not appropriate with regards to the path we are walking.

  • http://www.vision2030.go.ke Mugo Kibati

    Great post Waithash. The comments made are spot on too. Yes, our politics is a major hindrance particularly because it prevents us from effectively dealing with graft and also prevents the singular kind of focus necessary for the execution of ambititious national projects like Vision 2030. However, we cannot simply throw up our hands and give up. Rather we must undertak the process of changing the politics no matter how painstaking that might be. Hence the new constitution and the need for diligence in its operationalization. Beyond that, however, inculcating values systems in the next generation of leaders and citizens and more closely aligning rewards to effort is very important. On the other items, Kenyans are indeed innovative but we need an innovative school curriculum right from class 1! Finally, Vision 2030 is yet to get proper national buy-in and that is our next focus. Without the buy-in it would be difficult to implement and I am acutely alive to that fact.

  • Edith Kimani

    Waithash, you have articulated the problem and part solution with crisp clarity. I say part solution for two reasons. One, having worked in the media for a while now, I know one story can be attacked from many angles, and if physicians are to be believed, then there can be a as many as 40+ quintillion ways as in the Rubik’s cube. This brings me to point two; are we as KW, savvykenya and Mugo Kibati pointed out, willing to look at the angles, rotate the problem, look at multiple algorithms?

  • http://www.rich.co.ke/index.php Aly-Khan Satchu

    The Quality of your Piece is confirmed in the Quality of the Responses, Waithash, counterintuitively speaking of course. Very well written and thought out. Given the Above it sometimes makes me yearn for the Lee Kwan Yew Model or even the CCCP that being a singleminded Purpose and a Just Do It Mentality.
    Aly-Khan Satchu
    http://www.rich.co.ke

  • Holy Dave

    Mwangi the growth projections might sound a little far-fetched but as juvenile as it might sound “It’s good to be ambitious. Let’s aim for the stars and see where we’ll land. Since I’m in the music industry as well let’s “Get rich or die trying” as 50 Cent said. I agree with Savvy that this is not just a government thing rather it is a 38 million people thing. I think Citizen Involvement is necessary for the success of this vision. In strategic Management I was taught that the success of a leader is not only determined on the ability to come up with a good strategy but also his ability to make his/her employees understand and own the strategy. It is therefore important for us as leaders and people who have understood the vision to conduct education and awareness activities to reach out to the mass that has no idea what the vision is all about as KW put it. The critical mass that is has found itself in the lower hemisphere of the income inequality divide as Charles Obbo has suggested. I concur with Coldtusker,Aph Juma and Mugo Kibati that politics have been and still are a major hindrance so let’s remember that as we elect leaders the vote we cast has an indirect if not direct effect on the chance of us achieving the vision 2030 or kissing it goodbye. Edith I believe the media has a large role to play here. Kudos for the good job so far. We need people like you who are actually sold out to the vision to help others in your industry to rotate the problem and look at multiple algorithms as you have intellectually put it.

  • http://waithash.wordpress.com waithash

    Certainly, your comments are enriching as they are insightful. A single-minded approach and focus is all we need. Keep spreading this message: that we are all in it or all out of it. Each one has to play their part, and there’s no room for apathy or lethergy. Thanks for your feedback for which I am forever grateful.

  • Sammy

    Unfortunately, Vision 2030 is nothing but political rhetoric aimed at entrenching the status quo.

    If they can’t get the website right, pray, tell, how are they going to succeed in anything else.

    No doubt Mr. Kibati is talented and qualified for the job, but this is the government of Kenya we are talking about.

    With no track record in public service, it remains to be seen how anything will be achieved. Unless attending conferences and meetings counts.

  • Lucy

    Very detailed and insightful article! For me especially because i have an interest in Public Policy! I’d add citizen apathy is our biggest downfall1 We need to understand the plan and get involved in it!
    On a lighter note i will ask for help when writing my thesis!

  • KE

    The Vision 2030 office is a myth, a fraud that is being perpertrated on the Kenyan taxpayer by a man who himself has no qualifications for the job (and this is not a personal attack on Mugo Kibati). The truth of the matter is, if Mugo really wanted to make a difference, he’d become an entrepreneur, start a company that made a product or provided a service, charged people for it and with that money would have been able to create jobs.

    However, like many in Africa, the key to earning a high salary is to get a job with the government. It’s much easier and sometimes, it’s the only option where a private sector doesn’t really exist. A government job gives you a salary, benefits, but most importantly, a chance to steal and enrich yourself and that my friends is what the Vision 2030 office is all about. It has nothing to do with change or visions. It is simply another way for a few to steal money and this is how they’re going to do it.

    The chairman of the Vision 2030 office is James Mwangi, the CEO of Equity bank. The government, in the name of vision 2030, will transfer a bunch of money into Equity bank, which will then be diverted to certain politically connected individuals for personal use and for the 2012 election.

    The second way they’ll steal is by setting up elaborate offices, asking for tenders to staff and equip the Vision 2030 office, inflating those tenders and pocketing the money. I can guarantee you that after 2012, the office will either not exist or will be staffed by those connected to the new president so they too can continue to steal.

    The problem with Africa is that it does not have a culture of production. Africans make nothing. No cars, aeroplanes, tv’s, radio’s…nothing. If it cannot be extracted from the soil, either in the form of an agricultural product (think coffee or tea) or in the form of a mineral (think oil or copper)….Africans won’t make it or create it.

    As long as this culture of non-production exists, countries like Kenya, which have no mineral resources, will continue to be agricultural based economies surrounded by service oriented industries that cater to the agriculturalists.

    So, yes, you have banks, insurance companies, restaurants, etc, etc in Kenya, but they are there to cater to the only real producers in the country, who are the farmers.

    Kenya is lucky they have good land. If it wasn’t for the land, Kenya would be like Chad. Another African country that produces nothing, but because Chad is largely a desert, it is much poorer than Kenya. Yes, Chad just discovered oil, but that will be extracted (by the Chinese) and removed from the country, with no benefits going to the vast majority of the people.

    http://www.Kenyanentrepreneur.com

  • Kui Kinyanjui

    Great post and intriguing comments.
    How do we entrench the Vision so it becomes a reality for every citizen and ensure its continued relevance post-2012?

  • PaulM

    Good post. During my involvement in the very earliest days of establishing M-PESA, it was very clear that Kenya has two great strengths: a strong spirit of entrepreneurship, and a substantial group of IT innovators. These stand Kenya in good stead.

    It is not my place to comment on Kenyan politics. But it is clear that Kenya’s advantages struggle to overcome two large obstacles, of which I have significant personal experience. These are poor infrastructure, and disheartening levels of corruption and other crime. No country is free of these, but they are stifling Kenya.

  • http://nairobitech.blogspot.com JGMBUGUA

    Waithash I agree we need to innovate and indeed we should ramp up our R&D budgets especially at Universities with strong linkages to industry. I would have no problem reverse engineering the major global drugs and innovating cheaper alternatives for our people foe example.

    But I think there is another issue that goes unmentioned all too often in these discussions and that is productivity. If we need to radically accelerate GDP growth then we must begin with increasing the productivity per worker including mechanization and technology transfer. There is no reason why the Chinese companies are able to build an entire highway from Emali to Loitoktok in a shorter time than S.S. Mehta and Sons is taking to renovate Waiyaki Way. Our productivity per worker needs to seriously improve such that in one hour, a worker produces/does work he previously took four hours to do.

  • Anthony Nyamawi

    Kudos waithash! Great work and a nice article. I’l also admit that Kenyan politics have attributed several mices that deteriorates our economic growth. Its not about bad leaders but evil political culture that is deeply rooted in Kenya.

  • alfin

    thats nyce ua message is xo real!