 Hwiyi ni na hula ni kwa kipahu. This is why in the morning glad you chose to be part of us and in our political segment we are looking into the general outlook of the economy we want to see where we are as a nation we have problems that needs to be solved with speed especially having in mind we need to have a budget calm jun this year and joined in set our in studio by an economist I have Job Mogira, he is a research economist. I am also joined by Thomas Obare, he is an economist and also a young student who will say he represents a big number of people out here. We want to see how else even the youth can be involved in the building of our economy. Keep it Y254 in the morning. You can also send us all your questions, your remarks on all our social media platforms. Y254 channel, welcome to the broadcast. My name is Dereva Hillary. Now, just a preview of something, this is an article that was published last in August, February 8th of 2019, that is last year. Kenya is the economic financial and transport hub of East Africa. Kenya's real GDP growth has averaged 5% for the last decade. Now, since 2014, Kenya has been ranked as a lower middle income country because it's per capita GDP crossed a world bank threshold while Kenya has a growing entrepreneurial middle class and steady growth. It's economic development has been impaired by the weak governance and corruption. We all know about this. So, reliable numbers are had to find unemployment and unemployment are extremely high and could be near 40% of the population. Now, Job, if this statement is something to go by as we speak today as a nation, can we afford to smile economically? Well, thank you, Hillary. I don't believe we have so many reasons to smile as a country economically but these are so many challenges. My economy is by training and my perspective of economy is alleviation of poverty. The distribution of resources is well. Why do we distribute resources to alleviate poverty? Are Kenyans poor? Are, for example, the youth poor? And the answer is yes. So, we don't have so much we can smile about economically but still there is some hope. Obare, are you proud of our economy? No, I'm not. Actually, in that report you've said that we are a lower middle income economy but when you take GDP and the per capita you are talking about that brings about the lower middle income, the lower middle income, I think it is a lie. In Kenya the spread in terms of economic development is very wide. We realize that the rich are very few but they are extremely rich and then those who are poor, there are so many but when you take now the division, when you are coming up with the per capita that brings the middle income, you take all the resources so you cannot use that to measure how Kenya has developed economically. That is one thing that we really need to look into. Alright, now Felix, Job has said here the youth do not have something. Maybe you could tell us. Are you happy with the current economy of our country? No, I definitely can't be happy with an economy where 50% of which are youth because in this country more than 50% consist of youth and when these 50%, in fact almost 99.9% of them don't have jobs, what reason do I have to smile? I don't have any reason to smile. Alright, now Job agriculture remains the backbone of our economy. We still have farmers crying out, tea farmers, kofi farmers, miz farmers, they are all crying out because poor payment or no payment at all. We've had issues actually the whole of last year we had problems with the payment of our farmers and especially in the tea sector and these are some of the key issues or key and paramount areas that will support our economy. Speaking even of the livestock because even the dairy farming is most important moving into this new year or this financial year, what should be done? I think I started by saying we don't have so much to smile about as a country, about our economy but remember my last word in the first response was still there is hope because I believe the part where I'm seeing hope is the immense potential that Kenya has as an economy. We are ranked 62nd worldwide in terms of the size of our economy but now again when you go to the per capita income we are one, I think around 140 is there. So what shifts us like 60 positions or 80 positions from 62nd to 140 something and now it comes to agriculture, you realize agriculture forms like other that is something percent around 33 percent of our GDP but the sector has been killed, remember the hope is on the potential but the potential here is being killed daily. Number one by those who are supposed to regulate the agricultural industry and number two again now I'll come to the youths 33 percent is agriculture in terms of contribution to GDP but how many youths do we have in agriculture? Very few and they are not even interested in joining agriculture most of the learning institutions in Kenya are around big cities and when the youths finish school there they don't want to go back where there is agricultural land, they want to stay in Nairobi and it's called Shambhala Maui. So kule ambapo kuna udongo when rutuba nzuri kufanya agriculture, youths are attacking when they hook up so we need to send more youths there all the youths need to be willing those who identified the opportunities went there and they are making it but again now corruption the government has allowed so many people and by government here I don't mean the GOK or the GK I mean Kenyans, the government is us it's our neighbors who are heading those agricultural institutions it's our neighbors who are handling all the regulations our friends, our parents so I think we need to seal all loopholes in the agricultural sector that propagate corruption such that milk is bought at 19 shillings from the farmers and here Kwa Shambhala Maui in Nairobi to Nainunu and 100 per liter it doesn't make sense this is the cost of production? The cost of production the kids then the farmers should be selling at a higher price not 19 shillings or 30 shillings then here we buy at 100 shillings the value addition to milk is very cheap pasteurization is 5 shillings per liter and then for example transport cannot even come to 10 shillings per liter so we add a whole 80-90 shillings to 1 liter of milk so I think these farmers need to know their rates I would rather they stop producing but other than what he has mentioned about the production of milk and other factors what else do you think ails our agricultural sector? I will say we have a problem with the value addition in that you find like in the tea sector you find we produce tea but the value addition when it has been done the cost of tea is the pot of Mombasa and the cost of the price that one inch is paid on the ground are extremely different you find like last December we had the bonus where you could find like in my region where I come from we were earning around 12 to 14 shillings but in Mombasa you find tea sold around 160 per kg so there is I don't know he said about corruption I don't know whether to blame corruption on what is happening in the agricultural sector but really something is wrong because you cannot explain how tea is 160 in Mombasa and then the farmers paid for tea shillings even if it's value addition even if it's the cost of production there is something that needs to be done really through the agricultural sector because this is Kenya we are not a manufacturing country we are an agricultural country and we need to take our sector seriously because this is what provides the bulk of our employment to the population of Kenya alright now Felix Jabba has mentioned something very interesting and this is in regards to the youth they don't want to come to they don't want to go back to the villages where we have Shamba they want to be in the city and we have a scenario or we have a devolved system where now we are having universities back in our homes and in our counties that is but like he has mentioned indeed it's true no one wants to go back to the village they all want us to be in Nairobi or other cities in this country other than Raha and everything else what makes young people not want to go back to the villages ok thank you very much to begin with I'm my fourth year doing horticulture so this topic is much in favour of me so I have much to say about agriculture because it's something that we've not been taking seriously and to begin with I'll have to take the blame to the government that's the first because I did my attachment in county government and I had an observation almost everybody employed by the county government is over 50 and above there is nobody 40 years and below when asked around I think nobody has an answer because youths are not being employed into the agricultural sector in fact find facts right now there is no young person in fact it's right now that they are trying they are trying to employ youths it's like they stopped employing young people in 1990s and now when you go there you find people of 60, 70, 80 it's like they don't want these people to retire I don't know what's happening in the agricultural sector it's like now we are studying and you don't know where you are going because nobody is retiring nobody is giving space for the youth to get there on matters of youth going back to the village no it's not true because like me I'll say that when we are given favorable conditions because you can't go there and you go there do nothing you must go there to do something so when there is something to be done not this way we tell the county governments to be much more serious on matters of agriculture when you give us favorable conditions when you give us everything now we'll come back with whatever we've been learning from the city and then we'll come and implement it back at home but when we are here and we see there is nothing serious going back at home we'll rather remain in the city alright now that you're in this space what do you produce and what are some of the challenges you face so we'll have fast hand information yeah horticulture deals with vegetables, fruits and flowers flower production from data Kenya is one of the leading nations in flower production worldwide in terms of fruits Kenya has been very poor we've done poor in terms of fruit production we find a larger percentage of fruits comes from South Africa for us we produce food fruits that are consumed locally and when you when you analyze when you try and see the qualities are a little lower more so in tropical fruits like grapes like let's say grapes, pears we have very little quality we have lower quality and on that we can say that our climate maybe doesn't favor growth of this and now this were the modern technology kind of agriculture like the greenhouses and everything comes in handy but we can say that there is much to be done in terms of in the agricultural sector more so in horticulture and I just hope I just hope you are going to get better before I let you go you mentioned of low production is it because there are no majority in this area and if they are are we having problems in assistance in the farm produce is that a case the case of low production first is brought about by little or no information or no no farmers don't know how to grow these things you know things like these temperate fruits they are very delicate and handling them from the time you grow them until you package them is very critical and now you find that these people are growing them traditionally they don't have any idea on how to grow them and now there are things that according to international standards there is a stipulated way and now when you get them to the market we found that our avocados or like our fruits every fruit they are rejected from the market I blame it on lack of information on how to grow them I want us now to talk about tourism because it's another area that contributes so much in our economy and about the economy of our country and tourism being the key aspect we have had issues of terrorist attacks that have affected our country and even as we speak just last week a few things were happening gladly or fortunately it never happened in the hotels but now this is something that worries our nation because if it happens again then that means moving into this financial year we will have a problem would you say our tourism has tried and if it hasn't what should be done well tourism has generally been doing well and the ministry does a lot of advertisement magical KE in terms of marketing the country and as a country we are blessed with so many geographical features world life and such and the contribution by tourism is not as high as agriculture but still to some extent it has been a bit constant save for a few years when there were so many security threats and currently al-Shabaab have started maybe intensifying the attacks maybe because of our political the global politics but again I would like to commend our forces they have really done not the maximum they could do but they have really done a lot like yesterday there was an attack and they managed to neutralize so many enemies and as such we could see it's a boost to a tourism industry because anybody who is moving around the country as a tourist either domestic tourists or foreign tourists these are people who are very keen about their security and the tourism is about relaxing and enjoying we wouldn't like to come enjoy or relax in a place where you are not sure of your security so in terms of security we are trying but still we can do much again now you know the economy is always intertwined so if Kenyans do not have money foreign tourists may come in but we need the domestic tourists to boost the earnings for tourism so we need to work on all sectors so that each sector supports the other sectors some sectors are enablers of other sectors like we need people, Kenyans to have money in their pockets kama una do so we need to first of all encourage even local tourism which now means our economy needs to improve I want to say we need to work on all sectors to improve the economy the first bonus we may decide to go to Masaimara you see, we need to boost but we are going to send to Masaimara so that is it but we are trying in terms of tourism but there is still a lot to be done Obari are young people investing are we investing into a serious and projects that will enable us to contribute to the economy of our nation the young generation we have been known as a generation of party after party but I can tell you that young people out here are investing also in terms of technology even the apps that are being created are being created by young generation so we cannot really say that young people are not investing in as much as the population of people who are investing is low but young people are investing and the most important thing we can do right now is to urge these young people most those who are either in formal or informal employment but at least make savings make savings so that with the time you can be able to to invest in serious business and then another thing we need to share out information literacy is somehow low you tell somebody to invest look at you and say life is too short why don't we party so we need to do away with that attitude of party after party and encourage young people more so to save because savings my colleague and my senior can agree with me that without savings we will not move as a nation we have to encourage young people to save more to spend less very true Felix, without money we can't travel at the end of Masaimara we can't also be able to make other wheels of life move I want to have a question on you in regards to your sector you said you are in hote kacha are you mentoring young people in your field because these are people who will be looking forward to helping us improve our economy because we are badly off are you mentoring people how are you creating awareness right now we are still trying we are in the process of mentorship probably is the one I want us to move a little bit to here now big for agenda it is one of the agendas that critics have said it was so ambitious we have industrialization and manufacturing problems they intertwine from agriculture coming into manufacturing we are looking into industrialization we are having problems youths are not employed we have people out there crying as a nation we want to achieve big for agenda by the end of this year because 2021 is only times a campaign it has to happen but now speaking of the big for agenda can we achieve I think we will not achieve one thing I would like to say the big for agenda was well thought of food security in Kenya Tishiba I think everything else will flow because even the rates of crime come around as a result of empty stomachs so food security perfect universal health care where are we tell the same people I also work for the government tell people work for the government to go to government hospitals where the big for agenda is being implemented on universal health care because again not the government but Kenyans who work in those hospitals are lazy they are corrupt drugs are being brought in by government then people in hospitals steal those drugs and they take it to their private chemist so piriton uta waikosa kibia 1,000 tablets nisombili so piriton will get aspirin but paracetam uta pata but now come to any drugs that should be taken under prescription there is nowhere fun enough these people know the chemist where you will find it and even the labs to carry your tests exactly they will refer you to some specific places go to those places then study the person who operates in that thing for 2 days you will find them in the hospital where there are no drugs so universal health care without us handling in hospitals we may not achieve food security floods they swept people as the government built any dams to collect this water the dams we are building are from the small rivers that we have that is what you have to say mehivyo the thing here is for example if the young people who are very ambitious and such are given opportunities to build dams that will collect rain water not waters from rivers manufacturing my friend here is talking about youths are investing the things you need to do as a youth activist is ask the government to make the environment friendly for you to do business I am also a youth that manufacturing health we have touched on the massive corruption that is there manufacturing the environment is totally unfriendly to young people look at all the taxes that Kiaria has implemented well they are good but we would be willing to pay taxes as youths if we are seeing returns of what the taxes we are paying now biashara kidogo sa easy to say me biashara empesa pick one county Nairobi as a youth how much capital do needs to invest first of all your permit I'll tell you in one of the counties it's 8,000 your charge is classified as a financial institution in some of the finance acts in these counties so these young people 8,000 8,100 simply business environment manufacturing for young people is not there look at the ways small companies are being killed if you don't have a certain capital we will not be able to do that so they will not come through exactly how do we manufacture food security to mese mama there was also housing the issue of housing thank God the 1.5% remittances has not gone through because now to lipe 1.5% of our salaries are we guaranteed to get these houses look at the government houses I'll say this without fear if your relatives did not work for government if your friends did not work for government you do not have you don't stay in a government house these houses in achiwa watuna goodwill so as you and me were wishing we were really we were really in akenyapa or many others are ministers of health that matters a national housing corporation you need a friend who was living there a kuachena goodwill 400k 400k and we should be able to get more we will get more so which housing are you talking about ok now we have the newly opened lamu pot in terms of lapset we have this GR now moving from washa. That's the cargo. These are some of the key projects that came to support our economy. And we're also speaking of the debts that we have. How then do we harmonize all these together, ensuring that we have people employed, we have money being generated and we are able to pay our debts in time. First of all, to start the SGR. I don't really know what to say about it but I can tell you that it is a project that will take us a long time for us to recover from the debt that we got ourselves into. We realize that the amount of revenue being generated by SGR in itself cannot pay that loan. The Lamu Port, it's a good idea. If Lamu Port and the Northern Corridor are opened, there is a lot of employment that is going to be created by that project and that will open up our economy to Rwanda, Ethiopia and all these other East African countries. That in itself will create employment. My friend talked about just to deviate a little. My friend has talked about the Big 4 Agenda. The Big 4 Agenda was a well thought out plan but the only advice I can give to the government, with all those plans, the only thing that Uhuru Mugei Kenyata can live as a legacy is not the Big 4. Let him fight corruption. By fighting corruption, all these things will fit in place. He talked about dams. Yes, we've set aside money for dams but where is the money? It gets into people's projects. People's pockets. We set so much resources to build our economy but because of corruption, these resources get into people's pockets, the high. Then it also now brings the gap between the rich and the poor. It widens it because if you can't tell me that somebody stills a billion. You can imagine what a billion can do and somebody has the courage to steal more than one billion. He himself. So if we can implement the laws in place and then we can also do away with this corruption thing, our country will grow with the projects that the government is implementing. The transfer of the pot from Mombasa to Naivasha, they'll kill the economy of Mombasa. Mombasa is already having its problems. We have the MRC. We have youths. You've seen that the things that are happening in Mombasa, they are complete that there are no jobs. Now imagine they have transferred the cargo from Mombasa to Naivasha. You can imagine what will happen to Mombasa. So some of these policies really need to be thought out well before they are implemented. All right. This image I want to come to Felix with with it. When the SGR came and it was said that the cargo will be moving through the SGR, so many drivers lost their jobs. Now the owners of the trailers are now like, where do we take these trucks? We can't move them. We have a problem and I'm sure majority of those people are young people when you'll come into that sector. How can we now move forward to ensure that now we have to fight our space? No more driving from Mombasa to Naivasha. But we still have hope for Mombasa to come before the SGR. So those are the people who come to this side. But also how else other than that sector because that could be a door closed. How else can young people now venture to other businesses? It's evident youths are suffering everywhere. It's like we are the unfortunate of all generations. So it's quite a sensitive matter because it's a matter where when someone loses, someone gains. When those who are driving those trailers or those who are operating those trailers lose, the SGR is gaining. And now the government is trying to gain, the government is trying to recover the money they used during building the SGR at the expenses of innocent Kenyans. Kenyans were trying to get a living for themselves losing their jobs. Now what I'm saying is that the government is trying, yes they are trying to recover the money but where is it going? In Kenya what we lack is self-discipline. That's the first thing. It's a matter of interchukuangapi. Serikali me leta tukul. I'm sure SGR, revenue is generated but a higher percentage is going somewhere. I'm sure of that. What I can just say, the government will just come up over a better way of the port of Momasa or of the rather port of every, in fact the SGR should be benefiting as well as the truck drivers and everybody. There's no way they can try, they can do away with the trucks and they are the turnboys and they are the drivers and everybody who have been benefiting from these things. I want to go back to the question you asked him all about implementation. In fact Kenyans, we have very many proposals, very many policies that are just in the records. You know we choose wrong people into government offices. They come to us with promises, we want to pay up hopes, 90% of them are equimplement, so it all starts with us. Who are we choosing to those offices? And now this is where we have to quit Nailu Mishiana. We are running out of time but I want us to finish with the very weighty matter. We do not have the auditor General Mwenyatunezasema, he is the one. Now counties, they have to remit the accounts to be audited. We have the assembly, national assembly and we have the county assembly. They have to submit all this for us to be able to know in the next financial year what will be our budget, will you be able to pay it? But now we have a crisis. And I'll be gone. The 17 guys who are who front themselves for the position, so what happens? So the question is that at once up were 17 guys, some of them were deputies to Onko, who is the former auditor general. And we believe he was working well in the public domain. Do you mean he was deputized by Kwaks? Okay, they need someone with 10 years experience according to the constitution, I don't know whether it was experience or something else. I know some of those people, I have seen their names and I know where some of them have been working or who are in charge of their audit departments in their whatever. About the auditor general, I have a very simple comment. Any constitutional mistake, any constitutional omission that Kenya makes is very expensive to the common manainche. Again now, look here, the auditor general is not there. Counties have been stealing when he was in office. Now they know he's not there. What will they do? Now some counties feared Onko. Now they know the person who will be there is not Onko. He may be tough or less tough, but going by the recruitment that just flopped, I don't feel well. But the thing here is the mistake that we've made as a constitutional mistake, Onko suggested that the succession plan should be very well outlined so that a successor will be found before the term expires. Now we don't have one. Some companies cannot declare their dividends. They cannot hold AGMs. Remember these dividends will go to pockets of Kenyans which in turn they will spend and improve the economy. So this money may get lost again now. And no one will account for it? Yes, no one will account for it. Imagine, so he's spending knowing no one is auditing you. Kwanza gavana zuna wajua. So we need to run and… Okay, Obare, before Onko retired, he said there are lupos in the law that needs to be looked into and I think that is what Job is trying to say. Now these policies, don't you think this is one of the things that should have been in the BBI? Because unless the president appoints and then Kamasa Yelikata, we don't know why. But since August we don't have an auditor general. You've said about the BBI. It is a report that some of us are yet to read. I've read it, I've not said I've not read it. I've read it. But the BBI addresses some of these issues about the auditor general. The office is still functional. It is the head that is not there. We hope that that position is filled so fast so that the country moves. But in terms of addressing the issues, the lupos in our law, I hope that this thing we're calling BBI addresses it. Because they are serious, serious lupos, for instance, in terms of procurement. You find these people in government positions, the governors, they are awarding tenders to themselves or through proxies. These are some of the things that we really need to look into. Because you find governors have paid tenders that were done by proxies. They have in essence, they have paid themselves. And if you want to know that there is a serious problem, go to the counties. Follow how payments are done. If you don't know anyone in the county, don't do a tender that is advertised by the county. Because you will not be paid. They have made it that difficult. So these are some of the lupos that we really need to address if we had to move as a country. Because without that the issue of corruption will be history. Yes. Alright, as we wind up with Felix, it's very paramount that we have an auditor general because we want to see how much money was allocated to this project or to this county and how much was used and what remains. We don't have this man. What do you think? What I think right now what's happening in the county governments is jubilation. People are happy there because there's no one to put them on check. The county now being a governor is the best job in Kenya. You can never have. It's true, right? And now that when Uko was there, they were getting money. Right now they are getting more money. What can they do? What I just suggest is that the government gets us a new auditor general as fast as possible because right now we are having a crisis and the more we have this, the more we lose money and the more we keep suffering. So what I feel is that, what I just feel is that the faster we get the auditor general, the better is it for us Kenyans. Alright, I'm taking your final comments coming this way. What would be your final comments very fast we have less than four minutes? My final comment, I think it's a general one to the government and more so to the agricultural sector. I just pray that the government hears our plight as youths in this sector and thinks of employing more youths from now going forward because we are learning and we are getting into jobs we never trained for. So I just request the government to find better ways of getting youths into those sectors. Alright, what would be your final comments? Thank you. My final comment is to all Kenyans. We have a beautiful country. This country is for all of us. The only problem with all the things we see in employment our main problem today is corruption. And corruption is enabled by both of us. If we can be able to fight corruption, you and me, Kenyans will be a very good country. Four of us for our generations, for our generation and generations to come. That is my last word. Alright, job. Well, my last comment since the topic was on the economy and the youth. The youths need to forget something called the government. And even as a country we need to forget something called the government. The government by definition, legislatively, judiciary and executive. But all these people are from our villages. So as a country we need to sit, reflect the government is not corrupt. Our parents, our brothers, our sisters are corrupt. Those who work in those offices as youths, as citizens, we need to look out for those people, pull them out and now the law should allow us to punish them. Because once we fight, once we end corruption as a nation, the big four will flow. The pot will flow, tourism will flow. And the youths should change their mentality about employment. Information about that is all over. Yeah, thank you. Alright, thank you so much gentlemen for coming and for all your comments. This morning, I'm sure our audience back home you have learnt something. They have been my guest, Felix, where he's an agricultural standard. Still a student, we have Thomas Obare, he's an economist as well. And here I have Job Mugir, he's a financial or a research economist. Thank you so much for coming and thank you so much back home for keeping us company. Now, in the next segment, Beatrice Maitha, Cecilia Wanjiru and Andrew Kabe will be given the air cakes, the new year cakes I hear. So, Valentin will be here. She will tell you more about what will be happening. My name is Dereva Hillary. Enjoy Y254 in the morning or in the morning program.