Mind capture major hurdle in efforts to create jobs, shore up rural incomes
A line of BJ-50 vehicles at Sagak Auto Technology at Nyahururu in Laikipia West.
What you need to know:
- The most dramatic encounter was the ping-pong our micro manufacturer was thrown into by NTSA and KRA.
- At stake was the registration of the now famous BJ50 tuk tuk.
Over afternoon tea with friends recently, a debate erupted on why we appear unable to fix high unemployment and low incomes after 58 years of independence. It got me going on my own recent experiences at the hands of the national bureaucracy, as we seek to build small manufacturing enterprises in Laikipia.
The most dramatic encounter was the ping-pong our micro manufacturer was thrown into by the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) and the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). At stake was the registration of the now famous BJ50 tuk tuk. NTSA demanded a customs entry to match the chassis we wanted registered. The agency said that is what the Transport Integrated Management System (TIMS) requires.
Obviously, KRA could not issue a customs entry because the units are made in Nyahururu. And it made us wonder: who created the TIMS and for what purpose? Why would they assume any chassis being registered must be imported? This epitomises the mind capture that characterises our rules of commerce, including standards. It is partly why we have jobless growth!
Just this week, counties were hosted by the State Department for East Africa in Naivasha, to be lectured on how to improve ease of doing business! Nothing was said on how to align the bureaucracy and its rules to national interest.
The Laikipia North Technical Training Institute, like many others, has some of the most sophisticated computer numerical control (CNC) milling machines. These are computerised lathe machines that allow you to cut or “machine” just about anything you want, to the highest precision.
Export processing zones
For many months, they were installed but not used, due to lack of three-phase electricity. Now they have electricity, but the skill-set to operate the machines is missing!
And in case you are wondering, the Numerical Machining Complex (NMC) is the aptly named parastatal which has the first generation of these CNC machines. Formed in 1990, it was originally conceived to make the Nyayo pioneer car!
All the while, old-time technocrats are daily pushing us to import things that we are manufacturing such as grain dryers, hand sanitisers, tuk tuks and water pumps!
Another example of mind capture can be seen in the structuring of incentives under the export processing zones programme. Enacted in 1990, the Export Processing Zones Act has been amended 14 times, but the basic structure of incentives has remained unchanged. If you buy imported machinery, you get 100 per cent tax break. But if you buy Kenyan-made machinery, you pay 100 per cent import duties and other taxes.
This is why ‘Buy Kenya, build Kenya’ is a hard sell. Folks here boast that something is “imported”, as if that guarantees high quality, as Kenyan products attract epithets like “jua kali”. As writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o says, let us “decolonise our minds’’.
We have what it takes to industrialise and create jobs!
Ndiritu Muriithi is the Governor of Laikipia County His twitter handle is @NdirituMuriithi
