Crafting policies aimed at the common man

For instance, the people of Namibia/ Somalia and Freetown,/ Big South Africa, too..”

(Tanglewood, “My People Needs)

Kenya’s economic policies should be centered around advancing the common person. What legal scholars refer to as “the man on the city bus.”

The first step in understanding his needs is to analyse the expenditures of the common person in Kenya.

The key question to ponder is, out of Sh100 earned by a common person, what are the expenditure items of such earnings as expressed in percentage terms? For example, how much goes toward food expenses or to medical or rent or education?

Once the government understands these expenditure items for the common person, then it crafts policies tailored specifically toward mitigating those expenditures.

In low-income countries like Kenya, people spend a significant portion of their income on food. According to research, Kenyans spend over 50 per cent of their consumer spending on food.

Healthcare expenses can be challenging for the average Kenyan. With the government spending only 6 per cent of its budget on health, many Kenyans lack access to healthcare.

Education expenses can be substantial, especially with the rising costs of schooling. Basic education is by law free. But practically, there are payments, particularly in high school.

That means a common person in Kenya will not save for a rainy day, neither will he invest in capital goods.

In a country like Kenya with so many poor people, the net effect of such an expenditure structure is that a large segment of society will not accumulate capital for investments, and hence, they will be trapped in poverty.

The above-mentioned 20 per cent expenditure of poor citizens on health is based on common ailments. A major expensive ailment like cancer sinks an entire household into poverty.

If a child of a poor person transitions to a university where the fees hike up, household incomes will be wiped.

In contrast, the well-off tend to spend a smaller proportion of their income on basic necessities like food and healthcare. They might spend more on luxury goods, investments, and discretionary spending.

In high-income countries, people tend to spend a smaller proportion of their income on food and more on discretionary goods and services.

Therefore, government interventions should be tailored toward recasting the common persons’ expenditure structure and patterns to boost savings.

Murang’a County Government policies are therefore tailored to ameliorate this state of affairs from four angles.

First is an attempt to reduce household expenditure on food by way of boosting food security. It does this by providing free certified maize seeds and fertiliser to 135,000 farmers. This has increased small-scale farmers’ maize production from 1-90kg bag to 3 bags on average. Maize remains a staple food. Hence, tripling its production reduces household food expenditure.

However, challenges have been encountered in the program. The program started with 57,000 farmers. The second season, the numbers rose to 110,000. In the 3rd season, the numbers rose to 200,000, whereas the budget could only accommodate 135,000 farmers, overwhelming county resources.

The second angle is providing free medical insurance for the vulnerable households. The cover provides both inpatient and outpatient medical services for the vulnerable families. The county needs to strengthen the targeting mechanisms to ensure only the very poor families benefit from the scheme.

The third limb of interventions is providing scholarships for poor families. Most poor families take their children to day schools. The county provides full scholarships to 30 students per each day school in the county, hence supporting about 10,000 students per year. There is a separate cohort of about 35,000 students supported at ward level. Hence, almost 50,000 students helped per annum.

The fourth angle toward helping poor people’s expenditure structure is attempting to expand their income.

This attempt to expand income is done in three ways. First, the Muranga Youth Service provides work-study opportunities to unemployed youths. They undertake paid community work for two months and thereafter transition to vocational Training Centers for three months for training. After undertaking a vocational examination, the county gives each youth a grant as seed capital.

The second attempt in expanding income is in boosting agriculture earnings through input support and industry linkages for maize, milk and mango sectors.

For example, county aggregates maize and sells to large private millers ensuring farmers earn at least Ksh 3500 per 90 kg bag. The same in mango sectors where agreements with private manufacturers has pushed mango farmers earnings from Ksh 3 to Ksh 23 per Kg.

Finally, the earnings of the average Murang’a person will expand in a more sustainable way once the county industrialisation agenda is realised.

The county has invited manufacturers to take up opportunities to set up factories.

No country has ever increased its wealth accumulation without manufacturing sector.

This process might take time though as it involves several steps that involve national Lands Commission and National Government Ministry of Lands.

But a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

Follow our WhatsApp channel for breaking news updates and more stories like this.

Dr Irungu Kangata from Muranga County email [email protected]