25/11/2023
"Backbone of the economy", President Ruto's parametres suffer selective amnesia. His public address gymnasia is incomplete without a mention of fertilizers - "we've reduced prices from 7.5 to 2,500/-", is now familiar ringtone, presumes agriculture is the "backbone of the economy" & that fertilizers are panacea to Kenya's intractable woes. Perhaps, in old Russia?
A statement released yesterday by Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) jolts Dr. WS Ruto's selective amnesia (thanks Msomi Edwin Siala for sharing). This report ought to be a wake-up call to all. Between last October to-date, Kenya has lost 70,000 jobs, courtesy tax-tax & an unsustainable cost of doing business. Every other day, FKE continues to receive notices of redundancies. "Employers (40%) plan to REDUCE the number of workers". The executive's response? "We've reduced the price of fertilizers to 2,500/-...."
"Backbones?" The workers & peasants are the vertebrates, the foundacia of the economy. By their sweat & blood, they ride boda bodas, sell mbogas, beautify, turn machines in industries, farm, fish, herd livestock, etc. However as Lenin avers "capital, created by the worker, crushes the worker ruining small proprietors & creating an army of the unemployed". An aphrodisia of a ruling elite?