Kenya's Hustler Economy
Writing in the context of South Africa, Deborah James shows how a national project focused on financial inclusion by extending access to credit to black South Africans failed to address economic disenfranchisement, poverty and oppression, but rather produced new forms of these and created further indebtedness. Providing easy access to credit is not going to pull people out of poverty, but just create further debt.If the new Kenyan government truly intends to provide a decent living to ordinary Kenyans, and pursue a truly national transformative process, then provision of universal and guaranteed public services, as envisioned in Kenya’s constitution, is crucial.
This requires that the government ensures that every citizen, regardless of their background and socio-economic status, is able to access the basics of life, including affordable healthcare, education, housing and food. Investment in public services is possible if the government takes seriously efficiency in revenue generation through taxes and efficiency in expenditures by addressing revenue leakages and expenditure wastages arising especially from development projects. The Covid-19 pandemic manifested the need for robust public services such as a strong and working public health system. The new government needs to take heed of such lessons if Kenya is to attain any national transformation.
Jacinta Victoria S. Muinde is a Social Anthropologist at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo.
