Kenya: The Missing Link in Soaring Food Prices

Talk on the high cost of living has been going on for some time now in various spaces, but most notably on social media, where all sorts of jokes have been invented and circulated for amusement that masks critical commentary on the sad turn of events.

The steady rise in the cost of petrol, transport, ever-increasing school fees, and others have been pointers to a calamity waiting to happen.

This seems to be unfolding now, with the cost of basic commodities such as unga and milk reaching unprecedented levels.

INCOME OPPORTUNITIES

Not only is this so, the same commodities have become scarce and cannot always be found on the shelves.

Why do we find ourselves in this mess?

Many reasons have been advanced to explain our shared predicament; from natural causes like drought and flash floods, leadership ineptitude, market interference through hoarding, to unnecessary post-harvest wastage.

While these offer some explanation, I think the overall picture can become clearer if we pay attention to changing labour practices and income opportunities that have led to fewer people being available to till the land.

LABOUR

Among other examples, the rise of the boda boda phenomenon in the rural and peri-urban areas has meant that there are more able-bodied men and a few women who spend most of their time on motorcycles in the guise of doing transport business, when they could actually be on the farms producing food.

These young people naturally exert pressure on the little food that is produced because they expect it to be enough to go around, when the reality is the opposite.

Worse, some young men have sold their inherited land to buy motorcycles.

This is a recipe for chaos in the food sector.

So, unless the unregulated boda boda business is looked at again, the problems of spiking food prices will persist. How do we get out of this?

AGRICULTURE

We need to restore faith in subsistence farming as a way of easing pressure on national food requirements, and this can be done mainly by persuading youth to leave their motorcycles and head to the farms for real production.

Long term agricultural reforms, including mechanisation of small and medium-scale agricultural production, provision of support networks in access to farm inputs and markets.

SELF-SUSTENANCE

Like individual families that keep vegetable gardens, schools can be encouraged to produce part of what they consume.

Schools should be required to engage in dairy and food crop farming, either on owned or leased land, as a few do this as a parents/teachers' association initiative.

If schools can produce up to 60 per cent of the food they need, through green house technology or rain-fed farming, they will not only be more insulated against food price shocks, but will also teach students that it is possible to produce what you consume, and consume what you produce.

Further, schools should revisit the old tradition of 4K Clubs, where learners were taught basic lessons in tilling and farming; this will socialise them into the understanding that anyone and everyone has a responsibility and ability to contribute towards food production.

IINVEST IN SECTOR

The independence rallying call of 'Turudi mashambani tufanye kazi' should be revived to mobilise youth to go back to farms.

There is as much fulfilment in realising increased farm produce as there is in riding motorcycle taxis for a living.

All these should be way easier now as county governments can invest more resources to stabilise the supply of agricultural products.

In a country where over 30 per cent of food is wasted post-harvest, can't county governments build better and secure grain banks in each village or clusters of villages to solve this problem?

Look beyond peer pressure on youth crisis

Columnist Njoki Chege’s report titled, ‘Cases of varsity killings rise as toll hits five in six months (Nation, April 6) focused on university students, although it also relates to their secondary school counterparts, who belong to the same age group.

She described some horrific deaths of (mainly female) university students, and explained the crisis as one largely caused by peer pressure.

The peer pressure theory was strengthened by expert voices mainly drawn from universities, all lamenting the changes that have left the student in the deep end of a tempestuous world.

Yet, to understand the causes of the current malaise of irresponsible youth vulnerable to destructive lifestyles, we must go beyond singular explanations.

A major cause is the breakdown of social institutions. Crime has soared, cases of religious and ethnic hatred are becoming rampant, and carefree life is now fashionable.

In all, individualism and other forms of selfishness have become the new normal. Secondly, our obsession with political competition has distracted us from other aspects of our lives, including our social and cultural roles of guiding one another.

SENSE OF HELPLESSNESS

Thirdly, the marginalisation of youth in the running of our systems has engendered a general sense of helplessness and ‘uselessness’, thereby pushing them to deeper recesses of self-destructive behaviour.

In the 1960s and 70s when the country was emerging from the clutches of colonial structures, the educated youth played a significant role in the civil service, corporate sector, politics, and the academia.

Then, the general mood was of hope that the nation had something for everyone who had some education and ambition.

This ensured that the youth of those days remained focused in pursuit of education and careers. Not so anymore.

The youth of the 60s and 70s remain at the centre of our national political, economic, and corporate sectors, leaving little space for young Kenyans.

GOOD LIFE

The rampant joblessness means that it is only while in college that youth can live the illusions of a good life and freedom.

And this should be the entry point in reversing the trend of youth vulnerability to self-destruction.

While the government has provided for quotas that favour youth in tenders and nominations to various agencies, this initiative has two fundamental problems.

One, the meaning of “youth” has often been stretched, with men and women in their 60s passing off as “youth”.

Two, the initiative only addresses economic and political empowerment, not the social. While economic and social empowerment are important, it is only youth who are socially well adjusted who can meaningfully contribute to and benefit economically and politically.

PEER PRESSURE

So how do we resolve the challenge? Three steps can be helpful: One, we need to turn the tide of peer pressure into peer mentorship.

This means using the positive aspects to influence others. Youth versatility with technology can be used to create virtual communities to which those in emotional or social turmoil can turn for help.

Two, equip youth with greater values and personal ambitions that can defy peer pressure. In South Africa, the government initiated a successful “take-a-girl-to-work” initiative.

During school holidays, women employees are encouraged to ‘adopt’ girls they take to real-work situations for a few days to learn skills and ethics, while deepening their career aspirations. This helps to prevent directionless drifting many by youth.

Lastly, we must accept that we are faced with a society-wide rather than youth-only problem. If we look at ourselves in the mirror, perhaps we can identify areas that need sprucing up.