Economy is 'growing', but at what cost?

Growth is something every nation desires. It means progress, opportunity, and a promise of a better tomorrow. Kenya’s recent 5% GDP growth, fueled by agriculture, services, and digital innovation, is being hailed as a success story. The graphs look good, the speeches sound hopeful, but the question remains: who is really growing?

For many ordinary Kenyans, this growth has not translated into lower prices, better wages, or stable living conditions. The mama mboga still counts coins to restock her stall. The boda boda rider still pays inflated fuel prices. The youth graduate still scrolls through job boards with no success. Yet we are told, “the economy is doing well.”

It’s a bitter irony. The numbers that should represent our wellbeing often only reflect government optimism and corporate profits. GDP growth means little when the cost of unga, rent, and transport remains painfully high. When millions still live paycheck to paycheck, or have no paycheck at all, then economic growth is more of a headline than a household reality.

The cost of our so-called success runs deep. It hides in the growing national debt, now consuming over half of our revenue in repayments. It shows in stalled county projects, unpaid contractors, delayed salaries, and the constant borrowing cycle that mortgages our future. For every kilometre of tarmac laid, there’s a youth in the village who feels the government forgot him. But why?

We must ask ourselves what kind of growth are we celebrating? Growth that benefits the few or growth that uplifts the many? Development should never be judged only by skyscrapers, GDP figures, or big projects. True growth is when a child in Bungoma, Turkana, or Kisumu eats well, leave alone a balanced diet, studies comfortably, and dreams freely.

Economic reports talk about productivity, but not dignity. They show figures, but not faces. The ordinary mwananchi doesn’t need complex economic models, they need food on the table, affordable healthcare, decent education, and jobs that can sustain families.

We are not against growth. We just want growth with meaning. Growth that listens to the people, not only to economists. Growth that closes the gap between the rich and the poor. Growth that values human development more than national statistics.

Until then, Kenya’s 5% growth will remain a story told in boardrooms, not one lived in our homes. 

By Sebastian Karani Asava