SAM'S SENSE: Where’s the sense of empowerment rallies?

For months now, the country has witnessed a circuit of political rallies, all branded as “economic empowerment.”

We’ve seen the spectacle: politicians dancing in town centres, crowds cheering, and cameras capturing images of motorbikes, carwash machines, water tanks, cash in baskets, and most recently at State House, thousands of plastic chairs stacked high. All paraded as proof of a bottom-up economic transformation.

You see, we live in a country that the political class praises as a beautiful country. We hear from the highest levels in the land that the Kenyan human capital towers above many nations in Africa. Kenya’s human capital is the most valuable asset we have.

If so, is this asset best expressed through bodaboda riding and carwash machines? Do we have the best carwashers on the continent? The best boda riders? These hustles are important, yes. But is this the best we can offer our youth, many of whom are university or college graduates now forced into such jobs, not by choice, but by harsh economic realities?

Two weeks ago, thousands of young people danced at State House, flashing the two-finger salute and chanting “Tutam.” Still, this is an economic transformation, we were told.

There are countless graduates now working as taxi drivers, boda boda riders, or hustling at carwashes. They studied hard, expecting an economy ready to absorb their skills and ideas. Instead, they’re left clutching at survival. And the solution from our leaders? Music, speeches, a few tents and chairs, maybe a motorbike here and there. Then a rallying call: Wapi nduru ya rais?! And suddenly it’s labelled “economic empowerment.”

You see, Kenya has a GDP of over Ksh.16 trillion and a national budget exceeding Ksh.4.2 trillion. That money should be funding bold, transformational programmes. Instead, most of it goes to paying salaries and servicing debt. And whatever remains goes to financing services and infrastructure that is usually inflated to benefit the politically connected. So why should politicians need to raise “a few million” through harambees to empower youth groups?

When you put together 11,000 youth from Nairobi at State House, under groups of ten, award them tents and chairs or one motorbike per group, what exactly are you doing? How exactly is that empowering? What happens to the other millions not reached by such generosity? Those who only have a graduation certificate and a skillset.

More troubling are the questions around funding. Estimates put the State House empowerment meeting at over half a billion shillings. We’re told it was raised by political leaders, including the president. But how does a handful of leaders raise Ksh.500 million in such a short time? We have laws that govern just how much money can be transacted at any given point. What would the law say about those empowerment ventures?

Still at the multi-million worth of giveaways, where was the equipment purchased? At what cost? Were taxes like VAT actually paid? Or was the whole thing structured to bypass scrutiny by the Controller of Budget and the Auditor General?

If these were genuine government programmes, they could be debated, structured, budgeted, and audited. We could measure impact and value for money. But instead, we get a roadshow of political theatre, funded by questionable sources, and designed more for political capital than economic growth.

Let’s be clear: no country has ever built a sustainable economy on handouts and photo opportunities.