Why Kenya, The ‘Singapore’ That By no means Was, Nonetheless Stinks Worse Than Hell
In Kenya, day by day begins with a brand new name for fundraising—an emergency hospital invoice, a faculty charges disaster, a neighborhood street challenge. We have develop into masters at rallying one another for assist, utilizing WhatsApp teams and M-Changa platforms to assemble funds for issues that our taxes ought to already cowl. But this cycle of personal options to public issues reveals a deeper, systemic challenge: our authorities, entrusted with our assets, fails to ship. When we flip to personal options, we merely masks the signs whereas ignoring the illness—the rampant theft and mismanagement of public funds. These issues persist not as a result of we lack assets however as a result of these meant to handle them steal, squander, or misuse them. Fundraising, then, turns into a distraction—a short lived repair that permits the corrupt to evade accountability.
Every fundraiser we launch is an indictment of the system that fails us. It’s a evident reminder that regardless of paying taxes that fund the luxurious existence of some, primary providers stay inaccessible to the bulk. Instead of getting high quality public hospitals, well-equipped colleges, and useful infrastructure, we’re pressured to pay twice—as soon as by means of taxes and once more by means of fundraising—to entry what needs to be our proper. And in our determined makes an attempt to unravel these crises privately, we fail to confront the reality: that the very taxes we pay are funding our distress, as officers line their pockets and construct fortunes off our hardships. This countless cycle retains us trapped in a perpetual state of disaster administration, distracting us from the true battle for systemic change.
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We should join the dots and ask ourselves why, regardless of billions allotted yearly to healthcare, schooling, and infrastructure, we nonetheless discover ourselves scrambling to lift cash for emergencies. The actuality is that our taxes are looted lengthy earlier than they will translate into significant providers. Reports from the Auditor General present how billions earmarked for essential providers vanish into ghost initiatives, inflated tenders, and the pockets of officers. We can’t escape this actuality by throwing cash at personal options. Instead, we should channel our power into demanding that these taxes work for us. The distress we face day by day—from damaged hospitals to inaccessible colleges—is a direct results of unchecked corruption. Until we confront this head-on, our lives will stay outlined by a string of determined fundraisers.
Our lives are depressing not as a result of we lack assets however as a result of we fail to carry these in energy accountable. The rich and the politically linked steal our future and persuade us to simply accept it as destiny. We should get up to the reality: no quantity of personal intervention will remedy public issues created by corruption and incompetence. If our taxes fund the providers they need to, we wouldn’t must depend on household and mates to unravel crises. It’s time we demand extra and maintain our leaders accountable. Otherwise, we’ll proceed to reside like beggars in a land the place we’re already taxed like kings.
In Kenya, taxes are the gospel of the land—residents are coerced into tithing 60% of their earnings to a state equipment that claims to serve them, just for these taxes to fade into the pockets of some, leaving the nation barren. Despite our contributions, our hospitals crumble, our colleges decay, and our roads erode. And as an alternative of wielding our energy to demand accountability, we rush to patch public failures with personal band-aids. It’s time we join the dots between our servitude, the theft of our assets, and the depressing lives we lead.
First, think about healthcare. Public hospitals, regardless of billions allotted, stay demise traps. In 2022 alone, the Ministry of Health’s funds stood at KES 122 billion, but over KES 50 billion was looted by means of procurement scams. As Kenyans die in under-equipped services, the elite flock to personal hospitals or fly overseas for therapy. We, the taxpayers, reply by turning to WhatsApp teams and fundraisers. Does this not converse of a damaged system, the place residents should crowdsource for what their taxes ought to assure? And but, the well being ministry has gleaming workplaces, whereas Kenyans lie on flooring, praying for miracles.
Our schooling system mirrors this rot. While we’re advised KES 544 billion is earmarked for schooling, an enormous chunk is pocketed by cartels promoting ghost textbooks and gear. Public colleges develop into shadows of studying, dilapidated and understaffed. The center class, of their desperation to flee this chaos, ship their youngsters to personal colleges, which cost charges so excessive you’ll suppose they’re coaching astronauts. Yet, schooling stays the protect of those that can afford it, and even they aren’t spared from the burden of taxes supposedly funding this method.
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Look at safety—KES 317 billion is allotted yearly, and nonetheless, we’re our guards. Our taxes purchase luxurious SUVs for county commissioners, however the remainder of us set up personal alarms, pay guards, and barricade our houses. Why, then, will we tolerate such theft when, in a functioning state, we should always sleep with our home windows open, as in Singapore? But, no, right here, theft and worry have been nationalized, and safety is one more service we privately buy to cowl for a state too busy robbing us.
Consider agriculture. We hear of billions allotted yearly to “empower farmers,” but 80% of our meals is imported. Kenya’s breadbasket areas like Trans-Nzoia endure from a scarcity of irrigation programs. Farmers fend for themselves, shopping for costly personal inputs, whereas authorities officers pocket subsidies meant for them. Meanwhile, we learn studies like that of the Auditor General, detailing KES 10 billion stolen beneath faux fertilizer schemes. And the center class? They keep away from the dialog, whilst the costs of ugali and greens soar.
Public transportation is one other joke. Billions are budgeted for street and rail initiatives, but it’s the private chauffeurs and helicopters of the elite that profit. The Nairobi Expressway, an arrogance challenge designed for many who have already got choices, has toll charges that squeeze the final shilling from residents. Matatus, the spine of public transport, stays deathtraps, and as an alternative of pushing for higher insurance policies, we purchase automobiles we can’t afford and curse at site visitors.
Water shortage is one other spectacle of our tax theft. The authorities allocates KES 62 billion for water initiatives yearly, but Kenyans should nonetheless purchase tanks, dig boreholes, or pay personal water distributors. A examine by Transparency International revealed that KES 20 billion went lacking in water initiatives in 2023 alone. The dams that ought to have irrigated our lands and offered clear water exist solely on paper, as officers line their pockets with cash that ought to maintain life.
Electricity prices in Kenya defy logic. We pay taxes to KPLC, but endure blackouts, and when it will get too insufferable, we flip to personal mills and photo voltaic options. In 2024, Kenya Power reported KES 170 billion in income, but solely KES 45 billion went in the direction of bettering infrastructure. The relaxation? A thriller. Private corporations thrive whereas public ones falter, and the middle-class clings to its silence, ignoring that their payments fund politicians’ existence.
Housing is one other quagmire. The authorities sings the track of reasonably priced housing whereas allocating KES 60 billion, just for half of it to vanish. Corruption scandals litter the Ministry of Housing, as officers allocate funds to ghost initiatives. In a rustic the place public housing needs to be the norm, residents are pressured to mortgage their future houses in overpriced estates. We act as if that is regular, ignoring that in Singapore, each citizen can afford respectable shelter.
Look at our infrastructure—supposedly a precedence, with KES 217 billion budgeted for roads and bridges, but most of those funds are siphoned off by means of inflated contracts and ghost initiatives. A current report from the Institute of Economic Affairs highlighted that 40% of infrastructure funds are misplaced yearly. The roads we drive on are pothole-ridden paths to despair, and whereas we curse and complain, these set by stealing from us construct mansions.
Then there’s manufacturing—our savior, or so we’re advised. KES 150 billion is budgeted for industrialization, but all of it goes to wasteful overseas journeys, high-level conferences, and the acquisition of luxurious autos. Local industries stay stagnant, battling excessive energy payments, insufficient water provide, and insecurity. Our taxes fund bureaucrats who get pleasure from lavish existence, whereas the residents these industries are supposed to uplift face unemployment.
As for tourism, regardless of billions allotted, Kenya’s parks lack primary facilities. Tourists discover themselves paying for personal safaris and providers. It’s a surprise how officers handle to pocket cash meant for conserving our heritage. Our nationwide parks obtain much less funding than the month-to-month gasoline allowances of MPs.
The center class in Kenya is probably the most duplicitous group—silent within the face of all these crises, so long as they will afford personal options. They keep away from politics, believing their gated communities will defend them. But as the federal government dips its arms deeper into their pockets, taxing even their most personal efforts, they quickly discover out that nobody escapes.
Until Kenyans get up, and join the dots between the taxes stolen and the providers missing, we’ll proceed to scramble for survival in a damaged system. We can’t WhatsApp our approach out of it. Our taxes fund the posh existence of some, and till we reclaim our energy, our lives will stay worse than Sudan’s—empty, with no future.
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