Coaching
The Predatory Entrepreneurship Jungle
By Evans Majeni
I have been ambushed to share my experience on this jungle called entrepreneurship. While I do promise not to make it a woiye-woishe kind of story, there are enough bumps and bruises along this route. In any case, entrepreneurship is distilled in the crucible of adversity. Indeed, necessity is the mother of invention.
Truth be told, it’ s adversity that birthed great nations. Africa, with its tropical holiday weather, save for a few areas has largely proven to be a breeding ground for mediocrity. Evidence is out there that the rough European weather, that hostile desert and that chilly island has risen to greatness on the back of enterprising citizens. No wonder we go for agricultural benchmarking in a desert- Israel; Qatar another desert is the go-to place for our jobless youth while Dubai- is a leading tourist destination.
I’ m particularly incensed with attempts by the government to give shortcuts to entrepreneurs through cluster funds and a vote on government tenders. This is like poking holes on a boiler. Entrepreneurs are supposed to be value creators not government predators. There is no value creation in selling a pen to the government at one thousand times its market value or giving the unqualified tenders based on age or gender only for them to do a shoddy job and or broker the job to the qualified.
In an ideal situation, entrepreneurs should attract funds from banks, equity funds, stock market and investors by the currency of their ideas and execution. It is expected that ideas worth funding should fight it out in the market and attract the relevant support. Instead, in a distorted market like ours, political funds rule the market. Unfortunately, such funds cannot spur breakthrough innovation or enterprise. Instead, we are condemned to copycat ideas and enterprises without souls.
Former president Kibaki nearly got it right. Having tightened state leakages from the Nyayo era, the many idlers who
No one would strive to build a decent enterprise with all the pain and hustles when their counterparts zoom past them in life through government tenders. We all love easy life and few people will persevere to create and sell value when everyone is playing poker with the government. Wealth should follow productivity not politics.
used to hang around government offices chasing cheques after ghost supplies were forced to go back home and tend to their farms and cattle. In two years, we had a milk glut where one would be gifted a free packet of milk for every purchase.
At independence, Kenya had an admirable template for industrial takeoff. We had upcoming industrial towns in Thika, Nairobi, Nyeri, Uplands, Limuru, Kitale, Eldoret, Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisumu name it. We were exporting agricultural produce as well industrial products. For example, Raymond Woolen Mills based in Eldoret had some of the best woolen products for export. Then we lost the plot.
Politics took center stage and poor governance its signature. The government turned into an obstacle rather than an enabler of business. The civil service was systematically dismantled to serve political interest. Business licensing and regulation became a fertile ground for rent seeking.
Service provision and infrastructure development was now a political carrot dangled to the loyal and not a tool to promote enterprise development. We ended up with misplaced white elephant projects while ignoring areas with greater potential for industrial or agricultural development.
Existing industrialists were arm twisted to dance to the tune of politicians of the day. Some, especially the Asians played along while those who couldn’ t compromise walked away. To cope, the Asians invented kitu kidogo- a token to bureaucrats to sway their decisions in their favor. Tipped, the African Bosses would do their bidding unashamedly. This culture soon blew up to every department including the private
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