INNOVATION
Buy Kenya, Build Kenya:
Are Your Products Truly
Kenyan?
By Eugene Wanekeya
S
o, the Buy Kenya, Build Kenya
initiative has hit a new high, with
President Uhuru Kenyatta directing
all public servants to dress in Kenyan-
made attire on Fridays. Kenyan based
manufacturing companies have also
jumped onto the Buy Kenya, Build Kenya
bandwagon, making an appeal to Kenyans
to buy products manufactured in Kenya
as opposed to foreign imports. All this
is meant to promote local industries and
local entrepreneurship by providing a
ready market for home-made products.
Whereas I fully agree that this initiative
is a potentially positive move for the
Kenyan economy as it will help spur
entrepreneurship and jobs creation, I can’t
help but ponder on one question: Are
these products truly Kenyan?
Presently, a product is considered to be
Kenyan when whole or part of it has
been produced or assembled in Kenya.
As a manufacturer, you can freely import
raw material and technology, then put
this together into a final product and
slap the “Made in Kenya” tag on it. The
same applies to small-scale entrepreneurs
such as clothes designers who will import
apparel from West Africa, Europe and
Asia, and so on, use it to produce a final
outfit, and call it Kenyan made.
Whatever the reasons for importing
components used to produce a final
product may be, I believe local producers
owe it to Kenyans to inform them of the
actual percentage of their product that
is Kenyan, before jumping on the Buy
Kenya, Build Kenya movement.
It would be very unfair to rank products
10
MAL33/19 ISSUE
that have been produced with raw material
purely sourced from Kenya, and produced
with Kenyan technology and ingenuity,
the same as products that have only been
assembled in Kenya using imported raw
material.
In my opinion, the former is the only
truly deserving of the “Made in Kenya”
tag. The latter can only earn this tag if
the producer can sufficiently demonstrate
that it was impossible to source for these
raw material and technology locally hence
their decision to import.
This is because, as we talk about promoting
local Kenyan industries, we cannot afford
to overlook producers of raw material.
A truly Kenyan made product has to
start with Kenyan sourced raw material,
Kenyan ingenuity and Kenyan technology.
With this in mind, in the same breath
Kenyan manufacturers - both small scale
and large scale - are urging Kenyans to
buy locally produced commodities in the
spirit of patriotism, would they be willing
to reveal to Kenyans just how much of
their commodities are actually Kenyan?
Buy Kenya, Build Kenya is a perfect
initiative to build our economy as well as
to enhance our patriotism only if it moves
beyond lip service and is executed fully. It’s
an initiative that should not just benefit
manufacturers, but also local producers
of raw material and the consumers of the
finished products.
Personally, I would feel more proud
with the knowledge that I bought a
Kenyan-made commodity, and in doing
so, I helped a local manufacturer pay
salaries to Kenyans who produced this
commodity, and also helped a local farmer
who produced the raw material used in the
production process to pay school fees for
their kids. This is the kind of ripple effect
that we should be aiming to achieve with
this initiative.
Keeping in mind that competition from
imports will always be a reality, and we
cannot simply wish it away, when we attach
value to local commodities, value that is
intangible but emotionally impactful,
then it may not matter that imports are
cheaper than local commodities, because
a good number of patriotic Kenyans will
be willing to pay a little bit extra for local
commodities, to realize this value.
As we continue to encourage Kenyans to
get into entrepreneurship as the ultimate
solution to unemployment, we need to
encourage them to embrace the full spirit
of Buy Kenya, Build Kenya through
sourcing locally and manufacturing locally,
and we in turn play our part by purchasing
locally.
Eugene Wanekeya is the Head
of PR and Communications at
ATLANCIS Technologies, an
Innovative IT Solutions provider
transforming the ICT landscape in
Africa. To interact with and get to
know more about this trend spotter,
you can reach him via mail at:
[email protected].