Will the current crop of leaders deliver the dream COMESA that will serve the interests of 400 million Africans? COMESA should help implement a new economic model that avoids reliance on the World Bank and IMF prescriptions. [Read More]

Employing the hyena strategy and armed with axes and machetes, African elites have been fighting over the carcass the mzungu hunter left for over 45 years now. [Read More]

The leasing spree is setting up the continent for another stage of violent episodes as the continent’s citizenry remain mere spectators at the market place. [Read More]

The concoction of the 'Mali ya Umma' generation with that of international do-gooder activists' with their development prescriptions for Kenya/Africa offers a perfect Petri dish for corruption. [Read More]

Is the election of Barack Obama an indication that the West is ready to accommodate genuine African voices? Is it simply a perpetuation of the old order of accepting only those that mirror the West? [Read More]

We do not take time to interrogate history to determine whether the ongoing crisis has anything to do with the international institutions such as the World Bank/IMF and donor agencies keen to recreate a new African society. [Read More]

The law determines who signs mining deals with Western companies but cares less about the 5.6 million dead in Congo! It enforces property rights for the powerful but tramples on those of the weak. The 'owners' of the law literally force governments in Africa to negotiate with those wielding Rocke [Read More]

When one looks outside the window towards the "African Street," what does he see? World powers and re-emerging powers only see minerals, oil, timber and all raw materials that ought to drive their industries. [Read More]

London, New York and Paris lecture on human rights and the sanctity of property rights whilst their thirst for strategic minerals unleashes terror on innocent women and children in Eastern Congo. [Read More]

Kenyans ought to go beyond the 'scarecrow' and analyze the weakness of the South African strategy of Truth and Reconciliation. It is one thing for the top to reconcile, and leave the bottom seething and assume all is well. [Read More]

It is wrong for Tajudeen to insinuate that when individuals engage in private enterprise; they do not take care of the interests of the poor and marginalized [Read More]

Foreign Aid is a bribe given to poor countries by rich nations to enable the latter access resources, and markets cheaply. It is also a bribe to poor nations to prevent the migration of poor people to rich nations. [Read More]

Unless Africans proactively engage in documentation and writing on issues that affect them, the continent will continue to engage the global community from a point of inferiority. [Read More]

The aid effectiveness initiative is geared towards sustaining poor nations in the seat of expectations. [Read More]

The brief and easy to read book highlights personalities such as the biblical Adam and Eve for eating the forbidden fruit that plunged humankind into its present folly; Cleopatra for too much ‘lying down’ with men that cost Egypt a dynasty; [Read More]

Comparing African history to that of Europe, one can clearly see the need to initiate continent's own Age of Enlightenment. Obviously no single individual drove the European enlightenment but historians do point out the fact that the quest to have reason as a primary source and basis for authority [Read More]

Clearly, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games offer a strong lesson for Africans to learn to be competitive and use past mistakes to energize positive strategies for the future. [Read More]

Now that we can not run away from globalization, Africans need entrepreneurial culture as a matter of urgency. We can no longer afford to be comfortable with the jobs of today; they will be phased out by entrepreneurial innovations in a matter of time [Read More]

We have as Africans, not reached a level where we can appreciate institutions such as parliament, the judiciary and the executive because they were ‘thrown at us’ by departing colonialists. [Read More]

Africans impotently watch as their continent gets sliced up by emerging and wealthy nations. [Read More]

When Nelson Mandela and his political elite came up with peace deals with top apartheid elites; they ‘forgot’ to involve other ‘victims’ in their deal; now we all know the results. Black South Africans are still in the struggle against economic apartheid [Read More]

Africa has an inefficient and ill equipped army against famine on its frontline. Our smallholder farmers can feed us if we change our attitude towards farming [Read More]

A casual observation of many groups that celebrate this great day reveals that we are still entrenched in the mindset of entitlement - the belief that some other entity owes us due to past misdeeds. Not that we are not owed. but the question is should we put all our focus on what we are owed? [Read More]

This is a unique marketing opportunity that the Mandela campaign has given the continent. African governments should get out of their bigotry and nationalism/sovereignty claptrap and proactively prepare their citizens to join this gold rush down South. [Read More]

Our business leaders have to urgently rethink their strategies away from relying on protected markets, influence from politicians, natural capital, government as a master strategist, paternalism, economies of scale, macro economics and redistribution of wealth [Read More]

African farmers have several battle fronts: unpredictable climate, depleted soils, bad science and 'cultists' keen to maintain the status quo on the continent. Some friends from wealthy nations have handed us a bad check on technology; we cannot feed our children if we choose to shun technology. [Read More]

'Leadership without management yields steps forward, but as many if not more steps backwards. [Read More]

We can stabilize the Kenyan market by cutting taxes, addressing justice and insecurity, toning down extravagant political free-gifts and opening up Kenya for Kenyans. [Read More]

Moving people of one ethnic community from one region to another will only serve to polarize Kenya further. It will adversely affect small and medium sized enterprises which in most cases are run by entrepreneurs who settle in different parts of the country. [Read More]

Kenya presents the African Union an excellent opportunity to rejuvenate itself by using its diplomatic clout to strongly reject the outcome of the flawed electoral process in Kenya. [Read More]

While some of us have been working hard to build a United Africa; a few people seem hell-bend to reintroduce ethnic kingdoms and destroy Kenya. [Read More]

If Kenyans controlled the government purse, they would exercise their democratic rights by starving the beast in political elites. [Read More]

I appeal to political elites, business people, and the Kenyan middle class in general to take individual initiative to pin point to their relatives that vote tallying irregularities was not executed by a whole community but by a few people. [Read More]

Democracy is simply a tool for liver jugglers to determine when, and who ought to be in power. Liver juggling has set in motion forces that will reverse the few gains Kenyans had attained. [Read More]

The political elite should by now have noticed that in the long run subjecting people to poverty does not pay. Let us make it easier for Africans to start and run business. [Read More]

“If people are going to learn about their jobs, they need to do that early, because once you get into White House, it’s like drinking from a fire hose, and you don’t have the time to read anything, to talk to people.” [Read More]

Democracy as we know it in Kenya, offers ventilation on what politicians do over the five year period they are in parliament, but it fails to offer real change in terms of shaping prosperity. [Read More]

Unless an African torturously applies his mind on how best to exploit and position his product in the global market – wealthy nations will keep swooping on our resources like eagles. [Read More]

Africans who import the “trolley babies” philosophy from wealthy nations ignore the fact that proper parenting led to prosperity whose negative consequence has been a society too busy to mind its future. [Read More]

It is election time, those who talk tribes ought to consult the “great elephant” – Shaka; we can no longer vote with our feet, and secret ballot means we are here to stay even after elections! [Read More]

James Watson is right; the black man judged from a white man’s lenses that seem keen to perpetuate mental slavery, exploitation in the guise of international welfare is indeed stupid and falls short of a human person [Read More]

Kenyans must demand that political party vehicles state clearly their economic ideology, the mode through which they propose to deliver prosperity. Kenya at 44 years after independence is surely ripe for ideology driven politics. [Read More]

African governments have a great responsibility to ensure that brains remain in the continent; otherwise, in 25 year's time, Africa will be empty of brains [Read More]

To survive in the city, one has no choice but to be productive. If rural farmers were to be subjected to effective land taxation, the country will experience increased productivity. [Read More]

Unless governments on this continent deliberately seek to promote the positive spirit of “self interest” that serves a larger majority (business), capitalists from Western countries will continue to exploit our resources, while our politicians (law makers) benefit their own families [Read More]

Giving Kenyans and by extension Africans an opportunity to do business and other prosperity causing activities ought to be the key to fighting poverty. [Read More]

Viewing money as a receipt for value, a creation and resultant effect of exchange between different parties; offers a chance to translate African problems into opportunities. [Read More]

A movie entitled “10,000 Black Men Called George” dramatizes the tribulations of African Americans who were humiliated as porters but viewed as heroes by fellow black community members. I find 960 million black people called George! [Read More]

Advertising in a population that is largely young and starved of avenues for energy outlets is a big challenge to any responsible alcohol industry player. [Read More]

If anyone genuinely wants a United Africa, or a United Kenya, the best place to start is to get Kenyans, and Africans engaging in business so as to see the value of other tribes as a “market.” A united Africa will indeed remain a mirage if we let the political class drive the unity. [Read More]

Africans are under pricing their raw materials and commodities to developed nations because their bargaining power is lowered by the weight of foreign aid and debt relief. Africans are not beggars, we are simply being conned! [Read More]

For East Africans to be competitive at a global level, they cannot afford to remain informal and micro-enterprisers because of fear of government regulators and their policies. Such enterprises ought to be encouraged to link up with established businesses for purposes of strengthening their business [Read More]

The African offspring has let their mama down by failing to integrate her daily chores into the modern economy. We have failed to adopt what we learn in modern schooling systems to our situation with a view of surfacing the hidden talents in our villages. [Read More]

For East Africans to be competitive at a global level, they cannot afford to remain informal and micro-enterprisers because of fear of government regulators and their policies. [Read More]

Venture capitalists are out there looking for brilliant ideas that are taking off the ground. Partnership restores African dignity compared to the much hyped G8 aid that leaves Africans questioning their own abilities. [Read More]

Kenyan academicians should develop an “aid-breathalyzer” to enable citizens determine whether growth is merely an artificial feeling due to donors or is driven by African entrepreneurs and business people. [Read More]

In a world where only governments and corporations are expected to “donate” jobs, it becomes understandable when villagers scoff at unemployed university graduates that hit the tarmac. [Read More]

East Africans will enjoy the benefits of a united market if the community facilitates a harmonized taxation policy that will lead to competitive prices. [Read More]

The competition between high technology brewers that currently pay huge amounts of tax and those that operate from backyards using pots, tins, drums and market by word of mouth will be interesting to observe. [Read More]

Our elites have lost it. While the market is beckoning the investor with his shilling; the elite have been made to believe that we are poor. [Read More]

Huge populations in urban areas tend to promote a competitive approach to life thereby facilitating “business thinking.” [Read More]

Tonnes of beef and chicken are consumed but no NGO has ever pointed out the possibility of their extinction [Read More]

Traffic jams cost the economy 1.5 billion shillings in lost man-hours and fuel, besides environmental pollution and stress. [Read More]

One's imagination is fuelled by the understanding of "how the world works." If one believes that spirits enable a leaf to float, cause drought, or earthquakes; the person's imagination and vision will operate within this limited parameters. [Read More]

Kenyan and by extension African business people must urgently promote the culture of measurements if they have to authoritatively counter arguments advanced by groups with suspect motivation. [Read More]

Weep not for 'kikoi' if you still hold the attitude that you have nothing to offer to yourself and the World! [Read More]

Only a culture of plenty can afford the luxury to wish each other 'big appetite' or 'enjoy your meal.' [Read More]

What vision does your local member of parliament, or your favorite political party espouse? What would be the most appropriate vision for leadership in this country? [Read More]

Surely, China, India, Brazil and the West, share one thing in common: hypocrisy! [Read More]

We must save rural agricultural populations from getting disfigured by judiciously adopting new techniques of ensuring more productivity. [Read More]

Double ‘O’ seven is for sure a ‘James Bond’ season for Kenyan politicians. It will be a thriller with each political group seeking to outmaneuver the other. May double ‘O’ seven give us the best opportunity to choose our leaders and stewardship options wisely. [Read More]

Africa is not the first continent to be underdeveloped in the World. What kills millions of Africans and subjects all the newborn babies to a major death sentence are the very paternalistic policies that wealthy nations under the guise of humanitarian assistance impose on the continent. [Read More]

Africa can move out of the present trade dilemma by focusing on the long-term in all its decisions. It is important that African businesses take active interest in trade negotiations to arm African civil servants with sufficient data and strategies to engage the international community. [Read More]

The African food crisis is largely due to the fact that both policy makers and intellectuals have either surrendered the future of Africa to nature and or external donors. Food production is essential if Africans have to contribute to the civilizations of the world in a constructive way. [Read More]

Send all those international NGOs packing for brainwashing Africans against the profit motive. How else will the so called poor fight poverty if somebody spends millions of dollars teaching them to hate profits? [Read More]

The ongoing war between international civil society groups and international companies ought not to cloud Africa’s sense of judgment. Our first priority is to feed people in Africa, so that they too can participate in the World of innovation. [Read More]

If wealthy nations want to avoid the African migration onslaught, they should rethink their short term goals that have made it difficult for business to grow in Africa through tariff escalation on value added products. Are the Western countries ready for this? [Read More]

The biggest challenge for African intellectuals is how to develop a sifting mechanism that will help them import workable ideas from rich nations while discarding those that cannot work. With the lift on DDT usage, should people in Africa sue the international agency for the Malaria related deaths? [Read More]

If aid is an impediment to economic freedom how come the Heritage Foundation report ranks Uganda to be mostly free in East Africa and yet over 50 percent of its budget is donor driven? [Read More]

As Africans, we must admit that we have failed to feed our people and we have made it difficult for our compatriots to be productive. Have our policy makers ever asked themselves why it is easier to get Coca Cola and Beer among others in the remotest parts of Africa? [Read More]

It is a matter of time and Kenyans will find it difficult to transact in cash because the government ought to 'watch' and be sure that it's not terrorists at work! Soon all taxpayers will have to fund a huge big brother machinery to keep watch over every good and bad person's movement. [Read More]

Trade is supposed to be a win-win game that ought to make parties involved benefit. The present scenario points at a situation where wealthier countries have comparatively open markets than individual African countries. African policy makers fear the developed countries superior industries will run their local businesses out of the market. [Read More]

How best can we reduce the gap between the rich and the poor? We must get the poor producing to meet their most basic needs before they can advance to the next level. The best way we can do this is by repackaging our products to fit into the poor person's budget. [Read More]

The African wealth creators and business people must form private initiatives to drive for a one market in the continent. Africans must not wait for the Union 'protocol'. To speed up the process of African Economic Communities integration, the African Union should consider a cheaper way by simply asking each nation to offer tax and regulatory incentives to African businesses that are ready to invest across nation states. [Read More]

Politicians ought to give sick people a break! If Africans diverted from investing in politics to products that feed and save human lives, there will be no such talk as ‘neglected diseases’. [Read More]

To drink or not to drink is not the question. The question is whether the government can create tax incentives for brewers to ensure that the already consuming population is not harmed by either illicit or excessive consumption of alcohol. [Read More]

Kenya’s media industry although vibrant by African standards best illustrates how dormant the journalism profession is when it comes to digging for news. Why do we have media houses, is it for them to invest in sending journalists to pick press releases and conference speeches? [Read More]

Unlike beggars who have absolutely nothing to sustain their lives hence attracting charity, Africans are not poor. The myth that Africa is poor is being propagated by those who benefit most from the industry of ‘help’. [Read More]

African intellectuals are a big let down. When will they independently scrutinize some of these so-called international standards to establish whether a whole generation of people is being destroyed in the name of the environment? [Read More]

We must urgently figure out how we can use a reformed stock market to finance projects that can turn poverty into history. We can turn the traditional ‘Harambee’ (fundraising) into a stock investment system for low income earners. [Read More]

Kenyans ought to employ the use of law to hold their government to account. Many a time claims of a ‘cockroach in a drink’ end up in court and due compensation is awarded. To ensure that our public servants, politicians, and their think tanks sober up; Kenyans must start taking the relevant offices to court whenever they paint a road before re-carpeting, whenever they get involved in an accident due to a pot hole on the road, whenever they lose a relative due to famine linked to poor policies, and whenever the government loses property due to corruption. [Read More]

Let Africans use chemicals judiciously to fight poverty and disease. Any deaths attributable to international conventions that prevent Africa fighting its own diseases and famine should be investigated and brought to the international court of justice. [Read More]

‘The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else.’ People in Africa must be wary of any one who attends to them in the name of saving or helping them. [Read More]

Farmers in Western and parts of Rift valley spend an average of 6 man hours a day weeding. While this is happening, the Eastern and Northern parts of Kenya report persistent clan wars over grass for cattle, sheep and goats. [Read More]

Self-confidence is a must if Africa is to make progress. Lack of confidence not only compromises wealth creation but limits risk-taking, leading to many people sticking to comfort zones. For Africa to develop, people must urgently seek to travel the least taken routes. [Read More]

The African food insecurity crisis is expanding at an alarming rate. Many countries in Sub - Sahara Africa are faced with famine. It is the old bad story of Africans loosing lives due to poor leadership and overzealous donor organizations that are not keen on long term solutions. [Read More]

Kenyans are fully aware that the World Bank and British foreign aid offices were put under scrutiny for dolling out money to the Kenya government despite increased evidence of corrupt practices. It is very clear that a poor country with 75% population living in rural areas and barely surviving cannot generate the billions that are said to have been stolen by some politically connected individuals. [Read More]

To hit targets of high agricultural productivity, we must rethink our farming strategies. Put up water stations for drier areas, embrace better technologies and give farmers more options in the seed market. [Read More]

Stewardship calls for management of property to ensure sustainability, maximum gain and minimum harm. One thing that makes the mind of a human being completely different from other animals is its ability to transform the environment to favor his needs. [Read More]

Africans are people, they do not necessarily have to re-invent the wheel but at the same time, they must shun centralized planning from the United Nations in the guise of Millennium Development Goals, and E.U. plans. Let Africans do business with the rich world, and avoid beggar-donor partnerships. [Read More]

To address the consumption problem in Africa, it will be strategic for the continent to get out of the World Trade body and take time to re-examine its policies. Western and Northern African states are headed to Hong Kong with one key demand in mind: to negotiate the rich nations out of subsidizing their cotton sector.For African governments to set their global trade agenda effectively, they ought to abolish all trade barriers within Africa, get Africans producing without hindrance and then go to the negotiating table. [Read More]

Africa ought to draw a different development model from developed nations. Move away from the old model that you must have roads, railways, fixed line telephones and huge office blocks. Instead of investing in landline telephony, the whole of Africa can quickly get connected through mobile phones in less time and ignite benefits to the continent. [Read More]

Kenyan intellectuals must not betray the Maasai at their greatest hour of realizing the sweetness of property rights. Kenyans must learn to move beyond the level of tour guides, drivers and cooks to management and productivity. [Read More]

Blaming history as has been a major preoccupation in the past might be the best option in soothing the nerves of those who may not see the new role of Africa in the World. [Read More]

Africa ought to mark the World Food Day with a new theme: let business fight poverty! To export the African problem to the International Agencies will perpetuate the predicament that Africa faces at the moment, lack of good managers! [Read More]

The objective of universities ought not be to churn out as many people with degrees that do not have an idea how to apply in their personal circumstances. To the business community in Africa, join the academia and the communities to make a difference in Africa. [Read More]

Kenyans should not put too much faith in the political elites for a sound constitution. The newly emerged political alliances point at a war of vested interests as opposed to constitutional debate. [Read More]

To export the African problem to the U.N. will perpetuate the predicament that Africa faces at the moment: lack of good managers! [Read More]

Africa should create its own growth model that will depart from the traditional aid dependency which offers incentives to governments to engage in business. [Read More]

Agriculture in Kenya is predominantly carried out by low resource farmers. By increasing commercial activity among the low resource farmers, rural – urban migration will be reduced, more and more people locked up in the agricultural sector will be released to other sectors such as the service industry due to increase in demand for marketers. [Read More]

Africans can make poverty history by owning the African problem. What the African people ought to recognize is the fact that economies do not grow by one addressing only the demands of his village. African investors must look beyond the horizon. [Read More]

Each and every African has been made to believe that the solution to African problems is somewhere in the developed countries. Prosperous countries exploited people’s talents in order to develop and Africans must do the same for Africa. [Read More]

Instead of being hoodwinked by sexy good looking ideas such as debt relief, Africa should urgently turn inward for solutions to her problems. [Read More]

The key to economic prosperity in Africa is certainly the African people. Left free to solve their own problems, free to choose solutions on their own, Africans will definitely turn poverty into opportunity. [Read More]

As a professor of food science and nutrition at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Hon. Ruth Oniango is a lady with a keen eye for talent endowed with rich laughter. [Read More]

The Inter Region Economic Network (IREN Kenya) is honored to present a weekly online magazine; The African Executive: Your Business Partner. The African Executive replaces our traditional IREN Kenya Newsletter that will be featured on quarterly basis by s [Read More]