BY MICHAEL GITAHI MWANGI
I come from Mt Kenya region but cannot remain quiet when some of our leaders or supremacists continue with this wrong narrative that our region contributes 80% to our economy (GDP) or tax collected in this country.
In simple definition economy is about production, distribution, and consumption.
To cut a long story short numbers do not lie.
According to the population census done last year the population of Kenya is 48m people and that of Mt. Kenya region is slightly over 8M.
Straight to the point, it is common sense the rest of Kenyans consume more, contribute more into our economy, and contribute more tax than the people of Mt Kenya.
Asians despite owning 95% of factories in this country cannot claim such a thing because consumption is the key and the driver of economy.
To our ill-informed leaders, do not confuse entrepreneurship with payment of tax.
Kenya being a service economy does not mean by virtue of owning more businesses you pay more tax than consumers.
Whatever tax you pay comes from the consumers so without consumers there would be no business on Earth.
That is why you cannot build 48m factories for one person, but you can build one factory for 48m people.
Most bars in Nairobi are owned by people from Mt. Kenyan but more than 80% of their customers are not from the region.
Claiming otherwise is morally wrong and misleading our people.
To drive my point home, it is not justifiable to treat all counties equally when we know very well some are very far behind in terms of infrastructure.
How do we expect counties like Mandera, Wajir or Marsabit to catch up with the rest when their people are paying more for fuel by more than 10 shillings per liter than the rest of Kenyans?
These Mt Kenya leaders should have known that 35% of their people live outside their region.
These leaders are doing this just to derail President Uhuru Kenyatta from his noble agenda of uniting this country together with former premier Raila Odinga.
This kind of politics has invaded this country for almost 60 years now, but our president is wiser and focused than all of them.
To the sober minded Kenyans, the agenda of uniting this country is very important and crucial than any other agenda President Uhuru had for our country.
As a Nation it is better to achieve the former and miss the latter.
President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga should stand firm on this and they will go down in history as the greatest leaders Kenya ever had.
Lastly to our kikuyu leaders, yes, we are the single largest tribe in Kenya, but we are not the majority.
Therefore, the majority generates and pays more tax than Kenyans living around the Mt Kenya.
Michael Gitahi Mwangi is a businessman from Central Kenya