By Eliud Owalo
Ladies and Gentlemen, I stand before you to clarify and confirm two issues which have been a major subject of speculation in the recent past.
Following my recent resignation from the ODM Party, I have since formally joined and become a dully-registered Life Member of the Amani National Congress (ANC) Party.
I will be seeking the ANC Party Ticket to run for the Kibra Parliamentary seat in the by-elections slated for 7th November 2019.
When I made the decision to present myself as a candidate for Member of Parliament for Kibra constituency, the first question that I asked myself was; Why is it that despite 56 years of independence and various interventions costing billions of shillings from Government and NGOs; Kibra is still wallowing in abject poverty and disease with the people still living in despicable conditions of abject poverty?
It has become abundantly clear to me that there has been a problem with the approaches being deployed to resolve the problems facing Kibra and the entire issue of poverty in Kenya.
I concluded that Kibra is in part, a victim of doing things the same way for 53 years yet expecting different results.
My well-considered opinion is that it is now time for a total paradigm shift.
We must stop looking at Kibra just as a slum but instead as the human resource backbone of Nairobi that it is; which then requires investment in skills development; healthcare; social services; security; welfare; housing and recreation’ among other conscious and deliberate interventions.
Kibra is the home of the toiling and resilient men and women who carry the industries and factories of Nairobi on their backs for as low as Ksh 150 per day.
The profit is obviously invested elsewhere; with none trickling down back to Kibra.
Kibra houses the most hardworking construction workers who build and maintain our roads, houses, bridges and railways in the scorching heat or biting cold every single day.
The roads obviously lead elsewhere and serve other people. They do not bring wealth and prosperity to Kibra.
Kibra is the home of our shamba boys, maids, watchmen, ayahs, cleaners, boda-boda riders, makangas, mama mbogas and mkokoteni pushers.
They have invested heavily in other people’s lives but unfortunately with little returns in their own households in Kibra.
Indeed Kibra is a significant player in Nairobi’s economy and part of its human resource backbone yet very little is invested back or even trickles down back to its residents.
We have become a society that does not care about its human resource.
Kenya pursues a policy of trickle-down economics designed to empower the owners of the capital who are then expected to invest and generate wealth that is subsequently expected to trickle down to the rest of the country, including those that toil at the lower end of the production chain like the Kiberans.
This however does not happen.
Consequently, the bottom-line or net-effect is that the rich get richer while the poor get even poorer.
That is how we end up with huge slums like Kibra waiting in vain for our National Wealth to trickle down to them.
Kenya’s Annual Budget of Ksh. 3.02 trillion is hardly trickling down to the poor resulting in our country becoming one of the most unequal societies in the world.
The gap between the rich and poor in Kenya is widening everyday with the number of the super-rich millionaires being among the fastest growing while on the extreme opposite end, those living in abject and extreme poverty is also increasing at an alarming rate.
The people of Kibra have been patient for long enough waiting in vain for our national wealth to trickle down to them yet this hasn’t happened in 53 years.
Instead they see one third of our budget (approximately Ksh. 1 Trillion) lost to corruption at their expense.
From my perspective, they are now rightfully running out of patience.
Something definitely has to change. As a candidate for MP for Kibra I have an elaborate plan to shift this paradigm and change from the unsuccessful model of trickle-down economics to trickle-up economics whereby among other measures, I shall seek initiatives to empower the Kibra as is required for them to be fully functioning citizens in our society living happily in dignity and sharing in our prosperity.
In my view, an empowered, skilled and healthy citizenry in the middle and lower classes of society is the success that will trickle upwards in corporate balance-sheets in the form of higher performance and outputs by middle and lower level workers leading to higher profits.
The trickleup approach is therefore a potential game-changer for Kibra.
Achieving dignity and prosperity for Kibra requires partnership with a political party that has a shared vision and which is equally ideologically inclined towards shifting this paradigm.
The Amani National Congress Party (ANC) Party is a Social-Liberal Political Party.
Worldwide, social liberal governments address economic and social issues such as poverty, health care, education and equity and focus on empowerment of the lower and middle classes through planned government and market interventions and policies towards equalization while also addressing the common good in harmony with the freedom of the individual.
Having carefully analyzed and interrogated the ANC policy documents, legislative agenda and ideology, I am convinced beyond any doubt that the ANC Party led by Hon Wycliffe Musalia Mudavadi offers the best vehicle for us to work together towards shifting the paradigm in Kibra and bringing about the much-needed empowerment of the people.
I have noted that the ANC Party has the most elaborate and appealing pro-poor policies.
More appealing to me is Musalia Mudavadi’s mastery of Kenya’s economic issues and persistent proposals on feasible policy alternatives; his zero-tolerance to corruption; zeal for good-governance; advocacy for effective debt-management; concerns on inflationary tendencies and the high-cost of living index; and advocacy for the rule of law.
This is why I chose ANC. And this is why the people of Kibra should vote Eliud Owalo and ANC on November 7th.