Traders display school items in Kisii town, on August 25, 2025. Most traders have decried low sales as schools reopen for 3rd term. [Sammy Omingo, Standard] From independence, African states inherited economies that were politically centralised but economically thin. Production systems were weak, industrial capability limited, and fiscal space constrained. Faced with the twin imperatives of political stability and social control, many governments adopted a governing logic that prioritised distribution over production. Over time, this logic hardened into institutional design. Poverty came to be treated not only as a social condition to be addressed, but as a political condition to be managed. This is…
Author: By Joshua Wathanga
Traders display school items in Kisii town, on August 25, 2025. Most traders have decried low sales as schools reopen for 3rd term. [Sammy Omingo, Standard] From independence, African states inherited economies that were politically centralised but economically thin. Production systems were weak, industrial capability limited, and fiscal space constrained. Faced with the twin imperatives of political stability and social control, many governments adopted a governing logic that prioritised distribution over production. Over time, this logic hardened into institutional design. Poverty came to be treated not only as a social condition to be addressed, but as a political condition to be managed. This is…
Farmers sort out coffee berries. We must move from shipping raw sacks of coffee to exporting branded products. [File, Standard] Recently, I have argued that Kenya stands at a critical crossroads. A large, young population can either anchor prosperity or strain social cohesion. As we step into 2026, the debate must move beyond diagnosis to design. The question is how does a country like ours convert people into productivity. If a demographic dividend is a pile of dry wood, industrialisation is the spark. Without it, we are simply waiting for a fire that will never start. The uncomfortable truth is…
Farmers sort out coffee berries. We must move from shipping raw sacks of coffee to exporting branded products. [File, Standard] Recently, I have argued that Kenya stands at a critical crossroads. A large, young population can either anchor prosperity or strain social cohesion. As we step into 2026, the debate must move beyond diagnosis to design. The question is how does a country like ours convert people into productivity. If a demographic dividend is a pile of dry wood, industrialisation is the spark. Without it, we are simply waiting for a fire that will never start. The uncomfortable truth is…
Kenyan Citizens demonstrate and Protest against over Taxation bill along Nairobi streets. [Jonah Onyango, Standard] What exactly is Kenya’s demographic moment, and why is it urgent to act while the window is open? A demographic window refers to the period in a country’s development when the share of people of working age rises, and the proportion of dependants falls. More adults are available to work, save, innovate, and contribute to national productivity. This creates a potential demographic dividend. The window eventually closes as fertility continues to decline and the population begins to age. When the share of older dependants rises,…
Youth during a past Gen Z protest in Mombasa. To transform Kenya’s youth bulge into a national asset, we must confront the governance conditions that threaten to squander it. [File, Standard] Following my recent article on Kenya’s demographic window, several readers asked an important question. If we understand what must be done to convert the youth bulge into a national advantage, why has Kenya not done it? Two recent reports offer sobering insight. They show our challenge is not lack of ideas. It is a governance environment that undermines investments required to secure our demographic dividend. The Kenya Inequality Report by Oxfam…
President William Ruto speaking in a past event. [Wilberforce Okwiri, Standard] Kenya is once again speaking in the language of possibility. In recent months, President William Ruto has declared that Kenya can transition from a developing country to a developed one within our lifetime, and perhaps in as little as fifteen years. It is an uplifting vision, and ambition is never a bad thing. Yet for any country, progress does not flow from optimism alone. It flows from the work people can do, the opportunities they can access, and the dignity they can build through productive employment. In short, the…