wrongturn
Elder Lister
finished reading the Azimio and Kenya Kwanza manifestos (the real KK one this time!). My main takeaway was how similar their overall visions are, mainly differing in details. A
: There's broad overall agreement about the set of issues facing Kenya: limited access to the formal economy, low quality education, high debt burden, corruption, incomplete devolution, etc.
And there's broad agreement about the need for an interventionist state. KK wants to reduce paperwork for SMEs (p. 16), and Azimio will give new SMEs a tax holiday for 3 years (p. 27), but otherwise there's no sense of getting the state out of the way of the private sector
Enhanced agricultural productivity is a key goal for both parties. They're both offering guaranteed minimum returns to farmers, as well as access to input finance, in order to increase agro-processing and exports (Azimio p. 16, KK p. 13)
There were some minor but telling differences when it came to manufacturing, however. Both parties agree that Kenya could be competitive for agricultural exports, and both want to develop cotton value chains so the country can compete on textiles (Azimio p. 17, KK p. 34)
However, KK thinks that Kenya can't compete on many other manufactured products b/c so many of the primary inputs (metal, plastic, etc.) have to be imported at high cost (p. 15). (Yet they still want to develop an electric vehicle industry, unclear how that would work - p. 31)
By contrast, Azimio wants Kenya to start producing more primary inputs like steel and glass (p. 15). It wasn't clear to me how these infant industries would be protected from established, lower-cost international competitors
A very specific detail on which both parties agree: having jua kali artisans manufacture items like doors, nails, etc. for the affordable housing sector (Azimio p. 27, KK p. 19)
This stood out to me b/c a lot of new formal housing is built by Chinese companies, with Chinese materials. I used to live in a place where it was impossible to cut new keys b/c the door & keys were both from China, and the keys are somehow cut differently to normal Kenyan ones
Another telling bit of overlap: both parties are committed to building new affordable housing, but fail to define what "affordable" means, or how they'll incentivize private developers to build affordable units (Azimio p.65 , KK p. 19)
(I've realized I'm writing "parties" where I should be writing "alliances." I'm going to leave the prior tweets up but use the correct term going forward in the thread)
I do think Azimio has a more detailed vision for urban development overall, however. Their housing section emphasizes the need to build amenities & transport alongside new housing (p. 65), and they mention pedestrian & cycle infrastructure which is urgently needed (p. 43)
A few other key points to wrap up the thread. First, environmental issues. Both alliances discussed these in terms of biodiversity & pollution rather than carbon emissions (Az p. 49, KK p. 40). This makes sense b/c Kenya's emissions are very low on a global scale
Second, social protection. Azimio has a specific plan to scale up cash transfers (p. 11), while KK has some vague plans for a universal social pension (p. 53), but a more concrete plan to offer welfare benefits to Kenyans in the diaspora
Third, KK mentions the problem of extrajudicial executions very explicitly but doesn't make a plan to deal with them (p. 61), while Azimio will set up an office to investigate EJEs and torture by police (p. 83)
Finally, this isn't a policy issue per se, but the KK manifesto has interestingly understated swipes at Uhuru, like this note about a report by the National Council of Churches of Kenya in 1967:
NCCK "set up a taskforce to look into what it saw as worrying concentration of economic power occasioned by Africanisation policies. Its report warned of concentration of economic power in the hands of a small managerial elite" (KK p. 9). They went to the archives for this one!
Overall, I came away feeling that while the substantive content of the two manifestos was quite similar, Azimio generally offered more detail about how they would implement their policies
Oh, and Azimio will establish a government unit to do monitoring & evaluation of their programs (p. 79), while KK only mentions monitoring in an aside without any detail (p. 59)
