As Kenya firmly locks itself in the embrace of the West, economy stabilises

In 2023, Kenya through IMF loans and acceptance of a structural adjustment programme avoided default on the Eurobond. 

In 2024, the economy is calmer. The local unit is gaining strongly on the greenback, now clocking Kshs 125 to the dollar up from Kshs 150. If you fly into Jomo Kenyatta International Airport or circle the terminals in the busy evening hour dominated by long haul flights to Europe, you would think the airport on its own is a small town, a beehive of activity.

Dar es Salaam’s elegant new airport terminal offers some competition, as hundreds of Tanzanians flock the airport ready to fly to different internal destinations, but the bustle of tourists in Kenya remains remarkable.

Kenyans now in the throes of a third presidency in 20 years, are watching their political class navigate a weakening social basket. Some of the contradictions we see at our doorsteps in Uganda magnified in locations like India are starting to emerge. In Karen, a leafy neighborhood in the northern suburbs, kiosks and street sellers now populate Karen Center.

Meters away, greenery exists, into Ngong Forest at the border of Nairobi and Kajiado counties. Nairobi still has a game park right in city limits. I spent a morning discussing with the Coordinator of the Greenbelt Movement, founded by Wangari Mathai, how Kenya, a water scarce country, is rebuilding its water towers under an initiative by the Kenya Forest Service. 

Kenya did have a lot of trees, and harvesting timber is still big business. Ms Nyaguthii Chege, however, points out that the future of these forests will depend on two partners, women and indigenous seedlings. 

The biodiversity movement, the anti-thesis of forest monocultures, is growing rapidly in Africa, home to some of the remaining forest cover contributing just 4 percent to burning of fossil fuels but bearing the brunt of global warming. As we speak, schools are closing in South Sudan on account of unbearable heat. Bamboo is being promoted as a quick win, to protect Kenya’s eight water towers and a source of sustainable wood supply for energy and construction even though its invasiveness as a species is yet to be fully understood.

Kenya’s political and capital classes are fully immersed in the green movement. The battles of yesterday that Wangari Maathai presided over have somewhat abated. You can have a 5-course meal at the Tamarind Brasserie in the middle of a 100-acre urban forest. Yet close-by, the strains of the hustler movement are everywhere to see. The cost of fuel, food, and transport has doubled in the last three years. 

Everyday Kenyans are visible in odd places, malingering sometimes as they ponder what to do next. The political class is accused of living off of corruption. Talking of wealth accumulation, it is an embarrassment how wealthy they are. 

In a tick off to ours, where sirens dominate Kampala traffic, the Kenyan politicians use helicopters to accommodate their busy schedules. As such they miss fewer appointments. 

Well-tended hedges still grow where we have adopted the concrete wall. This is a symbolic reflection of how our neighbours Kenya and now Tanzania are charting a completely different path from ours. You feel something different in these countries. Just like you feel when walking down the streets of leafy Kigali. Some form of quiet. Maybe it’s the abundant wireless that keeps the youth busy. Maybe it’s the shadows reflected from the greenery. 

Kenya enjoys a megaphone in the right quarters, US Ambassador Meg Whitman. Close defence ties with the UK, the former colonial master. Save for the ethnic riots after the 2007 election, relative stability.
What is clear, we have lost from the exodus of Kenyan businesses from Uganda.

Where Uchumi, Nakumatt and Tuskys once reigned, Carrefour with a smaller footprint, but the massive export of goods between our economies is much smaller. It was refreshing to see a well decked CJs at the Imara Mall. CJs has followed arch-rival Java House on its own home turf and is acquainting itself well, the only Ugandan company so far to do so.

Karoli Ssemogerere is an Attorney-At-Law and an Advocate. [email protected]