Cohesion, not gold, would charm money to counties

Counties are on the edge. They are on a stampede to stage showstopper investment summits, and hopefully, attract money to the grassroots.  

Exploring the wealth of the counties, and seducing investments toward the same, is a masterstroke. If it works, then, the country will experience an economic revolution like never before. Though, so far, we are yet to witness fruits of these swanky and costly conferences.              

In the summits, they flaunt every speck and shade that make the counties tick – from gold to grass. The big boys with dollars listen attentively, jotting a point here another there, and sipping chilled fresh juice. But, of all the wealth vended, there is an imperative soft product, so scarce today, that our counties need to create, and whoever gets it right will have all the money flowing in like the Victoria Falls  - Peace and cohesion.

Folks, money hates uncertainty and volatility. Yet, ours are counties stuck in ethnicity, ethnic bigotry, hatred, and envy, which in the past quarter of a century, has proved turbulent, explosive and costly. Consequently, this disgraceful reality has sealed crevices that would seep in money for investment. The counties’ economic outlook is still pallid.

Sadly, Kenyans, and rightly so, dread to invest away from their native counties.  At “home” they reason, they are secured as members of the in-group. And this is hurting the country and counties. It explains why land and population explosion, in places like Nairobi and adjacent cosmopolitan suburbs, is hitting the skies, and all the money is stuffed in the city because of the perceived neutrality.

Thus, to truly rise economically, the devil of ethnicity has to be tamed. Investors need assurances, in act not in talk, that their money will not go up in flames at the whims and caprices of ethnicity.

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The new constitution may have devolved power and cash, but it also, socially and psychologically, endorsed and fortified ethnic ideologies. Dear reader, counties are morasses of ethnicity, ethnic lynchpins and mandarins who unwittingly shun off any opportunity for growth. The naked ethnic intolerance and phobias the counties have delightfully embraced would be their undoing.

Indeed, it is foolhardy to conceive economic boom in a secluded, ethnocentric, homogenous milieu. Yet, knitting cohesion is no cakewalk. It requires nerve, and grit. Its yarns are spiky and brittle. Still, we have to endure the stings to create modern tolerant respectful counties. If not, the fantasy of success would just be like a woman desirous of a child but is unwilling to endure the requisite pains of pregnancy and childbirth. 

Thus, we need to go the whole hog. This way, we will experience a bubbly commercial environment. Indeed, peace fosters trade. It attracts money and visitors. It is peace and security that will bequeath the counties the swagger, as investment havens. Cohesion will be game-changer trump card for counties.

And so, the county that will attract an avalanche of investment will not be that which boasts of gold or silver; our golden county, will be that which will construct and embrace cohesion; that which will be audacious enough to confront and bottle the jinni that is ethnicity.

The writer is a media and communication advisor [email protected]