This archive report was first published on 19 October 2019.
On Mashujaa Day, we celebrate our heroes and heroines who fought for our Independence, but there's a huge fly in the ointment that makes all such celebrations null.
Our country has become dysfunctional in many ways, with a dysfunctional healthcare system, corrupt county governments, and a rise in rogue police officers.
But the most egregious failure is that 56 years after Independence, we still cannot feed ourselves.
Our farmers are still using 20th-century methods, and land sizes are dwindling, making any effort to grow either cash or food crops futile.
At the same time, Kenyans are multiplying at a furious pace, and the old ones are dying and being buried in overcrowded plots.
As a result, this country is in danger of turning into a net food importer, yet we have enough land for all our needs.
It's said that this country has the sixth highest number of poor people in the world, but you cannot tell it from the number of flashy juggernauts that ply our roads.
The gap between the very wealthy and very poor is getting obscenely wider with each passing day.
Land size is not the only problem with the way we practise our agriculture.
Many ideas have been fronted on how we can increase yields, but some of them tend to be in the realm of fantasy.
President Uhuru Kenyatta once said, “no nation can claim to be developed without having a secure, affordable and easily accessible food supply”.
Indeed, and in those terms alone, Kenyans have a long way to go.
