This archive report was first published on 2 January 2020.
Thursday, January 2, 2020, marked a return to the capital city for columnist Jaidi Kisero, who had spent time in rural South Nyanza at North West Karachuonyo. Reflecting on his experience, Kisero wondered why the quality of life for rural folk hadn't changed much despite the promises from leaders.
Kenya's rural areas still live in different centuries when it comes to basic amenities. This raises questions about the true meaning of rural development. Building a modern dispensary in a rural area without providing medicines, staffing it with nurses, or making a budget for recurrent expenses does not amount to development.
Similarly, establishing women's groups that acquire assets and implement income-generating projects but fail to ensure that profits trickle down to poor rural women cannot be considered a contribution to rural development. Bragging about creating successful women's groups with profitable projects while their members live in squalor and suffer from malnutrition is meaningless.
Today, visiting villages in rural Kenya reveals incomplete dispensaries, half-built sports stadia, haphazardly designed footbridges, incomplete cattle dips, and poorly designed roads. The biggest problem is the mindset of leaders who equate rural development with building brick and mortar structures.
Organizing big harambee meetings and raising millions for capital expenditure, building new churches, constructing dining halls, and new classrooms for boarding schools, but neglecting recurrent expenditure, is a common practice. Raising millions to build cattle dips but failing to consider the money for acaricides or facility maintenance is also a recurring issue.
Columnist Jaidi Kisero makes these remarks as an entry point to discuss the government's unconditional cash transfer programme, Inua Jamii. Under this programme, the government gives monthly cash grants to the poor, widows, the physically challenged, and the elderly.
From observing the impact of Inua Jamii on the lives of poor rural folk in his village, Kisero is convinced that well-targeted cash transfer programmes can do more to improve the quality of life of rural poor than brick and mortar projects. Each time he visits the village, he finds it remarkable to see old and poor folk trooping to Homa Bay town to receive their monthly handouts of Sh 2,000.
When the money is delayed, it comes in arrears, and there have been occasions when folks received as much as Sh 12,000. The money is spent on buying food, improving dwellings, defraying hospital bills, paying school fees, and buying clothes for children. Whenever the Inua Jamii money is paid out, there is an immediate upsurge in buying power, with a boom in business activity in market centres.
Inua Jamii is turning out to be a big economic stimulus to these rural villages. Rural Kenya is ripe for more comprehensive unconditional cash transfer programmes. Instead of brick and mortar, just give these rural folks more cash handouts. 'Development' can come later.
