Think Tanks in the Country

Nairobi Star (Nairobi)

23 April 2011

editorial

At any one of the many diplomatic cocktail parties in Nairobi, there are articulate and elegantly-dressed Kenyans to be found, who introduce themselves as ‘consultants’ working for some local think-tank.

Most of these think-tanks depend on donor funding, as Kenyan leaders have yet to dedicate adequate funds to such institutions, which are basically supposed to come up with creative solutions to our most pressing national problems.

But the few think-tanks that do exist have been conspicuously silent in recent weeks, and at a time when their services may have been useful. We currently have two really crucial problems before us as a nation. One is, How can the ordinary Kenyan be helped to make ends meet, at this time when the cost of living has soared to devastating heights?

The other is, What are we to do with the remaining populations of internally displaced people (IDPs) now that a pattern established by the government’s resettlement programmes clearly shows that they will only meet with hostility from “host communities” when the government buys a large farm and subdivides it to create small farms for the IDPs?

In any industrial nation, the TV and radio talk shows would now be full of scholars affiliated with one prominent think-tank or another, arguing for some home-grown solution to the financial stress that Kenyan families are currently going through. They would also be telling us what remedy to similar problems has worked in which country, and how it was implemented.

And we should by now have at least two or three options for IDP resettlement on the table, each with their full budgetary implications comprehensively worked out.

The two major crises we currently face, illustrate clearly that one area in which we seriously lack such capacity, is in the kind of people and institutions needed to help find solutions to our most crucial national problems.

“We compete, not so much against an opponent, but against ourselves. The real test is this: Did I make my best effort on every play?”

Bud Wilkinson quotes (American Football coach,Born of April 23rd 1916-1994)

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