How the economics of the Whiteman destroyed the entrepreneurial spirit of the Coast Region

What comes to your mind when you hear of South Coast? For many who have managed to move past the basic necessities at their households, they’ll talk of the beautiful sandy beaches within Diani.

In today’s article, we dive past the beaches to explore the real-nomics of Kwale County. As is the custom of this column, every so often we move past statistics to connect with lived experiences from different parts of the country.  

As fate would have it, last week, in the company of members of the Hikers Club & Long walks, together with the Mombasa Walks Movement, we took up a horrendous challenge to walk a total of 150 kilometers from Likoni Ferry to Vanga bay. Vanga is not only the south most tip of Kenya, bordering Tanzania, but also one of the remotest townships of Kenya.

It is a fishing village of about 10,000 residents, mostly known for lack of many of the basic urban utilities including permanent churches, bars, guest houses, supermarkets or banks. I must confess right from the onset that I did not know what to expect.

Other than the certainty of muscle pains or blisters from  walking long distances each day, and the fact that there were very few options available for nice places to rest overnight along the trail, the rest was an open sea to explore. The google maps often struggled to locate Vanga.

Of course, the hospitality and delicacies of the coast people were in plenty. Along the Diani Beach stretch, we received a surprise offer for a continental breakfast at the Neptune Village Beach Hotel, after a chance encounter with the hotel boss while on his morning exercises. Such pleasant surprises speak of the true spirit of the Kenyan people and the hospitality industry.

County context

For proper context, Kwale is one of the poorest counties in the country according to official data. It is ranked 13th in the country and third among the six coastal counties in terms of poverty. Overall poverty rate is 47.4 per cent, with between 5.9 -15 per cent of the County’s 944,464 people facing extreme poverty. Thus, Kwale’s poverty levels significantly outpace the national average poverty rate of 39.8 per cent.

Paradoxically, if we look at the traditional factors of production, the county is well endowed with two of the four factors. That is land and labour, owing to its geographical size and the county’s highly youthful population estimated at 79.5 per cent of the total. With these two endowments, one would expect an enabling policy environment could easily attract the capital and entrepreneurship. However, for some reason this is not the case, even more than a decade of a devolved governance system.

Years ago, the Kibaki administration had attempted to revitalize sugar cane production at the county as a competitive alternative to Western Kenya Sugar belt. Based on available scientific evidence, sugarcane maturation rate is 12 months in Kwale compared to 15-18 months in Western Kenya. While yields per hectare in Western Kenya are estimated to be double that of the coastal belt, the Sugar production potential in Kwale is considered higher overall on account of the early maturity cycle.

As usual, the politics took the better part of us, forgetting that sugar production in Western Kenya and the Coastal belt does not have to be mutually exclusive to one another. Good economics would dictate that both regions can be harnessed to not only bridge domestic demand deficits but also for exports. At least on the day we passed Ramisi shopping center, there was no evidence of any life at the Kwale International Sugar Company Limited.

Out of curiosity, I dug deeper about the history of the factory. Available evidence indicate that the company has been struggling from legal and financial challenges despite the current investors sinking tens of billions after the collapse of the Ramisi Sugar Factor in the 1980s.

As a consequence, existing land leases remain highly underutilized. As we walked past this massive farm laying to waste, one could not fail to wonder what socio-economic impact such an industry would have to local communities, the County and the nation were this enormous potential to be exploited to full capacity.

Walking further down past the sugar cane plantations, we found small scale rice farms. A quick thought that came into mind was: Why don’t we hear of rice farming down in Kwale like we talk about it in Mwea or Siaya?

Searching from existing literature, Agricultural experts note that Kwale and other coastal regions have highly fertile soils and natural resources large enough to match or surpass Mwea’s rice productivity, if proper irrigation and farming technologies were deployed.

Interestingly, the country is heavily reliant on rice imports, with available data showing we produce only 15 -20 per cent of domestic demand. Reflectingly deeply, why would a county like Kwale be so poor with all this endowment? All the town centers of the county remain relative very small by any urban standards. Only Diani/Ukunda has reasonable levels of economic activity.

Along our trail, after Kahawa Tungu, Chai ya Rangi au Tangawizi  under a trees or reed thatched huts, it was difficult to find any place to take a basic meal after 7.00pm. We camped at Kanana shopping center for our last three nights, the only place we found a mid-range guest house. Somewhere towards Shimoni, we saw a place called Madiba – here I couldn’t help wondering if this remote village had any connection with the South African icon Nelson Mandela.

Shifting Fortunes

It does not take long for a keen observer to get to understand how the economics of the cost has shifted significantly in the past two decades. For several decades, what I would call here the Whiteman economy fueled not only livelihoods but also the lifestyles of many of the residents of the coast.

While its normal to meet with abled beach boys casually seeking help from any visitor they meet along the beaches, it takes only a short village gossip to appreciate how the Whiteman’s dollar from yesteryears ruled the socio-economic life of the coast. Stories and case studies of casual, and sometimes long term relations between locals and Caucasians as an economic way of life abound.

Even though majority of the people may differ on how to perceive those relationships based on our divergent socio-cultural orientations, the stories often converge to a sorts of exploitation from both the locals and foreign tourists. Classical economics would argue for a case of divergent but overlapping needs that find their way into a free market.

Today, majority of the people you talk to at the coast agree on the changed fortunes from an era when Whiteman’s dollars were widely available. The modern tourist is either more informed to opt for purely transactional engagements rather than extended relations or equally faces tighter budgets back at home. The unfortunate bit is that while the tourist has changed, the economic orientation of local communities may not have adjusted accordingly.

Reflecting deeply, could it be possible that a long-term unintended outcome of tourists’ dollar dependency of yesteryears may have had for more reaching socio-economics consequences to coastal local communities than we care to admit? Could this socialization have robbed local communities of their inherent enterprise necessary to harness their land and labour endowments? What have successive County Administrations done to alleviate this socio-economic misalignement?