The Kenyanist

In this episode, Dr. Ken Opalo, a Georgetown University Professor provides a comprehensive analysis of Kenya's cost-of-living crisis. We unpack the underlying factors, assess government responses, and examine potential outcomes of current economic policies aimed at easing the cost of living.

On the political front, blame games persist, with the opposition (Azimio) pointing fingers at the government. The Kenya Kwanza government on the other hand blames the global economic environment and the previous regime.

We also delve into Kenya Kwanza's fiscal policies, which prioritize a populist agenda under the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation (BETA). These policies include the introduction of a Housing Levy and changes to income tax and VAT. In agriculture, the focus is on subsidizing production rather than consumption, with reductions in the cost of fertilizers and importation of edible oils and food commodities. Protests against some of these policies and increased taxation have persisted since the introduction of the Finance Bill.

So, what is the way forward? Our guest underscores the need for effective governance and prudent economic policies to address the cost-of-living crisis and its associated challenges.

Kenya's political history is marked by protests. We can trace the history of protests to colonial times.

You can read more about Dr. Shihalo's work on the long and rich history of mass protests in Kenya by visiting the following link: https://theconversation.com/mass-protests-in-kenya-have-a-long-and-rich-history-but-have-been-hijacked-by-the-elites-202979

The Kenyanist is hosted by Kamau Wairuri, who is also the executive producer. This episode was produced by Mark Kivuva and edited by Hope Nabalayo. Our researcher and publicist is David Muruaru while Mark Njeru manages our social media. Steve Molikande is our administrator.

Domestic work in Kenya, as well as in other parts of the world, is frequently characterized by low wages and a lack of recognition. Nevertheless, domestic workers have consistently proven to be indispensable to our daily lives. They maintain our households, ensure cleanliness, prepare our meals, and care for our children; essentially being responsible for our well-being.  

Despite their significant contribution to the economy and our overall welfare, domestic workers in Kenya face some of the most challenging working conditions. While the focus has rightfully been on the dire situations of Kenyan workers in the Middle East, it is equally important to address the issues occurring within our own homes. 

We must therefore discuss how domestic workers endure low pay, are often excluded from union membership, and may even lack proper documentation, making them vulnerable to mistreatment by their employers. They are also denied common employment benefits such as paid leave, health insurance, and pensions, further exacerbating their precarious situation. 

In this episode of The Kenyanist, Kamau Wairuri is joined by Mumbi Kanyogo, a Kenyan feminist scholar, to discusses the pursuit of dignified domestic work in Kenya.  

The episode sheds light on the challenges faced by domestic workers in Kenya and their fight for better conditions. Mumbi also highlights the historical context of domestic work, its connection to colonialism, and the exploitation that persists today. The episode also explores the efforts of domestic workers to organize and resist, including their involvement with the National Domestic Workers Council and the Kenya Union of Domestic Hotels Educational Institutions Hospitals and Allied Workers (KUDHEIHA). 

Please leave a comment to let us know what you think of the episode and rate us wherever you get your podcasts.   

www.thekenyanist.com 

Sources:  

Mumbi Kanyogo (Nov 7, 2022). ‘Sisi Pia ni Watu’: In Kenya, Domestic Workers Resist Exploitation. The Republic. 

The world is re-emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are only now beginning to understand the full impact of the crisis. In Kenya, we need to take this opportunity to reflect on how we can better prepare for future pandemics. At the same time, we need to reconsider culture’s role in helping us cope with and make sense of difficult events in our lives.  

One of the most powerful ways that culture can help us to process difficult experiences is through music. During the pandemic, we saw the government use music to communicate public health messages. We also saw artists use music to explore the emotional, social political, and economic impacts of the crisis. 

Without a doubt, we know that music can help us to feel less alone, and it can give us a sense of hope. It can also help us to process our grief and anger. In a time of crisis, music can be a lifeline. It is for these reasons that the arts are essential to our well-being, and they can help us to build a stronger and more resilient society.  

In this episode of The Kenyanist, we were joined by Felix Mutunga, to discuss his recent research on the role of Hip-Hop in reframing narratives of the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya's urban margins. In a conversation with our host Kamau Wairuri, Felix explores the impact of the pandemic on the lives of people in these areas and how Hip-Hop music is used to amplify social and political issues in Kenya. 

Sources cited:

This diversity also makes it difficult for us to talk about a Kenyan cuisine in the same way that we might talk about Ethiopian, Nigerian, or Indian cuisine. As
some arguments go, we can trace the state of our food culture to colonization. Some people argue that colonialism limited or popularized some foods including maize and legumes which diminished local cuisines. This is said to have had some serious effects including malnutrition, poor feeding, and poor health. Others have said that it has contributed to droughts. However, Kenya’s coastal region has continued to distinguish itself through its cuisine, as a result of which it has become and remained a popular food destination.

In this episode Kamau Wairuri speaks to Mariah Sudi, a social scientist based both in Nairobi and Malindi, to gain a deeper understanding of the food culture in Kenya’s coastal region. They discuss the history of Kenyan foods including the role colonialism played in shaping them, the confluence of cultures at the coast and their impact on the coastal cuisine as well as the gender dynamics that shape how food is prepared, served and consumed in the region.

The episode is based on Maria’s article on the same topic published by The Elephant.

Please leave a comment to let us know what you think of the episode and rate us wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode, we seek to understand the political economy of street vending in Kenya, by speaking to Nathan Kariuki, a PhD student at the Centre for African Studies, in Bordeaux, France whose PhD project examines street vending in Kenya.

Health financing is a big deal. It has been part of global, regional and national political conversations. 

It is known that the developed countries in the world spend more money on healthcare, as a proportion of the GDP, compared with developing countries. For instance, it is known that countries in Africa spend about 6%t of their GDP on health, which is less than the 9.5% of GDP that the countries of the OECD spend on healthcare systems. Of course, there are important differences between countries. 

In Kenya, healthcare is now largely decentralised, with many responsibilities being transferred to the county government after the 2010 constitution came into effect. 

We have also seen some growth in the amount of money being spent on healthcare.  For instance, in 2020, the allocation of government expenditure on health stood at 6.2% compared to 4.55% of GDP in 2016.

There are many aspects of the political economy of healthcare that we can talk about and indeed will look forward to talking about here on The Kenyanist as we seek a broader and deeper understanding of this really important part of our shared lives as Kenyans. 

In this episode, however, we will focus on the National Health Insurance Fund or NHIF, the state corporation at the centre of our national conversations on healthcare financing. 

We hope you enjoy the show and find the discussion illuminating. 

As always, if you have any questions, comments or guest and topic recommendations, please reach us at www.thekenyanist.com or on our social media handles using the handle @TheKenyanist.

In recent years, there have been growing calls by African governments, cultural analysts and activists and their allies for the return of African artefacts in Museums abroad, especially in Europe. 

The presence of these artefacts in these countries is a direct legacy of colonialism. In many cases, these items were stolen by the colonisers. Now Africans are calling to have their items back. 

For a while, the conversation has been dominated by calls for the return of Benin Bronzes to Nigeria. The Benin Bronzes are a group of several thousand metal plaques and sculptures that decorated the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin, in what is now Edo State, Nigeria. The Benin artworks were forcibly removed in 1897, in a large-scale British military expedition. British forces attacked and occupied the city of Benin, in what is now modern-day Nigeria. The campaign is bearing fruit as we have seen some UK museums signing over their collections of these items to Nigeria. 

However, this conversation is broader than that. Most importantly, for our purposes here, there is a Kenyan conversation as well. Our colonisers also looted many Kenyan cultural items. For instance, there have been some claims of items belonging to the Maasai that are currently held at the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford. 

Yet, many of us Kenyans are unaware of these conversations, how much of our cultural items are scattered around the world, and who is claiming ownership of them. 

As always, if you have any questions, comments or guest and topic recommendations, please reach us at www.thekenyanist.com or on our social media handles using the handle @TheKenyanist

In the first episode of The Kenyanist’s second season, Kamau Wairuri speaks to Dr Beatrice Akala, an educationist and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, on the country’s transition for the 8-4-4 system to the Competence Based Curriculum (CBC).

The discussion seeks to cut through the cacophony of voices that have marked the public discourse on CBC and get a fair and balanced view on the purpose of this shift in curriculum, whether it is justified and what we can expect the outcomes to be. 

As such, Kamau and Dr Akala examine the history of curriculum reform in Kenya, examining how each change has been justified, what the success of implementation has been and the consequences that have emanated from these changes. They also look at the experience of other African countries with curriculum changes, especially the CBC approach, and how they have done it, noting the lessons we can learn from them. 

We hope you enjoy the show and find the discussion illuminating. 

As always, if you have any questions, comments or guest and topic recommendations, please reach us at www.thekenyanist.com or on our social media handles using the handle @TheKenyanist.

For this International Podcast Day special episode, our new producer Tevin Sudi has a conversation with our executive director and host, Kamau Wairuri, for our listeners to get to know him a little bit better.

We talk about his background, why he started the Kenyanist, some of his favourite episodes, season 2, and much more. He even tells us if we’ll ever see his name on the ballot one day.

You can follow us on all social media platforms @thekenyanist and you can listen to all our episodes on www.podpage.com or anywhere you get your podcasts.