Counties should innovate to create wealth

Kenya is implementing a new system of governance. In the new constitutional order, county governments have the right to establish their own management concerning regional issues aimed at developing local potential.

For the first time ever, counties have the chance to compete to attract direct investment and tourists. To this end, therefore, the managers have the opportunity to brand and market their counties. This will ultimately contribute to the socio-economic empowerment of their populace by being revenue generation streams and creating both direct and indirect employment.

One of the major concerns in the world today is environmental degradation and the climate change it is causing. The effects of climate change are visible everywhere.

Changes in seasons, flooding, drought, and disease outbreaks are causing untold suffering, especially to the most vulnerable.

Unfortunately, the poor and vulnerable are usually the most affected as they do not have the resources to adapt to the effects of climate change.

This will be a major headache for county governments. Substantial resources will have to go into fighting hunger, providing water and health facilities, and supporting threatened livelihoods.

Some counties and the National Government may have to channel developmental resources into fighting famine. It is difficult to build roads and schools and distribute electricity and other facilities to people who are eating their family pets due to hunger. Priority would, naturally, go to saving lives.

INCREASING BURIAL FEES

The strategies that most counties have adopted to raise additional revenue and attract new investors seem to be the same old ones that remind us of municipal and county councils — like taxing chicken, increasing burial fees, and raising market charges and parking fees. These are not likely to yield much as they are already unpopular.

More innovative strategies are required to not only serve as mid- and long-term economic plans, but also to address current and future threats to economic development.

One such effort would be to use environmental conservation as a differentiating strategy. The Constitution allows counties to institute measures to conserve the environment. Counties can apply this strategically to attract environment-conscious investors and tourists.

Some of the possible measures include supporting recycling, organic farming, conserving water sources, sustainable exploitation of mineral resources, exploitation and use of renewable energy sources, and preservation of indigenous forests and other ecosystems.

It will be refreshing to hear about plans to reduce vehicles in towns by encouraging individuals to ride bicycles, which would improve health, reduce emissions, and save foreign currency needed to buy fossil fuels.

Environmental strategies can also complement existing efforts. It would be easier to market agricultural commodities from a county known to be a strict producer of organic produce.

The writer is a PhD candidate in Business Administration at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. [email protected]