Thursday, November 19, 2009

The new Bill of Rights

I heard someone somewhere saying that the bill of rights is fantastic. I haven't read it all except for a small provision within the bill or rights.
Social security
61. (1) Every person has the right to social security.
(2) The State shall provide appropriate social security to persons who are unable to support themselves or their dependants.


So this part is supposed to have been genius... except for one thing... it is probably the clause that will finnish Kenya as a country. Does anyone think I'm exagerating?
Lets take a walk through history. USSR anyone? Used to be one of the largest countries in the world! what happened? it has something to do with " from each according to his ability, to each according to his need!" What about California, one of the largest economies in the world? Broke! Venezuela? Broke! Cuba? Broke! Western Europe? In dire need of social reform... Germany is already taking steps with the new government towards that end!
One may ask, what has that got to do with social security?
The answer lies in the means of financing it. Who's gonna pay for it? As we speak Kenya is broke! How do I know that? We have a budget deficit that no one knows how we are gonna pay for it. Our Honorable Finance Minister directed during his last budget speech that all statutory pension funds should buy nothing but bonds. This is exactly what the Argentine government did before defaulting on debt. I see the Kenyan government walking down the same road.
Kenya needs to cut down spending for two reasons:
1. To balance the government income and expenditure
2. To cut taxes so as to stimulate the economy to grow.
Even right now, government cannot afford to undertake any more social welfare. As it is, we need to reform the government run pension fund. The current system is broke! That is the reason why government pushed the retirement age to 60. The healthcare system is becoming unmanageable and the education system is proving too heavy for the government. On the other side, the government is beginning to miss revenue targets that the government had set for the Kenya Revenue Authority. We need to solve that first and allow the private sector to flourish if we are to avert a looming disaster! Remember the riots in Argentina or the collapse of the USSR, or more pertinent to Kenya, the rise of Mungiki, Sabaot land defence force?
You can make up your mind on whether the problem in Kenya is primarily political or just trying to push an unsustainable economic system that has its roots in Communism/Socialism.

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