L. Muthoni Wanyeki
16 October 2007
opinion
Nairobi — This Wednesday, October 17, marks the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. This year, once again, the Global Coalition Against Poverty is trying to make it into the Guinness Book of Records by ensuring the largest number of people across the world physically "stand up" to declare their commitment to ending poverty.
In Kenya, there will be two major events to contribute to the global action. In Kisumu, alongside its Millennium City Investment Conference, a street procession and dance will culminate in a local staging of the Poverty Requiem. And in Korogocho, Nairobi, musicians will perform at a concert, Artists United for a New Kenya: standing up and singing for our rights with the Poverty Requiem being performed in Kasarani, Nairobi from Wednesday to Sunday. There are numerous other "stand up" events being organised in most of Nairobi's low-income settlements.
Kenya, in short, is doing its bit for the global action.
The question, of course, is what the global action means. What is its value - beyond another entry in the Guinness Book of Records? The more sceptical would say that it means nothing and achieves nothing beyond assuaging the conscience of those who do not live in poverty by letting them feel that they have, in fact, done their bit.
There is truth, of course, in that kind of critique.
But the argument that the global action is only relevant for those living in more affluent - and more equal - societies than ours does not entirely hold water. The fact is that poverty, inequality and their effects are so much more ubiquitous here that those who have escaped them end up being numbed to and thus in a way unable to see them. Exceptions being, of course, when they concern our immediate and extended families - into which we pour endless, sometimes futile investments.
We thus fall prey to the delusion that while we cannot solve the problems of the whole world, we can certainly solve the problems of those closest to us or those we feel most responsible for.
THAT DELUSION IS FED BY THE fact that some of those we invest in - through provision of education, informal credit, medical care - do actually go on to make something of themselves.
This is not, in any way, to mock the efforts of those who have assumed inordinate family roles or who have invested equally inordinate amounts of emotion, thought, time and other more material resources in citizen-organised development efforts in their areas of origin. All beyond the radar of government/state interventions and official development assistance. Those efforts are to be entirely commended.
And it is, in fact, at that level that the global action can be useful-to remind us to open our eyes, look around and see what each one of us can do in our respective areas of influence and operation. Do we treat everyone with whom we interact in a transactional sense as though they are worthy of dignity and respect? Do we respect basic principles underlying labour law (as insufficient as Kenya's labour law is)?
That said, while such individual efforts will always be necessary, they will also always be insufficient. Poverty and inequality are logical outcomes of the manner in which our economy is systemically organised. They are, equally, logical outcomes of the manner in which our economy interplays with the global political economy. Internally, when growth strategies pursued assume certain fundamentals (like the low cost of labour here), attempts to raise labour costs to meet living costs can only ever get so far. And "soft" growth strategies to mitigate these effects - targeting expenditure to address social services, decentralising development expenditure, etc - will not change that basic fact.
So, by all means, get up, stand up and be counted on Wednesday - but do not believe that it will ever be enough.
L. Muthoni Wanyeki is the executive director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission
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