If the government is not going to pay teachers for the next three months, then expect things to be much harder for business and individual survival. The rural areas are likely to be the most affected because their economy is more dependent on the income from the teachers than those in urban centers. Three hundred thousand people with a certain income is not a number that is insignificant to a country where, unemployment rate and hence dependence ratios is high. The government may unknowingly be losing immensely in this battle than it supposedly wishes to gain upon winning the battle.
When one poses to consider the situation the government has created for itself, they will question the objectivity and integrity of whoever advises the executive on financial matters. Lord Keynes in his essays in persuasion warned us not to let ego overpower our rational judgment when handling the desire to get even or prove ourselves superior. Of course all Kenyans are not teachers and our blood and flesh are not one. Teachers have their own debts to pay, their own families to feed and in any case what is 300000 to an economy of 40 million people? By this affirmations we can blindly hire and fire at will, disregard their impact and influence on the ballot box, grind their wishes for higher pay and blow them into nothingness.
However, this line of reasoning might not lead us any far from the “ballooning wage bill”. Indeed, one needs observation and not necessarily analysis to realize that the preceding argument, which the president and the executive have bought, is too shortsighted, irresponsible and not well thought. For one, much as we are all not teachers, our economic destiny is entwined. Banks depend on loan repayments from teachers, the government depends on their income tax, and business people have their faith on teachers as their reliable customers. Considering this multiplier facts we realize that by religiously endeavoring to ruin teachers we are inevitably inviting our own ruin. And every Kenyan citizen who ignores the injustice that is being done to teachers is unknowingly inviting their own ruin.
Economic forces are blind and have no party or tribal affiliations. The economy is in a crisis, the shilling is depreciating, tourism contracting, manufacturing and agriculture did worse in the third quarter of this year as compared to 2014. Unemployment in these sectors is obviously increasing and therefore laying off 300000 in the shortest time will adversely affect the economy. Besides, why is it so easy to hire new staff on contract than it is to increase the pay of the experienced staff that you already have? Or maybe it depends with the one to pay. So as you sip that glass of wine, dance in that party thinking the problem facing teachers is too far away in the distance lands, wait for the forming economic tide that will teach you the much your luxurious queen-bee life depends on the millions of work bees zealously collecting nectar in the fields. The best way to destroy a kingdom is from within. It is apparent that either way the government will pay teachers anyway. Not because it wants to, but because it is in its best interest to pay them. For our sake, and indeed for the sake of our economy. In this regard, as I rest my case, I wonder why someone is busy misleading the executive in to the dark hole of economic depression. Failing to pay teachers may not cause economic depression, but it adds significantly to the factors already at work. So why does someone from within want to lead their government to an economic crisis? Why does someone from within want to cultivate range between the government and its citizens? Or maybe I am too naïve to understand these things, only time will tell the interest one had in ruining their own government behind the veil of unsustainable wage bill.
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