Wycliffe Muga

1 week ago | the-star.co.ke | Wycliffe Muga

The 2027 election campaigns have been effectively launched already – a full two years in advance. So let us talk about the role of money in such election campaigns. My perspective on this is influenced by something I have heard from many politicians over the years: that it is a mistake to “start spending too early” because you are sure to run out of money before election day. This is said to be true as much for those who win, as for those who lose, in any one election.

2 weeks ago | the-star.co.ke | Wycliffe Muga

Here is a question with no easy answers: Why do so many families here in Kenya still work so hard to get their children through to university, when it has been clear for several years now that a college degree, in any field at all, is no longer the golden key to a middle-class standard of life? I used to believe that education – and especially tertiary education – was a blessing in and of itself, and that as many young people as possible should receive the support they needed to attain it.

3 weeks ago | the-star.co.ke | Wycliffe Muga

I often see occasional columnists in our mainstream press define themselves as “policy experts.”So here is a question for such experts to consider:Given Kenya has a predominantly agrarian economy, and the bulk of our population is likely to depend on agriculture of one kind or another for the foreseeable future, what three policy proposals would you put forward as providing the key to widespread rural prosperity in Kenya?

1 month ago | the-star.co.ke | Wycliffe Muga

If we discuss industrialisation policy, we could mention such things as “the ease of doing business”, and various other issues, but in the end, it boils down to our inordinately high electricity costs, which should ideally be about one-third of what they are now. Recently, there has been much concern over the question of “food security,” with a focus on Kenya apparently not being adequately food secure. There are actually two separate issues here.

1 month ago | the-star.co.ke | Wycliffe Muga

Last week I wrote about how a leader’s key policy decisions which seem perfectly valid at the time they are made, will sometimes turn out to have laid a foundation for disasters to come. My examples were from Germany: first was former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s policy of expanding trade ties with Russia which was supposed to bring Russia into ever closer engagement with the European Union and rule out any potential aggression against Russia’s much smaller neighbouring states.