While speaking at Strathmore Business School during a two-day conference for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), President Kenyatta said sometimes when push comes to shove Kenyan traders led by Treasury officials need to employ street smartness and discard the norms which governs business deals.
We shall meet here after two months and evaluate the strides made from the matters arising here today. This is my promise | #SMEconference2018 #SMEroundtable @WilliamsRuto pic.twitter.com/nD7jhq7f2N
— Uhuru Kenyatta (@UKenyatta) October 16, 2018
President Uhuru Kenyatta speaking at Strathmore Business School during a two-day conference for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). (PSCU)
The president had a rather interesting way of dealing with Chinese investors who have been flooding the local market with cheap imported fish.
“We are now eating fish from China and our people are here suffering. Some of these issues are very simple to deal with. The CS, even though the Finance Bill has passed, think out of the box. You can even tell them that the fish they have imported is spoilt and confiscate it. The government has many ways of doing its’ job,” President Kenyatta stated.
Healthy conversations during the #SMEroundtable dialogue at @StrathU. It’s time for a new conversation about #SMEs in #Kenya: one that fully recognises your hard work, your innovation, and your contribution to the prosperity of our great nation | #SMEconference2018 @WilliamsRuto pic.twitter.com/4uSy2xCwqL
— Uhuru Kenyatta (@UKenyatta) October 16, 2018
China’s fish exports to East Africa have been on a steep rise in recent years despite the region possessing one of the continent’s largest lakes, Lake Victoria and tens of other freshwater bodies, raising fears that the Asian nation is flooding the local market with its stock, to the detriment of local traders.
Within the past two years, China’s fish exports to Kenya have doubled buoyed by rising demand, much to the dismay of local traders.
“I have been told about the imported fish from China. It is not possible that we import Chinese fish when our local traders are here,” he went on.
In June this year, fishermen at Lake Naivasha called on the government to intervene, saying China’s fish imports had flooded markets and putting their only source of livelihood at risk while in 2016, former Kisumu governor Jack Ranguma asked the national government to impose a 100 per cent ban on fish imports from China.“It will increase unemployment, poverty and inequality in the economies of counties like Kisumu that have traditionally depended on fishing for livelihood,” he said.Kenyan business delegation led by President Uhuru Kenyatta with their Chinese counterparts in a past business meeting.
Chinese traders are not saints themselves either and it can be argued that Kenya is simply learning from the master, albeit rather joining the game late.
Chinese firms are infamous for playing dirty and doing business in China is akin to walking on a field filled with landmines, before venturing into China Investors are usually warned that ‘anything that can go wrong will go wrong” and asked to expect anything including interference from the state.
Underhanded tactics employed by China is nothing new or not even news really and a many foreign firms which have tried to set up businesses in China have sadly come to know this too well or rather too late.
And that’s not even all, China it seems does not mind ‘exporting it to other parts of the world’, especially developing countries.
The Treasury has allocated Sh20.25 billion to enhance food and nutrition security to all Kenyans by 2022, and Sh2.4 billion to support value addition and raise the manufacturing sector’s share to gross domestic product to 15 per cent by 2022.
Although Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry said the Big Four agenda will largely be achieved through partnership with the private sector and development partners, the government has also increased taxes in other sectors in a bid to raise money.
For instance, mobile money transaction fee popularly known as M-Pesa has been increased from the current 10 per cent to 12 per cent. The tax for imported vehicles with over 2500cc has also been increased to 30 per cent.