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Mohamed Wehliye

22 Apr, 14 tweets, 4 min read

Good to see Saudi Arabia at number 3 re remittances to Kenya (after US and UK). Remittances are now number 1 foreign exchange earner for the country. Whereas the US & UK markets have matured, the Saudi & GCC mkts have more capacity for further growth

businessdailyafrica.com/bd/economy/tan…

The market is also not about just domestic workers. We have Kenyan doctors, university lecturers, consultants, bankers, engineers, nurses, hotel managers etc. Kenyan professionals are highly regarded in the region. These lot also are in influential positions to recruit more!

For example, Riyadh is currently in the final stages of putting in place a metro. Some of the key players like Mwangangi, Shaaban & Opondo are Kenyans. These folks also did the Dubai & Qatar metros. They are folks who built a reputation of being able to deliver quality work

The 'Nakuru gang' of Vets - akina Dr Haron & co are key to Almarai - which produces 6m litres of milk a day. These are the vets that look after the 4000 or so cows that the company keeps. Go to any 5 star hotels, malls, entertainment centres & you will see a Kenyan running it!

My point is this market can be developed further. This country has a serious Vision 2030 project that requires massive human capital. There is market share to be grown. Kenyans are highly respected for their hard working culture, good English skills & their friendly attitude.

We should be eating into the market share of India, Pakistan, Philippines etc. Our major problem is lack of coherent govt policies. The Kenyans with Riyadh metro recently went back home to recruit 500 workers. Those jobs ended up in Uganda. Why? How? A story for another day!

If an employer wants 100 workers to be mobilised in 6 wks, the average Kenyan is disadvantaged because he or she can't even get a passport. A poor lad in Nairobi is asked to first travel to Nyathuna to process his mum's birth certificate. Then jobs are snatched by a ready India!

We have close to 100k workers in the Kingdom. We have to travel to Dubai to get the new generation passport. That could take weeks. Which hospital will allow its Kenyan doctors to be away for weeks? The Indian & the Filipino gets his/her renewed in 3 days & in Riyadh. See?

From business & investment perspective, we have so many companies that are in queue to do business in Kenya. They have been waiting for us to sign what is known as protection of investment agreement with the Kingdom. It is the potential investors that are pushing it, not us. See?

We have made presentations to various parliamentary committees and other GoK officials who occasionally pay us a visit but we are still moving much slower than the other countries in terms of GoK efficiency & support. Meanwhile, the job quotas are going elsewhere.

@SakajaJohnson

The latest was to the Senate Labour Committee headed by @SakajaJohnson which also has @susankihika & @agnes_zani & many other very able Senators. I hope they will initiate policy changes that will help fellow Kenyans secure good jobs outside of the country.

@KenyaRiyadh

Ambassador Peter Ogego & his team at the @KenyaRiyadh are doing a fantastic job when it comes to economic diplomacy. They've been promoting Kenyan products & also helping secure more jobs for Kenyans. They, however, need more support from back home. Things are slow. Very slow!

It is sad that we fail to create enough jobs at home & at the same time do little to help facilitate Kenyans to seek opportunities outside of the country. All Kenyans need is an efficient & supportive government. So far, it is Kenyans who are doing everything for themselves

@HonMoses_Kuria

Finally, I salute my good friend @HonMoses_Kuria. To many, Moses is something else - a crazy politician. But here in the Kingdom, Moses is legendary. He started a consulting company & brought many Kenyans here. Some of these Kenyans are now bank VPs & other senior managers. Kudos

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More from @WehliyeMohamed

Mohamed Wehliye

@WehliyeMohamed

4 Dec 20

1. You are supposed to run smaller deficits in times of growth & run big ones to support the econ during recessionary periods. Jubilee doing the opposite. Taxes might not yield much more revenue but could actually see acceleration of businesses closing down - counterproductive

2. Whereas the govt needs money, from macroeconomic perspective, it doesn't make sense to hike taxes when the economy is flirting with recession. You just might tip it over. We are still in the middle of the pandemic and most governments have extended the Covid support measures

3. For corporates, lower tax measure accorded them some extra headroom which probably went to keep a few more workers employed. For households anyone with a pay cheque has been helping GoK to support others.The extra 5% was like a direct stimuluswith - a huge multiplier effect

Read 5 tweets

Mohamed Wehliye

@WehliyeMohamed

4 Dec 20

1. Some of the BBI amendments cannot even be practically implemented. Let's look at the amendment to article 203 that caps the revenue the county with the highest per capita allocation will get, to 3 times the lowest.

2. Let's use the current allocations of Ksh 316 transferred to counties in 19/21 FY. Tana River & Lamu get the highest per capita allocation of Ksh 18,533 & 18,033 respectively. Nairobi county gets the lowest at Ksh 3,621. Meaning no county should get more than Ksh 10,863.

3. 9 counties in total will be above this threshold and the cap means they would have to surrender Ksh 9.687b. This is where the problems start. First, there is no suggested method to share what will effectively be taken away from these 9 counties.

Read 12 tweets

Mohamed Wehliye

@WehliyeMohamed

28 Nov 20

@StateHouseKenya

1. Dear H.E President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta @StateHouseKenya. In 2022 (in sha Allah), there will be an election & there will be losers & winners, court petitions, riots, teargas not withstanding the fact that BBI will be in place. It is happening even in the USA these days.

2. BB1 will not change that. What BBI will definitely do is to add to our already heavy economic burden. We are already in a difficult situation & it is time to downsize & consolidate. Not a time to create PM office,2 deputies (remember these are not individuals but institutions)

3. It is not also the time to create a 630 bunge & hard code the transfer of 600b we don't have to the counties in the constitution. I am for devolution & I have seen the good stuff it does but the reality is we don't have the money for a bigger government - at both levels

Read 7 tweets

Mohamed Wehliye

@WehliyeMohamed

22 Nov 20

1/ 5. The promise to give counties 600B (35%) is just a pie in the sky promise that will break the country or cause a constitutional crisis in the future. As we speak, we can't afford to pay for both O&M & counties and something may have to give way very soon.

2/5. We can only afford to pay for salaries + dent & O&M or counties. That is why counties have not been paid for the last 3 months & s@$t is about to hit the fan. Those saying this will be possible because more functions will be devolved to the counties are also being dishonest

3/5. First, assuming even there is something (possible) left to be devolved, you will just be transferring the current funding problems to counties. May be that is the objective? counties are not looking for more work, they are looking for more money to do what they currently do!

Read 6 tweets

Mohamed Wehliye

@WehliyeMohamed

3 Sep 20

1. In almost every economy, the government is one of the biggest customers of the private sector for supply of goods & services. The private sector reinvests the money & this helps grow the private sector & the economy & also create sustainable employment for the citizens.

2. Since 2013, trillions of shs in development budget & recurrent expenditure has gone into briefcase cos - to well connected folks with no real businesses & who don't employ even their spousese. Their inflated profits are used to buy Mercs, real estate & expensive overseas hols

3. Add that to the fact that almost all the monies we borrowed over the last 7 years did not even come into the economy. We borrow from a Chinese bank & give the contract to a Chinese company. The money moves from one account in China to another in China.

Read 7 tweets

Mohamed Wehliye

@WehliyeMohamed

6 May 20

Covid-19

Along with dealing the health issues, the highest urgency lies in securing the funding to businesses. The government, the central bank & the commercial banks should come together and play a key role in mitigating the long term economic damage of this health crisis!

1. Covid-19 is a health crisis that has also serious economic consequences. Many countries are dealing with the health problems but are at the same time trying to minimize the impact on the economy now & once the health issues are dealt with.

2. In the last 2 months or so, I have been involved in designing Fiscal impulse, Deferral & Liquidity/Gurantee programs meant to respond to the Covid-19 crisis. In the process, I have looked at the various programs adopted by different countries (of different sizes & capacity)

Read 14 tweets

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