By
Tom Odhiambo
Every year the government releases a national economic survey.
This document indicates the annual national economic performance. It shows which sectors of the economy had grown the previous year, and which ones had stagnated or declined.
It also estimates how the economy would look in the future, considering a range of local, regional, and global factors.
The Economic Survey is collated by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).
The Survey looks at the various parts of the economy including Economic Performance; Employment, Earnings and Consumer Prices; Money, Banking and Finance; Public Finance; International Trade and Balance of Payments; Agriculture Sector Review; Environment and Natural Resources; Energy Sector; Manufacturing Sector Review; Construction Sector; Tourism Sector; Transport and Storage; Information and Communication Technology; Education and Training; Health and Vital Statistics; Governance, Peace and Security; Gender, Economic and Social Inclusion etc.
As incoherent as the report appears in some places (exactly what is ‘Health and Vital Statistics’?), it is one of the best statistical and narrative representations of the performance (real and projected) of the national economy in a period of one year.
This report allows the reader to peek into how the growth or decline of virtually every sector of the economy. For instance, if one wishes to know how many primary and secondary schools there are in Kenya, including their learner enrollment and the number of teachers in these schools, the Economic Survey provides these details.
If you are looking for data on access to health – how many people have a health institution near them and can actually get medical care, this report will give you a clue.
But one of the details in this report which every Kenyan should be interested in are the statistics on county income and expenditures. This section of the report, for instance for the 2021 Survey, is barely more than 3 pages.
Yet, these pages have the statistics on how much money the local government receives in a year from the central government, and how it spends the money. Indeed, the statistics for 2021 show that the distribution of funds to the counties is fair.
For example, the 8 billion shillings Garissa County is projected to get in the financial year 2020/2021 compares quite favourably with the 9 billion shillings that Kisumu County will receive. The 12 billion shillings for Nakuru County isn’t far from the 11 billion shillings that Narok County will receive.
Yet, an examination of how the counties spend the revenues shows that compensation for employees, made up of salaries, allowances and social contributions alone, is way higher than the other three significant expenditure categories: use of goods and services; acquisition of nonfinancial assets; and acquisition of financial assets.
There is no doubt that county governments are hardly investing in capital projects that would improve the quality of life of their citizens.
Too much money is being spent on utilities, printing, advertising, transportation, training, hospitality supplies etc. Less money is being put in building schools, hospitals, supporting local industries or building roads etc.
Which is why Kenyans need to read the annual Economic Survey. It is not every day that statistics such those found in the Economic Survey are found in the media. Actually, this Survey is hardly discussed in the public media.
There will be a few pages summarizing its contents when it is launched. Such summaries will look at, say, the state of the education, health, environment, and the energy sectors.
The reports will isolate what the media editors think are the key issues in the selected sector. But the reporters will hardly provoke a public debate on the issues raised.
In other words, beyond the immediate circles of specialists and (academic) researchers, this vital document on the state of the national economy hardly even reaches the target audience.
Even though it is freely available online, it is hardly cited in general discussion on the economy in the course of the year.
However, this is the document that should inform all the economic policy proposals by the politicians campaigning for right now. This is the document that those wishing to govern the country or lead the counties should be consulting.
For instance, for the governors of the counties, it will show them how much money they may be able to collect locally; how much money is projected to be transferred to their counties; how many citizens they will likely spend money on in a year; what development projects they should invest in etc.
The Survey will guide them as they make their local economic projections.
Considering that local governments don’t have their own functional bureaus of statistics, the Survey comes in handy.
Because it projects what the local economies are based on, what they are producing, how they are producing it, the value of the produce, the distribution of the production, the revenues earned from the produce, what these economies could produce in the future etc, the Survey is a quick reference tool for short term and long-term planning.
Thus, the local government, for instance, can plan how to best expand the tax net and grow its revenues.
The resultant growth in revenues should reflect in better quality of services and goods available to the locals, which in turn should increase productivity, and better quality of life.
It is not by chance that the 2021 Survey includes a section, ‘Gender, Economic and Social Inclusion.’
The section underlines the importance of spending more money on groups that have previously been excluded from mainstream economic activities such as women, the youth, people with disabilities, people from previously marginalized regions etc.
These individuals too pay taxes and are just as productive as the others who are favored by the traditional systems of resource distribution.
What the Survey shows is how the government of Kenya has attempted to address the economic disadvantages that have created inequalities in the country, including providing economic stimulus to specific groups, social protection schemes and gender-responsive budgeting.
But if the statistics that explain these key national and local micro- and macro-economic issues don’t get into the mainstream of national discourse, how will the country ever create an economically equitable society? The writer teaches at the University of Nairobi. Tom.odhiambo@uonbi.ac.ke
