MAL 19/17 (MARKETING AFRICA) | Page 4

MAL /18/17 FIRST WORD ON INTEGRATION Marketing Africa limited P. O. Box 36481- 00200 Nairobi, Kenya Cell: +254 - 717 - 529 052 Email: [email protected] TANZANIA Marketing Africa limited Cell: +254 - 717 - 529 052 Email: [email protected] UGANDA Marketing Africa limited Cell: +254 - 717 - 529 052 Email: [email protected] Marketing Africa Team William Kalombo Riapius Magoma Harliet Njenga Mutua Mutua Stephen Waweru Kennedy Odongo Herman Githinji Kepha Nyanumba Eugene Wanekeya Richard Wanjohi Timothy Oriedo Ngechi Gichomo Doreen Wang Catherine Kiiru Joe Nyutu Evans Majeni Isaac Ngatia Wasilwa Miriongi George Mbithi Dr. Clifford Ferguson Dr. Kellen Kiambati Wale Akinyemi Maureen Owiti Jennifer Mwangangi David Oseman Paul Mwirigi Carolyne Gathuru Diana Obath Felix Okatch Marion Wakahe Thrity Engineer-Mbuthia Editorial Contributors Design & Layout Ashdown Limited 11th Flr, Pension Towers, Loita Street. P. O. Box 73414 - 00200 | Nairobi, Kenya. Tel: +254 20 249 0286 | Cell: +254 - 722 - 304 677 Email: [email protected] | Web: www.ashdown.co.ke Feedback/ Comments Email: [email protected] web: www.marketingafrica.co.ke @MarketingAfrica Marketing Africa Marketing Africa Magazine is published by Marketing Africa Limited. Views expressed in the articles and contributions are not neccessarily those of the publisher. The Publisher reserves all rights. Material may only be reproduced with prior arrangement 02 due MAL 19/17 ISSUE and acknowledgement to Marketing Africa Magazine L et us look at some sober facts. If Kenya is the reputed economic giant in the region, with a paltry population of 40 million, half of whom are not even economically active, then we must accept the fact that we are going to be consigned permanently to play in the economic baby league. The sad part is that we seem to be proud and strangely content to be a giant in a pond but more distressing is that we are actually ahead in this miserable race of economic dwarfs that is made up of the many fragmented countries in the region. The countries that make up the hub of the East African region and the logical extension to the region have a combined population of an impressive 400 million people. Now this is a force to reckon with and a potential muscle to exploit if only we can access the market. The fact is that all the countries in this greater region would benefit economically if they all had access to this massive dormant market that has proved impossible to access due to many factors that are largely self- inflicted and which hinder growth. East Africa, through some post-independence era visionaries, had made a gallant effort to create an economic hub because they had realized way ahead of many global players that there was economic strength in numbers if they wanted to prosper. At independence, we had achieved a hollow political independence without the attendant economic independence. The colonists had created artificial nations based on an economic agenda that had been designed to exploit the local resources. The colonists had also created huge markets made up of the many colonies dotted around the globe that they controlled. Political power was the means to achieve economic power and wealth creation which was the end goal. At independence our leaders realized that the countries were too tiny geographically to be economically viable and they resolved to team up to create a larger entity to enable themselves to survive. We today rue the day that arrangement collapsed. Politics has been the bane of our region and the collapse of the noble economic experiment was the direct result of