Mao Zedong was of the view that ‘the only real defense is active offence’ bringing to light that often success rests on destroying enemy’s ability to attack. Another prolific military strategist and philosopher: Sun Tzu put it that “Attack is the secret of defense; defense is the planning of an attack.”
A recent report by the KNBS
(Kenya National Bureau of Statistics) as brought out in the local Daily Nation
newspaper put pen to paper how harsh the Kenyan Economy actually is, behind the
facade of growth and prosperity being echoed by the Government. In the article
titled “Cheap imports, high costs: Why many businesses are closing shop’’, the
writer summarized how over the past 5 years numerous companies have closed shop
in the country leaving out numerous hard-working Kenyans out of employment.
Despite an improvement of 21
places in Kenya’s rankings in the most recent issue of ‘doing business,’ Kenya currently
being ranked 92 (113 in 2015), the situation on the ground indicates that we
have a long way to go. (World Bank 2013). We have since seen up to 2.2
million companies close up shop screaming harsh business climate. Companies
that have since closed up shop include Softa Bottling Company, Sameer Africa’s
Yana tires manufacturing factory (in September 2016), Eveready East Africa
closing its Nakuru-based battery factory losing over 100 jobs (in September
2014), Cadbury shut down its factory in Nairobi losing 300 jobs (in October
2014).
Other companies that have bowed
out blaming higher production costs include Procter and Gamble and Reckitt
Benckiser, Bridgestone, Colgate Palmolive (in 2006), Johnson & Johnson and
Unilever which subsequently restructuring or relocating their operations to
cheaper areas of operations like Egypt, India or China.
