Motoring Pedigree! Global Billions!

For the last couple of decades a few entrepreneurs have ventured to build cars made in Kenya without much success or support.

If we look back the cars we drive today were built by men and women who started from there backyards got support from its governments and financial institutions and built the massive global brands today.

Why is this a hard thing to replicate in Kenya? Except Mobius which got foreign aid funding early. Why have we never gone back to try and restart the Nyayo car idea? We have young Kenyans across the country building backyard car creations and they are not supported and just wither away forgotten when these are the people who will industralize this Nation.

To upscale today I know is very expensive since vehicle technology has changed. But we can copy how China and India has transformed this process or they’ll take over the African car market and more billions will be taken abroad.

It all starts with greed and typical Kenyan mentality of making quick cash, Those who studied engineering didn’t do it because they are passionate about it they simply admired the title and the money that’s associated with the engineers. Those fighting for top positions in the govt are not actually driven by leadership in them they just want to rip us off our tax and launder their money.
Very few people with careers are driven by passion, in Kenya money comes first, the rich continue to get rich regardless of their education status.
Most Kenyan products are substandard and if a product competes as a standard its price would be unimaginable since all materials are exported and highly taxed making it uneconomical for assembly plants. We have factories melting and recycling metal locally lkn jaribu kujenga kanyumba ya 1storey fundi atakupatia quotation ya chuma utokwe na jasho.
We have factories in kenya making electrical cables of all types and sizes lkn enda hapo umwambie akutengenezee cable flani with some specific design atakwambia they cant do small-scale coz muhindi mwenyewe ile tax anapigwa na govt sio mchezo na kplc bado wako hapo na rates zao mwenda za industrial power consumption. With that being said it’s not impossible to have a car manufacturing plant but the end product inaeza kua expensive kuliko Japanese models coz our govt sucks

Therein lies your answer.

Since the founding of this nation, we have been led by old, clueless, inept, greedy morons. Their only ambition being how to get rich quick without any regard for future. Yet, they are the ones who head and/or influence any institution that matters. It doesn’t matter how grand your idea or innovation is, without the necessary support, it’s just useless.

Just because a handful of countries around the world manufacture cars, does not mean we should. Out 195 countries that exist in the world today, only 62 are documented to produce cars (successfully and unsuccessfully). Of the 62, less than half have been consistently manufacturing cars in a sustainable profitable large scale. Which brings me to my first conclusion: Kenya not being a major automotive manufacturer is no big deal. We have areas of interest which we can start off at a vantage point which will bring much more return on investment to the government and Kenyans than cars. That is why, there is little economic, political or other incentive of the government to pump in resources into the car manufacturing industry. Which brings me to my second conclusion: opportunity cost of financing developing the car manufacturing sector is too high.

An average brand new car, which we will call “decent” costs about 1.2 million shillings. The number of Kenyans who can afford to buy such a car - cash or credit - does not exceed two million (optimistic guesstimate). Those who can afford have other options in the used car market. The government will not gamble the huge sums of revenue it gets from duty from importation of used cars to gamble with fewer options. It has loans to pay, campaign pledges to keep, scandals to create…etc.

China and India have one things we do not have - a huge market for their own manufactured cars (large population of people with the spending power). Companies don’t usually start manufacturing cars principally for export, most starts for their own local market first.

In essence, this part of the universe has conspired against us having a vibrant car manufacturing industry.

ni NYS tutaibia ama ni mobius tutafund?