Is Kenya really depression-proof?

October 28, 2008: A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to sit in at an awards ceremony celebrating Kenyan entrepreneurs. The Top 100 SMEs was not a ceremony for nascent start-ups such as mine, but for the men and women who have given years of energy to create companies that from one or two or three founders are now employers of 60 or 100 or 150 with a firm place in their markets and leading reputations.

Do the sums and together the award winners that night represented a set of businesses employing more than 10,000 people, which adds to a monumental achievement. However, one of the striking things that gala evening, besides the entrepreneurs, was the address by Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi. He spoke passionately on the role and place for entrepreneurs in Kenya, on Kenya, on its future, its society, and then, on its Government.

And then he threw us all a challenge. Bemoaning a media obsessed with political jockeying and too little focused on performance and issues, he told us all: You should be telling us what you want from government. You should be telling us what you expect.

Well I’m an entrepreneur, and there’s something I want from this administration, and I think it would make a difference.

Please, please, please Mr Mudavadi, can you give us more information? Last week I was in South Africa, where the headlines right now are not about political jockeying (where perhaps they should be), but wall-to-wall on the global financial meltdown. From Business Day to The Sun, the world’s biggest story in half a century is on the front pages of every newspaper in South Africa.