Ask what the most precious thing in the world is and you will get as many varying answers as the colors of the rainbow. From Money to a Mercedez Benz 320 ML; from Uhuru’s $500 million wealth to a my beautiful wife; from winning Miss Africa to becoming a Professor; from owning a private jet to becoming president; from owning real estate in a prime region like New York city to having children and family; from becoming a great musician to becoming a professional sports player; from wining the marathon to winning a ‘Mary Kay’ pink Cadillac. Surprisingly, most people will forget to name the most precious of all things.

“Time,” is the most precious thing surpassing all other things in this world. Just think about it, between birth and death is “Time.” When someone dies the first thing noted is the time the person spent in the world. Thereafter of course the children, cows, cars, houses and others will be noted to indicate how the person spent the most precious thing given to them – time. If you want to become President, people will look at how you spent the past time and what activities you have invested time on before they give you the job. The businessman who succeeds to own a jet invested their time wisely first followed by money.  

Time wisely spent creates all the precious things we desire to make life more enjoyable. As Kenya rolls into 2012, Kenyans again will be called to make the year 2012 the year of difference. They will be called to invest the most precious gift of all time in the best way possible so as to shape Kenya going forward. As 2012 starts we say, “Lets not keep debating what the difference between a developed country and a developing country is and seriously discuss the fact that our use of ‘Time’ in developing ideas is what makes the difference.” 

“The things that impressed me most in the U.S are the smooth roads. I wish they could package one road for me to take to Kenya.” This is a statement that leaders who offer themselves to lead Kenya, thereafter get elected will make when visiting USA. Come 2012 let’s choose leaders who will make use time fruitfully debates and reject those who waste time when elected. Simply put, 200 Diaspora people should not invest 5 hours each, a total of 1000 hours to come listen to a Kenyan leader visiting say, “Package for me a highway.” A highway is not a piece of meat. Rather than waste 1000 hours of precious time, Diaspora Kenyans should advice such a “leader” to become a comedian where such comments will have meaning. Diaspora Kenyans can replace these poor leaders by offering to lead so the collective precious productive time of Kenyans is not wasted another five years.

Calculation of the amount of productive time in a day ratio invested and wasted every year in poor country like Kenya and a rich country like U.S shows the following estimates. 

U.S. In 300 working days a year, 10 million workers in U.S will invest at an average 6 hours with wastage of 2 hours in an 8 hour day. This leads to 18 billion of productive hours and 6 million of wastage.

Kenya In 300 working days a year, 10 million workers in Kenya will invest at an average 2 hours with wastage of 6 hours in an 8 hour working day. This leads to 6 billion productive hours and 18 billion of wastage. 

The difference between a developed Country and a developing country thus becomes the 12 billion hours of time each year. This in turn leads to a higher Gross Domestic Product, which in turn leads to a better quality of life and a longer lifetime. The wastage on the other hand that occurs through slowness, failure to define work, long lines in government offices because civil servants work when they want, making complicated laws to limit private sector competition and others end up contributing to slow development. Slow development then becomes overwhelmed by the population growth, which in turn leads to millions of wasted hours of precious time, in traffic road jams and failed economic systems.

This wastage in Kenya starts with poor investment of time in the legislative body, parliament. This leads to having Kenya and Kenyans in the cycle for soliciting aid and donations. Kenyans abroad find themselves having to work 6 hours of productive work in developed countries only to send the income received for 1 hour of this six as donations to families and other needy persons in Kenya instead of investing the money for retirement. The Kenyans abroad are today trapped in the failed system with their remittances.

The journey of Kenya 2012 going forward can change to one of investing the most precious thing, “Time,” in productive ways that better Kenya. We in Jamhuri will be investing the most precious thing, “Time,” to help develop the debate that will shape the development of Kenya in such a manner that Kenyans in Kenya become more productive and Diaspora remittances go to investments rather than donations.