ODM party leader Raila Odinga has made an important statement on the current economic situation of the country and towards young Kenyans and in particular those of Nyandarua County.
He said he was impressed by the kind of machinery that they produce such as a machine that was being used to recycle plastic waste and make cabros out of the plastic waste, several other building materials and cattle feeds.
Odinga made the statement when he attended a luncheon with the Mount Kenya Foundation on Tuesday, September 28, 2021 at Safari Park hotel.
“I was very impressed by the degree of innovation by those young Kenyans. We know that these SMEs can eventually grow old and become bigger enterprises,” said Raila.
Raila said that as an engineer by profession and he understood how many of those enterprises started as very small enterprises.
He gave an example of Mr. Karl Benz who was an engineer doing experiments with first two-stroke then a four-stroke cylinder engine.
“He developed it and eventually build a chassis and put it on a chassis and put a transmission system so that it could convert motion from the engine to wheels,” said Raila.
“And then started driving it and people feared it. He asked people to come along with him when he was doing the first experiment and nobody wanted,” said Raila.
“Eventually his seventeen year old daughter agreed to go with the daddy and they road for 35 kilometers then it stalled,” said Raila.
“Later on named that model after his daughter who had agreed to risk her life to go with him. The daughter was called Mercedes. That is the story of Mercedes-Benz. The man was called Karl Benz. Mercedes became a household name,” said Raila.
Raila said that inorder for agriculture to be sustainable, we need deal with issues such inputs.
“The seeds, fertilizers and the pesticides sides are some of major inputs that we need to look at to make farming viable,” said Raila.
He said the country needs to look at the issues of access to the market and the issues of pricing which actually depends on supply and demand.
