* BULLETIN : 7

THE FEDERATION AND SAVINGS SCHEMES
by
Stephenson Wahomeh

Underneath the current of normalcy and stability, an economic revolution is brewing in Kenya. A new wind is blowing, bearing the images of a new world without poverty.

As new savings schemes continue to mushroom in every slum and village thereby becoming vibrant and gaining legitimacy within the poor communities it is, in a sense, a celebration of the Federation spirit.

“This has given us, the poor, greater incentive to advance and evolve our own distinctive style of cohesiveness unknown before,” explains John Karanja, 52, a slum dweller from Timau in Kenya’s Meru Central District.

With this reawakening, the economic power of savings schemes – slowly transforming to a strong voice of the poor – is endearing the Federation to development work, making it a curial tool in all the avenues of the poor’s lives.

From the slums in the big cities to the village markets that dot the country, community based savings schemes are now the new fad.

However, there is need for the parties involved to work out strategies for empowering the groups further with fund raising, administrative and other skills, besides helping improve their performance abilities.

But lack of requisite organisational structures to solicit funds so that each scheme can run its own independent show is many pipe dreams away and is slowing the whole process.

Eliminating the meddling, gate keeping Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO’s) would be ideal. This way, community-based groups would come together, identify pressing social maladies and approach the right donors directly with homegrown strategies.

At another level, one of the ways in which genuine changes can be initiated in the Federation’s capacity to give it direction and to be involved in its formation with is even more urgent.

I, therefore, hold the view that re-anchoring the savings schemes and their recognition is a fundamental political, cultural and social-economic attribute.

It is emblematic of our pursuit for pluralism, because each scheme represents a unique way of viewing human experience and the world.

On the other hand, the unity of purpose among the poor may see them pooling their resources together-human and monetary-in future, coming up with a strong financial institution of the poor, for the poor led by the poor.

Then, the Federation could be harnessed as a repertoire of global vivacity through which a world over culture of savings could emerge, inevitably bringing to the limelight the fact that the poor are no longer hermit like cocoons holed up in poverty.

In Kenya, the labyrinthine network of savings schemes spread across the country is becoming the poor’s pulse and has never been a better yardstick for success.

And they only need to panel beat them a little into some acceptable shape as opposed to the somewhat rickety jalopy they are.

THE WAY I SEE EXCHANGE PROGRAMMES
by
Stephenson Wahomeh

Think of exchange programmes and all manner of thoughts cloud your mind – a facilitative mood for the spread of the Federation worldwide, a sprouting of networks aimed at solidifying positions, mobilizing people and an increase in cultural and intellectual exchange.

A feeling of the presence of one another in the activities of individuals, groups and nations comes out clearly during the exchange visits. The aura of not being alone but part of something else pervades the poor’s world.

Yet despite this integration, there is an uneven participation in the exchange programmes of the people in the Federation whether between a village and another, a village and a district or a country and another.

Though exchange offers something different from what the Federation has offered in the past, the worst tragedy lies in ignorance. This, coupled with the fact that most people are scared to learn new things depicts a Federation that thrives on half-baked information.

However, it is my conviction that exchange programmes can be used to express the most crucial issues while working towards the realization of universal truths, thereby affecting in fundamental ways the thoughts and behavioural processes of current and future generations.

Since the Federation is always in constant flux-variant, multiple, dynamic and ever-changing – responding to internal and external forces, exchange visits invoke a process of social – economic engineering in which such practices are redefined in view of the current understanding of fundamental rights of peoples and relations between them.

Such social-economic engineering, when spearheaded by the poor can be of tremendous importance. The vivacity, diversity and plurality in the Federation demand of us to reflect on the accumulated treasure of human experience and knowledge.

Exchange visits give people in the Federation the opportunity to celebrate a multiplicity of visions, I their particularity, as well as universality.

Looked at from a different perspective, this helps the poor to link up more closely with their counterparts, having been born and bred in similar circumstance.

Exchange visits, at whatever levels, enable those directly involved to reach remote rural villages and inaccessible, choked up slums.

This creates an important re-orientation period for them thereby giving an opportunity within which to interact with the problems in their lives.

In a way this insists that the Federation belongs in the village square. On a similar note community based groups have almost overnight, become community based resource persons, linking remote villages with progressive ideas on democracy, development and globalization, thanks to exchange programmes.

Close ties with the poor thought exchange has enabled the Federation to not only be at once relevant and acceptable but also be at the forefront of spearheading change and shaping traditional social values and practices such as corruption and bad governance.

However, the biggest challenge in this is scholarship and documentation. A lot of work has been done and much ground covered, but there is little reference material on exchange.
The advantages of having this information documented cannot be gainsaid. Therefore, sponsors should open up resource centres to encourage ways of information exchange and growth.

A clear picture of history, trends and development in this field would be a pointer for other interested parties. But as things stand now, the lack of professionalism allows for quacks and charlatans in this field.

Therefore, the bow needs redirection, the arrow needs re-sharpening, and the hunter needs retraining if the game is to benefit anyone.

ENUMERATION AND WHAT IT ENTAILS
by
Stephenson Wahomeh

The national documents in Kenya are opaque to those who are supposed to benefit from them is an open secret.

However, the seeds planted by Pamoja Trust through enumeration in slums and villages are beginning to germinate slowly away from the centre and the results of all this are too poignant.

Enumeration has ensured there is instant messenger connection technology where slum dwellers compare their notes, analyse and communicate their reactions instantly on various aspects of life like religion, hobbies, food, transport, shelter, experience and population among other issues that affect them.

In the course of collecting such information, those involved in the enumeration benefit from interactive experience and gain invaluable exposure. Data so collected exposes things like selfishness, intolerance, corruption, land grabbing, and utilization of natural resource for individual aggrandisement, obsession with power and sheer lack of concern for the lives of the poor.

Using this information, slum dwellers have been able to lobby for participation in policy formulation and demand of government to be accountable to them, protect their rights to enjoy their lives and to participate in social-economic activities for the betterment of their lives.

The major advantage has been that there is no plunder of public resources by those exiting from the economic and political leadership of the country as experience shows.

Unfortunately, however, the government has no consistent and rigorous policies on the plight of the poor.

This void can only be filled if information gathered during enumeration can be translated to reality.

However, there must be provision of communication and date storage equipment like computers to easen transfer of information within the shortest time possible.

PARTNERSHIP ACROSS LEVELS IN THE FEDERATION
by
Stephenson Wahomeh

While it’s true that external agents like NGO’s often influence the thematic agenda, they nevertheless depend on the groups (savings schemes etc.) to deliver the issues in the communities preferred format. In many cases, they have become counselors and community advisers.

Is there need, therefore, for partnership across levels in the Federation? Without doubt, YES! Members need to co-operate with everyone who can make their dream come true.

However, the marriage of convenience between them and politicians is an elusive and frosty affair. We know, for example, that politicians get into politics for all the manner of reasons: idealism, service (sic), prestige or just plain money. They are obsessed with politics for their own sake rather than politics for social-economic empowerment of the poor they represent.

To add insult to injury some hardly ever bother to acquaint themselves with the problems of the people they represent and they never manage to raise their profile.

They are expected to initiate development projects, organized harambees (fund-raisers), rally the people to take part in development programmes, attend weddings and funerals, meet the people formally and informally, help to solve local leadership and even property disputes as role-models – all that humdrum of constituency work.

Ironically, they spend a large part of their lives on aimless politicking and bickering. Rarely do they articulate anything of note touching on the poor’s welfare.

At best, politicians – most of them – have tended to be a handicap to both the progress and the deliberating of housing rights for the poor living in the slums.

Law courts on the other hand – and which are supposed to mete out justice – are tools of oppression against the poor. The rich are seen to have strong influence in determining outcome of cases between them and the poor.

Luckily, professionals like journalists have had a very significant role in exposing the ills perpetrated by the haves against the have-nots.

By high lighting matters of corruption, shoddy land deals and illegal allocation of land meant for the poor and bringing them on the spotlight, their working relationship with the poor has never been better.

On the other hand problems afflicting the poor have just but been a disguised godsend. These problems have contributed towards building social capital among them.

Hopefully, the common set of prerequisites that now contribute the criteria for collective recognition include support for democracy, respect for the rule of law and safeguarding fundamental rights and freedoms.

With this sense of collectivity and networking of many more groups in the Federation, one thing is pretty clear – that the Federation will grow even further, sideways.