At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I choose to remind my fellow Kenyans that boda boda is the biggest employer in this country. The Teacher Service Commission (TSC), which is Kenya’s largest formal employer has a respectable work force of nearly 400,000 Kenyans.

I just returned from Munich Germany after attending the International Motor Show (IAA). I was part of a delegation from the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ). Also in attendance at the annual Fair was the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

South Africa’s automotive sector has created about 1.5 million direct jobs and an estimated 5 million indirect jobs. Meanwhile, the same sector in Kenya has created a paltry 100,000 direct jobs according to the sector reports. Since the 1990s when Kenya allowed the importation of eight years old vehicles, Kenyans have purchased approximately 760,700 Between 2012 and 2020. These vehicles were estimated to be worth Shs570.3 billion. If the bulk of those vehicles had been assembled in Kenya, then these billions would have been injected into the local economy and created millions of jobs.