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Every country endeavours to attain some level of economic sustainability and growth. This is especially why developing countries grapple with poverty as one of the main challenges limiting economic growth. 

For the leaders, it has meant taking a decisive look into an economy, engaging consultants and crafting or adopting economic guides, approaches or models that would best meet the needs of a country both in its macro and micro-economic elements.

Out of this, countries have adopted models deemed lucrative but often fell-short in meeting expectations especially in implementing unintended ensuing side-effects. 

This may just be because many fail to consider the dynamics of a society and its underlying elements which may limit implementation of a particular selected economic model. 

Considering that Kenyans will soon vote in a general election, leaders are fronting all manner of economic models some of which must be critically analysed to avoid making choices that would be costly.

Not far from Kenya is Tanzania. The countries share great similarities. History has depicted Tanzania as a country that has faced great hurdles through its economic growth with failures rooted from the adoption of a social system that never seemed to resonate with the country’s needs at the time.

In 1967, following the Arusha Declaration, former President Julius Nyerere spearheaded the adoption of Ujamaa, which he likened to the bottom-up economic model.

Though adopted as a noble idea for the benefit of Tanzanians, Ujamaa failed to resonate with the reality of citizens and how they operated. This bottom-up approach did not incisively forecast its effects and proved more of a liability for the country more than ever.

Beyond the villagisation—where Tanzanians were expected to retreat back to their rural communities—leaders were urged to reject the idea of capitalism, thereby subtly rendering some form of centralized system in decision making – control- from an external view.

With capitalism under threat Ujamaa effectively crippled industries and banking systems and left Tanzania highly dependent on aid. 

Scholarly writings by Zaki Ergas, highlights the exploitation and domination of the poor peasantry by the bureaucrats and rich capitalist farmers as among the failures to Ujamaa policy.

Fifty five years later, the system that proved retrogressive for Tanzanians is currently being fronted by leaders in the twenty-first century christened the bottom-up economic model and marketed as a populist model that would work better for the Kenyan peoples.

But would it?  How would such a system ensure sustainability of the economy? How does such a model generate income and employment for both its citizens and government respectively. Remember everything needs money to be run and for every expense incurred there should be revenue generated.

Fortunately for Tanzania, amends were made after Nyerere stepped down in 1985 and it was able to progressively adopt an economic model that maximises its economic potential.

Recently, the country marked an important milestone in July 2020 as it graduated to a lower middle economy even though its growth rate was slowed down to two per cent as a result of the Covid pandemic.

According to the World Bank, this is a reflection of a sustained macroeconomic stability that has supported the growth.

Emerging from a dark economic past has not been an easy journey for the country, but it has taken leaps and bounds for it to emerge from the economic pitfalls of the ‘Ujamaa’ principle which was critically centred on a bottom-up approach.

It is not to say that other models leave out those of low income status but it is to confirm that a model should not be adopted if it fails to address existential threats.

Can you imagine a fifty percent reduction in agricultural productivity? This was among the effects of the Ujamaa system in Tanzania as agricultural production was literally halved; something that was not anticipated.

Even away from Africa, China and the former Soviet Union are also countries that adopted the bottom-up approach through Communism but failed to reap benefits for its people.

It was only after the adoption of different principles and approaches that sustainable economic growth that factors in its citizens took place.

Tanzania’s experience with Ujamaa is a ‘been there done that’ kind of a story. How different is Kenya from Tanzania with leaders forging for such a system in the name of a bottom-up economic model?

Kenyans should not be duped into swallowing an economic model that offers a guarantee of failure at the expense of livelihoods and future generations.

— The writer is a social, political and economic commentator based in Nairobi