Kenya

This is the first volume in a new series Africa: Policies for Prosperity. For the first time in more than a generation, sustained economic growth has been achieved across the continent - despite the downturn in global economic fortunes since 2008 - and in many countries these gains have been realized through policy reforms driven by the decisive leadership of a new generation of economic policymakers. The process of reform is continuous, however, and the challenge currently facing this new generation is how to harness these favourable gains in macroeconomic stability and turn them into a coherent strategy for sustainable growth and poverty reduction over the coming decades.

These challenges are substantial and encompass the broad remit of economic policy. Each volume in this series brings leading scholars into the policy arena to examine these challenges and to lay out, in a rigorous but accessible manner, key challenges and policy options facing policymakers on the continent.

This first volume on Kenya explores the challenges facing an economy standing at a crossroads. Kenya has experienced a period of high and sustained growth since the mid 1990s, growth which involved economic transformation away from a heavy reliance on traditional economic activities towards an emerging manufacturing economy. But this process, and the economic and social stability that had come to characterize Kenya, have been severely tested by the post-election violence of 2008. Restoring equitable growth and sustaining the structural transformation of the economy is essential if Kenya is to leave this dark period behind.

The chapters in this volume address the key issues that will face economic policy makers in the coming years. They cover the conventional but central question of finance and macroeconomic management, but also much deeper structural issues of trade, employment generation and education; of land policy, migration and urbanization; and the fiscal challenges facing an ageing but increasingly urbanized (and increasingly affluent) society.

Christopher Adam studied economics at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and at Nuffield College, Oxford. His research is primarily on the macroeconomics of low-income economies, particularly those of Sub-Saharan Africa. He is a Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of African Economies, Fellow of the European Development Network, Visiting Professor at the University of Clemont-Ferrand, France and occasional Visiting Scholar at the IMF. He currently serves as Lead Academic for Tanzania for the International Growth Centre and is Vice Chair of the Board of the African Economic Research Consortium.


From 1998 - 2003, Paul Collier, CBE, was Director of the Development Research Group of the World Bank. He is the author of several books including 'The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It' which won the Lionel Gelber, the Arthur Ross and Corine prizes. His most recent book is 'The Plundered Planet: Why We Must and How We Can Manage The World's Natural Resources to Ensure Global Prosperity'. His research covers the causes and consequences of civil war; the effects of aid and the problems of democracy in low-income and natural-resources rich societies.


Njuguna S. Ndung'u is on leave of absence from the University Nairobi. Professor Ndung'u is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Nairobi and holds a PhD in economics from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Prior to his appointment as Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, he was the Director of Training at the African Economic Research Consortium. He also worked as the Regional Programme Specialist for the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office, Nairobi, of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada; and at the Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) as a Principal Analyst/Researcher and Head of the Macroeconomic and Economic Modelling Division. A long-time researcher and trainer with the AERC and MEFMI networks, he has published in international journals as well as chapters in various books on economic policy issues.