Multinational corporations and the indigenisation of the Kenyan economy

Abstract

Kenya became structurally integrated into the world economy in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Initially during the colonial period, the economy became geared for the production of agricultural products for export and import of consumer goods and machinery under a white settler regime within the vertical international division of labor. During this initial phase of de-indigenisation, multinational firms in the form of banks, plantations and trading companies acquiesced in the subjugation of the African population to a subservient role as labourers for European and Asian enterprises. By viewing the problem of indigenisation from three levels, it can be seen that the process of political de-colonisation begun in 1952, culminating in independence in 1964, has led to increased Africanisation of ownership of units of production in agriculture, units of commerce especially retail trade, but markedly less progress in manufacturing, import-export trade, and finance. Also Kenya is catching up with other independent states in the field of Africanisation within firms. However, the basic structure of the economy remains externally oriented, in part through the continued influence and control of strategic sectors of the economy by multinational corporations. Moreover, there are indications that the political and commercial urban African elite has little motivation to transform the structure of the economy to make it more responsive to domestic human needs, and less dependent on foreign firms.