A recent report has revealed that 125 richest Kenyans have more than twice as much wealth as the bottom half, or 27 million people.
According to the inequality report published by Oxfarm on January 15, the richest 1 percent of Kenyans also own 57.6 percent of the country’s total financial wealth.
Speaking during the release of the report, Oxfam in Africa Director Fati N’zi-Hassane noted that Africa’s rigged economies are only benefiting the rich.
Fati said poor Kenyans on the other hand, are on the receiving end of the government’s struggles to provide important public services like healthcare and education.
The Director advised that government ought to ensure corporations stop taking too much from workers while trying to make huge profits.
‘‘Our rigged economies are benefiting the super-rich while governments are struggling to provide crucial public services like healthcare and education to Africans across the continent.
“Governments must step up and ensure corporations stop squeezing workers, dodging tax, and plundering our planet in their quest for massive profits. If left unchecked, these corporations will continue to widen the inequality gap,” Fati N’zi-Hassane stated.
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How Poor Kenyans and Africans Continue Getting Poorer
The report details that a war on taxation by corporations has led to the reduction in corporate tax by a third, while corporations continue to privatize the public sector.
Further, the report indicated that the move has led to the segregation of services like education and water.
“African countries are nearly twice as reliant as OECD countries on revenue from corporate income tax to fund their public spending.
“An estimated $200 billion is lost annually due to corporate tax avoidance, with Global South countries tending to suffer the impacts disproportionately,” noted the report.
Meanwhile, people worldwide are working harder and longer hours, often for poverty wages in precarious and unsafe jobs.
The solution, according to Oxfarm’s research, is for governments to just do their jobs break monopolies, tax the super-rich and use those resources to invest in inequality.
“The wages of nearly 800 million workers have failed to keep up with inflation and they have lost $1.5 trillion over the last two years, equivalent to nearly a month (25 days) of lost wages for each worker,
‘‘African governments don’t need magic to create a more equal Africa. They just need to do their job. They must shut down the open bar of resource plundering, break up monopolies, tax the super-rich and use these resources to invest in inequality-busting policies,’’ explained N’zi-Hassane.
Details of Super Rich in Africa
Oxfarm noted that Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person, holds a near-monopoly on cement in Nigeria by owning Dangote Cement, which has enjoyed some of the world’s highest profit margins on cement, while paying a tax rate of 1 percent over 15 years.
“In Nigeria, Aliko Dangote owns more wealth than the bottom half of Nigerians (109 million people).
“Dangote and Abdulsamad Rabiu, the country’s second richest man, have increased their fortunes by 29 percent since 2020 while the bottom 99 percent have become poorer,” the report further details.
In the report, Oxfarm listed South Africa as the most unequal country in the world.
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“The country’s billionaires’ combined wealth has increased by a third since 2020, while the bottom 99 percent have become poorer.
“The country’s four richest billionaires have as much wealth as the bottom 60 percent of the population (36 million people),” Oxfarm research stated.
In Zimbabwe, the only billionaire in the country has increased his fortune by nearly 40 percent since 2020.
It is also worth noting that the world’s five richest men, according to the report, have more than doubled their fortunes from $405 billion to $869 billion since 2020 (at a rate of $14 million per hour), while nearly five billion people have been made poorer.
“If current trends continue, the world will have its first trillionaire within a decade, but poverty will not be eradicated for another 229 years,” warned the report.
