While it's true that these systems are a holdover from colonialism, it's also true that Kenya has been an independent country for over 50 years with sovereignty and agency over internal affairs like how the coffee market works. I feel at some point the blame needs to be shifted accordingly.
I thought the same when reading the article. All those rent-seeking policies that constrain the productivity of Kenya are not forever etched in stone. They aren’t fate. The government could change them. Blaming people who haven’t been around for many generations seems like excuses at this point.
You are arguing against people's religious beliefs about why the world looks like it does. Logic or reason will not be of any use. No matter what bad things happens in the coming one hundred or one thousand years, it will never be the fault of the people that the religion has designated as holy victims, and it will always be the fault of the people that the religion has designated as evil oppressors.
> with sovereignty and agency over internal affairs like how the coffee market works
Kenya had sovereignty in production, but not in capital - which is what was needed to climb up the value chain.
Historically, Kenya's largest capital market has been the UK, and as such Kenya's administration was unable to break the oligopoly of coffee purchasers who were British-Kenyan dual nationals and descendants of British settlers.
The same kind of land reforms that former colonies like Indonesia, Vietnam, India, etc were able to drive did not happen in Kenya.
Now corporations from those former colonies are gobbling up land and production in Kenya and other African nations, but domestic African (excluding South Africa) continue to remain on the back foot.
The article (if I'm reading it right) is placing the blame on how the government of Kenya restricts its coffee market (e.g. only allowing a small number of export licenses). It's about internal laws. The government of Kenya has the agency to change these.
Over 60 years, actually. The coffee industry is regulated the way it is in Kenya because the current government wants it to work that way, not because of "colonialism."
