Early this year, I gave an illustration of our context of cockroach ideas as defined by economics Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman. These are basically bad ideas that are like cockroaches which "no matter how many times you flush them down the toilet, they keep coming back".
We now have a sequel as espoused by Bitange Ndemo, who happens to be core faculty at the University of Nairobi Business School. In the Wednesday 25th November edition of the Business Daily, Ndemo insisted that Mega projects have role in long-term growth. Unfortunately, he does no prosecute his case.
I have a bad feeling that Ndemo is making emotional assertions. While he prefer to consider himself an economist, he teaches at the business school. This is not a matter of nuance, for he has in the recent past argued that he has a problem with economists (see Where economists go wrong on growth). In other words, her has "seen the light" and retreated to the business school to pontificate about - you have guessed right! - matters economics.
If the assumption made by Ndemo is that we have short memories, then he needs to review its plausibility. The last time he tried to make such a case for grandiose projects in a debate with David Ndii, this is what he got: a clear and compelling rebuttal from Ndii.
That Ndemo is back, with the same story but without any different argument can only remind me of a cockroach. It also confirms the fear that I expressed in December 2014 that much of his commentary is not founded on careful considerations of the basics of economic logic, making it just another vocation.
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