In the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Green Economy, the global competition is merciless with speed, reliability, and results defining success.
By Edward Githae
When Vietnam Gas President Doahn Chau declared that Kenya’s leadership is “all talk and no show,” it hit a nerve — but it also exposed a hard truth. Kenya, like much of Africa, stands at a decisive crossroads: either reform governance ethics, eliminate corruption, and embrace serious execution, or risk being left behind not once, but twice — in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Green Economy.
Chau’s observations reveal why some countries race ahead, and why others remain trapped in cycles of speeches, summits, and stagnation.
Powering Prosperity: Electricity First
In the 1980s, Vietnam was poorer than Kenya. Today, Vietnam generates over 76,000 megawatts of electricity, powering factories, schools, and startups across its cities and rural areas.
Kenya struggles with just around 3,000 megawatts for a rapidly growing population. Worse, businesses spend heavily on backup generators instead of innovation or expansion.
In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, electricity is the oxygen of progress. Without stable, affordable power, there can be no AI hubs, no smart factories, no widespread tech adoption.
In the Green Economy, stable clean energy is even more crucial – for industries like electric mobility, green manufacturing, and climate-smart agriculture.
Fixing Kenya’s energy sector must be a national emergency – not just to “keep lights on,” but to unlock a competitive future.
Execution over eloquence: Systems that deliver
Asian Tigers like Singapore and South Korea succeeded not through grand speeches but through relentless, disciplined action. Plans came with deadlines, budgets, accountability, and serious political will.
In Kenya, brilliant policy frameworks like Vision 2030 are announced — but without the follow-through.
Big talk without big action is a blueprint for being left behind.
In the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Green Economy, the global competition is merciless. Speed, reliability, and results will define success.
Long-term vision vs. short-term politics
Vietnam’s reforms were not tied to election cycles — they were anchored in 30-year national goals.
Taiwan designed a semiconductor strategy decades before seeing full returns.
Kenya — and much of Africa — often thinks in five-year bursts, chasing quick wins before the next political contest.
In the new economy, short-term thinking is suicidal.
Building green industries (solar tech, EVs, green hydrogen) and scaling digital transformation takes patient, persistent investment over decades.
Leaders must be brave enough to plant trees whose shade they may never sit under.
Ethical leadership and the elimination of corruption
At the foundation of all success is governance ethics. Corruption is not just immoral – it is an economic death sentence. It inflates infrastructure costs. It scares away investors. It deprives citizens of basic services. It erodes trust in institutions essential for innovation.
In Asia, even presidents have been jailed to protect national integrity. In Kenya, scandals are often normalised, and leaders seen as above the law.
If Kenya does not eliminate corruption, both the 4IR and green economy dreams will die before they begin.
You cannot build a world-class AI company or clean energy industry on a system built for patronage and kickbacks.
Ethics is not charity – it is infrastructure.
Infrastructure that serves innovation, not vanity projects
Vietnam’s infrastructure boom focused on ports, industrial parks, fibre optics – enabling exports, investment, and skills development.
Kenya has built impressive roads like the Nairobi Expressway – but without matching growth in manufacturing, green industry, or tech hubs.
In 4IR and the Green Economy, infrastructure must be smart, connected, and purposeful.
We need: digital highways (fiber optics and 5G, not just tarmac); green energy grids (solar, geothermal, wind); smart cities, green mobility hubs; and research centres.
Prestige projects must give way to productivity projects.
The green economy: Africa’s untapped goldmine
Beyond 4IR, the Green Economy offers Africa a once-in-a-generation chance to leapfrog.
The world is pivoting towards renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, electric transport, and circular economies.
Africa – with its sunlight, wind, vast arable land, and young workforce — can lead in clean tech, green manufacturing, eco-tourism, and climate-smart industries.
Kenya, for instance, could become: a global hub for geothermal energy innovation; a leader in electric mobility in East Africa; and a pioneer in regenerative agriculture and carbon farming
But without ethical leadership, execution discipline, and smart investment, these opportunities will slip away – captured by others better organised and more honest.
Final Reflection: Africa’s Moment to Act Is Slipping Away
Doahn Chau’s criticism should not anger Kenya. It should awaken it – and Africa as a whole.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Green Economy are already reshaping global wealth and power.
The world will not wait for Africa to fix its politics. It rewards nations that are ethical, visionary, and ruthlessly disciplined. It punishes those that are corrupt, chaotic, and short-term focused.
Kenya and Africa must now choose to embrace ethical governance, eliminate corruption, execute long-term strategies, and invest in 4IR and green industries, or stay trapped – brilliant in speeches, stagnant in reality.
It is time to turn off the microphones, fix the power grids, dismantle corruption, and build Africa’s future.
The next 10 years will decide the next 100 years.
History will not be kind to those who squander this chance.
