Nairobi, April 18 -- I watched Guru, the Devki boss, speak at the official commissioning of their West Pokot clinker factory. It was a simple non-pretentious speech with a strong message for our economic planners - protect local production from unwarranted imports to give a chance to local industrial capacity growth.

The new plant will reduce imports of clinker (used in cement manufacture) and export surpluses, a double score for the balance of payments. The plant will also open a hitherto wasteland to jobs and socioeconomic development.

Local production protection was the industrial growth strategy pioneered by the Jomo Kenyatta government in the 1970s, a path that nearly made Kenya an "economic tiger". However, it all collapsed in the...