The Royal Kingdom of Morocco has hoisted a letter from an 11-year-old girl in Kenya who commends King Mohammed VI over his intentions to make a fertilizer donation to Kenya as part of goodwill towards William Ruto, Kenya’s new President. The girl routed her letter through the Moroccan embassy in Nairobi.
In the said letter which is fairly legible, the girl identified herself as Jayden Dixon Kburli in D.E.B primary school in the small town of Karatina in Central Kenya.
The girl thanked King Mohammed VI, and the Government and People of Morocco for the choice of support as it would go a long way in generating employment and empowering the local economy. ”Most of us have been working after school to lend a helping hand towards putting a meal on the table and school fees for our elder siblings,” said the school pupil as she reckoned ”free” fertilizer supplies are exactly what adults like her parents require to bring a difference to their lives.
Another touching line in the girl’s letter reads thus, ” Please it’s my prayer you maintain it for the rest of our lifetime, so that we the children in the village may be able to complete our studies and be able in return to help our languished parents in the time of their needs.” It reveals the travails of the rural poor in a typically developing country who may not necessarily need cash dole-outs but essential interventions to facilitate simple chores that could strengthen both subsistence and little commerce.
Morocco has a large fertilizer industry with a huge production capacity and international reach. It is one of the world’s top four fertilizer exporters following Russia, China, and Canada. Fertilizers tend to divide into three main categories; nitrogen fertilizers, phosphorus fertilizers, and potassium fertilizers. Soil scientists recommend fertilizer use as necessary for optimal crop production in Africa’s sub-continent which has also become vulnerable to climate change and bears soil conditions that are not too favorable for crop cultivation.
Kenya’s main export crops are cut flowers, coffee, tea, and vegetables. She is also East Africa’s largest economy with a Gross Domestic Product of 110 billion US Dollars. Though one of Africa’s poster countries, Kenya’s story is not too different from other developing economies where natural resource wealth does not reflect in many rural lives, coupled with urban poverty.
The tone of little Jayden and her voice from afar to the doorstep of possible benefactors underscore a need not only to bridge gaps of economic disparities but also to connect the rich and the poor for direct succour.
Another orbit of such cooperation is the need for countries on the continent to pull resources together through either top-down or bottom-up approaches in the fight against the common enemies of poverty, disease, and squalor. It is to be noted that that works seamlessly within friendly political equations. Within the context of Morocco and Kenya, fewer words are apt for the ever-stronger bonds between King Mohammed VI and President Ruto on the dashboard of wider political and trade ties.
