Here we go again. If frequent flyer miles could pay off the national debt, Kenya would be the richest country on earth. President William Ruto is back in Addis Ababa, leaning over expensive mahogany tables to tell us about “deepening cooperation” with Zambia. It’s the same script, different year. We are told these talks with President Hakainde Hichilema are about “tangible benefits” for ordinary citizens, but on the streets of Nairobi, the only thing “tangible” is the rising cost of unga and the relentless grip of the taxman.

The statement released on Sunday is a masterpiece of bureaucratic fluff. It talks about “people-to-people engagement” and “shared interests.” Let’s be real: when they talk about “opening markets,” they usually mean making it easier for big corporations to move capital while the small-scale trader still gets harassed at the border for a bag of maize. We’ve heard about the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) until we’re blue in the face, yet intra-African trade is stuck at a pathetic 18 percent. They call it a “strategy”; I call it a lack of imagination.

It’s easy to talk about “removing barriers” while sitting in a climate-controlled room in Ethiopia. It’s much harder to actually fix the corruption at the border posts or the crumbling infrastructure that makes transporting goods between Nairobi and Lusaka a logistical nightmare. This isn’t just about trade; it’s about the optics of “Pan-Africanism” used to mask the domestic struggle. While the President outlines “ongoing collaboration,” the reality on the ground is that these high-level deals rarely translate into a cheaper plate of food for the person in Kibera or Kangemi.

This obsession with opening borders without fixing the foundation reminds me of The Mandera Mirage: Opening Borders or Inviting Chaos?. We are constantly told that more integration is the solution to everything, but we never talk about the security risks or the economic displacement that happens when you open the floodgates without a plan. You can’t build a continental trade powerhouse on a foundation of local instability and high production costs.

The President says he’s focusing on “practical ways” to create jobs and attract investors. We’ve been “attracting investors” for a decade, yet the biggest growth industry in Kenya right now is “relocating to the US or UK.” If the economic ties with Zambia were going to save us, they would have done so back when Kenneth Kaunda and Jomo Kenyatta were best friends. Instead, we get more “bilateral talks” that serve as a convenient distraction from the fact that our own manufacturing sector is gasping for air.

At the end of the day, another photo op in Addis doesn’t change the price of fuel. We can trade more with our neighbors all we want, but as long as the cost of doing business in Kenya remains a joke, these regional blocs like COMESA are just fancy social clubs for the political elite. Wake me up when a trade deal actually results in a lower tax bracket for the hustlers, because right now, all I see is a lot of motion with zero movement.