Official data shows that Kenya has less than 9,000 documented millionaires controlling nearly two-thirds of the GDP. Going public by such individuals therefore often appears to present damning evidence of growing inequality between the haves and the have-nots, posing the danger of social friction.

With such a small group controlling so much in an economy where more than a third live in abject poverty there is always the danger of social disharmony that is specific to Kenya, but has bedevilled all societies with similar distribution of economic resources.

Economists have generated historical data showing that extreme inequality is a threat to social, economic and political stability.

History tells us that much of the equality is the product of capitalism —the system that is hinged on competing in free markets. It is the system by which the super-wealthy of the world have arisen.

Yet, it is also the system by which millions have found themselves at the bottom of the pyramid—among the poorest of the world.

Capitalism has been blamed for the runaway disparity between the rich and the poor and has been vilified as system that fleeces the masses to enrich a few even as it degrades the environmental, abuse of human rights and the emergence of a severely individualistic society.

The concern shared not only by the experts is that, as the number of home-grown super-rich increases and their control of the economy widens, there is an imminent risk of social, political and economic unrest.

How such massive control of wealth impacts on politics of the day also remains suspect. This fact cannot be under-estimated. With wealth comes influence and with influence comes power. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

This is what the common man fears the most.

These sentiments though valid, only represent one side of the coin. There is need to look at the opposing arguments that this group of the super-rich actually create opportunity that is needed to change the lives of ordinary people and lift them out of poverty.

It is important to note that economic inequality in Kenyan is not a recent phenomenon. It dates back to the colonial times when the colonialists pushed people out of agriculturally productive land and settled there.

Today, many more drivers of economic inequality have emerged to deepen the canyon between the have and the have-nots. It is, however, important to note that these factors have absolutely nothing to do with the rich getting richer.

Gender discrimination, HIV&Aids, ethnically motivated politics all have a role to play in the emergence and persistence of inequality where the poor have remained hopeless.