Whoa! A lot of Mumbo-Jumbo mumbling is see.
t-time, your country is ahead of Kenya, that's for sure. But you overstate that gap by a huge margin, I mean by a very HUGE margin. To be honest we also overstate our gap with Tanzania buy not by that much.
Lemme put things to perspective, do you know which is the largest exporter of processed/manufactured commodities to COMESA? Do you know why after apartheid fell and South African multinationals started moving out into the continent they experienced great success in most countries save for East Africa? Do you know which is the largest non-oil/ non-mineral aided economy in the continent? The answe to all these is yours truly, Kenya. And Tanzania comes in at 2nd (msijiringe)
Credit where its due, SA has utilized its mineral resources very well unlike Nigeria for instance. Minerals provide an easy source of income for the development of other sectors and also the raw materials and market for several other sectors. That is something I wish Kenya had though I'm not sure if utilization would be as good as in SA.
And just before you downplay the importance of mining, as at now in SA, mining creates >1m jobs, accounts for 43% of the JSE value, Earns >50% of your foreign exchange, Accounts for 94% of your 48000mw Electricity production and close to half of its consumption, Consists of 50% of the volume of your rail transit.