Slumber not, dear mother land.

Above photo: Once majestic Nairobi Railways, its frontage has been turned into a terminus for public transport vehicles. I took this on the 17th of September.

As ardent readers of my blog know, I was based abroad from the start of this very informative transformational blog. I am back home ready to assist and do my part in building this yet-to-be great nation. A sage once told me: “Even that America that people are fleeing to, was once barren and bare. Pioneers made it the way it is now. So build your America here in Kenya.” These words of advice, coupled with the fact that all my ideas for development can only be implemented while I am on the ground, made me transplant.
Initial Impressions
Kenya has changed these years I have been away. There are very few clunkers on the roads.There are some nice cars here and there but the vast majority of people still walk or take public transport. Nairobi has become overcrowded. While not rundown, its beauty has paled due to lack of maintenance. It is not a pleasant experience walking around this once great city, former pride of East Africa. On the positive, it is cleaner than it was during the former regime. People don’t litter for fear County Askaris may pounce on you from out of the blue. And gone are the days when women used to cook chapatis outside Times Tower building. There is no smoking on the streets; they have designated smoking areas where people huddle together like chickens during a storm to puff away, inflating their lungs with noxious fumes.
There are many more people especially the youth; sadly they have taken to aping western culture in song dance, dress and mannerisms. Generally, people are well dressed especially the ladies. Clothes, new and used are in abundance and it is thus easy to dress decently.
As for the roads, I have not been to see the famous Thika road and don’t intend to. A major modern highway leading to nowhere serves no purpose and we will be paying for it several generations down the line. What we need are feeder and access roads leading to densely populated areas or areas where commerce takes place. Other roads are still the same. There are no new roads in my area, Rongai which is outside Nairobi. The town has become very densely populated, trash everywhere, traffic a night mare with speeding drivers and non obedient matatus.
As regards communication, everyone has a phone. I mean from the tech savvy generation, up to the old grandma out in the country. Safaricom is very dominant as a supplier of mobile telephone service. Their Mpesa mobile banking system probably has more users then all formal banks combined together. Internet connectivity has improved tremendously according to those I asked. There are many internet capable phones being offered at affordable price points and the youth have taken to them in droves. Internet cafes are still popular as the price of a laptop or desktop is still prohibitive.
As is obvious, our greedy politicians have not bettered their ways, they are busy feeding themselves oblivious of their starving electorate. Recently without fanfare, they unanimously agreed to dip into the emergency reserve fund to pay their back taxes. And a day after a fire tragedy in one of the Nairobi slums, the Cabinet passed a resolution to shift the date of the next General Elections from August next year to December of the same year. The excuse given was flimsy at best. These are not the leaders that will transform this nation. Local Government is even more ineffectual. I will deal with them in the next article.
All in all, I am very optimistic about my motherland but we need a concerted effort with every ones involvement to propel this nation forward. Development will not take place with a centralized form of Government and the new Constitution is already stumbling out the gate as regards its implementation. Hopefully a new Government under a devolved type of administration will fare well as regards delivery services but it will only be driven by a completely new set of servant leaders. So my fellow Kenyans, choose wisely at the next Elections. To this end, we suggest an intense campaign geared towards civic education. I plan to start a civic education program and will be contacting civil society bodies for teaching materials.
Going forward I plan to post more development related articles and interviews with regular Kenyans. The tale of Kenya needs to told and I am optimistic this story will have a happy ending.
I sign off with this well intended Moi era Slogan that somehow went awry: “Peace, Love and Unity.”

Banana juice gold mine

A very fine initiative from our Kenyan youth

Going green: Kenyan doing his part

Here is another example from last year of an enterprising Kenyan using available green technology to become energy independent. Unfortunately our government is not supportive of such innovators because it takes away from the monopoly government energy producer.
We, the technologically savvy need to band together to bring a new order in the next General Elections.

Power of innovation

Here is a prime example of innovation at work in our rural areas. We will shortly be doing a post about how we can fund such projects in order to develop sustainable rural economies.

Beyond implementation: The arduous task ahead

The proposed constitution has passed the referendum stage and we applaud our brothers and sisters for voting in a civil and orderly manner. The work ahead of us is the implementation. It will be a hard upward journey given the radical proposals contained in the new constitution such as the new demarcations that will reshape the country into new governing units. In order to enforce the new constitution, various committees will be formed to push the implementation agenda forward. Story found HERE. The time line given is five years for full implementation which will take us well past the general elections of 2012. Some of the caveats will have to be functional before the elections such as the new wards (officials to be known as Assembly men and women instead of Councilors) and counties which will replace the provinces.
In my view, this constitution will be very expensive to implement, with the only immediate beneficiaries being the officials in the various implementation committees. The other longer term beneficiaries will be the holders of the purse strings when the devolution funds are released. As for the ordinary mwanainchi (regular citizen, man on the street), I predict a dismal and bleak future if we are to rely on this constitution to bring us any meaningful tangible progress. My dire prognosis is based on the hurried jostling by greedy politicians for inclusion in the various implementation committees for the lucrative allowances. I predict these committees will stretch their mandate as far as possible in order to milk the public coffers beyond their required time.
When the euphoria of this new constitution has dissipated, the millions of Kenyans just getting by will go back to their dreary existence while awaiting government progress that will probably not materialize in this lifetime. We do have viable options though.
Citizens United for Progress (C.U.P)
The above name will be one of our initiatives but locals are free to pick any name, the idea here is what is important.
This will be a grouping of local citizens, known to each other either through friendship, need or just banded together as neighbors. Their task will be to implement self help projects in their neighborhoods that will have an immediate impact on their day to day lives. Examples abound but they will be peculiar to specific localities. A previous article we did about neighborhood organizations can be found HERE.
‘Revolution’ through the ballot
If, as many Kenyans insist, progress has to come from the government, then we will definitely need a new set of leaders at the next General Election. In the premiere article of this blog we tackled the issue of what qualities a good leader ought to have. Here we will briefly reiterate what was previously said by posing a set of questions that may help guide the voter to make an informed decision come election time.
-Is the voter better off now as compared to the time their local government official was elected into office?
-Are there tangible public projects the official has initiated and followed through to completion that directly impact the voter?
-Will the prospective candidate’s record on matters affecting public issues be able to stand to scrutiny? Did they speak out when their fellow legislators adopted a stand that the rest of the country did not agree with? An example here would be the attempt by parliament for members to increase their pay to exorbitant amounts.
-How assessable is the official to the average voter? What is the response time if one were to inquire for information or assistance?
-What development ideas, concisely presented, does the candidate have when he comes vote hunting?
-What plans does the candidate have for including the voter in future development plans? For my part I intend to engage the citizenry in a form of participatory democracy where regular town hall style meetings will be held together with individual and interest group meetings held regularly. More details to be released after the registration of our party.
Conclusion
We as Kenyans have always been imbued with endless optimism even in the bleakest of times. It would be our wish that we use this state of euphoria we are enjoying to be vigilant, demanding and relentless as to the speedy implementation of this new constitution. The political class should not be allowed to use our goodwill to prolong, derail or skew the process of implementation in their favor.
Between now and the next General Elections, we need to seriously think about how we as individuals can help the country move forward economically and socially. Do we retain the old guard that will continue to fatten both belly and bank account on misappropriated public funds? Or do we pick someone with no corruption record and brimming with ideas on how to develop our nation?
Reader responses welcome.

Greed and Insecurity: Disparate brothers joined at the hip

Two events were reported by the local media recently that though appearing unrelated, are actually bedfellows, united in concert to incessantly deny us the ability to initiate and sustain progress and development.
The first news item concerned a proposal by Parliamentarians to hike their pay from the basic salary of Ksh 871,000 to Ksh 1.2 million. The Prime minister and the Vice President would each earn Ksh 3.2 million and Ksh 2.7 million respectively. Lawmakers debated and unanimously approved the report by the Public Service Commission in a record 30 minutes! If this proposal is signed into law, it would put the MPs salaries on par with members of the United States Congress, with the Prime Minister making more than the President of the United States!Story HERE
The other news story was from a suburb outside the capital city, Nairobi. A neighborhood in Ongata Rongai was raided by machete wielding thugs at night. The thugs demanded that the residents open their doors whereby they were robbed. Neighbors who answered the distress calls were set upon by the thugs and two residents succumbed to their injuries. This particular story touches this writer on a personal level because we settled in this area having moved from Nairobi to escape the hustle and bustle of the big city and adopt a homesteading lifestyle. My parents were victims of a raid previously. Incidences such as these are on the rise in major urban areas of the country whereby idlers raid homes of hard working decent people in a bid to acquire minus the labor. This is a method of enrichment taken from the politicians, only that they, the politicians rob us minus the violence while in office. But during election time, the bloated politician and the scrawny thug sport no difference in their use of violence to attain their nefarious means.

Unbridled unabashed greed permeates all levels of Kenyan society from our lawmakers to the clerks in the civil service to the police force. From the theft of public resources, practiced and refined to a fine art by politicians to the ‘toa kitu kidogo’ (give something small) demanded by the police force manning unauthorized traffic checkpoints. This ingrained culture of impunity threatens to derail us from moving forward as a nation imbued with the capacity to provide for its citizens the basic economic and social necessities.
The private sector has not been spared from this insidious avarice. National exams are being leaked to students for a price. Employers are demanding a bribe from potential employees. We no longer have a nation of supportive and caring neighbors.
How then do we move forward to ensure a peaceful Kenya with hope and promise for the youth and assured security for those that have labored to attain a semblance of relative comfort amid the deplorable squalor suffered by many?
Some ideas
Police reform
-We propose that the government recruits the police force from the universities and high schools. Perhaps a course such as Criminal Justice could be introduced to focus on investigative techniques, evidence gathering, surveillance and other modern methods of combating crime.
- We also propose that police recruits have a minimum educational background and are proficient in both English and Swahili.
-We propose that community awareness be a mandatory course of police training. Topics to be covered would include: polite interaction with the public, how to deescalate a non violent altercation, humane treatment of offenders among others.
-We propose a salary increase commiserate with the risks involved.
-We propose, most importantly, that police officers live in the locality they have been posted to. In addition, the government should actively recruit locally with the aim of sending recruits to their home towns as active duty officers upon graduation. The advantages of this are: the new recruits are familiar with their surroundings and more or less know who local trouble makers are and will be quick to spot visitors with suspicious intentions. They would also be more vigilant as they would be working among relatives, friends and neighbors they grew up with.
-We also propose that significant and severe deterrents be imposed to those officers found to be engaging in misconduct. Sting operations and tip lines to an independent body to report police abuses of power would be helpful.
-We also propose that police officers be well equipped with the latest equipment. In the above story of the raid, two officers ran quite a distance to respond to the victims. The Minister for Internal Security visited the victims the next day in an imposing contingent of escort and security vehicles. All this while local police do not have even one vehicle to respond to the woes of taxpayers!
Youth Empowerment
The population of Kenya is mainly made up of the youth. The politicians in power now are not a representative sample of the people they purport to represent. It would therefore be prudent to take any advice from these rulers with a hefty dose of cynicism and a side of wariness. The bungled elections of 2007 and the violence that followed after, shows us how the youth is vulnerable to the machinations of our nefarious rulers. The attempts made by this government to uplift their living standards have failed. An example is the Kazi Kwa Vijana (work for the youth) program. Its aim was to engage the youth in activities such as digging trenches, environmental clean ups such as the Nairobi River and also tree planting. Some projects were started but there was no follow up, an example, trees being planted but not watered only for them to dry later on. Also payment has not been forthcoming for a majority of the participants with the money either being withheld in bureaucratic tie-ups or embezzled altogether.
Some ideas
-A massive effort needs to be exerted at the local level to educate the youth on civics and the role of law in their lives. This should not be a nationally driven effort but a local undertaking focusing on the needs of the particular locality. The perils befalling the urban youth are not the same as those experienced by the rural youth. Urban youth may need to be enlightened on how to live peacefully with neighbors from different backgrounds despite exhortations by tribal leaders to engage in genocidal mayhem. Rural youth may need to be enlightened on the futility of gang life and the benefits of abiding by the law.
-We propose the establishment of village level polytechnic institutions where budding entrepreneurs and talented inventors may be provided an avenue to learn and flourish. They would be funded by the local government and local business people with an aim to employing them or taking a stake in their innovations.
-To diffuse the latent restlessness in our youth, we propose every locality has a year round calendar of sporting, social and cultural events that will fill up their spare time in a positive manner. Regional tournaments would be a way to further engage the youth in pastimes such as sports, drama, music and dance showcases and other cultural events.
-Regarding employment, there are no obvious or easy solutions. The government has proven unable to provide for our youth so we should instead try to approach the private sector to secure economic opportunities.
-We would suggest unpaid internship/mentorship programs for the youth. Local trades-people would take in students as apprentices to study trades like mechanics, green house farming or environmental trades like making and installing solar panels among others. Upon the successful completion of the apprenticeship period, the graduate would get some kind of certification or stamp of approval from their mentors. Local banks would then issue start-up capital or they would be employed by their mentors. The business of the mentors would then grow and things that used to be made far away would now be manufactured locally. Less inter-regional trucking would mean lower prices and customized options for the consumer.
Conclusion
We will leave the task of trying to reform our moribund civil service to weightier minds than ours. What we do know is that our rulers today are not serving the people who elected them thus a revolution is needed at the next general election to elect leaders with the moral fortitude to eradicate corruption in government.
The above ideas are but a sample of what can be done in a participatory form of democracy whereby all participants are vested in the success of the society at the local level. To this end, I will be offering my candidature for the position of a local area councilor or assembly man if the proposed constitution passes. We will register our budding movement, the African Economic Democracy Party as a political party next year. Economic revolutionaries are welcome to join us as we retake and reform our nation. People Power and progress for all!

Gauging the health of a nation

Recently polls have become all the rage especially in reference to the proposed constitution whose referendum is being held in August.
Whenever polls are done in Kenya, they are usually used to further the schemes of the ruling political elite to the detriment of the hapless ‘ordinary citizen’ who usually has no vested interest in the outcome of the polls. Perhaps we should start talking polls addressing the needs and concerns of Kenyans; this would than set the tone for the government’s development agenda.
A novel way to address the concerns of a nation through a satisfaction survey comes from the Kingdom of Bhutan in South Asia. Bhutan has managed to modernize while at the same time protect its ancient culture and traditions under the guiding philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH).
Bhutan’s guide to happiness: Gross National Happiness (GNH).
The concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH) was developed in an attempt to define an indicator that measures quality of life or social progress minus measurements of commercial transactions(as a key indicator)to directly assess changes in the social and psychological well-being of populations.
The term was coined in 1972 by Bhutan's former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who has opened up Bhutan to the age of modernization. He used the phrase to signal his commitment to building an economy that would serve Bhutan's unique culture based on Buddhist spiritual values.
An alternate to measuring wealth solely on monetary terms, this model was developed as a survey instrument to measure the population's general level of well-being
Each year, Bhutan's prime minister reports to the National Assembly on “the four pillars of GNH:
-Promotion of equitable and sustainable socioeconomic development
-Preservation and promotion of cultural values
-Conservation of the natural environment
-Establishment of good governance.
As a result, Bhutan has implemented policies such as:
-Establishing public schools with rotation of teachers between rural and urban regions
-Providing both Western and traditional medicine
-Maintaining at least 60 percent of Bhutan's land as forest
Although Bhutan's per capita household income remains among the lowest in the world, and despite unresolved tribal conflicts that have exiled Bhutanese of Nepalese descent to refugee camps, several indicators show a brighter picture:
• Life expectancy rose from 47 years to 66 years
• Infant mortality dropped from 103 per 1,000 live births to 60 per 1,000 between 1984 and 2001.
• The fraction of the population with access to safe drinking water rose from 45 percent to 75 percent in the same time period
• Adult literacy increased from 23 percent to 54 percent.
In 2006, Business Week magazine rated Bhutan the happiest country in Asia and the eighth-happiest in the world, citing a global survey conducted by the University of Leicester in 2006 called the "World Map of Happiness"
A second-generation GNH concept, treating happiness as a socioeconomic development metric, was proposed in 2006 by Med Jones, the President of International Institute of Management. The metric measures socioeconomic development of a nation's mental and emotional health by tracking 7 development areas:
1. Economic Wellness: Indicated via economic metrics such as consumer debt, average income to consumer price index ratio and income distribution
2. Environmental Wellness: Indicated via statistical measurement of environmental metrics such as pollution, noise and traffic
3. Physical Wellness: Indicated via statistical measurement of physical health metrics such as severe illnesses
4. Mental Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of mental health metrics such as usage of antidepressants and rise or decline of psychotherapy patients
5. Workplace Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of labor metrics such as jobless claims, job change, workplace complaints and lawsuits
6. Social Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of social metrics such as discrimination, safety, divorce rates, complaints of domestic conflicts and family lawsuits, public lawsuits, crime rates
7. Political Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of political metrics such as the quality of local democracy, individual freedom, and foreign conflicts.
Pertinent Points
If the Proposed Constitution were to pass in August, the nation would then adopt a devolved system of government that would replace provinces and districts with counties headed by Senators. The counties would have a County Assembly made up of Assembly Men representing the various Wards.
This proposed system of government would favor the policies we have been trying to formulate that address how to work towards sustainable rural economies.
In a county setting, wellness surveys could be conducted to ascertain how government funds should be utilized to best reflect the needs of local residents.
Since County Assemblies will be required to hold regular meetings, representatives of local community organizations, business people and concerned residents could bring proposals to be considered by the assembly for possible future implementation.
We would propose that local residents sit in on budget allocation hearings and have some input, via debate and proposal letters, as to how monies from the federal government will be allocated to the various development and social programs.
We would also propose that in all County Assembly meetings:
- They are open to local residents,
-Sessions are recorded and transcripts made available upon request to local residents.
-Records of the voting patterns of assembly members are made available upon request
-Records of attendance of assembly members are made available upon request
-Records of all financial transactions are made available upon request
Conclusion
It is our stated position that to become a healthy nation; economically, spiritually, morally and socially, we need to address the needs peculiar to every locality.
Unfortunately the local leader at the grass roots level is the very epitome of ineptitude. Anytime there is a news item about a Councilor, it is usually involves a rowdy meeting that invariably leads to fisticuffs or embezzlement of one kind of another.
In an effort to redeem the sullied reputation of the Councilor and to get an opportunity to implement the various ideas discussed here on this blog, I am offering my candidature for the seat of Assembly Man( upon the passage of the proposed constitution) in a local ward in Kajiado North Constituency.
I will be vying under the banner of our yet unregistered party, the African Economic Democracy Party.
Reader responses welcome.