Thank you Dr. Ndemo for trying to articulate issues of Environmental change, and degradation, which has a big impact on the life we live now. A few people benefit by destroying nature, while the rest of us suffer. You've hit the nail on the head " we must make very tough decisions if we want a better future. .... There must be no rights without responsibility" I have the privillage to always cross a river that cuts The University of Nairobi Chiromo campus into two. Since Hon. Michuki engineered a thorough cleaning exercise on Rivers around Nairobi, I have seen several tortoises, and wild ducks swimming along that stretch, and the water is clear. The beauty of such nature in our midst made me shed a tear. I wonder what other changes we would see in Kenya if Michuki had more powers over running of government. Again, I agree " we must make very tough decisions if we want a better future. ..", and we have seen Michuki apply this rule very effectively in the past. Kind Regards Mwendwa Kivuva. On 13 August 2011 23:57, <bitange@jambo.co.ke> wrote:
Walubengo, You can dig for your answer in my write up below.
This week I had an opportunity to fly to Laikipia for a lunch meeting with investors who wanted to kill two birds with one stone by having a Safari and discuss business at the same time. They paid the bill. The one hour flight to and from Laikipia got my head spinning. The pilot has been flying here for more than thirty years and has seen many physical changes in Central, Eastern and Rift Valley. I pestered him with many questions.
At some point he told me that all the rivers that flow through Central Kenya had crystal clear water in the 7o's and 80's but as farmers encroached on riparian land, soil erosion crept in and now they are all red dragging the best of soils into the Indian Ocean. In spite of several Departments of Geography in our Universities there are little or no studies on the long term effects of what is happening to our ecosystem. We study both human and physical geography not to apply the knowledge but as a means to get papers for employment.
A quick research will tell you that we are not only food insecure but also water insecure. Although Kenya’s water per capita in cubic meters at 647 is above world average 360, we do not compare well with other progressive countries such as India at 1,911 and China at 2,840. We were better at independence since we had many dams built by the British but are now non-existent. People planted Ndumas in most of the dams. We must now admit we did not know the impact and still we do not know until our academics get down to work on research.
Soil erosion means we are also eroding the most arable land in the country. Per capita arable land in Kenya measures only .14 hectare per person. Here we fall below the world average of .21 hectare per person. The statistic implies the world must manage this resource better in order to feed everybody. The British had started this policy on African reserves sort of rural urbanization. We rightly shunned it but without studies to look into our future. We must re-introduce this with a better name and better housing with all utilities. My research findings on such housing will cost about Ksh. 200,000 per unit of three bedrooms. In other words we can construct 340,000 households from the Goldenberg loot if we were to recover it. This will translate to all of Northern Kenya from Kacheliba to Wajir.
We have about 6 million households in Kenya of which 3 million can afford to pay for such a house or better. The Government can indeed manage to build for the remainder through improved tax collections (we pay about 40% of the potential income tax and about 20% of the potential local authority taxes such as rates). Of course there will be other savings from health budget that goes into opportunistic diseases that we can eliminate from the face of Kenya. These include water borne diseases. Typhoid alone costs Kenya billions that need to be used to improve the livelihood of our people and meet the constitutional demands.
Therefore, the question on Lake Victoria water will not arise if we dammed all the waters that flow into the lake and elsewhere. As for affordable prices for broadband, I have no doubts that we shall meet this even before the end of this year. The shared infrastructure negotiations are going on smoothly. In a few weeks time we should move forward with the LTE open access program. If we all understand the open access principle where big and small will use the infrastructure at same access cost. More agile companies will indeed provide very competitive pricing. As we move the Government more online, the more the number of internet users meaning we shall reach the critical mass much faster. With the critical mass and many providers, the price can only go downwards.
The biggest problem and one asked by Monda is the question of vested interests. I know some sectors have a real problem with this issue and negatively impacts on our economic growth. In our sector we have been lucky in the sense that much of what we do is new and the rapid technological changes discourage power brokers who may entrench themselves to build strong vested interest. This is not to say that we are not often asked to do things differently. Our savior is going to be open government and in this I pray that every Kenyan understands this concept because it has a way of not only dealing with vested interest but also impunity in a way. If I had time I could delve into this more. To date I do not think even media has understood this powerful tool.
Back to my flight. Coming back I found myself humming Jim Reeves’ song “we thank thee each morning for a new born day ….. we thank thee for the sunshine and air we breathe, for the rivers that run, for the birds that sing, for the eyes to see this things…unfortunately we may not hear the birds sing since from above you can see that we have eliminated their habitat – percent of total land area in Kenya covered by forest is 2% compared to world average of 31%. We may not see the rivers as they were before since all our soils are polluting the what remains of rivers as eucalyptus has swallowed much of the water and wetlands.
Hovering over many towns across the land you get hurt by what you see. Although there are planners in all local authorities you see a cry of unplanned structures with visible problems of managing solid waste. You simply see chaos in a country with literacy levels approaching 90%. What you see are the sources of many diseases and problems such as the jigger menace in some parts of the country. I grew up fairly poor but we did not have this level of disorganization. At least health officers did something to prevent many diseases. I saw dirty butcheries and restaurants closed by health officers. There was a semblance of planned dukas. Where the madness of unplanningness came from I do not know but this is one of the things “candidate” Ndemo will deal with.
In conclusion, we must make very tough decisions if we want a better future. I know the new constitution has brought all sorts of rights but it is all nonsense if we undermine the future with unplanned population, unplanned urban centers, unplanned future, etc. There must be no rights without responsibility.
Ndemo.
Bw PS,
nice insights you have below. Mine is simply to ask what your thoughts are, in terms of making consumer internet prices affordable. Yes, cost of bandwidth at international gateway level used to be 5,000USD per MB (over satellite) but now it has dropped below 500USD per MB. Basically it has dropped by 10 times - HOWEVER- in our cyber cafes, the cost of accessing internet is still 1/- to 2/- per minute, pretty much what it was during the satellite days.
Mobile data internet which is the more common form of access is not any cheaper either. There's has been NO drop per-se, just marketing gimmicks of increasing the amount of bandwidth for the same (HIGH) price. It is like saying lunch costs 2,500/= at some 5star hotel, but since there has been good rains/harvest, for the same 2,500/= you are free to eat ALL you want...sounds good, but ONLY for those who could afford the 2,500/= lunch bracket in the first place - who unfortunately are not many....particularly in an economy whose average monthly income is around 8,000sh.
So how do you intend to tackle the internet price problem when you get to be President?
walu.
-- ______________________ Mwendwa Kivuva For Business Development Transworld Computer Channels Cel: 0722402248 twitter.com/lordmwesh transworldAfrica.com | Fluent in computing kenya.or.ke | The Kenya we know