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.