It has not rained a lot this rainy season. In fact in my home I am currently experiencing water rationing . I was excited when it rained last Friday...for a short time. Getting home from work was terrible! I got stuck in traffic for nearly one hour. The roads were virtually turned into rivers as water flowed on them towards the lowest point. Now lets face it, to drive in Nairobi or Kenya, you cram the route in such a way that you know where every pothole or unevenness in the road is. The next day, my normal route was turned into an unknown as new potholes have appeared. I am having to learn to navigate the road again.
In Kenya we tend to fix working systems. So you get to hear a lot of talk of phasing out the roundabouts and replacing them with cross junctions... controlled by traffic lights and on the other hand T junctions will be phased out as they cause unnecessary snarl ups!!! T junctions out cross junctions in? Talk about sticking our heads in a sand pit!
Sarit Centre has re-directed the traffic to a mostly one way street configuration (a chance for cops to catch those driving on the wrong side) a change from a working system to let us say a somewhat better system for the shopping centre alone. Sarit Centre has managed to direct traffic going into it and thank God lowered the bumps at the road between Lower Kabete road and School Lane. The problem is traffic going into Sarit Centre has been solved, but the problem has now been shifted to the rest of Westlands especially for traffic to and from Westlands roundabout on Ring Road Parklands. This of course affects the traffic on Parklands Road and Lower Kabete road causing unnecessary traffic jams as no one now knows who has the right of way...those on Ring road or those joining it. This are those cross junctions that are meant to replace roundabouts that our city planners keep on talking about.
Something else that I have noticed is the habit of our road engineers of putting pavements everywhere with no drainage way-leaves. Our roads become rivers in the rainy season causing cars to stall thus causing unnecessary traffic jams. Why for example would anyone put pavements on a perfectly smooth roads like the airport road? The road from the airport was re-carpeted and thank you Chinese construction company you left a 500cm drop at the beginning of the carpeting and at the end so that we all know you did a good job by putting a lot of tarmac on the existing road. A few days ago they were busy putting up pavements with no drainage way-leaves on the road to the airport. On your next trip to the airport, keep your eyes peeled for surprising new potholes on what was a perfect functioning road.
For all drivers on Kenyan roads, I wish you a "mis"-directed, traffic free, rainless filled, pothole less road!
Monday, July 7, 2008
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Ethnicity, Land & Politics in Kenya
Time to break the hibernation. I spent a lot of time travelling and thus got to do quite some reading. Many things have happened in the short time that i was away but I will only write about something that affects me directly in all my interactions and that is land.
The new lands minister, Mr Orengo, has been in the news making some controversial statements about leases and size of land people can own. The thing that got me thinking was an advert in the Nation a few weeks ago where owners of land which are 10 acres or more in the area 70km around Nairobi or 40km around Nakuru, Mombasa or Kisumu, were asked to tender in to a certain ministry for cooperation in developing housing estates. This got me thinking about WHO actually owns such land around the cities mentioned. No surprises here mostly politicians or sons and a few white Kenyans.
I then started researching land issues and came up with the chart at the bottom of this text. What it shows is the connection between politics, land and tribes. I hope it will explain why we have clashes in the Rift Valley. I know most people do not know that Majimbo was dreamt up by white settlers when independence became inevitable in the hope of becoming a protected minority tribe thus keeping control over the land they already owned. They managed to convince some tribes...mostly the Kalenjin to join them in their cause. Majimbo was supported by the Somalis who wanted to succeed and join up with Somalia and the Coast peoples though one has to differentiate between the coastal mainland (Mijikenda, Giriama etc. and the Island. Their politicians have never and do not see eye to eye on many issues.
Something else which most people do not know is that the Luhya's, represented by Muliro, were for Majimbo but pulled out of the group when Kitale was put in Rift Valley province. At that time many whites of South African decent (anyone remember Bruce Mackenzie?) were settled in Kitale and they did want to stay on over there. They did not want Kitale to be part of North Nyanza district as western province was called then thus become dominated by the Luhya's who were politically active along with the Luo's. On the other hand, the Luhya's did not want to be dominated by the Kalenjin's but lost to the whites.
Another issue that came up were the Sabaot. They wanted to be part of Rift Valley with their Kalenjin cousins but were put in now Western province...an offshoot of the current land clashes though crrently it seems to pit clan against clan.
To get back to the chart, it has a few spelling mistakes, some data is also missing and only shows the political arena till 1990. I will refer to this chart as r.c. version 1. I am working on a second part which explains Uhuru Kenyatta's dilemma of leading a pro-majimbo political party as a Kikuyu and why referendums will always kill majimboism.
The chart also shows how our politicians failed to build truly national structures. Tom Mboya had started building one but slowed down after KANU became the de-facto single party. Most of the politicians were afraid that the national party structures would be hijacked and used against them by their rivals or by some young up-coming politician.
Anyway I am looking forward to your feedback.
By the way the CC licence is also applicable all over the world! So please respect it. It was a lot of work piecing up the information.
Ethnicity Land & Politics in Kenya by Tengeza is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Based on a work at tengeza.blogspot.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://tengeza.blogspot.com/.
The new lands minister, Mr Orengo, has been in the news making some controversial statements about leases and size of land people can own. The thing that got me thinking was an advert in the Nation a few weeks ago where owners of land which are 10 acres or more in the area 70km around Nairobi or 40km around Nakuru, Mombasa or Kisumu, were asked to tender in to a certain ministry for cooperation in developing housing estates. This got me thinking about WHO actually owns such land around the cities mentioned. No surprises here mostly politicians or sons and a few white Kenyans.
I then started researching land issues and came up with the chart at the bottom of this text. What it shows is the connection between politics, land and tribes. I hope it will explain why we have clashes in the Rift Valley. I know most people do not know that Majimbo was dreamt up by white settlers when independence became inevitable in the hope of becoming a protected minority tribe thus keeping control over the land they already owned. They managed to convince some tribes...mostly the Kalenjin to join them in their cause. Majimbo was supported by the Somalis who wanted to succeed and join up with Somalia and the Coast peoples though one has to differentiate between the coastal mainland (Mijikenda, Giriama etc. and the Island. Their politicians have never and do not see eye to eye on many issues.
Something else which most people do not know is that the Luhya's, represented by Muliro, were for Majimbo but pulled out of the group when Kitale was put in Rift Valley province. At that time many whites of South African decent (anyone remember Bruce Mackenzie?) were settled in Kitale and they did want to stay on over there. They did not want Kitale to be part of North Nyanza district as western province was called then thus become dominated by the Luhya's who were politically active along with the Luo's. On the other hand, the Luhya's did not want to be dominated by the Kalenjin's but lost to the whites.
Another issue that came up were the Sabaot. They wanted to be part of Rift Valley with their Kalenjin cousins but were put in now Western province...an offshoot of the current land clashes though crrently it seems to pit clan against clan.
To get back to the chart, it has a few spelling mistakes, some data is also missing and only shows the political arena till 1990. I will refer to this chart as r.c. version 1. I am working on a second part which explains Uhuru Kenyatta's dilemma of leading a pro-majimbo political party as a Kikuyu and why referendums will always kill majimboism.
The chart also shows how our politicians failed to build truly national structures. Tom Mboya had started building one but slowed down after KANU became the de-facto single party. Most of the politicians were afraid that the national party structures would be hijacked and used against them by their rivals or by some young up-coming politician.
Anyway I am looking forward to your feedback.
By the way the CC licence is also applicable all over the world! So please respect it. It was a lot of work piecing up the information.
Ethnicity Land & Politics in Kenya by Tengeza is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Based on a work at tengeza.blogspot.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://tengeza.blogspot.com/.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Infrastructure News
It seems like the new ministers are now on a run to outdo each other by proposing one or the other new infrastructure project. Take for example this one about upgrading the railway. It has taken Kenya 40years to realise that the railway needs an upgrade. The talk is to change the line to standard gauge and electrify the line. While Kenya Railways would be upgrading the line, RVR will be left to run the meter gauge railway in the meantime. Furthermore, no one seems to know/say where 20% of the Ksh.80billion needed for the exercise will come from. Man, Kenya cannot even afford 300m for its minsters so where will she get Ksh.16b? Is this just empty talk to keep peoples minds of the issues?
The Kilindini Port REALLY needs to be upgraded. This is way overdue. A harbour in Lamu to service Ethiopia will be even better wince it will service bigger ships and hopefully sort out the insecurity problems in the area at least. I also wonder why the cruise terminal has not been built. I know the argument has been that there are not enough ships docking in, but what happens if Dar builds one first in the region? Build one, market it and the ships will dock!
Oh and to add to that, the Kenya Navy is the one that should be sorting out the pirates along the Somali coast. It is Kenya that gets affected by piracy. I hope this will happen soon as our politicians like using defence projects for shady deals leading to things like the Navy ordering ships from someone without experience in building war ships!
As someone who has been using Kisumu airport on a regular basis, it is also long due for expansion. The runway has to be lengthened to accommodate bigger planes and the terminal size increased to deal with the increased passenger numbers. I do not see the road between Kisumu - Kericho - Nakuru being repaired any time soon.
Another story talks of current houses in Shauri Moyo being destroyed and new 3 bedroomed ones being built. I wonder how long this has been in planning since no mention is made of temporarily relocating the current tenants or at least giving the temporary accommodation till the works are finished. I wonder if the 1-1.6m price tag for the houses is subsidised (normal house costs about Ksh24,000/sqm) and by whom? Will they do something about Jogoo Road since they are increasing the density in the area?
The Kilindini Port REALLY needs to be upgraded. This is way overdue. A harbour in Lamu to service Ethiopia will be even better wince it will service bigger ships and hopefully sort out the insecurity problems in the area at least. I also wonder why the cruise terminal has not been built. I know the argument has been that there are not enough ships docking in, but what happens if Dar builds one first in the region? Build one, market it and the ships will dock!
Oh and to add to that, the Kenya Navy is the one that should be sorting out the pirates along the Somali coast. It is Kenya that gets affected by piracy. I hope this will happen soon as our politicians like using defence projects for shady deals leading to things like the Navy ordering ships from someone without experience in building war ships!
As someone who has been using Kisumu airport on a regular basis, it is also long due for expansion. The runway has to be lengthened to accommodate bigger planes and the terminal size increased to deal with the increased passenger numbers. I do not see the road between Kisumu - Kericho - Nakuru being repaired any time soon.
Another story talks of current houses in Shauri Moyo being destroyed and new 3 bedroomed ones being built. I wonder how long this has been in planning since no mention is made of temporarily relocating the current tenants or at least giving the temporary accommodation till the works are finished. I wonder if the 1-1.6m price tag for the houses is subsidised (normal house costs about Ksh24,000/sqm) and by whom? Will they do something about Jogoo Road since they are increasing the density in the area?
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tanzania
Some quick pointers:
Yellow Fever pass required by all EAC residents since 1st February 2008. I have not yet been asked to produce one yet but it is official so make sure you have it just in case. There seems to be a shortage of the Yellow Fever vaccine currently in Kenya. Try Nairobi Hospital, AMREF at Wilson Airport or better still and the cheapest Nairobi City Council at City Hall.
There is a cement shortage in TZ. Three companies produce Cement there. Two are owned by the government and the other is owned by a South African company. The SA owned cement company is exporting all its cement back home to help build the Stadiums in readiness for the World Cup. The other two closed down at the same time for general repairs - it is called organisation! As a result shortage and now prices are going through the roof. The government has decided to allow importers to import cement leading to some illicit activities on the side.
The Central Bank Governor of Tanzania was sacked because of corruption/ shady deals. His sacking is the source of some juicy rumours making rounds in TZ. Just follow this link and go through the comments at the end of the story. I also received an email purporting to show how the former governors would take some of his work home. The pictures are actually from a raid on a former Mexican drug lord's den.
Yellow Fever pass required by all EAC residents since 1st February 2008. I have not yet been asked to produce one yet but it is official so make sure you have it just in case. There seems to be a shortage of the Yellow Fever vaccine currently in Kenya. Try Nairobi Hospital, AMREF at Wilson Airport or better still and the cheapest Nairobi City Council at City Hall.
There is a cement shortage in TZ. Three companies produce Cement there. Two are owned by the government and the other is owned by a South African company. The SA owned cement company is exporting all its cement back home to help build the Stadiums in readiness for the World Cup. The other two closed down at the same time for general repairs - it is called organisation! As a result shortage and now prices are going through the roof. The government has decided to allow importers to import cement leading to some illicit activities on the side.
The Central Bank Governor of Tanzania was sacked because of corruption/ shady deals. His sacking is the source of some juicy rumours making rounds in TZ. Just follow this link and go through the comments at the end of the story. I also received an email purporting to show how the former governors would take some of his work home. The pictures are actually from a raid on a former Mexican drug lord's den.
Friday, April 25, 2008
BORAQS CPD Seminar
The first Continous Proffesional Development Seminar of the year by BORAQS was held yesterday at Safari Park Hotel. It was the first compulsory CPD meeting for members since new rules were introduced last year so moi had to attend or risk de-registration. The theme was "The role of Professionals in Reconstruction".
Some Highlights of the meeting:
Inspiring talk by HABITAT representative Mr. Claudio Acioly on how Habitat handled the after effects of the Pakistan Earthquake two years ago. He had some very interesting pointers on how Brazil manages to handle the rapid urbanisation currently taking place which I am sure our planners could learn from. For example a city mayor can be jailed if he/she does not come up with a Participatory Urban Plan in the first six month of taking the office.
Qs. Mwai Mathenge talked about the conflicts in cap 525 of the Kenya laws and the Procurement Act which governs how the government handles tenders. Simply put, tenders for construction work are in the same category as tenders for pens in the Ministry.
Dr. Elijah Agevi seems like he would have left the audience more inspired if he had more time. He talked about inflation and funding reconstruction.
Red Cross representative Davies Okoko gave an inside view into how the Kenya Red Cross deals with disasters. They work with scenarios and were prepared for the worst during the last elections and thus were able to handle the Internally Displaced persons. According to the Red Cross, the resettlement of IDP's will last till October 2009. Resettlement will follow the rainy season.
Dr. Robert Rukwaro talked about the approach to resettlement & challenges to be faced. Too theoretical in my opinion.
PS of Roads Mr. Michael Kamau gave the closing speech and challenge the attendants to become more proactive in the society by shedding the outdated laws. He cited the example of Supply Officers who were sacked by the government. They regrouped and branded themselves as Procurement Agents and pushed the Procurement Act through parliament, thus gaining back their jobs. PS's only afraid of two laws - the Anti Corruption and Economic Crimes Act & the Procurement Act. He mentioned the problems and challenges he has at work whereby the Lands Ministry subdivides land and leaves no drainage way leave. No wonder our roads flood during the rainy season! Asked why Architects do not do site supervision leaving it to Clerk of Works.
From the meeting some things emerged:
Overall...somewhat too long. The inspirational talks came from none members. Unfortunately too much emphasis is given to theoretical aka Rukwaro solutions and laws at the expense of the practical ones.
What I hope to see is members showcasing their works...oh forgot it may go against the 1968 advertising laws :-/
Some Highlights of the meeting:
Inspiring talk by HABITAT representative Mr. Claudio Acioly on how Habitat handled the after effects of the Pakistan Earthquake two years ago. He had some very interesting pointers on how Brazil manages to handle the rapid urbanisation currently taking place which I am sure our planners could learn from. For example a city mayor can be jailed if he/she does not come up with a Participatory Urban Plan in the first six month of taking the office.
Qs. Mwai Mathenge talked about the conflicts in cap 525 of the Kenya laws and the Procurement Act which governs how the government handles tenders. Simply put, tenders for construction work are in the same category as tenders for pens in the Ministry.
Dr. Elijah Agevi seems like he would have left the audience more inspired if he had more time. He talked about inflation and funding reconstruction.
Red Cross representative Davies Okoko gave an inside view into how the Kenya Red Cross deals with disasters. They work with scenarios and were prepared for the worst during the last elections and thus were able to handle the Internally Displaced persons. According to the Red Cross, the resettlement of IDP's will last till October 2009. Resettlement will follow the rainy season.
Dr. Robert Rukwaro talked about the approach to resettlement & challenges to be faced. Too theoretical in my opinion.
PS of Roads Mr. Michael Kamau gave the closing speech and challenge the attendants to become more proactive in the society by shedding the outdated laws. He cited the example of Supply Officers who were sacked by the government. They regrouped and branded themselves as Procurement Agents and pushed the Procurement Act through parliament, thus gaining back their jobs. PS's only afraid of two laws - the Anti Corruption and Economic Crimes Act & the Procurement Act. He mentioned the problems and challenges he has at work whereby the Lands Ministry subdivides land and leaves no drainage way leave. No wonder our roads flood during the rainy season! Asked why Architects do not do site supervision leaving it to Clerk of Works.
From the meeting some things emerged:
- Members have not been involved in any resettlement work.
- Members seem at loss as to how to handle the Procurement Act which is in direct conflict with Cap 525
- In bad taste some members wanted each IDP to be given 1m cash handouts and another suggested buying land in Eldoret since it was cheap just as some members were buying buildings in Zimbabwe due to inflation.
Overall...somewhat too long. The inspirational talks came from none members. Unfortunately too much emphasis is given to theoretical aka Rukwaro solutions and laws at the expense of the practical ones.
What I hope to see is members showcasing their works...oh forgot it may go against the 1968 advertising laws :-/
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
City of Nairobi (General Nuisance) By-Laws 2007
I had a run in with City Council askaris who wanted to put me in for general nuisance. Apparently a neighbour had called them accusing me of making noise. Luckily I had a copy of the General nuisance By-Laws with me and I pointed out to the askaris after lengthy argument that I was guilty of the offence only if I was making "unnecessary" noise. This was happening at a construction site.
The law reads:
Noisy Building Operation.
4. Any person who shall, in connection with any building, demolition or road construction work, causes or suffers to be caused any unnecessary noise so loud or so continuous or repeated as to cause an annoyance to occupants of any premises in the neighbourhood, shall be guilty of an offence.
So the argument was reduced to what constitutes "unnecessary" noise in a construction site! The main problem with the by-law is that it is so broad in its definitions, but it does not give specifics as to what "noise" is. I would have preferred a Decibel description of noise. The law just describes those guilty of an offence for example when: one sounds a motor horn, cycle bell or warning instrument except in the case of emergency, blows his nose otherwise than into a suitable cloth or tissue, touts for passengers, any person who discharges a missile in or near a street in a manner likely to cause damage to property or danger to any person shall be guilty of and offence...to name a few.
Some decibel examples to give power to the "you are making noise accusation" would be:
A garbage truck (85 decibels),
A jack hammer (88 decibels)
A car alarm (80 decibels),
The electronic chirp of the little black alarm clock (44 decibels from across the bed).
Discotheques with their bone-rattling blare (95 decibels)
Cars with that hyper bass beat (65 decibels from half a block away).
Occasional screams/shouts that ends a loud party (130 decibels)
This chart gives more examples.
NOTE: 85 DECIBELS - BEGINNING OF HEARING DAMAGE!
A quiet room is between 30 and 40 decibels. 30 decibels is what one actually hears in a desert. Most cities have 80 decibels set as their maximum noise level. Anything above that, one has to get a permit and noise generation is restricted to certain hours of the day. This might be an opportunity for the City council to generate income with yet another permit. These restrictions could include vehicle traffic on certain roads, construction work and parties.
To compare another African city with Nairobi check out Cairo (free reg. required).
By the way the By-laws allows you to keep a lizard as a game animal in the city without a permit!
The law reads:
Noisy Building Operation.
4. Any person who shall, in connection with any building, demolition or road construction work, causes or suffers to be caused any unnecessary noise so loud or so continuous or repeated as to cause an annoyance to occupants of any premises in the neighbourhood, shall be guilty of an offence.
So the argument was reduced to what constitutes "unnecessary" noise in a construction site! The main problem with the by-law is that it is so broad in its definitions, but it does not give specifics as to what "noise" is. I would have preferred a Decibel description of noise. The law just describes those guilty of an offence for example when: one sounds a motor horn, cycle bell or warning instrument except in the case of emergency, blows his nose otherwise than into a suitable cloth or tissue, touts for passengers, any person who discharges a missile in or near a street in a manner likely to cause damage to property or danger to any person shall be guilty of and offence...to name a few.
Some decibel examples to give power to the "you are making noise accusation" would be:
A garbage truck (85 decibels),
A jack hammer (88 decibels)
A car alarm (80 decibels),
The electronic chirp of the little black alarm clock (44 decibels from across the bed).
Discotheques with their bone-rattling blare (95 decibels)
Cars with that hyper bass beat (65 decibels from half a block away).
Occasional screams/shouts that ends a loud party (130 decibels)
This chart gives more examples.
NOTE: 85 DECIBELS - BEGINNING OF HEARING DAMAGE!
A quiet room is between 30 and 40 decibels. 30 decibels is what one actually hears in a desert. Most cities have 80 decibels set as their maximum noise level. Anything above that, one has to get a permit and noise generation is restricted to certain hours of the day. This might be an opportunity for the City council to generate income with yet another permit. These restrictions could include vehicle traffic on certain roads, construction work and parties.
To compare another African city with Nairobi check out Cairo (free reg. required).
By the way the By-laws allows you to keep a lizard as a game animal in the city without a permit!
Monday, April 14, 2008
Food Costs - Food riot in Kenya soon?
I was in Uganda for a while and noticed how things have become expensive over there. Prices change almost daily, apart from the habit of Ugandan traders to inflate prices when it comes to foreigners - even Kenyans. When you ask the traders why the price has changed they say one word: Chibachi (Kibaki!). End of story.
Well back in Kenya fertiliser prices have reached Ksh. 6000 for a 50kg bag. This is enough for about an acre of land and it is about double the price of what it was last year. With the number of displaced farmers from Rift Valley plus the high fertiliser prices the chances are that by August this year Kenya will have serious food shortages or if available then at exorbitant prices.
Note that food riots in the past months have taken place all over the world from countries like in Mexico, India, Morocco, Egypt, China, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Yemen, Guinea, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Senegal. Haiti's food riot has been the deadliest so far. Well now that Ruto has been made minister of Agriculture, let us hope he will do something about the food prices.
Well back in Kenya fertiliser prices have reached Ksh. 6000 for a 50kg bag. This is enough for about an acre of land and it is about double the price of what it was last year. With the number of displaced farmers from Rift Valley plus the high fertiliser prices the chances are that by August this year Kenya will have serious food shortages or if available then at exorbitant prices.
Note that food riots in the past months have taken place all over the world from countries like in Mexico, India, Morocco, Egypt, China, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Yemen, Guinea, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Senegal. Haiti's food riot has been the deadliest so far. Well now that Ruto has been made minister of Agriculture, let us hope he will do something about the food prices.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
China Pulls Road Construction Funding
One problem with the Kenya Government when it comes to building infrastructure is that it is fully dependant on foreign capital. This is always 100% financing which is away from the 80% financing in the form of a loan. So when China promises to give money to build a road and only a fraction of it gets to be delivered, then you have a situation where an elevated highway becomes an extra lane and street lights.
This is a common feature when it comes to infrastructure planning in Kenya and has been since the late 70s. I do not expect anything to change any time soon.
The current transport minister is promising a feasibility study (this must be the fifth one to my knowledge that the Kenya Government has commissioned) to be done on light rail transport and it has got a railway PR man very excited about the possibilities despite the fact that Kenya railways does not even use 60% of the existing tracks and has led even some people to speculate on grabbing the idle land. All the studies carried out before have not been implemented because of one thing, funding! Banks and donor government's have been willing to finance up to 80% of the total cost. The Kenya government has never been able to raise its 20% share of the financial package. This is the same situation that stalled the proposed Juba-Nakuru railway. When will one of our politicians come up with a way to raise funds without selling government shares of companies it owns?
Kenya's strategic geographical position is something everyone else is seeing apart from our government/politicians.
This is a common feature when it comes to infrastructure planning in Kenya and has been since the late 70s. I do not expect anything to change any time soon.
The current transport minister is promising a feasibility study (this must be the fifth one to my knowledge that the Kenya Government has commissioned) to be done on light rail transport and it has got a railway PR man very excited about the possibilities despite the fact that Kenya railways does not even use 60% of the existing tracks and has led even some people to speculate on grabbing the idle land. All the studies carried out before have not been implemented because of one thing, funding! Banks and donor government's have been willing to finance up to 80% of the total cost. The Kenya government has never been able to raise its 20% share of the financial package. This is the same situation that stalled the proposed Juba-Nakuru railway. When will one of our politicians come up with a way to raise funds without selling government shares of companies it owns?
Kenya's strategic geographical position is something everyone else is seeing apart from our government/politicians.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Pay up Dominion Farm!!!!!!!
Man I thought I was watching a bad movie or reading something from the Onion press when I saw this:
Kenya officially does not have a government! Councillors can go around soliciting bribes openly from foreign investors who are transforming the area! Man the guy even has the audacity to write a letter asking for the payment! A sign of things to come with the new PNUODM government?
Kenya officially does not have a government! Councillors can go around soliciting bribes openly from foreign investors who are transforming the area! Man the guy even has the audacity to write a letter asking for the payment! A sign of things to come with the new PNUODM government?
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Build a Pedestrian Friendly Nairobi CBD, How To
Well it is unfortunate that Michuki is no longer the Roads Minister, he was on to something.
Anyway Muthurwa market traffic flow has been revised. It now works better but has the disadvantage of not bringing enough people to the market as most guys drop off at the entrance of the market.
Here is my take on how the CBD should be reorganised to make it auto free and pedestrian friendly. Previously KBS used to use the CBD as a transit point and was not the destination. The destination was always on the other side of the city.
The current matatu traffic model, as shown below, is organised to have the CBD as a final destination from the other destination points. This is enforced by licences issued to the matatu operators.
By stopping the Eastlands matatu's at Muthurwa, the city is literary turning the city centre into a pedestrian only zone... i.e. if city officials can stop giving special permits to favoured bus companies allowing them to enter the CBD or to ferry people from the bus stops to the other side of the CBD. What I propose to do, is that the out-of-the-city-bus/matatu-stop-programme be extended to include private cars and to build special bus stops and parking silos (marked up yellow in map below) to house the private cars. Private cars will only be allowed to use the roads marked in red to drive through the CBD. NO BUSES/MATATUS allowed in the CBD. The rest of the streets get converted to pedestrian only streets with shop suppliers with special permits allowed to use the streets at certain times say 0500-0600hrs in the morning and 1730-1930hrs in the evening. Taxis will have special designated parking spots and also have special permits allowing them to come into the CBD.
Anyway Muthurwa market traffic flow has been revised. It now works better but has the disadvantage of not bringing enough people to the market as most guys drop off at the entrance of the market.
Here is my take on how the CBD should be reorganised to make it auto free and pedestrian friendly. Previously KBS used to use the CBD as a transit point and was not the destination. The destination was always on the other side of the city.
The current matatu traffic model, as shown below, is organised to have the CBD as a final destination from the other destination points. This is enforced by licences issued to the matatu operators.
By stopping the Eastlands matatu's at Muthurwa, the city is literary turning the city centre into a pedestrian only zone... i.e. if city officials can stop giving special permits to favoured bus companies allowing them to enter the CBD or to ferry people from the bus stops to the other side of the CBD. What I propose to do, is that the out-of-the-city-bus/matatu-stop-programme be extended to include private cars and to build special bus stops and parking silos (marked up yellow in map below) to house the private cars. Private cars will only be allowed to use the roads marked in red to drive through the CBD. NO BUSES/MATATUS allowed in the CBD. The rest of the streets get converted to pedestrian only streets with shop suppliers with special permits allowed to use the streets at certain times say 0500-0600hrs in the morning and 1730-1930hrs in the evening. Taxis will have special designated parking spots and also have special permits allowing them to come into the CBD.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Politics - Kenya ¦ Zimbabwe and Electral Commisions
I know that the Zimbabwe elections seem to echo Kenya's last election, but there is one major difference: Morgan Tsvangirai is not letting the "masses" speculation massage his ego into declaring himself president BEFORE the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission declares the winner! He has even managed so far to ward off speculation of Mugabe stepping down, rumours of Mugabe conceding defeat in other words loads of speculation especially of him rigging his way to power. All this caused because of a delay in tallying the presidential results! Every western nation seems to demand Mugabe to loose or give up power and are even demanding it more & more.
The question I would like to pause to anyone reading this blog is: What if Mugabe really wins the presidential election by a very likely slim 1% margin just enough for him to avoid a run-off, this in the light that his party has lost the majority in parliament? Should the opposition then go the Kenyan way of mass demonstrations? There are presidents in this world who rule without a majority in parliament why should Zimbabwe be different or before it Kenya?
I really wonder how Kenya would have been perceived worldwide had Odinga gone to court to challenge the presidential results (why were they the only ones that were rigged?) instead of calling for mass demonstrations.
The ECK meanwhile has as predicted declined to acknowledge the stolen "serious mistakes" report.
Anyway, we now have a PNUODM government with a massive 44 member cabinet which will eat into our resources and Kenyans should not expect any meaningful development until the coalition breaks up in a year or two and one of the party wins the following election out rightly. What really makes me angry is why both parties did not name their cabinet members immediately. Do Kenyans really have to wait till Sunday to know whose in?
I predict that the following days newspapers will be full of speculation and leaked inside information as to who is in and whose out with some very pissed off parliamentarians threatening to dump the party or cause chaos by ...you guessed it... calling for mass demonstrations! Well that is Kenyan politics for you :-/!
The question I would like to pause to anyone reading this blog is: What if Mugabe really wins the presidential election by a very likely slim 1% margin just enough for him to avoid a run-off, this in the light that his party has lost the majority in parliament? Should the opposition then go the Kenyan way of mass demonstrations? There are presidents in this world who rule without a majority in parliament why should Zimbabwe be different or before it Kenya?
I really wonder how Kenya would have been perceived worldwide had Odinga gone to court to challenge the presidential results (why were they the only ones that were rigged?) instead of calling for mass demonstrations.
The ECK meanwhile has as predicted declined to acknowledge the stolen "serious mistakes" report.
Anyway, we now have a PNUODM government with a massive 44 member cabinet which will eat into our resources and Kenyans should not expect any meaningful development until the coalition breaks up in a year or two and one of the party wins the following election out rightly. What really makes me angry is why both parties did not name their cabinet members immediately. Do Kenyans really have to wait till Sunday to know whose in?
I predict that the following days newspapers will be full of speculation and leaked inside information as to who is in and whose out with some very pissed off parliamentarians threatening to dump the party or cause chaos by ...you guessed it... calling for mass demonstrations! Well that is Kenyan politics for you :-/!
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
A revolution in Public transport
This is a cool transport system to be implemented in Heathrow Terminal 5 - a driver less taxi!
Get more pics here. Advanced Transport Systems Ltd. www.atsltd.co.uk
Get more pics here. Advanced Transport Systems Ltd. www.atsltd.co.uk
Do you have to wait for a problem to manifest itself before solving an issue?
I was reading a Newsweek article about the problems currently being experienced at the new Heathrow Airport Terminal 5. The article compares Heathrow to other European airports and finds a major flaw in Heathrow's design: It has too few runways! Some stats to compare the major European airport and ours:
European Airports -
Heathrow 2 runways 99% operation capacity
Schiphol Amsterdam 5 runways 75% operation capacity,
Charles de Gaulle Paris 4 runways 75% operation capacity,
Frankfurt Germany 3 runways approval to build a fourth 75% operation capacity.
Kenya -
JKIA current operation capacity: 176% and growing, 1 runway utilisation: 75%
Expansion plans:
Passenger terminal to be increased 215% (that's 82% operation capacity using present levels)
Apron parking to be increased by 50%
Future projection - 9m passengers by 2024. This means that once the expansion programme is finished the Kenya Airport Authority will have to start work on a second 4m passenger terminal and a 2nd runway to accommodate the projected passengers in time. This will take into consideration how long it takes to push such a project through the government bureaucracy and construction period.
The maxing out of capacities is not limited to the airport but anything that needs future planning. Some things that come to mind right now:
Do we really have to wait till a problem manifests itself before we try to solve it, playing catch-up. We should have think tanks whose work it is just to sit down and project or play out all kind of scenarios and develop contingency plans of what to do in such cases. This is called planning!
European Airports -
Heathrow 2 runways 99% operation capacity
Schiphol Amsterdam 5 runways 75% operation capacity,
Charles de Gaulle Paris 4 runways 75% operation capacity,
Frankfurt Germany 3 runways approval to build a fourth 75% operation capacity.
Kenya -
JKIA current operation capacity: 176% and growing, 1 runway utilisation: 75%
Expansion plans:
Passenger terminal to be increased 215% (that's 82% operation capacity using present levels)
Apron parking to be increased by 50%
Future projection - 9m passengers by 2024. This means that once the expansion programme is finished the Kenya Airport Authority will have to start work on a second 4m passenger terminal and a 2nd runway to accommodate the projected passengers in time. This will take into consideration how long it takes to push such a project through the government bureaucracy and construction period.
The maxing out of capacities is not limited to the airport but anything that needs future planning. Some things that come to mind right now:
- Electricity - 97% utilisation capacity
- CBD parking - 1000% and growing
- Nairobi - 214% utilisation capacity (planned to accommodate 1.4m inhabitants currently 3m)
Do we really have to wait till a problem manifests itself before we try to solve it, playing catch-up. We should have think tanks whose work it is just to sit down and project or play out all kind of scenarios and develop contingency plans of what to do in such cases. This is called planning!
Political Activists and Stolen Documents
Today's papers (Nation & Standard) are plastered with news about how the ECK made mistakes during the election. The interesting thing about it is that this information is based on a internal report that was stolen from an ECK meeting in Kilifi, when activists stormed the meeting and disrupted it, stealing the documents in the process. Weeks later the activists present the document to Kenyans and threaten to take the ECK officials to court.
My question on this whole situation is how trustworthy are the activists? They did STEAL the documents in the first place. Can we really trust them to be showing us the genuine document read original report? Could they not have doctored the documents to suit their own agenda? If the ECK was to produce a document that is completely different from what the activists are presenting, who do we Kenyans then trust?
Funny thing is that the Nation article did not question the activists about how genuine the documents are that they were being shown. The Nation article even starts by stating:
" The electoral commission has admitted that it committed serious mistakes in its conduct of last year’s General Election."
No ECK official is quoted in the article to have made this statement or questioned about its validity!
The Standard does though write about the activists claiming to have the document handed over to them by an ECK official. I do find the Standard a tinge too anti-government (before the elections and after the raid on their premises) but for this article, they did at least make an effort to talk to some ECK officials and present a more balanced picture of the situation.
Man, are Kenyans so gullible! I think the post election chaos has turned us into herd animals that we can be easily misled and made to swallow wholesome someone's agenda without looking at the big picture!
My question on this whole situation is how trustworthy are the activists? They did STEAL the documents in the first place. Can we really trust them to be showing us the genuine document read original report? Could they not have doctored the documents to suit their own agenda? If the ECK was to produce a document that is completely different from what the activists are presenting, who do we Kenyans then trust?
Funny thing is that the Nation article did not question the activists about how genuine the documents are that they were being shown. The Nation article even starts by stating:
" The electoral commission has admitted that it committed serious mistakes in its conduct of last year’s General Election."
No ECK official is quoted in the article to have made this statement or questioned about its validity!
The Standard does though write about the activists claiming to have the document handed over to them by an ECK official. I do find the Standard a tinge too anti-government (before the elections and after the raid on their premises) but for this article, they did at least make an effort to talk to some ECK officials and present a more balanced picture of the situation.
Man, are Kenyans so gullible! I think the post election chaos has turned us into herd animals that we can be easily misled and made to swallow wholesome someone's agenda without looking at the big picture!
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Infrastructure Information
I was in a meeting with a client last week and it became apparent that a lot of information necessary for some construction work should be consolidated in one place so that it is easily available for interested parties. This is to avoid a situation like this one where a Chinese road construction company (do this guys have one road making machine they seem to be taking ages to fix Mombasa Road) cut Kenya Data Networks fibre optic cables.
With Kenya apparently the regional hub and Nairobi its economic hub, detailed maps of where fibre optic cables are laid will have to be put into a central repository like the University of Nairobi or one of the Ministries if the minions do not hold you hostage with a "lost" map. Nairobi currently has 4! fibre-optic cables ringing it! I do not know their locations. The maps should also have information about water pipes, drains, electrical lines, telephone lines (unfortunately becoming extinct though much more reliable than those wireless lines Telkom is pushing to consumers) etc. I do not trust The Nairobi City Council or the Ministry of Lands to keep any records especially after the suspicious fire in the Engineering Department office and the parrallel lands office title deed scam.
Information that should also be readily available are: the geological formation of Nairobi and its environs...actually every major city and town in Kenya, Civil Aviation map, Telecommunication "corridors" and future government plans like the bypasses etc. Detailed Nairobi maps can currently be obtained from Survey of Kenya, but you have to be vetted by Department of Defence! So we will have to do with shitty maps like this one or Google Maps.
With the undersea cable war on, its interesting to note that worldwide cable maps have already been updated to show the cables connecting the East African coast.
Lets hope that SEACOM, TEAMS and EASSY become a reality by the end of next year.
With Kenya apparently the regional hub and Nairobi its economic hub, detailed maps of where fibre optic cables are laid will have to be put into a central repository like the University of Nairobi or one of the Ministries if the minions do not hold you hostage with a "lost" map. Nairobi currently has 4! fibre-optic cables ringing it! I do not know their locations. The maps should also have information about water pipes, drains, electrical lines, telephone lines (unfortunately becoming extinct though much more reliable than those wireless lines Telkom is pushing to consumers) etc. I do not trust The Nairobi City Council or the Ministry of Lands to keep any records especially after the suspicious fire in the Engineering Department office and the parrallel lands office title deed scam.
Information that should also be readily available are: the geological formation of Nairobi and its environs...actually every major city and town in Kenya, Civil Aviation map, Telecommunication "corridors" and future government plans like the bypasses etc. Detailed Nairobi maps can currently be obtained from Survey of Kenya, but you have to be vetted by Department of Defence! So we will have to do with shitty maps like this one or Google Maps.
With the undersea cable war on, its interesting to note that worldwide cable maps have already been updated to show the cables connecting the East African coast.
Lets hope that SEACOM, TEAMS and EASSY become a reality by the end of next year.
Friday, March 28, 2008
CDF can kill you & Muthurwa Market News
Seems like being anywhere near the Community Development Funds can get you killed. CDF has been a topic of discussion in our office for a long time with debates being on whether to raise it and who should manage it. It seems like some people see it as a way to enrich themselves quick leading to intense competition on control of the funds.
Apparently the Muthurwa residents are not happy with the Bus park & Hawkers market developments around them. At first there was joy that a market has been opened close to them and also that matatu's are nearby. Now the joy has turned to agony as complaints about noise, dust, fumes pollution and thugs have become common! Like I wrote before, the whole thing was half planned almost as if the planners do not look at the whole picture and the residents reaction does not surprise me!
Apparently the Muthurwa residents are not happy with the Bus park & Hawkers market developments around them. At first there was joy that a market has been opened close to them and also that matatu's are nearby. Now the joy has turned to agony as complaints about noise, dust, fumes pollution and thugs have become common! Like I wrote before, the whole thing was half planned almost as if the planners do not look at the whole picture and the residents reaction does not surprise me!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Rogue Contractors and Working for the Government
Well it seems like the new Vice President House or is it now the Prime Ministers House is not complete. It was meant to have been completed in 2005...well its 2008 and it's nowhere nearing completion. various reasons for the delay are given which I will expound on. There are two main issues-:
1. Working for the government is not easy. While tendering, the government is required by law to publish the tender details in a local daily, which is a good thing or you will never get to know about these things. The bad side is that what happens in such situations is, everyone who has a jembe and a wheelbarrow considers himself a contractor and applies for the tender. This person normally wont have the capacity to do the job at the required skill level and will probably be the lowest in terms of cost. These are the guys who get the jobs mostly and later on when there are delays you realise that the guy shouldn't have been given the job in the first place.
Another problem is the inspectors from the ministry. They look at your contract value, come along to site inspect and check that you are complying in every way possible to their specifications and find that you are doing a better job than expected. This is when they claim that you are earning too much money and you can part with Ksh. 1m or more without it hurting your pocket...the guy then proceeds to hold you ransom by not signing the necessary certification papers!
Also the government is a very slow moving behemoth of a bureaucracy. It takes ages to get paid and if you are not a big company with enough capital and deeeeep pockets, you are done for. If you can forget those government contracts.
2. The contractors, due to the above mentioned "problems" resort to political patronage to get jobs. You will find a contractor getting a job and actually getting paid the full amount (they have connections to a person with weight to throw around) and they still end up not doing the job. Why should they? They pay their patron some cut from the total amount and he protects them from any minion trying to get to them. All they will do, if its a road, is patch it up till the next payment that they get and basta!
For example whoever has been to western Kenya will note the poor state of the roads. All these years, all the western Kenya road repair contracts have been going to a major firm based in Kisumu (no names). They do get paid every year for the "work done" (actually to be done) What they do is very evident in the state of the roads! This is a company that could recently afford to go all the way from Kisumu to Mombasa to do a 10km stretch of road beating out all the Mombasa contractors! As far as I can tell they do have political patronage so no one does anything to them and they still get on getting all the road repair contracts.
Political patronage can be dangerous some times since our politicians do like overstepping their mandate and increasing their job description to cover areas that do not concern them.
Contracting in Kenya is a challenging business.
1. Working for the government is not easy. While tendering, the government is required by law to publish the tender details in a local daily, which is a good thing or you will never get to know about these things. The bad side is that what happens in such situations is, everyone who has a jembe and a wheelbarrow considers himself a contractor and applies for the tender. This person normally wont have the capacity to do the job at the required skill level and will probably be the lowest in terms of cost. These are the guys who get the jobs mostly and later on when there are delays you realise that the guy shouldn't have been given the job in the first place.
Another problem is the inspectors from the ministry. They look at your contract value, come along to site inspect and check that you are complying in every way possible to their specifications and find that you are doing a better job than expected. This is when they claim that you are earning too much money and you can part with Ksh. 1m or more without it hurting your pocket...the guy then proceeds to hold you ransom by not signing the necessary certification papers!
Also the government is a very slow moving behemoth of a bureaucracy. It takes ages to get paid and if you are not a big company with enough capital and deeeeep pockets, you are done for. If you can forget those government contracts.
2. The contractors, due to the above mentioned "problems" resort to political patronage to get jobs. You will find a contractor getting a job and actually getting paid the full amount (they have connections to a person with weight to throw around) and they still end up not doing the job. Why should they? They pay their patron some cut from the total amount and he protects them from any minion trying to get to them. All they will do, if its a road, is patch it up till the next payment that they get and basta!
For example whoever has been to western Kenya will note the poor state of the roads. All these years, all the western Kenya road repair contracts have been going to a major firm based in Kisumu (no names). They do get paid every year for the "work done" (actually to be done) What they do is very evident in the state of the roads! This is a company that could recently afford to go all the way from Kisumu to Mombasa to do a 10km stretch of road beating out all the Mombasa contractors! As far as I can tell they do have political patronage so no one does anything to them and they still get on getting all the road repair contracts.
Political patronage can be dangerous some times since our politicians do like overstepping their mandate and increasing their job description to cover areas that do not concern them.
Contracting in Kenya is a challenging business.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Buses vs. Matatus Redux
My last post about buses vs. matatu's got some guys going about the cost of buying those articulated buses vs. cost of a matatu. I do not know why everyone thinks that matatu's are cheaper to operate just because you buy them cheaper than a bus. I just found out that a new articulated bus costs about $500,000 (Ksh. 32.5m). That's a (edit) high price. If you find the price prohibitive then let me propose a way out where one can share the cost.
Let a public transport company for Nairobi metro (Nairobi and its surroundings i.e. Thika, Kiambu, Muranga, Athi River, Ngong, etc) be set up. The company should have shareholding in the following percentages:
Government - 20%
Nairobi City Council - 20%
Matatu Owners / Operaters - 45%
Public (floated in the Nairobi Stock Exchange) - 15%
The Government can even reduce its shareholding and those added to the matatu operators and the public. I am sure the company would be able to raise the capital to buy the buses and get rid of all the small 14seater minibuses. The main reason for having the City Council as part of the ownership structure is that they could at some point build extra lanes for these buses to operate on, thus avoiding any traffic jams like they have done in Curitiba, Brazil. This link has some interesting facts about how the city coped with their rapid population growth.
Now looking at the radial Curitiba transport pattern one cannot fail to see the resemblance of the transport pattern what Kenya Bus Service used to have them days. Presently the matatu's have split their operations along the former KBS routes into two. Where previously you would take one bus form Eastlands to Westlands, today you have to take two or even three. All the matatu's end their service at the city centre thus congesting it. Before, KBS used to pass through the city and only stopped at bus station to change the crew at around 1200-1300hrs. This is something that Uhuru Kenyatta should ponder about. He would decongest the city centre simply by ordering the matatu's to travel the WHOLE old KBS routes.
If Uhuru wants to keep his Muthurwa-market-bus-stop-model, then he has to do it to all public transport businesses coming into the city centre and not only those who serve Eastlands (apart from metro and companies). That will mean keeping the city free of traffic and if he really wants the CBD decongested, he should extend it to affect private cars.
By the way have you guys seen the double decker bus on the 58 route...maybe we should get all those decommissioned double deckers from England over here to help us cope with our transport issues.
Let a public transport company for Nairobi metro (Nairobi and its surroundings i.e. Thika, Kiambu, Muranga, Athi River, Ngong, etc) be set up. The company should have shareholding in the following percentages:
Government - 20%
Nairobi City Council - 20%
Matatu Owners / Operaters - 45%
Public (floated in the Nairobi Stock Exchange) - 15%
The Government can even reduce its shareholding and those added to the matatu operators and the public. I am sure the company would be able to raise the capital to buy the buses and get rid of all the small 14seater minibuses. The main reason for having the City Council as part of the ownership structure is that they could at some point build extra lanes for these buses to operate on, thus avoiding any traffic jams like they have done in Curitiba, Brazil. This link has some interesting facts about how the city coped with their rapid population growth.
Now looking at the radial Curitiba transport pattern one cannot fail to see the resemblance of the transport pattern what Kenya Bus Service used to have them days. Presently the matatu's have split their operations along the former KBS routes into two. Where previously you would take one bus form Eastlands to Westlands, today you have to take two or even three. All the matatu's end their service at the city centre thus congesting it. Before, KBS used to pass through the city and only stopped at bus station to change the crew at around 1200-1300hrs. This is something that Uhuru Kenyatta should ponder about. He would decongest the city centre simply by ordering the matatu's to travel the WHOLE old KBS routes.
If Uhuru wants to keep his Muthurwa-market-bus-stop-model, then he has to do it to all public transport businesses coming into the city centre and not only those who serve Eastlands (apart from metro and companies). That will mean keeping the city free of traffic and if he really wants the CBD decongested, he should extend it to affect private cars.
By the way have you guys seen the double decker bus on the 58 route...maybe we should get all those decommissioned double deckers from England over here to help us cope with our transport issues.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
The Kenyan Press Rant
I must confess that I do not own a TV. I do not see the need to have one. After watching Kenyan TV for a few months I decided that it was just extra baggage unless I got DSTV or GTV meaning I would have to find time to sit and actually watch TV. When I came back from Germany, I just could not stand the way our reporters talk and report things. The news reports are stretched unnecessarily long and they report on trivial matters almost as if to mask the viewers from things that matter like development.
On TV presenters, KTN's Njoroge Mwaura phonetics are terrible. He accents and cuts sentences at totally the wrong places making him stress the wrong thing. He seems to be the role model of all the new staff that KTN has hired.
Beatrice Marshal is following Mwaura's footsteps and could someone please tell her not to be wearing those trouser suites...she is tall thin, wears high collar shirts ala Karl Lagerfeld to hide her long neck and she would look nice in a long dress since KTN has taken the format of having presenters stand in front of the desk before going to the news is not really good for her.
The NTV reporters are kurutus. An report that has stuck to my mind is the time when Chinese President Hu Jin Tao was in Kenya and the local press were told to ask 1 question... a reporter from NTV was given the task and he wasted it on a totally irrelevant question about some shenanigans that took place the day before in Parliament. Hallo this was the Chinese president...think neo-colonialism, cheap knock-off's, trade imbalance, human rights, Dafur...Their report of the visit started with the remark "who is in town..." and I am meant to take them seriously. They did though take some timeless pics of the First Lady in some awkward situation on the State House balcony.
Julie Gichuru also wasted a once in a lifetime chance to ask Obama some hard hitting questions about his future political relationship with Kenya like why is he in Kenya, apart from visiting his family, when he clearly says that he represents his state Illinois interests...she gets soft on controversial or charismatic figures.
Robert Nagila keeps on bobbing his head while speaking. Sometimes I think that our future presenters are last years winners of the Poem & Insha category in the School Music Festival.
Oh yes and why do all reporters pause while saying the last caption of their report, stressing their location right down to the street corner/ meter?
KBC is the worst Parrot in this category and Citizen TV... just cannot shake that Papa Shirandula look no matter how much they re-launch themselves... even the matter of objectivity is a no no. K24 TV is too casual for my taste. All TV stations stretch the 9 o'clock news unnecessarily long (1 hour! Airtime must be cheap in Kenya!) so that some times the sport presenters have to rush and read fast to keep time!?.
KTN has the best editors but ever since they were raided they have become sooooo overly critical of the government that they lost their objectivity and cut their reports to suite their view. For example the recent Nairobi mayoral election was painted by KTN to be a huge PNU rigging scheme just like the election. Remember that KTN (stepping into a mine field here) had made everyone believe that Odinga had won the presidential election and Kibaki had rigged himself in through the ECK. To prove my point, every 2007 election result sceptic quotes KTN as their authority! By the way, the EU final report on the elections is still pending though it was due in February...I am not surprised since the EU was very vocal to support Odinga without checking their facts...now they will have to cook their books somehow considering that most of their observers were mostly in the national parks. At least NTV tried to remain objective during the chaos but lost it when the media ban was imposed. Anyway Odinga has now got what he always wanted but broke the back of our Judiciary system along the way which he incidentally so trusted to try and stop the Safaricom IPO just before the elections but not to settle the election dispute. I digress.
The reason I am seriously condemning our Pressmen is that I cannot really say that they are objective / research in depth all articles and reports that they present at all. I do not see any form of professionalism in them. They are not critical enough to focus on development issues or uncover government scams. They are also very Nairobi centric in their reporting. I really miss WDR 5 in Germany a radio station dedicated to news & documentaries or Phoenix the current affairs channel which covers parliamentary debates, shows news conferences and rallies UNCUT and in full length. I also miss The Weekly Review as it was before 1984. No wonder in Kenya news has become Newsshot / Bullseye and in the print media Nairobi Star / Metro "newspapers".
I still have more rants about the press and have just started.
On TV presenters, KTN's Njoroge Mwaura phonetics are terrible. He accents and cuts sentences at totally the wrong places making him stress the wrong thing. He seems to be the role model of all the new staff that KTN has hired.
Beatrice Marshal is following Mwaura's footsteps and could someone please tell her not to be wearing those trouser suites...she is tall thin, wears high collar shirts ala Karl Lagerfeld to hide her long neck and she would look nice in a long dress since KTN has taken the format of having presenters stand in front of the desk before going to the news is not really good for her.
The NTV reporters are kurutus. An report that has stuck to my mind is the time when Chinese President Hu Jin Tao was in Kenya and the local press were told to ask 1 question... a reporter from NTV was given the task and he wasted it on a totally irrelevant question about some shenanigans that took place the day before in Parliament. Hallo this was the Chinese president...think neo-colonialism, cheap knock-off's, trade imbalance, human rights, Dafur...Their report of the visit started with the remark "who is in town..." and I am meant to take them seriously. They did though take some timeless pics of the First Lady in some awkward situation on the State House balcony.
Julie Gichuru also wasted a once in a lifetime chance to ask Obama some hard hitting questions about his future political relationship with Kenya like why is he in Kenya, apart from visiting his family, when he clearly says that he represents his state Illinois interests...she gets soft on controversial or charismatic figures.
Robert Nagila keeps on bobbing his head while speaking. Sometimes I think that our future presenters are last years winners of the Poem & Insha category in the School Music Festival.
Oh yes and why do all reporters pause while saying the last caption of their report, stressing their location right down to the street corner/ meter?
KBC is the worst Parrot in this category and Citizen TV... just cannot shake that Papa Shirandula look no matter how much they re-launch themselves... even the matter of objectivity is a no no. K24 TV is too casual for my taste. All TV stations stretch the 9 o'clock news unnecessarily long (1 hour! Airtime must be cheap in Kenya!) so that some times the sport presenters have to rush and read fast to keep time!?.
KTN has the best editors but ever since they were raided they have become sooooo overly critical of the government that they lost their objectivity and cut their reports to suite their view. For example the recent Nairobi mayoral election was painted by KTN to be a huge PNU rigging scheme just like the election. Remember that KTN (stepping into a mine field here) had made everyone believe that Odinga had won the presidential election and Kibaki had rigged himself in through the ECK. To prove my point, every 2007 election result sceptic quotes KTN as their authority! By the way, the EU final report on the elections is still pending though it was due in February...I am not surprised since the EU was very vocal to support Odinga without checking their facts...now they will have to cook their books somehow considering that most of their observers were mostly in the national parks. At least NTV tried to remain objective during the chaos but lost it when the media ban was imposed. Anyway Odinga has now got what he always wanted but broke the back of our Judiciary system along the way which he incidentally so trusted to try and stop the Safaricom IPO just before the elections but not to settle the election dispute. I digress.
The reason I am seriously condemning our Pressmen is that I cannot really say that they are objective / research in depth all articles and reports that they present at all. I do not see any form of professionalism in them. They are not critical enough to focus on development issues or uncover government scams. They are also very Nairobi centric in their reporting. I really miss WDR 5 in Germany a radio station dedicated to news & documentaries or Phoenix the current affairs channel which covers parliamentary debates, shows news conferences and rallies UNCUT and in full length. I also miss The Weekly Review as it was before 1984. No wonder in Kenya news has become Newsshot / Bullseye and in the print media Nairobi Star / Metro "newspapers".
I still have more rants about the press and have just started.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Arthur C. Clarke dead at 90
I heard of his death on the BBC last night. He is one of my favourite Science Fiction authors alongside Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein and I fondly remember his three laws of prediction:
1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Read more here: Clarke Foundation, Famous Quotes, Sir Arthur Clarke.net
1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Read more here: Clarke Foundation, Famous Quotes, Sir Arthur Clarke.net
Obama Race Speech
spider spider on the wall...
This post has no meaning and is meant for spiders....Technorati Profile
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Vision 2030
News is out that the much hyped vision 2030 will be implemented in July. I really wonder how one can set up a plan to develop Kenya as can be read in the brochure and not mention anything to do with infrastructure (roads & railway). The only thing I have seen is a powerpoint picture of "how Nairobi can become".
Anyway there are now plans to extend the railway to the airport as announced by Hon. Makwere the same one who suspended a swoop on defective matatu's in 2006 claiming he owned one and the police action would be shooting himself in the foot. I will blog on the proposed light rail network later on.
Anyway there are now plans to extend the railway to the airport as announced by Hon. Makwere the same one who suspended a swoop on defective matatu's in 2006 claiming he owned one and the police action would be shooting himself in the foot. I will blog on the proposed light rail network later on.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Nairobi City Council Website
Nairobi City council website hosting service has expired. Follow the link and you find this message:
nairobicity.org expired on 02/25/2008 and is pending renewal or deletion.
The website had very inadequate information for someone seeking to find out which services are offered by the Council...it was just like any generic tourist information site for a city i.e. aimed at tourists and not the locals who live in the city. What the site really lacked was information on who does what and how to contact the relevant person / department.
Nyeri Town Council website is good but not perfect. At least the phone numbers and contacts of the various officials can be found there.
What Kenya really needs is transparency and accountability so that when things go wrong with something like the Muthurwa market transport fiasco we know who to ask and not some elected official who has held the job two months. Its the minions on the ground who we need to be looking at.
Reports are out that matatu operators are striking in town. Nothing new there...from my previous posts it was inevitable.
nairobicity.org expired on 02/25/2008 and is pending renewal or deletion.
The website had very inadequate information for someone seeking to find out which services are offered by the Council...it was just like any generic tourist information site for a city i.e. aimed at tourists and not the locals who live in the city. What the site really lacked was information on who does what and how to contact the relevant person / department.
Nyeri Town Council website is good but not perfect. At least the phone numbers and contacts of the various officials can be found there.
What Kenya really needs is transparency and accountability so that when things go wrong with something like the Muthurwa market transport fiasco we know who to ask and not some elected official who has held the job two months. Its the minions on the ground who we need to be looking at.
Reports are out that matatu operators are striking in town. Nothing new there...from my previous posts it was inevitable.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
More on Muthurwa Market and the Dog's Master
I am attaching a Google Earth screen shot to highlight the magnitude of the planning problem our city planners have created by re-routing the matatu's. Marked blue are the major road arteries used by matatu's. Of course when there is a jam then other alternatives are used. Now all the matatu's from the east have been directed to go to the stop right before the Muthurwa market. The road is narrow and a dead end...leaving no room for our favourite road rules flouters...matatu drivers. No wonder people have to go to city stadium to get their transport home.
Michuki just announced that Thika Road will be made into a 10 lane superhighway. That is good news as long as thoughts are made on how and where the 10 lanes will end. I hope we do not get into the Nigerian situation where 4 lanes converge into 1! I cannot find photo of the highway online but its in Rem Kohlhaas book Lagos: How It Works.
On a lighter note now that we are talking of Lagos, I am sure by now you must have received a picture like the one below in your email inbox taken somewhere in Nigeria. I remember receiving a similar one taken from a mobile phone some years back and my Nigerian relatives told me that the boys were either selling bush meat (yani these guys eat hyenas!) or they were selling "fierce dogs". Well I stumbled upon an explanation which can be found here and photos can be found here.
Michuki just announced that Thika Road will be made into a 10 lane superhighway. That is good news as long as thoughts are made on how and where the 10 lanes will end. I hope we do not get into the Nigerian situation where 4 lanes converge into 1! I cannot find photo of the highway online but its in Rem Kohlhaas book Lagos: How It Works.On a lighter note now that we are talking of Lagos, I am sure by now you must have received a picture like the one below in your email inbox taken somewhere in Nigeria. I remember receiving a similar one taken from a mobile phone some years back and my Nigerian relatives told me that the boys were either selling bush meat (yani these guys eat hyenas!) or they were selling "fierce dogs". Well I stumbled upon an explanation which can be found here and photos can be found here.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Matatu's v.s. Buses
I must confess to have enjoyed ridding the bus in Europe...in cities i.e. not the long distance ones. In Kenya I enjoyed ridding the Kenya Bus Service, who used to be punctual and operate also in the wee hours of the morning... that was a long time ago. Well gone are the days and we now have matatu's which come in two versions:
14 seater -
or 29 seater.
The Muthurwa bus terminal problem with its 3000 odd matatu's could be easily solved by getting bigger buses with capacities of up to 190 passengers. These buses should be low to allow those of us who are getting old to get into them.
I find the Citi-Hoppa's, Double M's and KBS'es too high for comfort that I am always afraid that they would topple over when over speeding round a corner (most citi hoppa buses have disabled their speed governors!) or I would fall off while alighting through their narrow high doors.
The buses should look something like this:
Or on high volume routes like the Eastlands one the buses should be the articulated ones.
There are many advantages of using such buses. Not only do they have a lifetime of about 12 years when properly maintained but there is a possibility to have them running on natural gas or have hybrid ones running on both diesel and electricity - they can have batteries or have connections to electric pylons on designated routes.
To get them the Michuki rules will have to be revised to not apply to these buses, since most of the passengers will be standing as one can see from the bottom pic depicting the standard interior of such a bus.
Anyway I haven't witnessed this in a long while and hope that we do not go back there any time soon!
14 seater -
or 29 seater.The Muthurwa bus terminal problem with its 3000 odd matatu's could be easily solved by getting bigger buses with capacities of up to 190 passengers. These buses should be low to allow those of us who are getting old to get into them.I find the Citi-Hoppa's, Double M's and KBS'es too high for comfort that I am always afraid that they would topple over when over speeding round a corner (most citi hoppa buses have disabled their speed governors!) or I would fall off while alighting through their narrow high doors.
The buses should look something like this:
Or on high volume routes like the Eastlands one the buses should be the articulated ones.There are many advantages of using such buses. Not only do they have a lifetime of about 12 years when properly maintained but there is a possibility to have them running on natural gas or have hybrid ones running on both diesel and electricity - they can have batteries or have connections to electric pylons on designated routes.To get them the Michuki rules will have to be revised to not apply to these buses, since most of the passengers will be standing as one can see from the bottom pic depicting the standard interior of such a bus.
Anyway I haven't witnessed this in a long while and hope that we do not go back there any time soon!
Muthurwa Market and Bus Park
I think the Muthurwa Market idea is noble and good. Our planners are at least trying to solve the issues that plague us. Hawkers are a nuisance especially for pedestrians in town. Two weeks ago on a Saturday, I dumped my car opposite city hall and walked all the way down to OTC. It didn't take me long to realise that it was faster to walk on the road watching out for speeding matatu's coming from behind than on the curb which had been taken over by hawkers.
Though the hawkers offer cheap products for the masses, they are really a nuisance. The market came at the nick of time to save and sort out the situation. After a few hiccups while distributing the stalls (a 1m x 1m space marked on the floor of a mabati sheet covered space) the rent was reduced from Ksh.100 ($1.53) per day to Ksh.50 ($0.76) per day. To add value to the location (bring people to the hawkers rather than have the hawkers follow the people), the minister for Local Government Uhuru Kenyatta ordered that all matatu's plying the Eastlands route (Jogoo road) terminate their services at the market.
My take on this is:
Good:
- The market will pay itself back in 5 years at the current rate.
- Nairobi CBD will mostly be free of hawkers!
- The CBD will also have less matatu's
Bad:
The planning was half done! The matatu directive has actually led to congestion. The matatu's are rightly terminating their services at City Stadium. The problem here is that Jogoo Road is a 3 lane highway and the entry to the "bus park" (this is an entry to the railway residence on a road located off the city stadium roundabout) is two lane opposing traffic road with no real turning area at the end. Considering the way matatu's are impatient, they will always overtake and end up blocking each other for hours in the terminus. This is exactly what is what is currently happening! Think of 3000 matatu's, hawkers and commuters at rush hour on a 500m stretch of road! Please do not move any more matatu's to the terminus!
The market was grossly over priced! The Ksh.700m ($10.7m) - mostly taken to be Ksh. 1billion / $14.3m - price tag is about the same as what it cost to put up the Rahimtulla Trust Tower on Upperhill. The market is just a concrete floor with metal shed covering the area. Even if inflation is factored in and the current price of steel which has gone through the roof there is no justification for the figure.
There are two factors that could have led to the enormous figure:
Though the hawkers offer cheap products for the masses, they are really a nuisance. The market came at the nick of time to save and sort out the situation. After a few hiccups while distributing the stalls (a 1m x 1m space marked on the floor of a mabati sheet covered space) the rent was reduced from Ksh.100 ($1.53) per day to Ksh.50 ($0.76) per day. To add value to the location (bring people to the hawkers rather than have the hawkers follow the people), the minister for Local Government Uhuru Kenyatta ordered that all matatu's plying the Eastlands route (Jogoo road) terminate their services at the market.
My take on this is:
Good:
- The market will pay itself back in 5 years at the current rate.
- Nairobi CBD will mostly be free of hawkers!
- The CBD will also have less matatu's
Bad:
The planning was half done! The matatu directive has actually led to congestion. The matatu's are rightly terminating their services at City Stadium. The problem here is that Jogoo Road is a 3 lane highway and the entry to the "bus park" (this is an entry to the railway residence on a road located off the city stadium roundabout) is two lane opposing traffic road with no real turning area at the end. Considering the way matatu's are impatient, they will always overtake and end up blocking each other for hours in the terminus. This is exactly what is what is currently happening! Think of 3000 matatu's, hawkers and commuters at rush hour on a 500m stretch of road! Please do not move any more matatu's to the terminus!
The market was grossly over priced! The Ksh.700m ($10.7m) - mostly taken to be Ksh. 1billion / $14.3m - price tag is about the same as what it cost to put up the Rahimtulla Trust Tower on Upperhill. The market is just a concrete floor with metal shed covering the area. Even if inflation is factored in and the current price of steel which has gone through the roof there is no justification for the figure.
There are two factors that could have led to the enormous figure:
- Consider the scandal that hit Uhuru Kenyatta personal assistant regarding the nomination of councillors, it would not surprise me if the City Council principals involved in the construction and planning of the structure took home a huge cut.
- The current procurement act as used by the government favours those who are supplying stationery but it is totally inadequate for the construction industry. Do not be surprised when you hear such sums in all government projects!
Thursday, March 13, 2008
First Post
The post election violence / clashes / ethnic cleansing or whatever you want to call it in Kenya, opened my eyes to the need for a clear development structure either by the government or by us Kenyans since in my opinion our parliamentarians all seem preoccupied with power, wages, terms in office and cars (login required). I am yet to see a Kenyan leader who really has a vision for Kenya and the will to develop the whole country and not his pocket or region alone.
I know the ninth parliament gave us the vision 2030 which has not really been properly decimated to the public. All I know are bits and pieces about the vision and I am willing to have a look at everything. I might have missed the opportunity to add my voice to the vision in some public forum. I will try and use this blog to address those development issues which will mainly be those affecting infrastructure and development.
I know the ninth parliament gave us the vision 2030 which has not really been properly decimated to the public. All I know are bits and pieces about the vision and I am willing to have a look at everything. I might have missed the opportunity to add my voice to the vision in some public forum. I will try and use this blog to address those development issues which will mainly be those affecting infrastructure and development.
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