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.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
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!
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