'Opening up the north' - disappointment

I am very disappointed. Disappointed at the fact that the proposed ‘corridor’, that I somehow, in my naivety, believed would pass through North-Eastern Province (NEP), would after all be connecting Lamu and Ethiopia through Isiolo and Moyale. Turkana County will also benefit from this venture. The ‘opening up of the north’ is indeed intended for linking up the proposed port in Lamu to both Sudan and Ethiopia. Thus, NEP does not at this juncture appear to feature anyway in the plan.

Unfortunately, I don’t seem to also hear any voice from the political leaders from NEP. Either they are oblivious to these facts or I can only come to the conclusion that they don’t care. This is, without a doubt, very depressing. It’s depressing because the very ones tasked with fighting for our cause are obviously sleeping on their job.

With this tendency, I only envision NEP to continue wallowing in the poverty and misery that it is synonymous with. Ours will continue featuring at the bottom of all positive indicators and vice versa. More importantly, the infrastructure that we so earnestly desire will remain a dream and just that, a dream. We will just be deluding ourselves that our future would be bright when indeed we are not doing anything laudable to achieve such noble goals.

In this case, the onus then lies not with the elected leaders but with the electorate. The residents of NEP need to ask themselves why their leaders continue performing so dismally. Are they elected only to earn obscene amounts of tax free salaries and polish their CVs? Or, is it to only help their immediate families and their cronies? The answers definitely are far from these. We get these visionless leaders primarily because of the intrinsic clan nature of the Somali. And that’s what we need to fight as the electorates in NEP.

However, it doesn’t mean that we should keep quiet until we overcome this cancer that ails all Somalis. On the contrary we need to put these leaders to account for their inactions. They also need to be reminded the reasons they got elected in the first place. They specifically need to be asked what they are doing as regards the lack of roads in the province. Don’t these leaders understand the importance of this vital infrastructure?

Even more appalling is the fact that a reader pointed to me that we are indeed partly responsible for our lack of infrastructure in NEP. The claim that some wicked business people from the province are against the idea of improving the road networks, in the mistaken belief that such a vital resource would have a dent on their profit margin. This is, sadly, something that I had heard before. The authenticity of this despicable allegation, however, can not be ascertained but it is not completely impossible. If this is true then we need to expand ‘our war’ and not only fight for our rights but also fight against these imbeciles. You honestly have to be the biggest fool ever created to even think of such an idiotic proposition that would deny us the opportunities to advance to the 21^st century.

Also, as a Muslim, I know and believe that Allah is the best of sustainers. And, in the event that our communication network gets improved then we all will gain from it. I don’t think anyone would lose his God given source of livelihood. In reality, the cost of transportation would definitely come down and effectively lowering the price of goods. Even though some imbeciles would only think of the reduced prices and come to the logical fallacy that their profits would decrease, they need to be informed that the consumer base would expand. This growth in the number of consumers, even regardless of reduced prices, would for sure increase their profit margin. Actually, it would be a win-win case instead of the current scenario where the businesspeople think they are winning at the expense of the masses. And, of course, the better infrastructure would also substantially reduce their operational cost.

A good example of this is traffic between Garissa and Nairobi. The road between the two towns, by Kenyan standards, seems to be in very good shape. This, evidently, reduces the fare and makes more people afford the ‘luxury’ of travelling to Nairobi and vice versa. Contrast that with the time that the road network between the city and Garissa was almost non-existent? We had fewer buses plying this route and by extension only a small number of people travelling. I also dread going to many parts of NEP because of the poor roads and I believe the same is true for many other people. Anyway, we don’t have to think the same way but having proper roads and improvement of other infrastructure in the province would only make life better for all of us, without anyone losing his daily subsistence.

The opening of northern Kenya to the world

There is an important editorial in the DN today about ‘opening up the north’. I think this should be a laudable plan and I pray it gets implemented. A new port in Lamu that is intended to serve landlocked Ethiopia and the necessary highway to link the two seems to be in the pipeline. There is no doubt that the northern part of Kenya will greatly benefit from this, North-Easter Province (NEP) in particular.

I think NEP, together with other districts in northern Kenya, have suffered for too long. NEP currently happens to be the only province in Kenya that doesn’t have tarmacked roads. The tarred road from Nairobi ends at Garissa, which is aptly nicknamed ‘mwisho wa lami’ (the end of the tarmac). And Garissa is actually the nearest town in the province to Nairobi. This effectively cuts communication between ‘down Kenya’ and the rest of the residents in NEP.

Indeed, the town which also hosts the Provincial Commissioner (PC) of NEP straddles to Coast Province. In fact, the PC’s office, residence and almost all the other important offices in the provincial headquarters are located in a territory that is essentially in Coast. Why this remains so is something that I might never get to understand, and especially when it’s a fact that the secessionists groups laid down their weapons many decades ago.

Kenyan Somalis no longer aspire to have theirs amalgamated with Somalia or even go the Eritrean way (their secession from Ethiopia). Rather they not only wish to be fully integrated into mainstream Kenya but also desire to show for it – the goodies that come with being a citizen of a fully functioning state. And the only way they can show for it is to have the necessary infrastructure, social amenities and anything else that will propel the region to economic prosperity, and unshackling them from the poverty and misery that theirs is synonymous with.

Being out of the country, I am not sure which path the ‘opening up’ will take but I believe NEP will benefit from this strategic plan. NEP, just like upper Eastern and a part of Rift Valley, share a border with Ethiopia. Though the intent of ‘opening up the north’ is not meant for the largely marginalised community, the same will, however, have a multiplier effect on the regional economy.

It needs to be noted that currently, Nairobi and other towns in ‘down country’ profit at NEP’s expense. Most of those beleaguered Kenya Somali businessmen found in many parts of ‘down Kenya’ were in most likelihood running away from the lack of amenities in their remote region. Of course with no proper communication networks the cost of business goes up. This ordinarily forces astute business people to seek other ways of overcoming such obstacles. Sadly, the only sure way of avoiding such hardships, for non state actors, is to relocate to where you can easily access all the necessary amenities for your business to expand.

In addition, some of my friends in college who came from Mandera, the farthest town in the province, rarely went back to their hometown while we were in college in Nairobi. Theirs was indeed understandable. I know it would also have been difficult for me to travel such a long distance and importantly on very pathetic roads. Ironically, it is much easier and cheaper for one to travel by bus from Nairobi to Kampala or Dar es Salaam than take the long haul to Mandera, yet the same is in Kenya. I know we still have a lot to show for our Kenyaness.

Also, the leg between Isiolo and Moyale happens to be one of few unpaved sections of the Trans-African Highway that connects Cairo to Cape Town. The evil Moi, for some devilish reasons, decided to disregard this section. Incidentally, Ethiopia and Sudan which are deemed much poorer have both longer stretches paved than Kenya - the richer southern neighbour. This is despite that fact that the African Development Bank had paid for this particular ‘corridor’. I understand Kibaki, immediately after being sworn in 2003, started some work on this important road. I can’t however, confirm what has been achieved to that end so far.

Unless the policy makers decided to take the Lamu - Tana River – Isiolo – Moyale – Addis Ababa route, NEP will in most likelihood benefit from this important venture. Even in the event that NEP is disregarded for the route above, these districts, too, deserve such a crucial infrastructure. However, I think the shortest route would be from Lamu through Ijara, Garissa, and Wajir, to the border town of Moyale. Supposing that the link would not go through NEP, then the onus then would be on the leaders from this part of the world to agitate for their rights in getting a highway of their own. After all, even the people in NEP pay taxes. They also need, collectively with other leaders from the northern parts of Kenya, to fight for better roads and other infrastructure that properly connects these arid areas to ‘down Kenya’.

The communication industry in Kenya

I remember when I first opened an email account. That was in 1999 and in Nairobi. A friend of mine, he is now based in the States, helped me open a Yahoo account. It must have been either in Norwich Union House or the building next to it – Union Towers? These are the places I would later frequent for my browsing. And, I got addicted to the internet. I still can’t stay a whole day without logging into the internet.

The cost of browsing was as high as KES 5 per minute. The rate has since significantly gone down with some café charging as low as 50 cents a minute with most asking for KES 1 per minute. Thus, the same amount you would have needed for an hour on the internet, then, would now grant you between 5 and 10 hours. And that is indeed laudable.

So much has since happened, especially with the advent of the mobile revolution in Kenya, just at the turn of the millennium. Almost everyone in Kenya now owns a mobile phone. An interesting comment I once read, regarding this, was on the Guardian’s website. A couple had visited Kenya as tourists. One day while in Kenya, they left their phones behind and wanted to get in touch with the hotel. They therefore asked some local residents for a phone and “Hundreds of phones suddenly came out of their pockets (the locals), even the shoeless ones!”

With some hindsight, I think the situation would probably have been different if the former Kenya Postal and Telecommunication Company wouldn’t be a corrupt bureaucracy. KPTC’s specialty seemed to have been renting seeking rather than service provision, and they seemed to have hopelessly faired even in that regard. Anyway, they are still to recover from that lack of foresight. All the same it is good that almost everyone can now afford a mobile phone and do not need to bribe some crooked official to access the same.

While the cost of mobile telephony was exorbitant in the initial stages, it has now considerably reduced. Actually, calling across networks then would cost in excess of KES 30 per minute. But this drawback has since been redressed, naturally. We currently have 4 mobile telephone companies. And in competing for market share, each company tries to outdo the other which is always good for the consumer. Indeed, you can now call across networks with as low as KES 3 per minute; a 1000 percent decrease in the cost just like with the internet.

The internet industry has also witnessed some other significant developments besides cost reduction. The archaic dial up connections is no longer in use. With the arrival of the fibre optic cable in Kenya recently, high speed broadband connections is currently the newest fad in the country. Connecting to the World Wide Web is also possible from mobile phones. Luckily, you don’t even need a smart phone to access the internet from your handsets.

The cost of browsing from the phone, while in Kenya, is relatively cheaper as compared to Dubai. Here, in Dubai, it is much cheaper getting access to the internet through broadband connections. But, if you wish to surf the web from your phone then you have to pay exceedingly higher than what guys ‘cough’ in Kenya. On the other hand, unlike in Dubai, getting connected though broadband in Kenya is definitely beyond the reach of many a national.

My friend tells me it’s all got to do with the mass market; the higher the demand the lower the cost and vice versa. Of course, you don’t need to be an economist to know that. Anyway, we need to invest in cheaper computers for our people. The value of a computer literate society that has access to readily available hardware and software is enormous. The government therefore, in the spirit of Vision 2030, needs to invest - and heavily at that - in this industry. I am certain, as do others, that this has a profound effect on the economy of a country.

The illiterate councilors in NEP - Kenya

There are only a handful of magnificent architectural structures in Garissa, the capital of North-Eastern Province in Kenya (NEP). And, one of these buildings is the Catholic Church in the town. You might wonder why the presence of a church would be very conspicuous in a majority Muslim town. However, this has everything to do with the quality of the councilors we have in the province – the elected local government officials. The public library in the town is also outstanding and is actually rumoured to be the best in the country.

Due to the poor pay associated with such onerous but important tasks, most of the elite shun these junior political positions. They instead prefer the other more prestigious occupations that come with the money. Politically, the least they accept are parliamentary positions, which in Kenya are known to pay very well - and tax free salaries at that. This, therefore, leaves some, mostly illiterate, persons to take the local governance jobs. And, that’s where our problem stems from.

In addition, town planning is usually done at the central level - in the state capital. Technocrats in Nairobi are the ones tasked with planning for the whole of Kenya. It is these groups that draw maps for all towns in Kenya. Though there is nothing wrong with these surveyors, cartographers and other similar professionals being adherents of a particular faith, the maps they draw usually come with a wrong assumption that everyone in Kenya is a Christian. Thus, they fallaciously indicate ‘church’ on the maps rather than leave this option open, or write 'place of worship' instead.

And, this is where our ill-educated leaders come in. For some reasons, they take the word 'church' literally, not realizing that the proposed church land is in fact a space meant for the majority of an area to establish their own place of worship. Thus, if the residents of a region are predominantly of a certain faith, say, for example, Islam, then it is a mosque that deserves priority in such an area. Conversely, if the same region was predominated by Catholics, then a catholic church should be given precedence over other houses of worship.

It is for this reason that you will find almost all mosques in Garissa, and by extension in the whole province, being built on privately acquired land. A Muslim could, for example, buy a plot for the purpose of an Islamic worship centre, or offer a piece from their own parcels. This, sadly, makes most of the mosques in the region to be squeezed on some small plots. Expansion of the same, or the establishment of a madrassa within the compound of the masjid, thus becomes an impossible feat. On the other hand, the minority Christians in Garissa enjoy the prime most areas for their churches, and on relatively expansive plots.

The Somalis never see this as a problem though. As long as they have access to some place they can go and do their worship, then there isn’t a dilemma, regardless of the quality of the same. This effectively denies the Muslims in this region enough spaces for their other religious needs, and notably, madrassas.

Whereas this setback is primarily caused by the experts in Nairobi, the councilors aren’t infallible too. They do also contrive to deny residents of other social amenities. You will be surprised that there are whole sections of Garissa that are inaccessible by road. Apart from some school playgrounds, the town  also does  not have public recreation facilities. All these are solely as a result of the illiterate officials that locals elect every so often.

Now, the residents of NEP have to pay a price for the ineptness of the central government combined with the idiocy of their local officials. You will be surprised though if you contrast what happens in NEP and the reality in other parts of the country. Muslims in other parts of the country, or even adherents of other faiths, are primarily considered if they form the majority in a given place. A good example would be towns in Central Province like Thika, Muranga and Margua - places I have visited before.

Luckily, the newly promulgated Kenyan Constitution devolves a lot of the power initially concentrated at the central level to the county level. This would, therefore, make all developmental decisions, and other issues regarding the advancement of the citizens, to be deliberated by the locals themselves. Also, many educated youth are now eyeing these junior political positions, mostly out of desperation for unemployment is very high in the region. Therefore, and as a result of the above two, the future seems to be very bright.