Skip to main content

Transforming Kenya: It starts with you

Garbage dumped by people, which ends up blocking drainages
flooding roads and houses. What does it take not to dump the
rubbish in the first place? Donors ? a new constitution?
Marcus Olang put up several updates yesterday , on Twitter. The messages were that we needed to have a culture of trust as citizens before we expected our government to be trust worthy. Double standards: we cannot keep swindling each other and make lots of noise when someone in the government swindles the country. 

Among other "enemies" of Kenya Marcus talked about include negative ethnicity , poverty, disease and injustice. 

He also made a comment that made me feel good, that a single person can make a change, a single person can start change. He said that a pebble can start an avalanche. I compared the ideology to Tunisia, a single person setting himself on fire began a revolution. 

Historically, many people have known me a a pessimist - that guy who loves complaining over everything, seeing the negative rather than the positive. I have pointed out to a few that by complaining, we are piling on pressure on people to change, plus most of what we complain about does not need a lot of effort to fix - cultural issues.

I am also quite pessimistic at people who come up with feel good  messages. Why? Because that is where it usually ends. One clever quote and we go back to our status quo. But this time round, I was ok with a feel good message, one person can make a difference. Why? Because we all say how bad the culture is, and wait for someone else to change it. 

Chief Justice and Mutunga will not change our country, or any one else for that matter. In fact, it looks as if NGOs and foreign nations are more interested in a better nation than we. 

We blame the matatu conductor for attempting to defraud us, the police for been corrupt, the government for stealing donors funds. The police should be reformed, the corrupt ministers should resign, Michuki should be brought back to reform the matatu industry. 

Let's take a moment: what makes the policeman corrupt, or the conductor fraudulent. The policman is not trained in college to be fraudulent. He gets employed a clean officer, until he tries to make an arrest, and the culprit attempts to bribe him. To the small salary we pretend to pay him, the bribe makes a lot of difference. When growing up, he has heard of clever people who made corrupt deals and a lot of money for their families. 

The corrupt minister was once clean, but firms competing for contracts tried to lure him by offering sweet deals. It became hard to resist. His community, friends want a share of the money.He wants a good lifestyle - he grew up poor, and this is his one opportunity to transform his life. The businessmen urge him not to be foolish  by turning down this golden opportunities. He finally accepts one bribe, then a second, then he gets used to them, every deal has to come with a bribe. In the paper he is a bad guy, in the village he is a hero, with his lavish lifestyle and big cars.

The policeman also needs a great life, and he has the corrupt minister as a role model. The community talks of that foolish  civil servant who never took bribes. Now he is retired and has a modest home and lifestyle. 

The conductor: How many passengers does he ferry daily? How many of them are dishonest, if he forgot to ask for fare, they would not pay up. He comes to see the community as a harsh one which needs to be handled carefully. why do they carry excess passengers? Well, the questions is why passengers board a vehicle they see is full?

The community becomes what we make it to be. If you dropped money, would the person behind you tap you and give it back? If the shop keeper, or the conductor gave extra change, is it a fall of good luck or will you correct them? 

Why are our towns dirty? why do you throw rubbish everywhere, out of the car window? How much rubbish do you dump in non-designated areas in an year? How much rubbish do 10 people like you dump?

Most of the population is educated, but few are learned. They will not understand why they should vote for people outside their tribe. They do not understand that  a price control law is bad for the poor, they do not understand that the country is a big research lab for GMO and HIV. If you do, please help them understand it. 












Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nairobi's Top 4 Texas Brisket Places Reviewed and Ranked

Brisket on a bed of roast vegetables with barbecue sauce at Texas Brisket, Kikuyu  This review has been updated after a number of you suggested I try the brisket at County2County.  What's the best place to have Brisket in Nairobi? What's even brisket?  Brisket is one of the toughest cuts in a cow, from around the belly. It is so tough that it has to be smoked for about 16 hours to tenderise. But that there, is the catch.  12 to 16 hours later, it is the most flavourful and softest cut you will ever have. So full of flavour and so soft you can pick it apart with your fingers.  However, due to the long cooking time involved, only a few places offer brisket in Nairobi.  The best so far is Texas Brisket which is located within Kikuyu Railway station.  They do the meat for a proper 16 hours, and will usually have a fatty or non-fatty portion. The fatty portions are more tasty. A 500 gram serving goes for KSh. 900 and a 1 KG order comes with a serving of free fries. Their brisket has
Post a Comment
Read more

5 Kenyan Holiday Destinations in Turkana and Rift Valley

Much local holiday travel in Kenya involves going to the Coast. If not the Coast, most holidayers end up in Nanyuki or Naivasha. But what if you wanted to go somewhere else, what are the alternatives?  An interesting itinerary would be Lake Turkana, through the Kerio Valley and Kerio Escarpment. This is a trip doable both by public transport or as a self-drive. Given the distance, it takes at least 2 days by road - though it's manageable in one day if you have 2 drivers.  However, it would be more fun if you explored different destinations on your way up and back, which I'll highlight below.  1. Iten - Kerio Valley and Kerio Escarpment The Kerio Valley is a breathtaking valley within the Rift Valley, with the Elgeyo/ Kerio Escarpment forming one boundary of the Rift Valley and the Tugen Hills forming the other. The Tugen Hills are within the Rift Valley and one of the oldest features on the planet. The Kerio River flows in between falling over the esca
Post a Comment
Read more

The bitter story of the downfall of Mumias Sugar company

A spoonful of sugar, but for who? ( Image: Carol Wallis on Flickr ) Have you heard the bitter story of Mumias Sugar? Regarded by many as Kenya's most successful sugar miller, Mumias Sugar Company was a disaster waiting to happen. Many pointed out how Mumias Sugar Company was a fortress in the wreck that is Kenya's sugar industry, only unaware that it was just a matter of time. As the old wise men said, "Ukiona cha mwenzako cha nyolewa, tia chako maji". The proverb means that if you see your neighbour's head getting shaved, your head will soon be undergoing the same - you'd therefore better wet your head for a smoother shave, otherwise you will be forced to undergo a painful, dry, shave. But what ails Kenya's sugar industry? The Kenya sugar industry is under legal siege. The typical Kenyan issue of coming up with laws to tackle a problem is evident here. Many of Kenya's sugar factories are owned by the government, and have slowly decline
Post a Comment
Read more

Why we loved Mixcrate and Where to next?

With Mixcrate gone, lovers of music either have to pony up a fee for a variety of streaming services or head over to YouTube There are two types of music listeners: those who listen by artist or by album, and those who listen by top hits. The second lot of us do not care much about what other music made it to an album besides the top 2 hits. Mixcrate served the second lot of us very well. You could search for a song title or an artist, and you would have dozens of DJ mixes to choose from which contained more than the one hit you searched for. Listening to music on Mixcrate also meant that once you settled into a mix, you had uninterrupted music for the next one hour.
Post a Comment
Read more

Kenyan products: The art of punishing your consumer

This post was written in 2011. Facts may have and indeed have changed - but the conclusion has not.  Dormans instant coffee tastes better than Sasini instant coffee. Ramtons electronics are manufactured for Kenya's Hypermart Limited, yet maintain a high product quality Peanut butter used to taste so good, but you could not afford it on the pocket money that you got back in school. A few years later, you have your first real job and your first "disposable" income. You buy your first real tub of peanut butter, probably the first in your life. You feel proud that Dominion peanut butter is manufactured in Ruiru, a town that you visited in your campus days to withdraw your pocket money, it was the nearest bank ATM to your campus.  This was before Equity bank became a mainstream bank and decided to open an ATM in your campus, and before M-Pesa meant that you
Post a Comment
Read more