Mambo Yote - 13th January 2010

A visitor just landed in Kenya would imagine that Kenya as a country is in the middle of a serious crisis with all the negative news one reads in the media. True true they wouldn't be far off from the truth but the reality is that we are a developing crisis nation (DCN). It seems that Kenya is permanently in a state of crisis. We thrive on political, social, environmental crisis on a day to day basis. If there is no crisis then something is not right.

Lets take this week for instance. Our daily bread crisis especially in Nairobi is traffic. Traveling within Nairobi from east to west or north to south is a nightmare. For one the roads just cant cope with the volume of vehicles in this city. We are buying more vehicles faster than we can add tarmac. There is no vehicle recession in Kenya and even if Toyota recall cars there will be no impact in Kenya. Talking to the traffic police who lately seem to have become spectators in traffic matters one officer told me that the road works being carried out and the new KBK's on the road simply means they are stranded in what they can do. I for one believe the traffic police have no coordination whatsoever in how they control traffic. They are an integral part of the problem. I will not even dare mention matatu's and buses in this Nairobi as they deserve a whole article on their own. To sum it up transport in Nairobi (and by extension Kenya) in a national crisis and nightmare.

Matters governance and the government is caught up in all sorts of scandals that keep it quite busy at taxpayers expense. This weeks leading soaps revolved between Free Primary Education (FPE) which is proving very costly and the never ending maize scandal that keeps rearing its ugly head every now and then. Children in the public schools are inevitably the casualties in the FPE crisis which I'm sure we shall feel the impact in years to come and that will inevitably have damaged our intellectual and educational capacity in some form or another. Before we have been producing half baked students now we are threatening to make them raw/uncooked if this matters are not addressed urgently.

For a country that some months back was begging for food we seem to have too much maize around and this maize is in the hands of the wrong people. A sweet deal here and there it seems our national economic appetite for maize is quite high. You apply for 1000 bags of maize to sell you get given 20,000 bags. You don't apply for anything but if you are connected but you get 5,000 bags to sell. Somehow the value chain is long and the various buyers and middlemen all very well connected make an easy buck and by the time the consumer gets to buy the maize it is already a costly item. And because the consumer has no choice they just end up buying this highly priced product. Meanwhile as a result of those sweetheart deals a few more mansions in Runda have sprung up and more tax free Prados, Lexus, Mercs and Range Rover Sports have landed in Mombasa and are being driven around by busybodies enjoying maizy benefits.

There seems to be too much milk in the country at present. Not too very long ago there was a drought and cows were dying in their numbers as there was a lack of pasture. The brief El Nino rains of December seem to have transformed things very much and now cows are producing too much milk to our annoyance. Too much in fact the milk packaging companies cant buy the stuff as there’s just too much of it. New KCC (new as in?)the largest milk buying organisation in Kenya has been turning farmers away and this has seen milk going too waste and being poured by the roadsides. What such waste for a country that was with begging bowls a few months ago. We are now showing our extravagance. Surely by now milk prices should have been reduced so that those who had dropped milk from their diets can resume this vital bit of nutrition. This would at least push more volumes in the market and absorb a bit more milk from the supply line. Instead there have have been accusations and counter accusations flying all round. Some cheese experts have appeared on the scene claiming to have new revolutionary methods of producing cheese from sour milk. We surely are not serious!

Flowers galore this week it is and predictably as it happens every year the flower firms are on strike in Naivasha and other flower producing areas. For those who believe in Valentines the price of the rose stem has suddenly shot up to an unbelievable price. One can buy more food than flowers with a bunch of roses. This is a indeed a red flower crisis that occurs once a year.

Don’t try getting sick soon as the public hospitals have exhausted all their stocks of medicine. Apparently there is no money to buy drugs. Though more and more GK VW Passats keep flying past us overlapping on our roads in total disregard of the traffic act and the ten commandments.

Lets move to sports and its no better as this week news filters out that AFC Leopards who are playing a continental match tomorrow against an Ethiopian team only had 8 registered players in the competition. Apparently they failed to beat the deadline due to serious differences that were threatening the club. I don’t know if I’m being a pessimist (for today only) but it is only in Kenya that we manage to do things very very wrong. How can a team that is preparing to play an international tournament not have registered its players in that competition? Luckily for them having the right friends in high places quickly resolved that but seriously that’s not the way to do business.

Thus article is dedicated to a good friend and relative of mine Adnan Ali who passed away tragically last night in a motorcycle accident on our highways. I say rest in peace bro as your loss is too hard for us to fathom at the moment. Our hearts cry for you and our thoughts and prayers are with your family. Aunty Alice, Ali, Sakina we are together. May the Good Lord be with you Adnan.