Making Nairobi a World Class Capital

The municipal council in Nairobi is bringing in a number of by-laws which are to help Nairobi reach world capital status. At least that is their expressed intention. But when you read the list you have to wonder how well the new laws have been thought through.

Some make a great deal of sense. For example, they want to ban the use of a mkokoteni (a handcart) in the capital. I can’t remember how many times I have been stuck in a big traffic jam only to discover it was because someone was pushing a handcart down the main thoroughfare making it nigh to impossible for vehicles to pass! Getting rid of such obstacles should help keep the traffic flowing. A good move.

Other new laws are downright strange. It will now be an offence for your dog to impregnate someone else’s dog without the owner’s consent. So how will the city regulate that? How will they ever determine the guilty party?

The Standard on the 19th June, 2009 also reported that pedestrians walking on the zebra crossing must walk on the white-stripes and keep to the left. Perhaps it might be safer to cross the road where there are no zebra crossings (though that’s probably banned now too) rather than forget and cross on the right. A 2,000/ Ksh fine for such an oversight would not be a happy outcome!

The city will also ban any loading and unloading within the city centre during the day. Shops will therefore have to bring in all their supplies at night. Will the city offer the needed security to ensure the store owners aren’t robbed blind? Somehow I doubt it. To prevent problems, shops will have to provide their own security. This will surely have an impact on the price of goods.

The Town Clerk, Philip Kisia, was quoted as saying that the Nairobi City Council was going to implement hourly parking “in response to motorist requests.” I wonder which motorists they surveyed. I can’t imagine anybody asking for what will become an increase in the parking rate.

He also claims that Nairobi has some of the lowest parking costs in the world, making the point that parking in Europe and Asia is five to six times what it is in Nairobi. The City Council will therefore look at both land value and the cost of parking in other world cities to determine what the new rates should be. But Nairobi isn’t in Europe and Asia. The question is, where would Nairobi stand in comparison to other capitals in Africa? How much does parking cost in Kampala? Dodoma? Kigali? Pretoria? Accra? Khartoum? Adis Ababa?

Why is there such a need to compare things to the West and Asia all the time? Where does the myth come from that everything is better in the West? And why do some MPs seem to always encourage such a view? Is it perhaps that they spend too much time in the West and Asia rather than in their own constituencies? One can only wonder.

If the Nairobi City Council insists on comparing the city with the West, then why not look at safety and security, whether or not water and electricity are adequately supplied for, or at public transport facilities? Or perhaps one could just look at the state of the sidewalks. How many gaping holes can you find in either the sidewalk or the road? In Nairobi, some are large enough for a person to fully disappear into! Or what about other obstacles which pedestrians have to negotiate around, pipes or steel bars sticking out of the street, for example? Does that make any sense? Of course, to fix these things costs money, unlike parking fees which bring in the money.

Considering the state of the sidewalks, and even many roads, it’s hard to believe that the new by-laws also ban roller skating or skate boarding. The obstacles themselves are probably enough deterrent to stop anyone from even trying such modes of mobility. But perhaps the government is optimistic and they anticipate a great improvement in the infrastructure in the near future which will enable such activities.

Philip Kisia claims that Nairobians have “a habit of driving up to the doorsteps.” Sure you can drive up to “the doorsteps.” The only question is, which doorsteps? They sure won’t be the ones you need. You’re more likely to find the first free parking spot clear on the other side of town! It does make one wonder when Mr Kisia last drove into town himself.

The Capital News tried to clarify some of the nuances of the new laws: “The by-laws make it an offence for motorists to cross roads outside designated zebra crossings.” I can’t imagine how they expect that to work. So where do they propose motorists should drive? And what happens to the pedestrians? And, more to the point, who edits such news reports?

The Standard (19.Jun.09) too tried to make some of the new laws clear regarding the new “parking positions:” “For drivers wishing to change car-parking position would be committing an offense unless an interval of 30 minutes elapses, and should not be within a distance of 22.9 metres.” Can someone please explain what that means?

Corruption in Death

[Warning: This account include some graphic details.]

“Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.” (Isa 10:1-2 NIV)

The committee arranging for the funeral of Baba Rebecca came by the centre today to see if we could assist them. They shared with us what had happened. On Friday Baba Rebecca informed his wife that he was returning home from Murang'a. But he never arrived. The following day a few men went out from Njabini, a small farming community on the foothills of the Aberdare mountain range, to see if they could find him.

They finally found his body on Sunday morning. It appears he had unexpectedly come across an elephant and had tried to run away. The elephant caught up with him and trampled him to death. After the police were informed, the body was transferred to the morgue here in Naivasha.

The Aberdares - Elephant Country

As we were discussing the plans made to transport the body back to Murang'a for burial, I was shocked to discover that the hospital had informed the family that a post-mortem needed to be carried out. Why?! What did they think killed Baba Rebecca? The cause was plain. After all, it's hard to miss an elephant, especially when he stops to trample and crush a human body! Surely a post-mortem was superfluous.

When Teacher Josephine died last year so unexpectedly at the age of 36, a post-mortem would have made sense. But the family had decided not to have one done. Finding out what killed her would not have brought her back. Besides, 6,000/ Ksh is much more than a month's salary for many here! It is a great expense for people who have so little.

Yet in this case, the family is being told they must pay for the procedure. They feel powerless and therefore have given the authorities 1,500/ Ksh already to cover the expenses. Another 4,500/ Ksh are still outstanding. That is much more than this family makes in a month! Yet the authorities insist it must be done so the family has no recourse. If they refuse, the hospital would not allow the release of the body for burial and daily expenses would be incurred as long as the body remained in the morgue.

Some of the people in the planning committee suggested the money would never actually be used to perform a post-mortem. Instead, they would probably just return the intestines back into the body and clean up a bit of the damage done by the elephant, then claim the procedure had been completed.

What can be done about such corruption? If they refuse to pay they will be left without the body of their loved one. And eventually they would have to pay. So they have no option.

The story reminds me of the situation which existed during the clashes following the elections at the beginning of last year (2008). There were too many bodies for the morgue refrigerators. But family members - desperate to have their loved ones preserved until the violence settled down enough to allow for a burial - paid for their family member's body to be kept cold. The money was taken, allegedly 1,000/ Ksh, and a body was removed from the refrigerated unit to make room for the new occupant. Then when someone else came along able to pay for their loved one, the process was repeated.

Whether or not you paid for a refrigerated unit was irrelevant. If someone came after you and also paid, you had no guarantee that your loved one wouldn't be taken out to make room for someone else.

It's no wonder that the bodies began to decompose in the heat despite having spent some time in the refrigeration. When we went to the mortuary to look for Bwana Ndege, the man who had lost his whole family after his house was deliberately set on fire, the smell of death around the place was too much to bear. It took all our will power not to run from the place, retching.

How is such a thing possible? People in authority who demand money from others suffering from grief and pain - that must be corruption at its worst!

“A poor man’s field may produce abundant food,
but injustice sweeps it away.” (Pr 13:23 NIV)

Killed by an Elephant

We received the shocking news this morning that one of our students lost her father in a tragic accident. He was out in the bush close to the Aberdare Mountains and suddenly came across an elephant. The elephant apparently trampled him to death. That is as much as we know at the moment. His body is currently being held at the mortuary while the family makes the preparations for the funeral.

Historically stories of people killed by elephants and other wildlife almost seemed part of everyday life in Kenya. But today? Other than a hippo attack, a number of which seem to happen every year, we don't hear of other animal attacks. What a freak accident!

Our heart goes out to Rebecca at the loss of her father.

Elephants - beautiful but dangerous