Machakos 'chap chap' growth means delivering quickly, temporarily

My friend Alfie Mutua has confounded both friends and foe alike by succeeding where many expected him to fail. His development model, Machakos Maendeleo Chap Chap sounds like clap of thunder, and he has been delivering with amazing ease.

First, there is the story of the road, delivered in a record three months, where conventional contractors would have needed a couple of years. Even more astounding, Alfie’s contractors asked for a fraction of what those highway contractors had demanded.

And so the 33-kilometre track was excavated, backfill poured in and levelled before tarmac was poured in. Alright, let’s review the order of the processes and start with tarmacking, then excavate and pour in backfill (or a product close to that, like ballast).

For after only three months, some Sh650m have been turned into horrid waste because the tar simply can’t hold the road. Listening to some engineers, it perhaps wasn’t meant to hold.

What would be the point anyway if roads are built to last, and public coffers are still dripping with liquid cash? Chap chap means quick cash.

Then came the story of deputy governor Bernard Kiala, originally appointed to deputise Alfie, but who soon proved to have ambitions of his own, like asking tough questions when Alfie wants to be the Alpha and the Omega.

And in keeping with the Machakos spirit, Kiala was spirited out of the county assembly at a pace faster than those guys who featured at the recently concluded Masaku Sevens.

That’s the Machakos Chap Chap spirit, where development is delivered quickly, however temporarily.