The Government must style up and begin investing more in the dormitory towns that surround Nairobi like Ngong, Kiserian, Ongata Rongai, Kitengela, Athi River, Ruiru, and many others.

It is important to note that majority of residents who live in these towns work in Nairobi. They help build the city’s economy only to return to towns without roads, water, sewer systems, security, lighting, garbage collection or public amenities.

Of course the City Council of Nairobi doesn’t bother with these areas since they are out of its jurisdiction, meaning the people who live in these outlying areas are left on their own

For sewer systems, they are left to construct pit latrines and septic tanks; for security, they are left in the hands of God, while they are left with nothing for roads. Planning in these small towns is another headache. The paths that are supposed to pass for roads cannot measure more than nine feet across yet growth is being realised at an exponential rate.

What happens next is that general development becomes rather haphazard. This is akin to what I came across Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where it’s common to find a beautiful home surrounded by a slum.

traffic

In fact, many rural areas nowadays have far better roads than can be found in these up-coming towns. But the volume of traffic in rural areas cannot be compared to the heavy traffic which hits the road daily to Nairobi and back.

However, whenever it was expedient to do so, these areas were classified under rural Kenya because they were either in Rift Valley, Eastern or Central provinces (going by the old Constitution).

Few Kenyans ever challenged the Government to look at these areas in a different light because of the affinity they share with Nairobi despite being quite distinct geographically.

A structured approach in how they develop must be taken into consideration since it is a fact that even senior State officials have moved to Ngong, Ongata Rongai, Kitengela and Ongata Rongai.

It is possible to bring the development agenda of these regions under Nairobi, the same way security in Ngong, which administratively used to fall under Rift Valley, was brought to Nairobi after it had gotten out of hand.

housing

I wish to challenge the Ministry of Nairobi Metropolitan to invest more and improve these towns’ infrastructure using money allocated during the 2010/2011 Budget. After all, don’t they help to relieve housing stress in Nairobi?

Why should the ministry compete with the city council to light Mbagathi Road, which is a major road? Why should it be behind the construction of so many roads in the city? Nairobi has enough agents to fund its development.

The ministry must assist because it now has a legal mandate to develop these areas, which fall under its jurisdiction. Somebody must tell Njeru Githae to leave Nairobi alone because it has enough benefactors and come to the aid of these forgotten lands.

If no help is forthcoming, then residents of these satellite towns must help themselves by conducting all business locally. Why shop in Nairobi then come to live under very difficult circumstances? It is better to support their own.

{George Forest, Ngong}

Bad’ politics at the root of Nyanza’s woes

The census results from Luo Nyanza were disappointing, to say the least.

Before Independence, the province was a choice educational destination, thanks to missionaries’ efforts, which were supplemented by a well-structured District Education Board.

On food sustainability, agriculture extension officers went round rural areas teaching people about high-yielding farming technology. The officers regularly attended refresher courses at Maseno, Bukura, and San’galo.

Migration to urban centres like Nairobi was restricted to the employed only. But after ‘Uhuru’ arose a predator called politics. People realised they could earn money without necessarily working on their farms, and politicians took advantage, and engaged them to do their dirty work. Villagers abandoned their farms and migrated to towns. Digging of terraces and working on farms was left to old folk, who could not be realistically expected to deliver.

As a result, poverty and disease quietly started eating into the fabric of society. A few individuals ingenuously started using the allure of religion to mop up any small savings from the old folk. Their daily routine involved jogging round the countryside beating drums and cursing those who refused to join the gravy train.

Nowadays, Nyanza is replete with mud-smeared classrooms. In some areas where schools started more than 40 years ago, classroom walls are still incomplete. In fact, one could use any open space to enter a class. It is no exaggeration that in some areas, tuition is still held under trees.

wife inheritance

There is an insatiable appetite for alcohol among the youth, while unemployment levels are high. And while cultural practices like "tero buru" are rarely held, the inheritance of widows is still practiced because of its perceived economic value.

The best schools of the past no longer perform in national exams. The pioneer of technology institutes, RIAT, is still in its formative primacy, while the Municipal Council of Kisumu is unable to provide essential services.

And now the new Constitution doesn’t appear to favour us because politicians who had reached their expiry dates are back campaigning — hoisting the same blunt hoes and old paintbrushes.

Unless checked, this turn of events portends economic extinction for the Luo.

{Peter Ragwar, Nairobi}