Can the economy blossom like Nairobi trees?

Karura Forest in Kiambu county. [File, Standard] Rains have made the trees flower, and the leafy suburbs of Nairobi are curtains of beauty. The concrete jungles are the same, never mind a booming business in exotic plants grown in pots and other containers. Seen exotic bamboo and other plants for sale on the roadsides? We noted recently that some of these trees are exotic and are preparing for spring, with memories of their original home in the temperate regions. Visit a golf course in Nairobi, please. Do we have time to admire these flowers? Chances are you have not noticed the beauty for three possible reasons. One is that we have an endless summer and seasons rarely change. We see nothing special about flowers. If you go through four seasons, including winter, you can appreciate nature more. Monotony does not allow us to admire nature and its great cycles. Two is the phone. We have become such addicts of the phone that we have no time for other things. If you went to school in Nairobi from Shamakhokho, El Wak or Sindo, you could recall the names of all the small towns before Nairobi. Today, few can recall them. We are tied to our phones, and we have no time to admire flowering trees or exotic birds. It's worse when the phone is the new pacifier for babies. Once you take a bus or matatu or even a train, we just focus on our phones. The only place we seem to talk a lot is on SGR trains. Why? Three is economics. Most Kenyans are so strained economically that admiring nature is not one of their priorities. As they walk or pick matatus, what is on their mind is likely to be rent, school fees, food, clothes, debt, tax, and other economic issues. Some could argue my admiration of nature is based either on my vantage of economic status or pure romanticism. Far from that, we are together feeling the economic squeeze. And we have no access to free money through corruption and nepotism. After all, the economy is interconnected, it's as strong as the weakest link. We all hope and wish the economy would flower like trees. But why not use nature and its beauty as a therapy to soothe our economic problems? There is something sentimental in admiring a bee picking nectar from flowers or Jacaranda and Bombax flowers turning purple. Nairobi has no shortage of exotic trees and flowers. It's unfortunate that we see tourism in terms of the Big Five. But driving through Nairobi's leafy suburbs as the trees flower should be in our tourism circuits. The average citizen has no time for such admiration while such suburbs are vanishing fast. The difference between Githurai and Lavington is the distance from the city centre and some cleanliness. Others argue they saw enough nature in the countryside while growing up. Whatever the truth, get time to admire nature and its cycles; we are part of it. Admired flowering trees lately? Talk to us.

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