Why water is Kenya’s most strategic resource

By XN Iraki

Great civilisations have always flourished near water.

The Egyptians blossomed by the Nile. The Sumerians in the present day Iraq built their cuneiform civilisation by the Euphrates and Tigris. The Roman Empire was around and about the Mediterranean Sea. When Empires collapsed replaced by modern democracies, the same pattern persisted.

The World’s leading economies are all by the water. They include the US, UK, France, Germany, Japan, and the emerging economies from Asian Tigers (Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea) to the Celtic Tiger (Ireland). In Africa, the leading Economies such as South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria are also by the waters. We could argue Botswana is by the Okavango delta. In US, the leading states have a shoreline. They include California, Florida, New York, Texas and Michigan by the Great Lakes.

Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama also hug the sea but their economic performance has not been spectacular. That could a story for another day.

In Kenya, the leading cities are also by the water; Nairobi is next to Nairobi River, Mombasa, Kisumu next to an Ocean and lake respectively.

The spell of the sea

Nakuru is next to a lake by the same name. It curiously resembles the city of Barcelona in Spain; take a photo on the 17th green in the Nakuru golf course and compare it with a photo from the upper side of Barcelona towards the Mediterranean Sea.

Eldoret is also next to a river. Modern technology like water piping has not attenuated the strategic advantage of proximity to water. Whether you look at things locally or globally, it seems, there is something magical about being next to the water. Though Biologists will quickly add that water is life, it is more than that. If you sit by the sea and watch the waves break, you will probably feel the spell of the sea, you will feel belittled by the might of the Ocean.

Could this feeling be the invisible force that has made countries by the sea so adventurous and entrepreneurial? How did tiny Britain build an empire where the sun never set? How did the tiny Asian Tigers build a growth momentum that defies conventions making some huge countries look like dummies?

Obsession with beach plots

Some bold observers have noted that for the last one century the theatre of economic activities in the world has been the Atlantic Ocean – water again.

For the next century, they argue, it will be the Pacific Ocean before finally moving closer home to the Indian Ocean.

Following this thread of reasoning, Kenya’s most strategic resource is not prime plots around Nairobi but our coastline, the Indian Ocean which should be renamed the Swahili Ocean.

In our economic and political discourse, we rarely pay much attention to the sea, may be it has been there for too long, too familiar to think about. Our politicians spend inordinate amount of time discussing maize and land, but forget the fulcrum on which the world’s greatest civilisations has revolved around, the sea.

Could this have to do with the fact that our presidents, opinions makers and distorters have mostly been "land" people?

Look at the current food shortages. How comes no one, except Karanja Kabage is talking about eating fish?

We have 200 nautical miles, about 400km of the ocean that is our exclusive economic zone. Multiply this area by 500km of shoreline and Kenya suddenly looks bigger and stronger, both politically and economically. The strategic significance of Migingo suddenly disappears. And without violating international treaties, we could fish beyond the economic exclusive zones. Other nations have floating fish factories that catch fish, process them and can them for export, all in the Ocean.

Our thinking about the sea may have been blinded by out obsession with beach plots. We rarely think about the bigger picture, what lays thousands of miles beyond the shoreline. The closing off of beaches by individuals and firms like hotels should be treated as a crime against humanity, no-one owns the sea, and it should be accessible to all. Even America’s most prime beach, along Manhattan Island is public.

Transportation lanes

The strategic significance of the sea is more than food. Oceans are the world’s great transportation lanes, despite the piracy. Water transport is the cheapest, no need to build the ocean like roads or airports, just build the ship.

The debate about the second port at Lamu is diversionary. We need to develop our coastline with entry ports into the great hinterland that includes Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Are you aware that Juba is nearer to Mombasa than Port Sudan by the Red Sea?

Forty five years after ‘uhuru’, we have not only failed to build the car, despite our bold attempt with the Nyayo car, but also failed to make ship building one of Kenya’s major employers. Naval architecture should be one of the most popular courses offered in our Universities, besides medicine and Actuarial Science. Digression: a member of the cabinet recently called for the rival of Nyayo Car project, did we finally see the light?

Beyond naval architecture, our seaports should be booming economic zones.

China has led the way by locating special economic zones near the sea. This drastically cuts production costs, raw materials are easy to import and finished goods easy to export. It is easy to explain why China has become the world’s workshop like UK in the 19th century. How did we locate our export processing zones inland, away from our seaport?

Illegal exploitation

What about ocean sports like a yacht race from Tanzanian Coast to Somali Coast and back? Can we have an Ocean safari rally? Others have boldly suggested that by having a shoreline, a country gets a chance to show off by building a navy, which is necessary to secure this strategic resource from pirates and prevent illegal exploitation of resources in the exclusive economic zone.

If we focused our attention on the sea, we could create thousands of jobs, turn the current hunger into plenty and make Kenya a thriving economy in tandem with all other great economies and civilisations that have flourished by the waters. The ocean should not be seen as the playground for the rich after getting bored in the crowded and fastlaned cities. The Ocean should be the first building block in our relentless quest to turn Kenya into the ‘Swahili Tiger’-in my lifetime.

— The writer is a lecturer at the University of Nairobi, School of Business. [email protected]