Crash course in driving

• Most careless and unkindest take on circumcision.

Reading Jug Suraiya’s ‘Jugular Vein, column in the Sunday Times of India (www.timesofindia.com), I came across a passage, or rather an experience that many road users in Kenya go through every day.

I might as well use it to give a clear picture of the main diversion that engages our country’s reverse gear whenever our leaders talk shop about forging ahead.

“The other day while I was driving along a pothole my car fell onto a road. It gave me quite a start; rather, it gave me quite a stop. And so did it to a lot of other people who had gathered there to marvel at this rare find. A road. Well, a small section of road. But how amazing to find any road, no matter how small and limited in size…”

Sound familiar? If you use private or public transport in Nairobi, or in any other Kenyan town, then this is something you go through every day, the same way you are bombarded with messages of Vision 2030 and meeting of Millenium Development Goals – whatever those are.

But things are looking up. Don’t you think so? They have to be, now that the indefatigable John Michuki is in charge, even though in an acting capacity, at the Treasury – and that is proof enough that we do not have strong institutions, but individuals and we all know what they cannot do.

Roadside declarations

Don’t we all know that Michuki has no ability to stop Presidential candidates from issuing roadside declarations that allow public service vehicle drivers to obstruct, overlap, pick up passengers in the middle of the highway and drop them off anywhere, and if they so wish, go to work undressed?

After all, they can argue that they are most productive in their birthday suits, and those of them with progeny can add – legitimately – that there is living proof of their productivity.

There is no gainsaying that Michuki has the drive, and the torque of his thrust, or vice versa, can be seen and felt in the cloud of dust he leaves behind as he breaks speed barriers while riding roughshod over potholes and those small sections of roads that exist in every nook and cranny of our ministries 44 years after independence.

His recent move is a case in point and might as well have been aimed at increasing the small sections of roads, decreasing congestion at the ports or even the sizes and numbers of potholes that dot every space in all our towns and cities.

It is indeed a crash course in driving and if pulled off, we are going to be the most spacious nation – that might even reduce the spaces in the heads of many motorists who give currency to the idea that Kenya needs a road safety week or day every week or daily.

Looked at from a rear view mirror, it will go a long way in reducing congestion in many sectors of our economy as everything that has remained in one place for eons without being productive will be done away with, or in the words of Mr Michuki himself, destroyed.

There are very many voices calling his move callous, and coming up with economically-viable solutions – or so they think. They forget that when it comes to following rules to the letter, Michuki is a stickler and does not give a hoot to anything else any other person says.

Of course we are free to argue that he applies same philosophy when breaking rules. But one thing is for sure: It’s un-michukish to back down.

The people who may want the Michuki way of doing away with all non-productive things or people may be Kenya’s sportsmen and women who are being held back by officials who are not only living in a time warp, but who have made a career out of flip flopping on every issue including their own statements about serving their last terms.

Civil servants may be second group of people to wish that these rules become applicable in their cadres because the service is laden with deadwood that champions archaic ideas which cannot work in 21st century economies.

They are the people calling the shots, and in return, get called by the big shots to hire and fire others who have also been causing congestion at ports of entry and exit without themselves getting cleared and forwarded so that they can create space for new, and modern contraptions that can change our lives and push us in the 22nd century.

Currently, they have engaged reverse gear and are backing us up in to the 19th century.