Good planning and investment can help to revive coast region’s economy

Bodaboda operators block half of the road as they mourn one of their colleagues on the streets of Malindi, Kilifi County in this photo taken on March 20, 2015. Malindi’s economy can be revived through good urban planning and investment in productive sectors such as fishing, agriculture, and trade.

What you need to know:

  • The local economy, largely dependent on tourism, fishing, and agriculture, has not benefited from any significant bounty from devolved funds. Take for example the main market in Malindi, where small-scale traders sell fruits, vegetables and other products.
  • Malindi’s economy can be revived through good urban planning and investment in productive sectors such as fishing, agriculture, and trade. Kilifi county needs to up its game and ensure that its towns are not left to rot now that the tourists have gone.
  • Yet, despite the initial heavy financial cost, and the engineering skills required to build them, bridges are relatively easy to maintain and, in the long term, much more sustainable than ferries.

The lashing, splashing, drenching monsoons finally arrived in Malindi, bringing with them much joy — and pain. Gardens and farms are thriving. The scorching, stifling summer heat has been replaced by cool winds that aid restful sleep at night.

But not everyone is happy. Rains in the coastal belt of Kenya often cause prolonged blackouts.

Early this month, many parts of Malindi suffered blackouts that lasted as long as a week. Food in fridges had to be thrown away and candles took the place of lights.

Calls to Kenya Power yielded the usual response, “We are working on it.”
Frequent power blackouts in Kenya impact productivity and are a security risk. Because the entire country’s electricity is supplied by a monopoly that is quite often unreliable, Kenya Power can literally hold the whole country hostage if it wanted to.

Indeed, there have been country-wide blackouts in the recent past.

Perhaps it is time to review whether Kenya should open up the energy sector to new players. Kenyans benefited enormously when the telecommunications sector was opened up to private mobile phone companies.

Competition and affordability made telephones more accessible to a larger share of the population. Maybe a similar thing can happen in the energy supply sector.

The rainy season in Malindi also brings about other inconveniences. Due to the poor quality of roads that lack drainage, motorists and pedestrians have to contend with flooded, pot-holed roads.

For those in the hotel industry, the rains signal the low tourist season, which means fewer bookings. This year, the hotels are almost empty; two of the biggest hotels have actually closed down permanently.

Hotel workers have been suspended or put on half-pay. The tourist season this year is not just low; it has tanked, thanks to recent terrorist attacks in Lamu and Garissa.

DEVOLVED FUNDS
The local economy, largely dependent on tourism, fishing, and agriculture, has not benefited from any significant bounty from devolved funds. Take for example the main market in Malindi, where small-scale traders sell fruits, vegetables and other products.

It is located on a muddy patch that lacks adequate public utilities such as toilets, electricity, or loading areas. The traders sell their wares in makeshift kiosks. In the rainy season, people who would like to buy fresh, organic produce keep away from the market for fear of catching a disease or slipping on its muddy lanes that lack any drainage.

This is unfortunate, as small-scale trading is an economic activity that is not seasonal as it relies mostly on local customers.

Malindi’s economy can be revived through good urban planning and investment in productive sectors such as fishing, agriculture, and trade. Kilifi county needs to up its game and ensure that its towns are not left to rot now that the tourists have gone.

Talking of urban planning, a former colleague gave me a signed copy of his new book on the most beautiful bridges in cities around the world.

As I sifted through images of San Francisco’s spectacular Golden Gate bridge, the gorgeous bridge over Sydney Harbour, photogenic bridges over the River Nile in Cairo, Kolkata’s must-see Howrah Bridge, the engineering marvel that links Asia to Europe in Istanbul, and the iconic bridges that make New York City such a visual delight, it occurred to me that most of Africa has no bridges worth writing home about.

Apart from some non-descript bridges in North and West Africa, the vast majority of the continent’s vast rivers and waterways can only be crossed via boat or ferries, or not at all.

Yet, despite the initial heavy financial cost, and the engineering skills required to build them, bridges are relatively easy to maintain and, in the long term, much more sustainable than ferries.

I have always wondered why the Likoni channel in Mombasa still depends on ferries even though these ferries have proved to be unreliable, expensive, and quite often dangerous, even costing people their lives.

Imagine if there was a majestic bridge over the Likoni channel. Not only would it ease transport between Mombasa island and the south coast, it would also be a tourist attraction, much like other iconic bridges around the world.
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