Mobius, our latest attempt at national pride

What you need to know:

  • President Uhuru Kenyatta arrived at the Kenya International Investment Conference at the Kenyatta International Conference in style aboard the Mobius.
  • At a colourful ceremony held at the Kenya National Theatre, leaders, including former vice-president Moody Awori and then National Heritage minister, Najib Balala, took to the catwalk to showcase the new national dress.

During the Nairobi University’s graduation ceremony in 1983, the chancellor, then president Daniel Toroitich arap Moi, urged the students to come up with a car. They accepted the challenge and five years later, they came up with the (in)famous Nyayo pioneer car.

The government catalysed the dream of a car that everyone could afford, which was efficient and useful to the people. The Nyayo car project did not hide its failures, even from the originator of the idea himself — when President Moi tried to start the car, it stalled and never showed any signs of recovery. In the end, the project was estimated to have cost hundreds of millions of shillings, and there was no car to show for it.

Fast forward to 2004 and Kenya came up with yet another idea: the national dress. A government-sponsored competition was set up and designers were invited to come up with a garment that would reflect the unique identity of the people of Kenyan.

Six months later, designers combined the features common to our 42 tribes and came up with the Kenyan dress — an ankle-length robe and a long cloak for women, while men got a shirt with slashed collar and a cape across one shoulder. The garments came in the red, green, and black of Kenya’s national flag.

At a colourful ceremony held at the Kenya National Theatre, leaders, including former vice-president Moody Awori and then National Heritage minister, Najib Balala, took to the catwalk to showcase the new national dress.

This turned out to be just temporary entertainment as none of the leaders donned the dress during big events both locally and abroad. Perhaps the whole adventure of the national dress can be summed up by The Guardian’s headline a month later: “Kenyans Say no thanks to national dress.’’ The BBC followed up three years later with another piece titled “Kenya’s dress code fails to appeal’’.

LITTLE PUBLICITY

The latest attempt at coming up with another Kenyan-made produce is the recent unveiling of the five-speed eight-seater Mobius, the Kenyan made vehicle to cost Sh950,000.

It may be too early to judge, but the car is yet to feature among the long queues of imported cars in the country. There is little publicity about the new Kenyan pride and, like its predecessors, no prominent leaders have indicated any plans the Mobius.

President Uhuru Kenyatta arrived at the Kenya International Investment Conference at the Kenyatta International Conference in style aboard the Mobius. If more leaders and Kenyans fail to not only show up but show genuine favour for our own products, then the dustbin of ideas that hold the Nyayo pioneer and the national dress is likely to get a new resident soon.

Kenyans prefer imported products. We associate success with the trappings of Western culture and unless we have a culture shift, local products seem destined for our cemetery of ideas.

Will Kenya be third time lucky this time? Will we see powerful politicians arrive at a Jamhuri Day celebration in a Mobius? It is ridiculous to ask foreigners to invest in our country when we show such preference for foreign products?

Mr Okoth is a communication officer at a bank in Nairobi. ([email protected]om)

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