Roadside policy statements out of sync with our modern times

I thought the era of roadside policy pronouncements came to an end with the exit of President Daniel arap Moi’s Kanu lootocracy.

But then the wheel has turned full circle. Expectations for a government focused on policies and programmes rather than cheap populism must for many have been brought to a rude interruption with President Kenyatta’s roadside policy declaration.

The President displayed that he learnt well at the knee of the old master when he visited roadside artisans on Ngong Road at the weekend and instantly drew applause with the declaration that they would not have to make way for the planned expansion of the road.

One of the busiest roads into and out of the city is supposed to be expanded into a dual carriageway. Plans have been drawn, contracts signed, and heavy machinery mobilised for the start of construction.

Actually, that section is the remaining bit yet to commence for a project that dualises the whole stretch of Lang’ata Road from the Nairobi National Park main gate to Karen shopping centre, and then from Karen down Ngong Road to Adams Arcade.

Another phase about to start construction stretches from Adams Arcade all the way to the Ngong Road-Valley Road-Kenyatta Avenue intersection near the All Saints Cathedral. It is a major project already well in progress, but now the remaining section might be jeopardised because of an incomprehensible move that could cost the taxpayers dearly.

PEOPLE WITH COJONES

I cannot claim any in expertise in buildings, roads, bridges and all those fancy interchanges that excite us so. Almost from Class One, it was evident that I was heavily handicapped in basic mathematics. In secondary school, I went through mandatory mathematics, physics, chemistry, and anything else involving addition subtraction, division, algebra, and such mumbo jumbo in a proper daze.

But even with all my limitations, I can tell that building a road is no mean undertaking. Uprooting and transplanting a road on the strength of an ill-thought out presidential directive can lay to waste all the best laid schemes of men and mice.

I just hope that we have men and women in this in government with the cojones to pull President Kenyatta aside and whisper that while roadside declarations may earn applause for the moment, they cannot be implemented. This delicate task will fall on Mr Michael Kamau, the Cabinet secretary for Transport and Infrastructure, together with the boss of the Kenya Urban Roads Authority.

GAUGE THE TECHNOCRATS

It is from how this is handled that we can gauge whether the apolitical technocrats and professionals appointed to the Cabinet trumpeting superior qualifications and expertise can actually be allowed to do their work without undue political shackles. We will see whether they are just wallflowers valuable only because they carry no political clout, therefore leaving all power concentrated in the presidency.

The jua kali artisans on Ngong Road make some wonderful furniture and could even win a contract or two at State House, if the pledge to buy local ever amounts to anything more than a campaign promise. However, at some point, it will have to be made clear to them that the President’s roadside declaration was just a gimmick, so they must prepare for eventual eviction or relocation.

But what if it turns out that the President was serious and the road, rather than the artisans, must be moved whatever the cost? I can bet my last penny that the intended beneficiaries will not have been the carpenters and metalworkers, but well-connected neighbours in the vicinity with imposing houses encroaching on the road reserve.

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Opposition leader Raila Odinga got quite an earful in his political backyard when he tried to intervene in favour of a Sikh peace monument in the middle of Kisumu Town. I cannot figure out why the citizens of Kisumu should be so hostile to the monument unless they were misled and incited by some fundamentalist Christian jihadists.

The protesting mobs did not look particularly pious and Christian to me, just an unruly and ignorant rabble that has never heard of religious and cultural tolerance in our diverse society. All the same, I cannot figure out why Mr Odinga had to lay his authority on the line by wading into such a provincial squabble.

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