This Christmas revealed how much we've changed
What you need to know:
- Many who wanted to be in Naivasha within 45 minutes were stuck on the road for eight hours, arriving in the wee hours of Christmas Day.
- It is absurd to continue developing products for non-Kenyan visitors when it is the ordinary Kenyan who comes to the rescue of tourist destinations when the foreign visitors fail to show up.
- From my lunch in Naivasha, I could tell that the nyama choma and other regular dishes were uninteresting to the young lot gathered there.
Christmas is changing. From the usual traditions, to where we choose to spend Christmas, to the foods that characterised our past celebrations, we are changing.
This year’s celebrations have brought many lessons that need our interventions in order to make future celebrations better and more meaningful.
Let me begin with our peculiar travel patterns. A significant number of those who live in urban areas decided they would have to spend their Christmas Eve in a place other than their usual home. What makes this peculiar is that they all decided to leave at the same time.
As such, a majority who wanted to be in Naivasha in 45 minutes to one hour were stuck on the road for eight hours, arriving in the wee hours of Christmas Day. Many thanks to those who kept us informed via Twitter and WhatsApp.
The social media platforms did wonders informing us that Mombasa-bound travellers met with the same fate at Voi. It took them nine hours to travel a distance that hardly takes two hours on a normal day.
In Nairobi, it took more than two hours to travel from the airport to the city centre. All the mess was largely due to poor and reckless driving. The principle that law should govern us was thrown to the wind. Perhaps the enforcers too had gone for Christmas.
In spite of all this confusion, for the first time in many years there were fewer fatalities on the roads. The bad news is that we still have non-law-abiding drivers.
Although the reforms at the Transport ministry are bearing fruit, there is still more work to be done to rid the roads of careless drivers. It is not the application of the law that will change these people.
We need a digital driver’s license with a system that tracks dangerous or careless drivers. For each violation, the driver would receive points that are posted on an open platform accessed by insurance companies, which would apply premiums according to the risks you take while driving.
FLOWER FARM EMPLOYEES
Let me switch to Christmas holiday destinations. Water seems to be the major attraction, and it is not by accident because historically, Africans had different water deities.
Water deities are common in mythology and were usually more important among civilisations in which the sea or ocean or a great river was most important.
Among the Yoruba of Nigeria, Yemoja is an Orisha or Orisa (which were spirits that reflected one of the manifestations of God in the Yoruba religion). She is the ocean, the essence of motherhood, and a fierce protector of children. Yemoja is the mother of all Orishas.
There are many other African mythologies around water and perhaps explaining why we are so attracted to water that many people in this holiday season flocked around water.
I was at Lake Naivasha. Walking along the public beach, I was astonished by the number of people who were there. Most were ordinary citizens who work at the Naivasha flower farms. They had saved to get their families on a boat to watch the hippos and other wildlife.
PRIVATE RIPARIAN LAND
But the beach was too small, undeveloped and dangerous for their young ones. Acacia trees dot the beach and their thorns were an annoyance to the visitors.
Next to the public beaches are private beaches with lush grass. As I walk towards these luxurious beaches, a watchman tells me it is private property. I refuse to go back, explaining to him that this too is public property, riparian land that you have converted into private property.
He’d never heard of the word riparian. I might have as well talked to some wall. But I promised to take this up with the higher authorities. Our future success depends on how economically and socially inclusive we become.
The front page of The Standard had a disturbing picture of Kenyans at the Jomo Kenyatta public beach in Mombasa. It is possible there were more than 10,000 people confined into some small beach plot, while just a few well-to-do holiday-makers were enjoying the length and breadth of our coastal land.
KENYANS TO THE RESCUE
In my extensive travels globally, ocean-front land is left to the public. It is on such land that we can begin to develop local tourist products that are currently non-existent.
It is absurd to continue developing products for non-Kenyan visitors when it is the ordinary Kenyan who comes to the rescue of tourist destinations when the foreign visitors fail to show up. No one should have exclusivity to a river front, sea front, ocean front or lake front. These are common resources.
Around food, a lot has changed. On South Road in Naivasha, a man rolled on the busy highway. He was drunk and most likely thought he was having fun. He too was celebrating the birth of Christ.
This is a phenomenon that has emerged in virtually every village in Kenya. When we were growing up, people drank responsibly. Liquor vendors were honest and less greedy. They never sold beer to underage boys.
Something changed that even with the strict Mututho laws, we still cannot figure out what to do. We are sinking into despair and hopelessness.
FALLOW LAND
Perhaps it is the fact that there is nothing to look up to for Christmas celebrations. As children, we looked up to the opportunity to have pilau, chapati and mandazi with chai, but these are regular dishes today.
From my lunch in Naivasha, I could tell that the nyama choma and other regular dishes were uninteresting to the young lot gathered there. The restaurant too was unprepared for these emerging consumers.
They rejected all the table wines, preferring to buy their own brands. They were largely oblivious of the fact that Leleshwa, the Sauvignon Blanc from Naivasha grapes, is better than Australia’s Jacob’s Creek Chardonnay Pinot Noir.
Our love for foreign taste will hurt us in the long run. Kenya is increasingly becoming a net importer, yet our land lies fallow as we import grapes and wine from elsewhere.
PRAWNS, NOT MANDAZI
Our ocean remains unfished, yet some of these young consumers are asking for seafood. While we ate mandazi for Christmas, they wanted prawns instead. Children are forcing their parents to take them to far-flung areas to taste new foods.
If they want lobster or shrimp, let them trawl it out of the Indian Ocean and export the excess. We must dirty our hands first and pay attention to unnecessary imports that are already part of our resource bank.
Change should never be an excuse for not doing right. We must seek to live by the rule of law and be the change agent that will improve on economic and social inclusivity.
Our consumption must be met with the need to exploit local opportunities that meet the many foreign tastes we have acquired. That is how we can build a better future for all.
As US President Barack Obama once said, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
Happy New Year.
Bitange Ndemo is a senior lecturer at the University of Nairobi's School of Business, Lower Kabete campus. He is a former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communication. Twitter: @bantigito.
