Devolution notebook: Mukombero price spikes
Delegates queue at the Kakamega High School gate to undergo a security check to on April 24, 2018. The Council of Governors said more than 6,000 delegates are in Kakamega town to attend the 5th devolution conference. PHOTO | ONDARI OGEGA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- First day of conference was held amid heavy rains.
- Many delegates had to walk to town after boda boda riders were denied access to the venue.
- Price of mukombero, a libido booster, went up due to increased demand.
The devolution conference began on Tuesday with a let-down after President Uhuru Kenyatta failed to attend as has been the tradition.
The event had been preceded by unusual cooperation between senators and governors who even formed a joint committee to organise the conference.
But the leaders still traded insults when formal speeches began on Tuesday.
Despite their joint team, the conference has not been all smooth.
SOGGY GROUNDS
When the more than 6,000 delegates gathered at Kakamega High School, the excitement was high.
Kakamega High School, which is famous for their drama talent and sports prowess, has ample space.
Yet, this is also the rainy season. In Kakamega County, the most populous in western Kenya, rains gather from the forest nearby and pour for hours.
It poured on Monday. Then poured on Tuesday morning.
By the time the conference was starting, the premises resembled a ploughed farm.
Workers spent most of the morning laying gravel to tame the mud.
MEDIA CENTRE
Journalists often attend major conferences around the world with an expectation that there will be a media centre with internet connectivity and a place to recharge their gadgets.
In Kakamega, the tent set up as the media centre had no power plugs.
Media centres are also the place to access important documents, saving reporters the hustle of running after talking heads. In this conference, that was the problem.
There was, initially, internet connectivity until someone decided to turn it off.
Reporters emerging from the first session with low batteries had to rush to town to get a place to plug in. Later in the evening, it poured again and the remaining events of the day were messed up too.
BODA BODAS
Known for riding around town with impunity, boda boda operators met their match after the tight security that descended on the town denied them access to the meeting venue.
Police officers controlling traffic could be heard harshly yelling at them.
Since the operators could not access the venue, it also meant ordinary delegates had to walk for more than a kilometre to get a ride back to town.
The security officers may have reasoned that their presence could have spoilt the ambience.
But for a county for its arrogant boda boda operators and bullfighting, perhaps it should be tradition.
MUKOMBERO
For all its size, Kakamega residents may be credited with ‘discovering’ mukombero, scientifically known as Mondia whytei, a local plant whose roots are chewed supposedly to boost libido.
In the streets of every town today, the root, measuring a foot or so fetches between Sh20 and Sh40.
When the devolution conference came to town, the young boys hawking the root fixed the price at Sh60. One told our reporter that the herb was now “scarce” and they have to go far to get it as demand had risen.
The question, though, is whether the price has been increased because the people are curious to taste mukombero or whether there is more of the activity that it supposedly boosts.
