Put on your
dancing shoes and get ready to move your body. The sleeping lioness is in the
studio. She can’t wait to do a cover version of a song originally done by P!nk.
Allow her to sing the lyrics and please if you want in, sing backup vocals. Or
sing the guitar riffs. Or better still, play the air drum. Here we go:
“…right from the start
You were a thief
You stole my heart
And I your willing victim….
I let you see the parts of me
That weren’t all that pretty
And with every touch you fixed them…”
The song
goes on and on till she hits the chorus
“…Just give me a reason
Just a little bit’s enough
Just a second we’re not broken just bend
And we could learn to love again …”
Kiambu
County is hurt. She is crying. I believe she is in the studio not just for the
sake of it but because she has genuine reasons and legitimate concerns. She has
been robbed off her dignity and consequently become a victim of mockery,
suspicion and distrustful glances. The concern that tops her list is ‘tainted
image’. We need to hire a public relations director to restore the pride of
Kiambu County in these times of cruelty against animals. We cannot have every
dirty story originating from her. Methinks people are using this name ‘Kiambu’
loosely. Members of the fourth estate are not doing us any good. Some of these
stories seem to be fabricated. The less I talk about those stories, the better.
Kiambu County is not that bad. We can all learn to love her again. Some parts
of her are not all that pretty but we can fix them. We need a combined effort
to track down that thief that has degraded our moral fabric and put him behind
bars for a very long time so that we can deal with the real issues that affect
the County.
The county
is facing serious social, economic and governance challenges. We need
ideological clarity, intellectual rigor and commitment to transform this county
to an economic powerhouse that it ought to be. With the inevitable comparison
and contrast between Kiambu and Machakos, a raft of measures should be put in
place with regard to policy making. The residents of Kiambu need to see that
something is happening. It’s like a sneeze that gives a false alarm that it’s
gonna happen but it doesn’t happen only to put a stupid look on your face and
then just leave!
I know what
ails us. We have so many people in our core institutions who are either
incompetent or irredeemably corrupt or both. Traffic police officers have a
thing for bribes which undermines the integrity of the whole system. This
cancer is so wide spread that people have become accustomed to bribery which
makes a bad situation worse. Passenger service vehicles have to part with ‘toll
fee’ every time the boys in blue put a check sign on the road. Instead of
playing mind games, we should stop fooling each other. Usually, matatu
conductors or drivers put a 100 or 200 shillings note in the driving license
pack and pass it to the officer who discreetly removes the money while
pretending to check the validity of the insurance policy. If anyone has the
slightest shade of doubt with regard to rampant corruption on the roads, just
take a visit to Kiambu. Along Kiambu road, you will meet traffic police
officers. They will wave for your matatu to stop. Observe what happens in the
next one minute. All the passengers in the PSV know exactly what is happening
yet the officers try to conceal the action. The boys in blue are public
servants charged with protecting public safety, a difficult job that merits our
deepest appreciation. However, when they allow money to exchange hands, the
safety of the public is compromised. We need a Mohammed-Ali kind of
investigation on that particular open secret.
There have
been numerous complains concerning leadership. Governor William Kabogo cannot
be wished away. It is prudent that he takes a consultative approach involving
as many ordinary Kiambu residents as possible. What will gauge the success or
failure of this regime is mainly the standard of living. If it goes up, the
governor will have made a remarkable contribution to growth and development. If
it goes down, he will have failed the County at large. We need to see greater
access to knowledge, better nutrition, improved security, transparent and
equitable distribution of resources and better health services. People need to
feel protected from chronic threats such as hunger and abrupt disruptions
including joblessness, famine and conflict. We need to partner with other
counties because we are heavily interdependent and no society evolves in
isolation.
In order to
come up with relevant policies, the governor and his team should involve a core
team comprising technical officers drawn from all parts of the county, research
institutions and consultants and together they should organize workshops with
various firms, investors, farmers and both formal and informal business people
in all major sectors. The experts should use the input from the aforementioned
stakeholders and their own economic analysis in order to wake up the sleeping
lioness that is Kiambu County. The necessary social and political reforms
should be put in place to ensure that economic goals are realizable and
sustainable. As a matter of urgency, we need a policy that will facilitate the
process of land administration which will consequently implement the
computerization of land registries. Is it very sad that there’s not a single serious
project being undertaken that I’m aware of (I stand to be corrected). Investment in physical infrastructure should
be given the highest priority.
Why don’t we
start with an anti-corruption programme? Why don’t we show all incompetent
municipal council workers the door? Especially those hired on who-you-know
basis. Those hired out of nepotism. We need a qualified team that comprises a
competitive and adaptive human resource base. Without an efficient, motivated
and well-trained public service, we will be treated to fist fights, chair
hurling and other embarrassing sideshows that characterize council board
meetings.
I am
optimistic that the sleeping lioness will wake up and rise to the challenge
