THE SLEEPING LIONESS

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