READERS, IT'S MY TURN TO PAY BACK; THANK YOU!

This is my last piece this year - 64th article. I have penned it specifically for you my dear readers. I would like to point out that your readership powered this blog. Your thirst for more content watered my pen. You failed not. Through your constant knockings, inquiries, criticisms and sometimes praises, you kept this conversation moving.

You see, I call it 'conversation' because minus you, today I would be writing the 0th article. Your place is indispensable.

Atop my index is this guy (he has always reminded me never to reveal his identity) whose stream of questions always left me like: 'you know nothing. Go read again'. I say a big 'thank you' to him.

Look, sometimes I would pick up an issue, arm myself and grab my laptop ready to splash out my ideas, only to confront this chap with his piercing, touchy, catchy questions. 

Then guess what? I will swallow my ego, pack my ideas and head straight to research expeditions. Through this, I picked some grand lessons: readiness to learn and accept and the art of judging oneself are a must. 

No doubt this enriched my writings. Big up friend!

Most of my pieces as you have noticed reflect the tonality of the men and women on the streets - to borrow that old phrase from our oldies. I bet many of you have entertained questions like these: what  pushed Lemukol into this realm? Or who is behind Lemukol's writings?

Get it from me. I started writing for fun; with no clear objective in mind until most of you readers started streaming in with your sweet suggestions. I obliged. I followed your good counsel. And this is the fruit of your counsel! 

But wait, keep those sweet ideas coming. Now, you are officially part of this blog. This is your platform. This is your home!

Look, I almost forgot to tell you this. We navigated together. 2014 was a game-changer year. We got a weekly column in two newspapers of national circulation. Many requests from established magazines are now 'normal'. 

Ha! We are moving. My social media 'buddies' occupy a special place in my scales. Sometimes we have crossed each other the wrong way. Other times we have sung the same song and picked the same battles.  Your contribution is immense. Ahsanteni!

And to all those who wrote to me seeking my voice on particular issues, I say thanks for finding a useful servant in me. Your 'cries' coloured my writings. I believe the persons to whom the message was destined responded accordingly. 

To those who always find time to drop a comment plus a soapy word here and there after reading my pieces, thanks for extending your kind words. 

This tribute isn't complete without mentioning the role played by my good critics. Those who are brutally honest and hide no words in pointing out my inadequacies. Guys, I need more of you. This blog is built by brains like yours. Thank you.

Lastly, I must mention the pivotal efforts of the Maskani Family of the Star Newspaper and the indefatigable team of Turkana Times Newspaper for springing this blog to the eyes of the many out there. Thank you.

May 2015 bring you good tidings. Be blessed.

Lemukol Ng'asike is an Architect. E-mail:  lemoseh89@gmail.com.  Twitter:  @mlemukol.  

ON TECHNICAL TRAINING, MOROCCO IS KENYA'S GOOD TEACHER

Tellingly, many steps have been covered in developing, supporting and promoting technical training in Kenya. Policy interventions coupled with high level political support has propelled technical training to the higher scales of Kenya's multi-sectoral discourse. This is highly welcome. 

At last, we are reaffirming to ourselves that national economic progress is inseparable from the technical know-how of our youth – and more so those below university/college cut-off lines.

I am happy for one reason. Many folks out there have waited for long to enjoy this largess and now they have the opportunity to do so. 

However, I have some reservations. I may be wrong. The whole structure and thinking of technical training in Kenya calls for a radical overhaul. Our obsession with raw numbers as opposed to quality and responsiveness to market trends is a big obstacle that, if not corrected now, will deal a deadly blow to any noble step no matter the backing it will get from the officialdom.

Two. We have never come any closer at delinking papers (certifications) from real learning (imparting of knowledge to trainees). Even with the accompanying malaise of "paper qualifications" we see around, our grading criteria remain intact. This is why some of us are questioning the wisdom behind locking out a huge mass of talented chaps roaming our streets and villages just because they possess no "basic certificate." 

A plethora of scholarly writings and policy observations on technical training, demonstrate the primordial role the location of a learning institution has in bridging up regional inequalities and responding to sectoral and specific social dynamics shaping a given society. Kenya has long way to go to cure this imbalance malady.

Which beggars some questions: 1) Is the State aware of the inadequacies of this imbalance to the pastoralist communities of this country? 2) Is there a deliberate move to cure this ailment? 3) If yes, how?

Let me walk you through some best (in my opinion) examples elsewhere. The Kingdom of Morocco comes atop my list. 

Talking about Morocco's progress in technical training, some three aspects come to mind. One, the definition of what goes as technical training. Two, who their target groups are. Three, the rationale of  reaching out to these target groups.

A quick look into their categorisation of technical courses reveals an interesting stream of thoughts defining the national philosophical underpinning on matters of training in general, and target-group empowerment in particular. Here, technical training deals with anything man needs to survive.

Put it differently, they have broadened the definition of technical training to bring into the loop the many works which, according to Kenya's intelligentsia, could pass as "untrainable courses". 

Secondly, training is not paper-oriented. The central pillar is to equip the learner with appropriate skills to earn a decent living. To achieve this, see what they do. All entrance levels are catered for. There are courses for every chap out there. The unschooled (read "the paperless") have their place. Equally, those with papers have their place. 

Arriving at this melange is still a distant mirage for Kenya. Reason? Our creativity starts and ends with papers.

I am no educationist. But my reservations won’t allow me to swallow the untruths peddled out there that technical training revolves around tailoring, carpentry, masonry and mechanics.

Where did we hide our creativity?

 

To build a robust sector, we must redefine our technical training to make it more inclusive and responsive. This over-reliance on paper qualifications is a colonial relic that leaves more harm than good.

Clinging to it is outright discrimination against the paperless, illiterate mass populating our streets and remote corners of this great nation. This is not a procedure of creating jobs. This is a short-cut to self-destruction.

Yes, on technical training, Morocco is Kenya’s good teacher. Let’s reach out to these brothers across the Sahara for help. It is never late.

Lemukol Ng’asike is an Architect. Twitter: @mlemukol.  Email: lemoseh89@gmail.com. 

On Banditry Victims' Welfare, The Buck Stops With You Mr. Governor

While "fruits" of insecurity may simply pass as deaths and destruction of properties, an interesting aspect touching on the plight of victims of insecurity and measures geared at improving their social and economic conditions has conspicuously missed out in a number of State-sanctioned interventions in the recent past. 

Something is definitely wrong here. The question, therefore, is: Could there be a deliberate move to view the finality of banditry through the lenses of pursuing combatants and forgetting the reconstruction segment that is supposed to impact positively on victims' lives?

I have followed closely the bandit menace bedeviling northern Kenya. I have gone through a great deal of documentation, government reports, records from NGO and faith-based organizations to figure out whether reconstruction as a pillar of conflict resolution is actually implemented. What pops up, however, is rather scary. 

From these reports, it is evident that much efforts and resources have been directed towards peace building initiatives - (what is generally referred to as community reconciliation meetings.)

In most cases, you could find a single entity running parallel "peace building meetings" in the same locality, targeting the same audience giving an impression that it is lack of steady, constructive dialogue that fuels banditry up there.

The underlying issue here isn't fostering peaceful relations. It is wholly a competition to write reports; no matter the outcome of the said meetings. You see, it takes even a numskull to figure out that this is a big obstacle to successful empowerment of victims.

While it is not entirely solid to dispute that dialogue is an integral aspect in any peace building process, over-reliance on it as the "only" way to peaceful co-existence of the people countenances the very same foundation it is supposed to build. Dialogues, community peace talks, leaders' peace forums, meet-the-people initiatives et al must be punctuated by reconstruction of victims' livelihoods for peace to rein.

A critical look of the resources allocated to the aforementioned "peace talks" reveals a rather damning reality of how a tiny, well-connected clique of individuals is dancing all the way to their bank accounts. Mark you, peace building in these "bandit territories" is a big business. Endless bloodshed translates to steady income to this group. It is therefore foolhardy to bank our hopes on such a thieving squad to divert their attention to reconstructing the livelihoods of banditry victims. They cannot. 

A case in point is the humongous allowances these NGO people plus their government hangers-on (no pun intended) pocket on daily basis to listen to village talks, masked as peace talks, spearheaded by villagers who can hardly walk due to hunger and diseases. 

Good people, isn't this commercialisation of the people, by their own sons and daughters, for their own narrow interests? For how long shall we maintain silence in the face of an existential enemy that is high-level thievery and hypocrisy?

I am no entertainer of theatrics and empty rhetoric as panacea to perennial banditry. Many generations of leaders in times past have pushed for policing as a solution to banditry. I must acknowledge that a number of police posts have been established along banditry hot-spots. Some semblance of order is undoubtedly visible in those places. 

The tipping point, after this endless policing, has remained off the table. This goes on to cement the skewed understanding of banditry, not only as a security problem, but as a social and economic problem. 

Put it differently, anytime banditry creates a new victim, we rush to security "solutions" forgetting that victims need food. Victims need education. Victims need health. Victims need economic empowerment in order to support themselves as opposed to depending on food rations.

This, my people, has to change if the interests of the people remain our guiding star. We must rethink our strategies. We must listen to victims. We must respond to their demands. Only when these happen shall we celebrate that reconstruction of victims' livelihood has actually succeeded.

It takes a leader with an eye of the people, with a heart of the suffering, with a bleeding soul to decipher the joyous aftermath of empowered victims. Governor Nanok, your time to lead the crowd is now. The people of Turkana County will eternally remember you in this. Do something to banditry victims.

Lemukol Ng'asike is an Architect. E-mail:  lemoseh89@gmail.com.  Twitter:  @mlemukol.  

WOMEN'S GENITALIA NOT FOOTBALL FOR TUNNEL-MINDED MEN

I refuse to accept that a dress - or lack of it - predisposes a woman to the piratical nature of many a man - and by extension to fellow women - today. I refuse to acknowledge the raw definition of the person of women as espoused in many of our afro-social constructs. I refuse to accept that a woman's character should be measured by the shape of her genitalia.

Let's confront this painful truism. Development which sidelines half of humanity stands no chance to materialize. Males alone cannot turbo power the engines of progress. Women's input is indispensable.

For it is only by disembarking from this one-sided-ism that we shall discover the hitherto unexploited positive reserves of our female folks.

Talk about one-sided-ism and the push for the recognition of the rightful place of women and you'll confront the gripping reality that is female genital mutilation (FGM) and all the attendant risks that characterize the very act of commercialization of our women.

Mark you, ending FGM isn't a simple ball game. There is a growing need to deepen our understanding of what FGM really is, the logic behind it and the ultimate beneficiaries of its promotion. For it is totally blind to purport to cure an ailment whose foundations we comprehend nothing about. Let's not sugar-coat our discourse about the achievements brought about by anti-FGM laws (especially in Kenya).

Many girls and women still undergo the cut - albeit the existence of these laws. This brings us to center of our discourse. Men - especially the tunnel-minded ones - hold the key to ending FGM. The prevailing philosophy - among communities practicing FGM - on matters of marriage, bride's "qualifications", processes of arriving at such "qualifications" and many other undocumented issues all run counter any scholarly or legalistic interventions geared at ending FGM. 

FGM is a tool of domination. It is designed to put women at "their place". FGM is the vehicle in which the "moral correctness of men and the immoral being of women" travel. It has nothing to do with culture. For I know one thing - no culture is static. Any culture is subject to constant questioning by the people purporting to own it in order to improve it and make it responsive to their daily needs.

Which therefore provokes a bitter question: What makes FGM a near-sacrosanct a subject to be shielded from the constant questioning of people - and even the law?

Don't boil up. The culprit is right here. 

Women's genitalia have never ceased to be football for the many folks in FGM-leaning communities. Wait, this game is two-sided. One, the dominant player, is the man. His power to veto a marriage on such flimsy grounds as a bride wasn't "shaped" to his tests cannot be wished away. You see, marriage down there is everything. It is a prerequisite for social recognition and standing. It strikes at the core of personality indexing of the concerned parties. 

Two, the accept-it-all type of woman out there is her own enemy. (Excuse them please.) They are victims of a system that rewards them on the basis of their "loyalty". This ritualistic woman is in need of a dose to pick up and pull the stinger. It is time women stood up to explain their intricacies themselves.

A recapture of these women must be grounded in what touches them on daily basis. Economic muscle is the dividing line between "loyalists" and "rebels". The point is, therefore, a question of how economic scales can be tilted in favour of women. 

For if a society has used economic blows to subject half of its membership to the dustbins of degradation, ritualistic acts and commoditization and elevate the other half to the level of demigods whose morality is beyond question, then it is no rocket science that the same economic means (with some little changes and improvements) can be used to right the system.

Again, the aforementioned tunnel-minded men and their cheering squads need not be forgotten. Yes, women's genitalia won’t be football for tunnel-minded men only if we bring them on board and prove to them that a bellyful, empowered woman is a plus to all.

Lemukol Ng'asike is an Architect. E-mail:  lemoseh89@gmail.com.  Twitter:  @mlemukol.  

WHY DEVOLUTION WILL RE-CALIBRATE KENYA'S URBANISM

Something interesting is happening in Kenya's urban landscape. An urban growth-boom is evident across the country. Many hitherto 'rural' towns are slowly gaining prominence, attracting unprecedented human flow and business activities. Equally, an unusual downward migration is observed. 

The simple fact that many folks and business establishments are considering relocating to these areas calls for a quick, deep examination of our urbanism and urban land use strategies.

Rural land uses and agglomeration go, to a large extent, unregulated and unplanned. It is understandable to believe that super-imposition of urban settings in rural areas must be followed by a concrete thinking and implementation of the same.

From a legal-historical perspective, this change is, undoubtedly, attributed to the post-2010 Constitution which introduced a devolved system of governance that put emphasis in resource sharing and development of national peripheries to solidify the center. 

The move to codify this clear withdrawal from past paradigms that sidelined the socio-econo-political role of rural communities (the peripheries of the nation) gives a solid reason to re-examine the powers and composition of local planning authorities, their role in planning, and the numerous geo-spatial and socio-economic dynamics that inform urban planning procedures.

The essential point about local planning authorities (municipalities, town councils, city councils, devolved units etc) is that they have no 'positive' powers to ensure that the developments (industrial estates, housing, roads etc) set out in their respective plans will take place. Their powers are 'negative' powers - they have the ability to refuse permission for development which does not conform to the plan.

The aforementioned 'positive' powers are grounded in functions of local authorities as initiators of quasi-planning maps (what is generally referred to as zoning) within their jurisdictions. This, at least in theory, provides a legal and spatial framework vis-à-vis development of urban agglomerations and future needs of the same. 

Whenever 'negative' powers are invoked, the resultant effect is generally the curtailment of development even when such development conforms to planning regulations. It is in conditions such as this that corruption creeps in and adherence to planning and legitimate development takes a deep sink.

Such moves create what many would call 'urban anarchy'. A sort of urban jungle where no clear planning direction is followed and where the regulators (planning authorities) play spectator roles.

Past experiences in Kenya's urban planning leave a lot to be rectified. One forgotten factor is the place of cemeteries in urban planning and as a focal point in securing land for future needs. Many a times, we have confronted many Kenyan 'municipalities' grappling with the matter of positioning cemeteries. 

In many instances, the location of this vital urban component comes as an after-thought in our planning discourse. A case in point is the well-documented dilemma surrounding the philosophy of cemeteries as an urban-planning aspect.

It is logical anyway to give priority to the living than to the dead. However, it is instructive to point out that land - especially in urban areas - remains an expensive out-of-reach resource. It is for this reason that an all-inclusive urban planning comes in handy.

The Kenyan case is, in many respects, complicated. One glaring observation is the quasi-cultural attachment of Kenyans to the dead. This attachment puts much premium on burying the dead in the so-called family land in complete disregard of the present and/or future standing of the value of that land.

Cemetery burial arrangements are met with much disdain which, in turn, puts much strain on private land, complicating future development and/or change of use. 

Even in cases where cemeteries are provided, maintenance of the same by authorities leaves one with no option but to seek alternative places to bury their dead - preferably on private land or privately-maintained burial grounds.

It follows therefore that rethinking our urbanism is a must. The 2010 Constitution offers us some clear guidelines on how to achieve a balanced urbanism. Urbanism that is durable and all-inclusive.

Atop its reformist proposals is the absorption of former local authorities into County Governments which are better resourced and boast of a wide range of expert personnel. The Urban Areas and Cities Act of 2011 vests the powers of managing urban areas in the hands of ‘Management Boards’ under direct supervision of their respective county authorities.

This is a departure from the past experience where municipal decisions were under the tight grip of politicos who were completely disconnected from the technical and expert demands of their areas of jurisdiction.

But what remains unattended to is whether these entities will make use of their new-found powers and influence on matters planning in redefining our urban landscape. 

Perhaps it is time to rejoice and be proud of our Constitution for ushering a new paradigm in urban redefinition.

For now, I choose to call it cemetery-oriented urbanism. An urbanism of the living and the dead.

Lemukol Ng'asike is an Architect. E-mail:  lemoseh89@gmail.com.  Twitter:  @mlemukol.