Lodwar exemplifies Kenya's devolution "cow cities"

Overview of Nairobi city. Photo courtesy: Twitter.

This was an observation I made a few days ago when a Lodwar-based friend of mine posted on Facebook photos of near-Nairobi-like traffic jam in what was hitherto a dusty two-vehicle town. This is post-devolution Lodwar town. The headquarters of Turkana County.

The only bridge linking the center and the eastern portion of the town is always clogged up. There are just too many vehicles competing for space. The solution, he proposes, is to urgently erect a new bridge to ease pressure on the existing one.

Of course, my people will call this "development" for the only traffic jam they have known is that of cows and goats squeezing their way through a busy village market leaving behind a tornado of dust.

While this narrow bridge could actually be the issue, the crux of the matter according to me rests somewhere else. Devolution's outpouring of billions to mashinani is to blame (well, based on how you look at it). Vehicle ownership is the new status symbol down there.

From where I stand, I think this experience is both bad and good. It makes of a classic case of critiquing the very reasoning of those managing our agglomerations.

The juicy side of this is that urban planning as a key policy issue will take center stage. Those heavy-bodied women and men with newfound wealth will make this a reality. And you know what? They will be heard. One, because they have cash. Two, a majority of them sit in local decision-making bureaus.

Combine the two and you get the third motivation: giving life to “urban matters” like roads and water means responding to their personal challenges. This way, the public will end up collecting some fatty crumbs. Good!

The downside, however, is that we, as a country, have been caught flatfooted. The nakedness of our urban (and rural) development frameworks is now public knowledge. It is a no-confidence vote, I must add, against the municipalities and councils of yore. Those guys were just interested in revenue collection. 

The very critical aspects of monitoring urban trends with a view to building a responsive spatial entity for all received a beating. And this is how towns like Lodwar became "cow cities". Entities theoretically classified as "urban" but which operated as manyattas. Glorified manyattas - perhaps.

Several reasons fortify this  manyatta-status. One, these towns lack internal road connectivity. The only existing network, in most of them, is the road that enters and exits the town. 

Two, yes there is land for future expansion but there is no water to motivate this expansion. People crowd around water points. A painful experience reminiscent of those medieval cities of the Far East. 

Three, urban planning regime here is a strange lexicon. Even those charged with the mandate of implementing it are just but guess-work morons. Village-ism is king. This explains why cemeteries are under-utilized. People insist on burying their dead at "home", thereby complicating matters whenever there is need to execute land ownership transfer. Plots located in business strategic zones fall in this category.

(As a side note, even the dead have not been spared. You cannot, in your right mind, allow your loved one to be buried in these public cemeteries. A relook is highly needed).

So, which way forward? This is what I propose. One, consensus out there dictates that "government ignites (spatial) order". People tend to congregate around government installations. This proximity, it is believed, is an assurance of getting some "spillovers" of vital goodies like water and roads. And I squarely bank my argument on it. Governors and their respective assemblies should push their offices out of town. People will follow. And order will reign.

Two, people must discard this mentality that to be a "modern town", then, every place must be like Nairobi. I have seen this with the mad rush to put up traffic lights even on camel paths. A phenomenon that underpins local authorities’ poor understanding of the uniqueness of the places they govern.

It is simple, erecting mega flood lights at town's strategic points will do wonders. And sunbaked towns like Lodwar have an added advantage. Solar power is in plenty. 

The bottom line is that leaders must stretch their imaginations beyond normative responses.

Will this herald the death of “cow cities”? With cautious optimism, I choose to wait and see.

Lemukol Ng’asike is an architect. Twitter: @mlemukol