MY PEOPLE, STOP THIS ENDLESS TRUMPETING AND ACT!

Photo: COURTESY

Talking (or dialogue, as my compatriots would call it) has not made its first appearance in our social, political and economic landscape today. To use an expression dear to all of us, we may say that its origins have been with us and will definitely remain with us for as long as we stick together in this geographical corner of our planet we call Kenya. 

What is evident, however, is that endless trumpeting, as opposed to action-talking-action has taken center stage in all our personal, communal and even national interventions. Everybody has become a victim of this "talking flu;" the private, the public, the religious, the non-religious, the educated, the uneducated, the aged, the youth and whatnot.

We all need some medication to cure this national cancer!

Without harking back to the usual hullabaloo about dysfunctional governments, corrupt public supremos, failed States, and so on and so forth, I think, I must point out that we, the collectives, are equally to blame for the smelly state of affairs around us.

For where on earth can a minority reign supremely above the masses, foisting their thoughts and actions upon them without a second thought, or rather without hiding from the tide of anger and dissatisfaction from the populace? Are the majority complicit in their own sufferance?

Could this be the same condition confining our young people to tireless finger-pointing exercises, blame shifting, truth evasion, and brutal massacre of progressive thoughts under the pretext of fighting for change? 

I say this with a bleeding heart. I cry not because I'm injured but because I see people with eyes, brains, energies, (and name it) reducing themselves to talking machines and professional "blamers".

For them the answer is uniform and standard: It is always the other side that is responsible for the (undesirable) condition we are in!

Listen to Karl Jaspers writing on the concept of metaphysical guilt: “There exists amongst men, because they are men, a solidarity through which each shares responsibility for every injustice and every wrong committed in the world and especially for crimes that are committed in his presence or of which he cannot be ignorant. If I do not do whatever I can to prevent them, I am an accomplice in them.  If I have risked my life in order to prevent the murder of other men, if I have stood silent, I feel guilty in a sense that cannot in any adequate fashion be understood juridically or politically or morally...That I am still alive after such things have been done weighs on me as a guilt that cannot be expiated. Somewhere in the heart of human relations, an absolute command imposes itself: in case of criminal attack or of living conditions that threatens physical being, accept life for all together or not at all...”

The religious empires, to which we run whenever we are cornered, show well to what extent it is the unreal that governs the world, and not the real. They always try to delink the person (you and me) from the world he lives in. This explains why your local religious leader will find it easier to condemn (and even pronounce some super-natural fire upon that) small thief in your neighbourhood but still fail to decipher the nexus between the hidden hand that pushed him (the thief) to that "sinful" act. 

This selective condemnation is a child of a bigger creature nailing us to our coffins. It is birthed by our institutionalized hypocrisy.

You see, all this is founded on one solid philosophy: To keep you and me hopeful that things will change and change for good, without our input. It is escapist in its construction. It is hollow in its composition. It is unconvincing in its propagation. It is a fallacy of the highest degree!

Hope without solid foundation in action is nothing but a farce. It is a refuge for the escapists. It is a safe abode for those running away from self-screening. It is a lubricant to smoothen our emotions to hide the pain that will push us into questioning our efforts and contributions, positive or otherwise. It is a lullaby to sooth us into our continued slumber. It is as dangerous and lethal as the malaria-carrying anopheles mosquitoes.

In "Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered" by E.F Schumacher we are told: “All history - as well as all current experience - points to the fact that it is man, not nature, who provides the primary resource: that the key factor of all economic development comes out of the mind of man. Suddenly, there is an outburst of daring, initiative, invention, constructive activity, not in one field alone, but in many fields all at once. No one may be able to say where it came from in the first place; but we can see how it maintains and even strengthens itself: through various kinds of schools, in other words, through education. In a very real sense, therefore, we can say that education is the most vital of all resources.” 

You know what? This education is out there - on the streets, villages, slums, and those filthy rundown estates we run away from. It is housed in the bodies and minds of our mama-mbogas, small scale traders, cart pushers, jobless (but focused) youth et al. 

This is the untapped intelligentsia that is highly needed to infuse some new ideas into our old heads.

It is, therefore, of great importance for every right-thinking pro-change human to acknowledge that change devoid of change (and offloading) of hitherto unproductive thoughts and actions leads to nowhere. 

Are "#MaskaniConversationists" ready to embark on this journey?

The writer is an Architect. Twitter:  @mlemukol.  Email: lemoseh89@gmail.com. 

POKOT-TURKANA FIGHTS MERE CHIMERICAL ESCAPADES

Any mention of Pokot-Turkana "peaceful cooperation" has proved difficult and a hard-to-swallow-fact. Leaders and the populace, from these poor but warring communities have failed to internalise the simple understanding that peace is the way to go if prosperity is their vision and raison d'étre. 

Nothing can demonstrate this well than what I witnessed recently. A friend of mine “proposed” on Facebook that the only way to peace is for the people of Turkana and West Pokot Counties to accept each other as brothers.

The barrage of insults and commentaries he received for this brought to light the shallowness of brains and poor reading of history that has confined our people to continued state of senseless killings.

Some “educated” chaps went ahead to declare the “proposer” unpatriotic and blind to the fact that “our” people have nothing fruitful to share with “the other side.” For them the answer is simple and clear: people must rise and fight and kill and destroy “enemies” for peace to prevail.

For too long, all generations of leaders (especially the politicos) have blamed outside forces, understandably among locals, as the government of the republic of Kenya, for not acting and coming in the way of the people with a view to "protecting the people and restoring peace in the region". They assert that the supremacy of the State must be applied to make communities coexist peacefully.

Countless peace meetings have been held. Peace declarations have been made. Many more police stations have been opened up. Intermarriages have happened. Inter-community development programs have been launched. But the cancer of tribal killings still persists. 

These senseless fights have taken a toll order on both sides. Schools have been converted to rescue centers to shelter those running away from rain of bullets from bandits. Hitherto grazing and agricultural lands serve nothing else but to house tribal warlords reigning terror on poor defenseless villagers.

Away from the villages are found the so-called sons and daughters of the land trading insults, tossing glasses and counting the spoils of war. For them this has nothing to do with their way of life so long as their egos are fulfilled. 

Tellingly, this is a war of the elite, for the elite and with the elite. It is a manifestation of the insatiable greed of power and wealth. The poor, who in this case are just but tools of war, have nothing to boast of. You see, they only have their challenges to highlight!

Like the poor slaves who saw no need to run away from their masters, these victims have perfected the art of killing and maiming one another, all in the hope of chasing the other side so as to profit from the abundance of nature (read water and pastures). Nothing positive seems to be coming out of this. 

Isn’t it high time we dived to the deepest roots of the events I have highlighted above to attain a comprehension of the bad blood that characterizes the Pokot-Turkana people?

Get this from me: this enmity is premised on a false belief that militancy - and not mutual coexistence - against the other side is the surest way to victory over the other. And that this victory implies the necessity of destruction of the other side's strongest points, or by inflicting painful blows to "scare them away".

It is a complete antithesis of the principles of good neighbourliness. It is founded on poor leadership whose only "vision" is to speak fire. It is a fact we cannot run away from.

Until the top brass is painfully touched, the poor shall continue killing, maiming and destroying each other.

It is time people are told what they ought to know: That fights are mere chimerical escapades. They never materialize to fruitful peaceful friendships. They embody hatred and continued conditions of sufferance for the poor.

No government “donates” peace to its people. Peace "dished out" by government; and not conceived and promoted by the people is just ephemeral. It must be nurtured by the people themselves for it to stand firmly. 

We must talk and look for lasting solutions for the Pokots and Turkanas to enjoy the products of their lands!

The writer is an Architect. Twitter: @mlemukol. Email: lemoseh89@gmail.com .

Mutua's PR Inroads Come a Cropper Thanks to "MaskaniConversationists"

Planning and action are (normally) based on principles and the lived realities that characterize the targeted people, communities, areas etc. They are often spelled out clearly in the workmanship of the intended action or project, for example roads, schools, hospitals et al. They are also revealed with much clarity - or otherwise - by the records churned out by the parties in question, for instance, government officials, media personalities, or even ordinary citizens.

If these principles are understood, then we can comprehend quite well why a poor nation like Kenya is dotted with a visibly moneyed elite (in the form of government supremos, politicos) whose endless greed for public wealth has reigned supreme - raping, maiming and leaving destructions of unimaginable proportions. 

We can also understand in great lengths why the historical patterns of Wanjiku's domination by the minority upper class have refused to change despite the enactment of the much touted peoples' Constitution some four years ago. This is generally because of the relatively constant nexus of personal interests and power from which they arise.

I would like to address this question in two different but inter-related perspectives. One, the reign of looters, public office profiteers, liars, war mongers, tenderpreneurs - yes all those Wananchis'  enemies you know - is coming to a tragic end.

Reason being, their modus operandi has been overtaken by events. The frontier-less power of social media is catching up with them. It is either they bolt out of their act completely, or they will be completely and painfully be outrun by the people/social media power.

Secondly, the traditional public relations gimmicks of displaying photos of incomplete and/or shoddily executed public projects have no place in today's Kenya. Any (mis)leader on a "mission" to loot should rather think of other means to cover his acts. 

Bombarding us with photos, videos, press briefs or parading gullible villagers on "project inspection tours" have their place in Hell – yes in Kamiti Maximum Security Prison. Not in a free Kenya devoid of these agents of darkness.

No amount of social media armies shall bring down the power of truth. The nation - and the people of Kenya - cannot eternally remain under the powers of propagandists and enemies of truth. The era in which government officials monopolized public discourse vis-à-vis  maendeleo is long gone. 

Which, therefore, provokes some burning questions: Why should a governor commanding tremendous respect for his innovative and citizen-oriented measures in service delivery attempt to hoodwink the whole nation by displaying photos of a shoddily constructed road? Did it dawn on him that fooling a people is not an eternal adventure? That you can fool some people some time but you cannot fool all people all the time!

Is he representative of a wider scheme by public service officials who showcase well choreographed development “milestones” that hold no tangible outcome on the ground?

It is time these people realized that the  "MaskaniConversationists" - (the young tech-savvy independent citizen-centered thinkers and defenders of public interest) - of this great country shall never maintain silence in the face of propaganda onslaughts.

Truth is their philosophy. Bringing down empires founded on falsehoods is their mission number one. Gadgets - and Internet - are their weapons. Operation Decimate anti-Wanjiku Spirits is their slogan and rallying call. Their vision is clear and simple: Create Kenya in which public service truly means PUBLIC SERVICE devoid of thievery.

And more importantly, all progressive souls have their places reserved in this "army". Just walk in and grab your place.

No doubt the prescription of our development - and economic - problems is more of "put money into infrastructure and the well being of the people will (positively) change". There is such endless trumpeting of more roads, roads and roads without insisting on respecting the acceptable quality standards that it assumes some sort of supernatural power to cure all our social, political and economic ailments at once. This myth-like quality, in my opinion, is the beginning of our downfall as a nation.

Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky must have thought of Kenya when they asserted In Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of Mass Media  that “In countries where the levers of power are in the hands of a state bureaucracy, the monopolistic control over the media, often supplemented by official censorship, makes it clear that the media serve the ends of a dominant elite. It is much more difficult to see a propaganda system at work where the media are private and formal censorship is absent. This is especially true where the media actively compete, periodically attack and expose corporate and governmental malfeasance, and aggressively portray themselves as spokesmen for free speech and the general community interest.”

So do we have anything to write home about when our much hyped “independent media” ignore their cardinal duty of looking for truth and interrogating in defense of public interest?

Journalism that digs not for facts is not a peoples’ journalism. It is a mouthpiece of the elites, thieves-in-suits, and rogue government bureaucrats!

It is for this reason that MaskaniConversationists have put their feet on the ground. They are there as agents of the public. You see, they bring to light what your media house cannot highlight. Their central thesis is to ventilate the thoughts, aspirations and feelings of Wanjiku.

This explains why we must be optimistic. Kenya must progress at the end of the day.

The writer is an Architect. Twitter:   @mlemukol.   Email:  lemoseh89@gmail.com. 

TURKANA COUNTY, ONE YEAR ON: PERSPECTIVES AND BENCHMARKING

...The end of starvation reflects a shift in the entitlement system; both in the form of social security and—more importantly —through systems of guaranteed employment at wages that provide exchange entitlement adequate to avoid starvation - AMARTYA SEN (in Poverty and Famines).

I have gone through the newspaper pullouts enumerating the successes, visions, and plans of the County Government of Turkana. The move, at least for now, is commendable for it reflects the need to improve the living conditions of the people of Turkana.

Looking at the milestones one easily arrives at three conclusions: 1) the acknowledgment that poverty exists and is taking a toll order on the peoples' social, economic and political constructs; 2) Development - human and material - is highly needed to give life to the people; and 3) there is need to infuse the people with a new-found pride in themselves, their value systems and their land so as to bolster their confidence to claim their rightful place in the pyramid of life.

But before blowing our trumpets in celebration of our new-found blessings in determining our priorities, I think it is high time we recheck all our steps and straighten all our thoughts.

I insist on this for two concrete reasons: 1) time to lament and blaming others is gone. We have the resources that must be used prudently and for the simple reason of injecting life in the people. And 2) time to experiment and talking much while doing less is also gone. People want results. They want to feel and be part of the fruits of devolution. Yes, the masses want to own up the process. 

While it is unrealistic to have all these in place in one year, I think, it carries weight to use the successes and/or failures experienced (in the last one year) to determine what awaits us in future.

A people yearning for success must be thirsty of knowledge. They are always on the lookout for new progressive thoughts.

In this regard, and with due respect, I have a deep feeling that the interventions made during the last year are not (have not been) at par with the expectations of many. They can only be likened to a process of "calming down the masses" and to keep them hopeful that one day the tide will change and fruits will start falling.

Are we not capable of doing it ourselves? Must we fumble in any venture we find ourselves in?

The myth of development as propounded in the county report card as a top-down initiative must be cracked and killed because it makes people believe that something is being done when in reality there exists only soporific edifices. It works from a false premise that because there are so many challenges facing the people, the only way to deal with them is to "scatter your energies" with a view to curing all of them at the same time.

It does not work like this, brothers and sisters! We must diagnose the biggest cancer causing all other cancers. 

Anyway, I do not possess powers (not now and even in future) to be a knowledge police. Monopoly of knowledge is the mother of all challenges bedeviling humanity. How then can we run away from this curse? Consultation, consultation, consultation... is the answer. Talk to people. Listen to them. And voila, things will never be the same!

Some thoughts are here:

Water: I have stated several times that the day we provide water to the people is the day the people of Turkana will claim their prized position in the club of successful people. Leave the security nightmare aside, water - and by extension, pastures for livestock - is the virus that fuels the tumor of hostility and killings. The time to deal a blow to water scarcity is now. 

How then can we do it? Team up with Tullow Oil, the Church and other development stakeholders and embark on life-changing activities. 

Drilling boreholes that can hardly sustain a single village is not the way forward. It only appeals to the people in the medium term. Put your feet down and build dams! The Kingdom of Morocco is a good teacher in this. Consult them. Talk to them and learn.

Education and health: I must admit that a great deal of work has been done in these two sectors. But it must be recalled that education, especially in a place like Turkana County, should not just be an activity confined to building new schools. For the record, I'm not calling for a stop in building schools. I support this 100%. 

It is a fact that the biggest victims of lack of education are the older folk. Those who are past-school going age. In this light, isn't it constructive to also think of a way to open the minds of these chaps? Please, Mr Governor think about it.

Trade: Perhaps the most tragic of Turkana's problems is its failure to reach its economic potential. Several reasons suffice: Lack of business knowledge among a majority of residents. Parasitic local authorities disconnected from the lived economic realities of the people. Local elite that finds refuge in other places other than pumping the resources they have into the local economy…

You see, it adds no value to stick to this old painful episode. But a quick look into the county trade and industrialization blueprint cements the perception that economy matters is a preserve of some invisible "business community". It negates the thinking that the first line of investment is the people you govern. I mean the mama mbogas, the mkokoteni pushers, the subsistence farmers/herders etc.

A population that takes a leading role in matters economy is more secure than the one that is fixated in sourcing for external investors to power the local economic engines. Investors are the poor people you by-pass every day.

The county needs to up its efforts by reaching out to the masses directly. The idea on cooperatives is highly welcome. It is commendable. But more must be done.

                                            
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And to those in charge of Public Communications and Media Relations; what value does it add to dedicate much of taxpayer funded media space in highlighting CVs and Bio-datas of leaders? Tell us what they have done and we shall go out to look for information about them. 

The writer is an Architect. Twitter:  @mlemukol.  Email:  lemoseh89@gmail.com  

PIPELINE SHARES? PLEASE, ADDRESS COMMUNITY LAND ISSUES FIRST!

Recent development on Kenya's oil exploration brings to the fore some of the widely held observations across the Third World on land concessions and all their attendant risks on host communities.

Generally, governments (in resource rich but poor nations) grant large land concessions with the intent of fuelling national commercial, agricultural or industrial growth and contributing to improvements in gross domestic product and local living conditions.

On the same vein, I have come to understand of Kenya's plans to roll out a pipeline project to connect the oil fields of Lokichar in Turkana County to the port of Lamu. This venture was amplified the other day when President Uhuru Kenyatta echoed the need to integrate community shareholding on land taken for the purposes of building the oil pipeline and any connected infrastructures.

From the face value, this step looks noble and geared towards empowering communities along the oil pipeline path. However, certain factors must be ironed out before the deal is inked: 1) Facilitate the documentation and protection of customarily held community lands through legally established land titling processes; 2) Understand how to best and most efficiently support communities to successfully protect their lands and determine the types and level of support required to support communities in these processes; and 3) devise strategies to guard against intra-community injustice and discrimination during community land titling processes, and to protect the land interests of vulnerable groups.

A closer look into the existing community land regimes reveals glaring gaps on matters land use and management between host communities on one hand and business interests, government and leaders on the other. Communities do not enjoy the autonomy to decide on the usage of their lands. The legal framework providing for land ownership ignores the critical role played by customary laws. Customary land ownership is not captured and/or recognised in documented laws on land.

Which begs the questions: is President Uhuru's call for community land shareholding grounded on laws or is it just another ploy to dispossess the Turkana community of its land? Should boardroom decisions by community leaders override the voices and interests of the masses, the owners of lands? 

While investments are critical to any nation's development, it is imperative to take a look at the community's interests and arrive at decisions that foster unity and benefit for all. Investments must reflect the lived realities of communities and adhere to their daily interactions with a view to respecting and holding dear their social constructs. Any deviation from this erodes the purpose of any development.

This, therefore, informs why the land shareholding venture as proposed by the national government stands no chance to succeed if the question on land ownership is overlooked. 

It must be remembered that the government's ownership of minerals does not in any way elevate its status vis-à-vis community lands. Community lands, just like private lands, deserve the legal protection of the State. Any decision, agreement, or activity that affects community land cannot happen without the free, prior, informed consent of the community. This means, the community must give its approval before any venture is effected.

And the Turkana community is no exception.

Titling land held by families and communities under customary law may be necessary to protect land rights from encroachment. A possible method is to allow communities to register their lands as a whole by reference to customary boundaries, and then empower them to control and regulate intra-community land holdings and usage.

Titling land in this way can yield several benefits. First, since community land titling facilitates the recognition of communal, overlapping and secondary land rights, it may provide particular protection to poor and vulnerable community members who do not have their own land. 

Second, it has the potential to safeguard an entire community’s land at once, hence representing a faster and more cost-effective means of protection than individual titling. 

Third, community land titling may help to foster local economic growth and promote sustainable natural resource management.

But to make this a reality several steps must be undertaken. One; the State should stop seating on Community Land Bill and expedite its passing into law. This law should have been passed like yesterday. Two; align customary laws with national laws governing community lands. Customary laws must have the full force of law for its purpose to be felt by the people. 

Three; open all deals with respect to lands and seek community's voice. The community itself should be involved in discussing and negotiating all aspects of investment projects. Four; restrictions must be put in place to ensure community health, environmental and cultural protections.

Five; benefits and/or fair compensation must accrue to the community. And finally; the presence of a signed contract committing the parties in question to their obligations vis-à-vis community interests is highly needed.

The writer is an Architect. Twitter: @mlemukol. Email: lemoseh89@gmail.com