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| Photo courtesy of Turkana Tourism Team |
The ping pong, secrecy and gate-keeping surrounding oil exploration in Turkana County has once again exposed the ugly underbelly that is Kenya's lopsided perception of northern Kenya. As time passes by, Kenya's officialdom is making it clear that any development move in northern Kenya must be powered by some "sweet stories" from the region.
We all know this. For residents of northern Kenya to enjoy the largess of the national government there must be a "compelling economic reason" to warrant allocation of funds.
Apart from the constitutionally-sanctioned devolution funds, the truth is that Kenya's top-level bureaucracy still banks on "productivity" and not regional balance to distribute national wealth. We have many folks atop our public structure who despite the visible inequalities in this nation still deny the existence of marginalisation.
This "productivity" cliché has been bandied for so long to justify this immoral distribution of development projects. Unfortunately even residents of the aforementioned region have been made to believe that their region is unproductive and so they are - economically speaking - not good to be "given" roads and other symbols of national development.
While some knowledgeable people claim this move is based on sound policy reasoning and that Kenya has scarce resources to pour to places with little economic activities, I find this logic faulty and unpatriotic. It is premised on a narrow economic thinking whose final objective is to create two Kenyas. One that is highly starved of wealth and another that swims in the lonely sea of abundance.
Kenya has gone through this painful experiment for fifty years. So, to state that margilisation is a mobilization tool of politicos is to deny history.
Look at it this way: The other day the media reported that the World Bank has agreed to advance a loan to the Kenyan Government to hasten the construction of roads leading to Turkana oil fields.
The catch word here was very clear. Had the Government of Kenya not discovered oil in Turkana it would have taken centuries for people over there to see a road. (By the way the road is still in boardroom stages. So it is premature to believe that it will indeed materialise.)
Which comes down to this: Turkana "auto-financed" this development. My people have all the reasons to look inwards and (to) thank their God for hiding oil beneath their land. Kenya government must change its thinking to win the hearts and praises of my people.
I know some crooked minds will rush to mashinani to use this road thing to cover their dirty tracks and to cash in from the public's poverty of information. We are aware of all these machinations.
The situation up north can be summarised thus: They deny you what you badly need, (say roads, schools, hospitals etc). Then they discover you have something sweet. Then they rush in to "give" you what they denied you before. Then they pick your sweet things and leave you confused.
This is why we repeatedly say that no development can successfully reach the people if it is clouded in half-truths. I long for the time when my leaders will remember that endless "eating" devoid of community's blessings will take them nowhere.
I look forward to interacting with a population that is aware of its needs and one that can robustly engage in its affairs. A people that are fearless and mean what they say. This is what Turkana wants.
So, those who think they can use this or that to tilt public opinion in their favour should reread history. We are here to stand for community interests. Leaders must pressure Nairobi to come clean on this oil thing.
We want a "Thika Superhighway" snaking up the north of this nation!
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