murchr wrote:Alba wrote:Enyewe Mombasa is dilapidated and dirty and demoralizing. But blaming the local population or even the governor for the woes of a major town in Kenya is missing the point.
Who's to blame if not those trashing it and those in charge of maintaining it?
We Kenyans are to blame. And I mean all Kenyans not just Mombasa people.
We have tolerated corruption and land grabbing for 54 years ! As a result land that was supposed to be set aside for infrastructure development, waste management, land fills, drainage channels etc has been grabbed and given to private developers.
The cities are expanding rapidly but there is no equivalent infrastructure expansion. More than half urban dwellers now live in shanties where waste collection and sewerage is a non-starter.
Much of the city money goes towards debt repayments. Money that was borrowed by previous corrupt regimes.
Transport infrastructure including roads are inadequate or non-existent, making garbage collection an expensive endeavour. All becoz land for road reserves was grabbed.
54 years of poor planning, no zoning, land grabbing and corruption and now you expect a governor to fix it in 4 years ????
And he must do this with no help from the central government ???
The problems of Kenya's biggest cities require policies and solutions driven by the national government not just the local government.
In Kenya, leaders are not interested in solving issues because that is not what gets them elected. What gets them elected is building tribal blocs. If we insist on maintaining a system of tribe based voting instead of issue based voting then don't be shocked if the cities look like hell. So all Kenyans are to blame. And Don't blame Wakosti for their dirty city when Nairobi also looks like hell.
If you insist on letting politicians grab land and engage in corruption then don't be chocked if you are stuck in traffic for 3 hours or your taps go dry for a week or the city is crime ridden.
If you create a culture of issue based leaders then you will slowly start to see real solutions like recycling plants, laws that govern garbage disposal, well managed landfills, laws and policies around recycling etc. etc. etc.