Kenya’s infrastructure boom and the Neglect of the North

The contrast between Thika Super Highway and Garissa-Mandera road. (Twitter)

There was a Kenyan farmer who led a relatively charmed life with the income from a successful mixed farming business on the outskirts of Nairobi City.

He was able to pursue one of the greatest objects of his life; to educate his three sons at top private schools.  While other farmers let their children study at public schools, he was took his sons to relatively expensive private schools and felt vindicated when all of them achieved the grade required to join various Universities.

Although farmers tend to have children who are separated by a year or 2, for this particular farmer, the first born was full 5 years older than his younger twin siblings.

Everything went smoothly, until by a dint of “good fortune” and through enterprising nature of his eldest son he was forced to deal with a dilemma that he had not foreseen. Upon his graduation, the eldest son had secured an admission to pursue a Master’s Degree Course at the prestigious and expensive Harvard University, a dream he has entertained for a long time.

At the same time, the younger twins completed their high school and had secured admission into some private universities in Kenya.

The farmer had saved “enough” money to educate his sons at the best private universities in Kenya, with some to spare for any other eventuality. He was determined that want of resources should not get in the way of his sons’ pursuit of their dreams.

However, he had not counted on one of his sons getting an admission into an expensive international university. He had enough money to pay for his three sons to attend local private universities and spare some but not enough for one of them to study at an international university while still paying for the other two.

The amount of money he has saved was only sufficient to pay for his eldest Masters at the international university. So he was faced with this Dilemma: Should he pay for his elder son to pursue his dream master’s degree course at the international university and let the younger sons be without university education? Or should he ask all of them to study at local universities so that he can pay for all of them?

While the way out of this may seem straightforward to many, it wasn’t so for this farmer. His did ponder on this issue at length, considering the merits and demerits of each alternative. Finally he came to a decision. He decided to pay for his eldest son to attend the international university and he let the other sons be without university education.

He reasoned that the Master’s Degree at a prestigious international university had the highest earning potential and therefore resources should be directed at those investments with the highest rate of return. Crestfallen by this decision, the other two sons decided to do odd jobs helping their father at home, even as they entertained slim hope that he may be able to raise some money for their fees.

The thought that he may have made a grievous error in judgement gnawed at the farmer’s conscience. To ease such feelings, he comforted himself with thought that, when their elder brother completed his Masters degree and got a lucrative job, he could pay the for his brothers’ education and all will be well. As you may guess, this did not work out and the disappointed sons were condemned to do odd jobs for a long time, even they retained slim hopes of pursuing their dreams.

Would you have made the same choice as this farmer? Do you think the other two sons should clap for their father for his wise decision? Perhaps not.  While the economic rationale that this farmer gave may or may not correct, the unfairness of his decision was lost on him.

Was he not supposed to be fair to his children and give them equal opportunity? This is what exactly the Kenyan Government did at independence with its policy summarized in the infamous sessional paper number of 10 of 1965 (http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTAFRICA/Resources/257994-1335471959878/Sessional-Paper-No-10-(1965).pdf ).

Using the same rationale, Kenya decided that it was better to allocate more resources to regions of the country that had high economic potential in terms of natural and human resources to get greater return on the investment.  As it was wont to happen, the already disadvantaged areas were condemned to further under development and marginalization.

The same script is finding continuation in the current regime without the explicit acknowledgement of Independence Day regimes – Through allocation of infrastructure projects in the country

In the past 2 decades, Kenya has made laudable, if skewed, attempt to improve the infrastructure of the country. This is manifested in tarmacking of various roads, Construction of new high ways and Super highways like Thika Super High way and various other projects.

The latest and the most expensive installment of these infrastructure projects is the famous and somewhat controversial Standard Gauge Railway project. Should a Kenyan Citizen living in Mandera or Wajir, a region with Zero paved roads laud The KES 500 Billion Standard Gauge Railway project? This will be the equivalent of those two younger sons congratulating their father on his wise decision.

The Standard Gauge Railway project will cover the area linking Mombasa to Naivasha. This area is already well catered for by Narrow Gauge Railway, fully paved roads and other infrastructure while the area from Garissa to Mandera has no paved road, forget Standard Gauge Railway or other fancy infrastructure.

What was the rationale used by government of Kenya to allocate KES 500 Billion to a region that already had well paved roads, existing Rail that can be easily upgraded while not allocating even 10% of that amount to tarmac the roads connecting Mandera and Wajir to Garissa and therefore the rest of the country? Isn’t that the most blatant form of marginalization and discrimination?

Yet we see leaders from that region parroting about this project and touting as show of the government’s commitment to development in the country. Why are the leaders from Mandera , Wajir and that region not asking these questions in parliament, media and other national forums? Is it lack of awareness or just plain lack of concern?

Someone from NEP counties lauding and clapping for the current regime for Standard Gauge Railway and other mega projects is like one of the above younger sons congratulating his father for taking his elder brother to an expensive international university while dropping out of a local college due to lack of fees.