7 thoughts on “Martin Ngatia Says Kenya is a Failed State”
Kenya is not a failed state as yet.But a failing state.Politicians with support of Kenyans are failing Kenya by trickle of a second.Think of mau.Mau forest is not yet gone.But going.Due to bubbling up and down of politicians .Politicians who value mau settlers as voter and votes.To them they can milk anything as long as it translate to cash and votes.And we jollily line behind them,with nonsensical tribal bubbles.
Shiku, when you dispute a theory, you need to provide evidence to back your claims. The term “failed state” befits the practical things going on in Kenya, unless you take it literally. Check the indicators/index and you will agree that they represent the country’s reality.
Incidentally, even the USA is a failed state in terms of its dilapidated infrastructure (roads, worn out bridges, the New Orleans catastrophe/Katrina, etc.). I think you need to go beyond “theory” in the case of Kenya.
Bec Hamilton spent an afternoon with a group of activists, members of civil society, students and artists at the Kenya National Theatre in June 2009, during the launch of a project named: “It’s Our Turn to Read” – which is in response to the “informal ban” of Michela Wrong’s book “It’s Our Turn To Eat: The story of a Kenyan whistleblower”.
According to Hamilton: “Although not officially banned, the book has been hard to find at booksellers here, as many fear the consequences of selling a book that exposes corruption in the Kenyan government”.
I enjoyed listening to the participants and found their views worth sharing with KSB readers. I like the spirit of the Kenyan youth who are indomitable and don’t kowtow despite the apparent political intimidation faced by many. Please scroll to the bottom of the link below and listen to the Podcast:
KSB: My book is facing a similar situation. Bookstores are afraid of stocking it. It is amazing that in this time and era, Kenyans are being prevented by the government from reading certain books through intimidation of bookstore owners and other means.
No power, no water, and not even roads to hospitals: All signs of a failing State
By NG’ANG’A MBUGUA
Posted Monday, June 3 2013
One of the symptoms exhibited by a failing State is a slow but perceptible inability of public institutions to consolidate the gains made in the past.
In our case, Kenya Power’s regression to the 1990s — when the cost of electricity connection was determined by an applicant’s proximity to a transformer — is a classic example.
Whether the decision made last month was approved by regulatory authorities or not is immaterial. What is significant is that the institution has just made a summersault that sets back the clock of national development by two decades.
And we have not even talked about its consistent inability to provide electricity reliably, efficiently and cost-effectively to its existing customers. That is a lost cause already.
However, the one we must not lose, unless we are in the throes of collective sadomasochism, is the battle for a consistent and reliable supply of water.
Last week, huge parts of Nairobi went without water for days. The excuse was that a pipe had burst some place where a contractor was doing some work. The questions that beg answers are: When the county was authorising the contractor, did it inform him that there is a main pipe that passes there?
Is it not the duty of the Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company to carry out routine checks to ensure that no unapproved developments are taking place near its main supply lines? And if it fails in this duty, is it not under obligation to continue supplying water to its clients using alternative means at no extra cost to them?
One shudders to think what would have happened had there been an emergency. Already, Kenyatta National Hospital, usually the first stop for ambulances in cases of disasters, had no running water.
How many times has this happened in living memory? How many more times must it happen before we can say “enough”?
Had there been a fire, there probably would have been no difference between Nairobi and the Kalahari Desert. Chances are that the hydrants would have been without water.
Yet, we market Nairobi as the gateway to East Africa, the business hub of the region and the epicentre of national economic growth.
One of the things required of children is to learn how to ask for water in more than one language. But I wonder, when the thirsty and unwashed children in hospitals, schools and homes were asking the city fathers for water, in what language did the city fathers answer them?
One other symptom to look out for in a failing State is the condition of the roads leading to key installations such as hospitals and police stations.
A friend used to say that women in labour in his neighbourhood seldom got to hospital before they became mothers on account of bad roads. I suspect the same can be said of many other regions.
But surely, hospitals and other emergency services — including police stations — should be accessible through relatively good roads. It is an indictment on the institutions responsible to leave roads in such conditions that they make motoring a nightmare.
The road leading to Kijabe Mission Hospital is a classic example, yet the hospital receives a large number of accident victims and other patients who need to reach the doctor in relative comfort.
Let us not even talk about the highways — like the Nairobi-Eldoret road — which have potholes that have been there longer than some of our permanent constitutional commissions.
Yet, we have a roads board, a highways authority and a plethora of local road maintenance institutions that have never once complained of understaffing. Why do they inflict such pain on Kenyans?
These questions may sound good to the ear, but they mask the high cost the citizenry has been paying for systematic institutional failures. Even when there is no direct pain to the users, the cost to the economy grows daily.
Those in positions of responsibility must not wait until a global report declares Kenya a failing state.
They can arrest the slide by consolidating past gains and by simply fixing the basics, be it lighting the streets to reduce crime, marking railway crossings and speed bumps for the safety of road users or simply finding practical solutions to the everyday cries of their distressed customers.
Mr Mbugua is an associate editor with the Daily Nation.
Kenya is not a failed state as yet.But a failing state.Politicians with support of Kenyans are failing Kenya by trickle of a second.Think of mau.Mau forest is not yet gone.But going.Due to bubbling up and down of politicians .Politicians who value mau settlers as voter and votes.To them they can milk anything as long as it translate to cash and votes.And we jollily line behind them,with nonsensical tribal bubbles.
Shiku, Kenya is a FAILED state as per the indicators used in descibing it. Check the 2009 index: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/06/22/2009_failed_states_index_interactive_map_and_rankings
What is a failed state?
http://global-security.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_is_a_failed_state
Failed state,Thanks .But that is by theory.Practically, Kenya is not as yet,a failed state.And chance of preventing failure is quite huge.
Shiku, when you dispute a theory, you need to provide evidence to back your claims. The term “failed state” befits the practical things going on in Kenya, unless you take it literally. Check the indicators/index and you will agree that they represent the country’s reality.
Incidentally, even the USA is a failed state in terms of its dilapidated infrastructure (roads, worn out bridges, the New Orleans catastrophe/Katrina, etc.). I think you need to go beyond “theory” in the case of Kenya.
Read Jonathan Feldman’s arguments (among others) on the USA as a “failed state”: http://www.counterpunch.org/feldman09032005.html
Bec Hamilton spent an afternoon with a group of activists, members of civil society, students and artists at the Kenya National Theatre in June 2009, during the launch of a project named: “It’s Our Turn to Read” – which is in response to the “informal ban” of Michela Wrong’s book “It’s Our Turn To Eat: The story of a Kenyan whistleblower”.
According to Hamilton: “Although not officially banned, the book has been hard to find at booksellers here, as many fear the consequences of selling a book that exposes corruption in the Kenyan government”.
I enjoyed listening to the participants and found their views worth sharing with KSB readers. I like the spirit of the Kenyan youth who are indomitable and don’t kowtow despite the apparent political intimidation faced by many. Please scroll to the bottom of the link below and listen to the Podcast:
http://bechamilton.com/?p=769
KSB: My book is facing a similar situation. Bookstores are afraid of stocking it. It is amazing that in this time and era, Kenyans are being prevented by the government from reading certain books through intimidation of bookstore owners and other means.
2010 Failed States Index:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/06/21/2010_failed_states_index_interactive_map_and_rankings
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/06/21/the_failed_states_index_2010
http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/No-power-no-water-and-not-even-roads–to-hospitals/-/440808/1871118/-/view/printVersion/-/vee4esz/-/index.html
No power, no water, and not even roads to hospitals: All signs of a failing State
By NG’ANG’A MBUGUA
Posted Monday, June 3 2013
One of the symptoms exhibited by a failing State is a slow but perceptible inability of public institutions to consolidate the gains made in the past.
In our case, Kenya Power’s regression to the 1990s — when the cost of electricity connection was determined by an applicant’s proximity to a transformer — is a classic example.
Whether the decision made last month was approved by regulatory authorities or not is immaterial. What is significant is that the institution has just made a summersault that sets back the clock of national development by two decades.
And we have not even talked about its consistent inability to provide electricity reliably, efficiently and cost-effectively to its existing customers. That is a lost cause already.
However, the one we must not lose, unless we are in the throes of collective sadomasochism, is the battle for a consistent and reliable supply of water.
Last week, huge parts of Nairobi went without water for days. The excuse was that a pipe had burst some place where a contractor was doing some work. The questions that beg answers are: When the county was authorising the contractor, did it inform him that there is a main pipe that passes there?
Is it not the duty of the Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company to carry out routine checks to ensure that no unapproved developments are taking place near its main supply lines? And if it fails in this duty, is it not under obligation to continue supplying water to its clients using alternative means at no extra cost to them?
One shudders to think what would have happened had there been an emergency. Already, Kenyatta National Hospital, usually the first stop for ambulances in cases of disasters, had no running water.
How many times has this happened in living memory? How many more times must it happen before we can say “enough”?
Had there been a fire, there probably would have been no difference between Nairobi and the Kalahari Desert. Chances are that the hydrants would have been without water.
Yet, we market Nairobi as the gateway to East Africa, the business hub of the region and the epicentre of national economic growth.
One of the things required of children is to learn how to ask for water in more than one language. But I wonder, when the thirsty and unwashed children in hospitals, schools and homes were asking the city fathers for water, in what language did the city fathers answer them?
One other symptom to look out for in a failing State is the condition of the roads leading to key installations such as hospitals and police stations.
A friend used to say that women in labour in his neighbourhood seldom got to hospital before they became mothers on account of bad roads. I suspect the same can be said of many other regions.
But surely, hospitals and other emergency services — including police stations — should be accessible through relatively good roads. It is an indictment on the institutions responsible to leave roads in such conditions that they make motoring a nightmare.
The road leading to Kijabe Mission Hospital is a classic example, yet the hospital receives a large number of accident victims and other patients who need to reach the doctor in relative comfort.
Let us not even talk about the highways — like the Nairobi-Eldoret road — which have potholes that have been there longer than some of our permanent constitutional commissions.
Yet, we have a roads board, a highways authority and a plethora of local road maintenance institutions that have never once complained of understaffing. Why do they inflict such pain on Kenyans?
These questions may sound good to the ear, but they mask the high cost the citizenry has been paying for systematic institutional failures. Even when there is no direct pain to the users, the cost to the economy grows daily.
Those in positions of responsibility must not wait until a global report declares Kenya a failing state.
They can arrest the slide by consolidating past gains and by simply fixing the basics, be it lighting the streets to reduce crime, marking railway crossings and speed bumps for the safety of road users or simply finding practical solutions to the everyday cries of their distressed customers.
Mr Mbugua is an associate editor with the Daily Nation.