The Western way of life in Nairobi!

Seated at Mater Hospital at the Thika Road Mall (TRM) Nairobi waiting to see the doctor. I have severe nausea and feeling dizzy and sweating excessively. I have vomited thrice since morning. As I wait to see the doctor  I make several observations. A woman seated besides me in her 40s is reading something from her Kindle. She is engrossed in the story. Another woman walks past me holding an Ipad. She's with a small girl; her daughter I guess. She looks 40 something as well. She goes to the counter to pay. She uses her Visa Card to make the payment. The young people in the waiting area are all in their smart phones, chatting or maybe just browsing the internet. The young ladies here are well dressed and in Western attires, well groomed. My girlfriend Joan, who has escorted me to the hospital is also on her phone playing Temple Run. 

"Faith Mwende" the receptionist calls out. A lady in red jeans with pierced lips and tongue and with long weave walks to the reception. The rest of the waiting patients seem to be watching a Nigerian film on Citizen TV. The lighting and sound of the film poor. A lady in long weave is shouting at a gentleman. They're arguing. I can't hear them well. Just outside the hospital, which is the second floor of the Mall are food courts. People in there are taking chips, chicken and pizza with large glasses of milkshake and juice. 

"Nicodemus Minde" the receptionist calls. I go and pick my receipt so that I can see the doctor. It's Kshs. 750 for consultation. 

Nairobi is a city that has really embraced the Western way of life. Let me get in and see the doctor.

Uhuru-Kikwete new found love: Why it is a battle between CCM and Chadema

Nicodemus Minde, Nairobi

Uhuru Kenyatta was sworn in as the fourth president of Kenya in a colorful occasion attended by many African leaders. It was evident in the occasion that Tanzania’s president Jakaya Kikwete was abnormally close to president Uhuru. President Kikwete and President Kenyatta sat together during the state luncheon held at state house. Kikwete, who like Uhuru, is the fourth president of his country. President Kikwete, on behalf of all other invited heads of state and government was tasked to give a vote of thanks after the state lunch. Despite the close historical cooperation between Tanzania and Kenya, the newly found love between Uhuru and Kikwete reveal a number of hidden political dynamics, mostly within the corpus of Tanzanian politics. 

Uhuru and Kikwete discuss a point

Tanzania and Kenya have historically been close regional partners. Though founded on different ideological backgrounds, the two nations have worked closely together for decades. Their relationship has been mostly on the premise of trade, commerce and investments. Close cultural, lingual and historical backgrounds have been the fulcrum of their closely knit relationship. The cordial relationship between Tanzania and Kenya has been cemented further by the East African Community.

Back to the Kikwete-Uhuru close relationship. It is recalled that Uhuru Kenyatta, during his campaign visited Tanzania with a delegation of the Jubilee coalition team. Kikwete hosted Uhuru and his team in Dar-es-Salaam statehouse, where they discussed a number issues. Though he visited a host of many other countries, Uhuru’s reception in Dar-es-Salaam was better organized and far from impromptu as the others. It should further be recalled that Uhuru Kenyatta’s closest competitor in the March 4 election, Raila Odinga is big friend to Tanzania’s leading opposition party Chama cha Democrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA). It is believed that Chadema offered Raila Odinga a number of campaign material such as helicopters and campaign trucks and musicians pro bono. With Kikwete as the chairman of the ruling party Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM), the generous gesture by Chadema towards Raila Odinga was an act of war and therefore, CCM had to support Uhuru Kenyatta. This of course was not done in the open but through proxy. When Uhuru Kenyatta prevailed over Raila Odinga, it was not only a victory for the Jubilee coalition but for CCM in retrospect. The political battle between CCM and Chadema, by proxy was fought and won in the Kenyan elections. As Tanzania gears up for the next general election, the psychological victory by CCM will to an extent influence the campaigns. 

The Unacceptable face of Capitalism in Kenya: The Matatu Fare Madness

By Nicodemus Minde

Capitalism; Hidden Mysteries. A matatu in Nairobi's Thika Road

Francis Fukuyama famously declared the ‘end of history’. This was the antithesis of the belief that history is progressive and cumulative. All in all, his thesis was that liberal capitalist democracy had triumphed over communism.  The author explored the dynamics of international relations with the end of the Cold War. He was the literati progenitor of the discourse of the universality of post-Cold War triumph of capitalism. Alan Greenspan once said that ‘Capitalism is based on self-interest and self-esteem; it holds integrity and trustworthiness as cardinal virtues and makes them pay off in the marketplace. Capitalism is constructed by the thirst for more profitable productivity at the expense of moral obligations and societal virtues. Karl Marx, the greatest critique of capitalism says that this system saps into the original source of all wealth, from the soil to the laborer. Society has been built on such exploitation. From slavery to colonialism to now globalization, the cruel face of capitalism has oiled the engines of life.

Matatus in Nairobi

Britain’s Prime Minister Edward Heath is credited for coining the phrase “the unacceptable face of capitalism-to refer to the activities of Lonrho, the predecessor to Lonmin (the mining company operating in Marikana, South Africa). These companies are the embodiment of global corporate capitalism which saps not only the soil but the laborer in which the end result is profit. The phrase ‘the unacceptable face of capitalism” has caught my eyes in Kenya. Tanzania’s founding president Julius Nyerere famously labeled Kenya as a “man-eat-man society” ridiculing its capitalist approach to post-independent policies. Kenyans rebuffed this label by saying that ‘Tanzania was a man-eat-nothing society”. This was also a public ridicule to Tanzania’s socialist policies. Kenya has grown into a nation of extreme capitalist tendencies which has ruined the social fabric of its people. Hitherto, every form of the Kenyan society has been based on the antagonism of oppressing and oppressed classes. This has led to growth in the ugly face of individualistic capitalism. The class divide in Kenya is now of concern.

No where has this divide been much visible than the transport industry in Kenya. The capitalism code calls for non-state interference in the economy and the stringiest application of market forces of demand and supply. Today the matatu transport industry is in the hands of capitalist investors whose aims are profit. The matatus charge fares according to the ‘market forces’ of demand and supply. The demand and supply here is (1) flow of traffic, (2) weather changes, (3) residence status, (4) time of day etc. This has also led to a unique scenario which I believe only occurs in Kenya. The transport fares to the city and back are different. But again, this is a relational type of equation to factors affecting ‘the demand-supply’ of people’s needs when it comes to transport. 

Even with the completion of arguably the best highway in East Africa, the Thika road route remains the most notorious when it comes to fare variation and cruel exploitation of the public transport users plying that route. The matatu people have now solidified the exploitation of people by charging exorbitant and sometimes ridiculous fares. This is not unique to the Thika road route but is rampant in all other routes across the city of Nairobi. The Ministry of Transport and the government in general has not reprimanded this heinous exploitation of its people. The sad part is that people are now adjusting according to this ‘matatu fare madness’. These adjustable mechanisms are only unique in places where the tenets of capitalism have triumphed.