Getting about

I took a trip the other day out to neighboring county, and we drove to Isinya via Kiserian, some sections are good others are bad others terrible and yet other sections no word can describe them, as there is no road to talk about. you have to get off the road to play dodge with whistling thorns in the bush since there road is terrible and truthfully this track is smoother than the road and from the look of things it was carved out during the rains.

We drove both off and an on the road swerving here and there to avoid potholes, the odd rock on the road and the occasional puddle. Since neither I nor the driver I was with had been on this road for ages, we were rather cautious and trying our best to have a smooth ride and hopefully save the cars shock's and our pockets in the future.

Whilst we dodged on the road, the three prados appeared on the right as we followed the off road track and continued speeding on the very bad road we had been avoiding. They drove on at high speed  without a care in the world on the level of damage to the car and its suspension system, they continued on and eventually disappeared into the distance.

They drove through the rough section without a care in the world  in any case its taxpayer who pays for these privileges enjoyed by this 'mhesimiwa'. When it is no longer serviceable mheshimiwa and his security crew will get a new one from Toyota Kenya and will go back to riding the rough roads rather than have them fixed for all of us to use.

Life goes on as it should, we all continue with the hustle and bustle of life, then once again to my surprise there are mounds of red soil all along the main highways. The city is gearing up to welcome a son of Kogelo. There are contractors giving the highway gardens a face lift, giving broken kerbstones their first coat of paint, setting up new paving for roads that have never seen a kerbstone ever since they were first built and now they are old and need replacing. I wonder are we not expected to enjoy a clean spruced up city too, am I not to see it with flowers blooming, with prohibitive yellow kerbstones, do we only tidy up the city when we have dignitaries visiting.

One would think that these dignitaries will have the time to note the work done in the corners of the city that they will never visit or care that there is a fresh coat of paint on the broken kerbstones. They will be quickly ushered to their destination and we will enjoy this look only for a while.

My mother did not wait to have visitors to clean up the house, she did her best to rally us to keep the house clean and tidy. We hated polishing the parquet floors, oh what a stink that floor polish had but how beautiful it made the wood look and this was routine rather than on the occasion we had visitors.

I want great roads that allow me and the rest of my countrymen to go about their business without having to worry on the clearance of the cars they own. I want to bump into mheshimiwa as I walk the streets or as I ride in a matatu or train as they too will have abandoned their expensive off road vehicles to experience the great commute on public transport. I want train services that ran all the time and keep me cushioned from the whims of the matatu welfare and  owners associations and the occasional  license suspension on a matatu sacco by NTSA. I need to get to work and not have to plan around a two hour ride for what should be a fifteen minute journey to the city.

Until that day comes keep living.