SGR and expressway criticism uncalled for

The man from Galilee called Jesus once went back home to Nazareth. When he spoke, the people he grew up with were not impressed. After listening to him preach, some in the congregation asked, isn’t this the carpenter’s son... what good can come out of Galilee? The Bible states that for the first and only time, Jesus could do no miracles there.

This story has always puzzled me, how could the Almighty be limited in his power to do miracles? The answer is simple. It is never the power of God in question; it is the attitudes and beliefs of men that limit the blessing they get from the Almighty. I surmise that if Jesus was to come to Kenya, we would not get much blessings from him. For Kenyans are the most negative people I know.

If you gave a Kenyan a horse and someone asked them to describe it, they would say that you gave them an ugly animal with weird teeth that eats a lot of hay but does not give milk.

They will also say that the animal runs away too fast and therefore it is a useless animal which is not economically viable. If you changed the gift and gave them a sheep, they would describe it as a tiny smelly animal whose meat cannot feed two people.

You may deem my description of my countrymen and women unfair but I have proof. A few months ago, Kenyans were very happy when the Chinese refused to give us more money to finish the remaining part of the SGR.

Following the joy that greeted Chinese decision not to lend Kenya more cash, one would have expected that we would be happy when the SGR terminated in Suswa. But we are Kenyan and negative as always. We are now complaining at the top of our voices that the SGR has ended at “nowhere”. Are there no people who live in Suswa?

We ignored the fact that the MGR would continue working and delivering cargo to and from Kisumu. Further, we claimed that the SGR is not economically viable.

  Infrastructure is supposed to be used by the people for adventure and business. But since we are expert mouth watchers, we will never see the miracle of SGR. We say there is no cargo on it, and one wonders other than ourselves, who will put cargo on the SGR?

 Further, Kenyans who complain most about traffic jams are now the ones complaining the loudest about the proposed expressway.

They say that the expressway toll fee is unsustainable; that Sh300 is too much money to spend for the journey from Syokimau to James Gichuru.

How much fuel is spent idling in traffic, isn’t it more than Sh300? Why are you complaining about spending money you are already wasting? And would you rather lose that money and still miss your meeting, or would you rather spend it and actually get where you are going in time?

If you have ever missed your flight, then you would know full well that a Sh150 fee on the expressway that will enable you to get to the airport in 10 minutes is worth it.

 But the horse teeth watchers will be pointing out to me that the main issue is the 23 metres in Uhuru Park and the fear of “disrespecting” Prof Wangari Maathai.

Let us stop being pretentious. The Government is not against the protection of Uhuru Park. Isn’t the Government the one busy trying to reclaim Mau Forest? Is the Mau not important to the nation? Even more worrying is that those complaining have no idea how big Uhuru Park is. The park is 32 acres. The stretch the Government plans to hive off to build the road will not even amount to an acre.

Yet, once construction is done, the 23m-stretch will still be useful. It will be beautified and the park will be better for it. We will not lose the park; we will have less traffic and more efficiency.

Don’t forget that matatus will also be able to use the expressway, meaning those who do not have cars will also have a choice to pay slightly more and travel faster.

The expressway is a gift horse just as is the SGR. We can spend many days looking at the teeth of our horse, or we can decide to take a ride and make use of the gift we have been given.

Kenya has many challenges and our permanently negative attitude will not help us to overcome them. SGR, the expressway and the other infrastructure are gifts we need to use, but instead we are busy looking for 100 problems for every solution we get.

We are always focused on what is wrong, however minute, and forget what is good! Let us not be like the men of Galilee whose diseases could not be cured after they despised the cure that had been sent to them.

 Mr Bichachi is a communication consultant. [email protected]