By James Mburu
The SGR has been shrouded into controversy with some people taking the stance that it is not a worthy project while others saying it is a useful economic development vehicle. People need to back their stand with facts, logic or circumstantial evidence.
Personally I would like to think that before any infrastructural project is done it would be first justified by a comprehensive feasibility study done by highly qualified professionals. I would imagine that there is a huge feasibility study document lying in some govt office and that’s what we should first find out. I do not believe that somebody had a dream of SGR one night, woke up the following day to inform the decision makers in the Govt, and boom the SGR was born! It defeats logic and commonsense.
Then I look at it in perspective to what has been done in other countries. Sure we should not merely do a project merely because it’s done elsewhere, but we must recognise that benchmarking is a good way of learning, and lends credence to own projects. Furthermore, the adage that: “you don’t need to invent the wheel or the gunpowder” holds true. So if it’s manifestly evident that a certain project is beneficial to another country, then we should seriously consider emulating it, subject to necessary improvisation to male it better, and to acclimatise it to local requirement. Now the train transport is an infrastructure that has succeeded phenomenally in all developed countries, so there is every reason to adopt it. Unwarranted scepticism for the sake of political leanings justification does not make any sense.
My personal experience having gone to Ethiopia a few time is that they have a similar project, only that theirs cuts right through the middle of Addis this sepating it into two sides, but jump from the train and just walk to their offices. Most people use it to commute from far into the capital city. It’s truly a wonderful site to behold. So I wonder, why would the SGR not be as justified as the Ethiopia train system? Why, I ask again comrades? Are we Kenyans judging the SGR wrongly without solid proof of its usefulness in developing the economy? Or because you heard somebody in the street or your mtandao saying so?
Having used the SGR a few times, I quite like it. I used to fly to Mombasa before, but now I prefer SGR to flying. I was actually impressed by the way it’s done, save for the inexplicable fact that it falls short of reaching the city centres of Nairobi and Mombasa. I and my UK friend used it once and actually compared the SGR station in Nairobi to the famous Paddington Train Station in central London.
In the U.K. the train is the ubiquitous monument of pride, usefulness, to the masses of people who use it, and a mark of civilised and developed nation. It is so successful that majority of the people, me included, prefer to use it to our cars. It takes me very long before I have a need to use my car, which initially came to me as a surprise having been a fan and owner of fast sleek cars in Kenya. Not anymore, am no fan of cars and actually disdain using them. I have lived in the US so I’ve a good basis of comparison between the modes of transport in the two counties; I would choose the most efficient U.K. train system anytime rather than the mostly car-based transport system in the US.
I dream of the day that Kenya will have a magnificent train network system. That would take off the misery off the endemic road jams in Nairobi and other metropolitan areas.
I remember having been shown a blueprint of the planned metropolitan railways branching out of the SGR and traversing right inside various town centres. If this were to happen, i believe the majority of the people would like to use it more than the creaky and miserable matatus, plying miserable roads, and avoid the absolutely miserable traffic jams. Even those driving own cars suffer the same fate. Who really would not want to avoid this everlasting quagmire?
So let’s not see everything from the prisms of our political persuasions. Just because one does not like Uhuru is not enough reason to hate every project that he has done or he’s doing. There is salient evidence of such bias in the posts I see in the social media. Personally i remain committed to independence of mind in the politics of Kenya, so I can call shots as I see them, objectively and not coloured by any political leanings. Eventually I would gravitate to the side I see that has the interests of the common man and sheer love of Kenya, not the personal and needless accumulation of wealth purely for self-aggrandisement through corruption. I would support an altruistic movement that is led by one who can demonstrate the highest level of integrity, impeccably clean financial record, agreeable to a lifestyle audit, one who can demonstrated passion to rid Kenya of the leading endemic evils: Corruption and Tribalism.
From where I sit, what maybe we can question is the possible corruption that may have surrounded the construction of SGR, but not the intrinsic worth and utility of the beautiful and promising railway transport systems. Corruption in SGR is a discussion I would like to have, with a view to having the culprits brought to justice. The discussion I would not like to have is the one that is against the economic development of Kenya using century old proven methods and infrastructure like train transport systems.
Let’s pause and hold our judgment over SGR and give it the benefit of the doubt. But most important, let’s talk based on facts, but not nonchalant ignorance, heresy and adverse judgement of SGR which is not grounded on any economic development analysis.
