".. in terms of the project that we are seeing today number one I want to send a very very heartwarming congratulations.
And thanks to the water and all the stakeholders that have actually helped in realizing this goal. This has been our dream for over 10 years to be precise. We want to say thank you. Thank you. Thank you!
This is a great milestone. We feel like rain has finally come. Life has finally come and we cannot... we cannot say enough thank yous ! Our gratitude, our sincere gratitude in transforming this place, our way of life, our standards of living. will greatly be enhanced. Our children now will have water, clean water to drink and yes, our environment will be catered for in a positive way. Thank you once again for the Kitengela distribution networks!
- Robert Mwangi on the Kitengela Water Project
I don't really think GoK understands the magnitude of such a simple yet game-changing event for such satellite towns.
Kitengela alone is by far the fastest growing town in Kenya period. I just researched a bit on this town. From the KNBS census of way back in 2019 (which by the way is an imperfect estimate, so the numbers could be way higher,) Kitengela has a population of a whopping 150k up from only 58k in the 2009 census on the same.
At present, I wouldn't be surprised that, 7 years on, said population has DOUBLED to 300k plus.
Going by the 2019 census alone and applying it to today's numbers,
Kitengela is easily the 9th most populous town in Kenya.This water project, which is only the first phase, will impact 50,000 people DIRECTLY and, of course tens of thousands more indirectly, but that's not the best part.
The little known fact to most Kenyans is that unlike Nairobi core with its informal settlements, these satellite towns, and Kitengela specifically are
overwhelmingly MIDDLE CLASS due to ex-Nairobians and other migrants moving there to build their own homes. Let me tell you why that's important.
A corporate employee making 300k a month is already in the upper middle class realm but cannot - in almost all cases-- own a home free and clear in Nairobi core. I'm not talking cramped 12m Kilimani apartments but maisonettes with decent sized gardens and privacy, with lawns and greenery for the totos to run around in and with plenty of private parking space. Getting that in Nairobi core will cost one
30m + in the average, let alone the high end neighbourhoods.
Hence the mass migration by the same into the satellite towns. Lawyers, entrepreneurs, judges, some PS's, senior government officials and more have mass migrated to these satellite towns. Why? Road infrastructure has grown tremendously since 2002, yet they have gotten more bang for their shilling by
building their own homes at sometimes fully HALF the cost of buying, yet with more space and amenities than they could get buying something in Nairobi core - if they even can afford to!
All at perhaps 10 times (or more) cheaper land costs! Human beings will always act in their own interests, seeking the best for themselves and their families. Why would you spend 30m for a semi-detached maisonette in Kahawa Sukari when they can spend way less building something bigger, more comfortable and way cheaper in a satellite town?
So what does this all mean?
Providing a critical item (clean, SOFT - as opposed to salty - water) to these huge middle class towns where water was their number ONE complaint, not only enhances their quality of life, it transforms it! You can see the joy in Mr Mwangi's face and voice! But that too is not the best part.
I will say it once again loud and clear.
Build the middle class at rapid clip, turn them into a homeownership class (with no mortgages on their homes), supply their needs/enhance their quality of life, as well as an enabling environment for them to achieve all their aspirations, and they are the ones who will AUTOMATICALLY transform the country completely with little to no additional input from GoK and let me tell you why.As I have said elsewhere before, a middle class citizen who owns their own home
is a DANGEROUS person and a key plank of national sovereignty worldwide.
The authors of the Chinese miracle understood this very well. In fact brilliantly so. Hence China's
whopping 90%+ homeownership rates. With the overwhelming majority of them having
no mortgages on the same.
Singapore learnt it too at 87%
Why is such a person dangerous? Because first, homeownership is the easiest path to financial security for most human beings. If the world goes to pot, a homeowner with no job can go and relax safely in his/her home without worrying about rent, grow beans and chicken in their backyard, watch tv and shout meaningless words like wantam, and survive extended economic downturns with their inbuilt home value intact, from which to make comeback. That's the worst case scenario.
Said person also AUTOMATICALLY CREATES JOBS without even trying, simply by going along their merry way living their ordinary lives. How so?
In addition to running the engines of government, parastatals and corporates (if employed) they need a domestic servant. They need a shamba boy occasionally. They need contractors/foremen while building, and fundis all the time post-construction. Electricians, plumbers, carpenters, the works.
Isitoshe, they create business hubs wherever they cluster. Their spend power brings in the corporates to cater to it. The Quickmarts, the banks, the hotels, the salons, the gyms, the retail shops, the hospitals, the schools ..the list is virtually endless. Every single one of those entities has huge numbers of employees, suppliers, drivers and so on behind it. Again, what does this all mean?
It means the middle class has the single hugest muliplier effect on the economy and nation. Far more than all the Kenyan billionaires combined.Increase their numbers through education/training of our ordinary wananchi en masse, employment and programmes that cater to them ... empower them and they will create the national wealth without even knowing they are doing so. As they also increase their capital through saving, investing, farming and so on, more and more jobs and wealth are created in a beautiful, seamless wealth spiral.
This informs the booms in these satellite towns. Tens of thousands of ordinary wananchi have migrated there to be employed by or to take advantage of the middle class engendered economic booms in said towns.
That's why I say simple things like supplying water to the fastest growing town in Kenya, for example, has hidden, structural impacts, that are game changers for their middle class residents, which will draw EVEN MORE of them as they see these amenities available and want to migrate there to take advantage of them.
With apologies to Baba, if you remember his 2007 campaign launch at KICC on a cold weekday, amid wild cheers from supporters, he said the key to rapid economic development of any nation was
INFRASTRUCTURE, INFRASTRUCTURE, INFRASTRUCTURE Which is 100% correct. I would however modify that and add a second line in even larger and bolder print to say
and
THE MIDDLE CLASS,
THE MIDDLE CLASS,
THE MIDDLE CLASSKenya already has one of the largest middle classes in Africa. We double it or triple it and
make them all mortgage-free homeowners and we will be unstoppable.
On the water project, as I said, I am apolitical, but when politics impacts economics in a systemic way, I pay rapt attention!
More please!
Ni hayo tu.
Topic: Are my eyes deceiving me? Am I in a dream? RUTO FOREVER!! (Read 11426 times)