NORTH EASTERN KENYA HAS GREAT ECONOMIC POTENTIAL

Last month the government announced that the construction of the Isiolo- Moyale road will commence in November. During his recent visit to North Eastern Province (NEP) president Mwai Kibaki opened the Wajir Airport and commissioned the construction of the Garissa- Mandera road. The president also announced his government’s economic blue print for the region. This is really good news, not just for the people of North Eastern Province (NEP) but also for the business community in the country.

For a long time the far flung areas of northern Kenya have been associated with death and despair occasioned by prolonged drought and relentless clan and inter-tribal wars over livestock and pasture. This has created a longstanding albeit flawed perception that northern Kenya is not viable for commercial exploitation. Immediately after independence the people of the then Northern Frontier District instigated an unsuccessful attempt for self determination against the new regime in Nairobi. Consequently, successive governments have ignored the area and left it devoid of any meaningful infrastructural development. Inevitably, the region is a nucleus for illicit trade in small arms and experiences rampant insecurity. Widely scattered administrative and military outposts are the only semblance of government. Residents cannot access basic services and largely depend on relief agencies for subsistence. The security forces deployed in NEP are sustained as detachments on active military service at a considerable expense to the exchequer.

The expansive range lands in northern Kenya are suitable for commercial ranching and tourism. Botswana, a landlocked country has a thriving economy reliant on livestock production and tourism. The government’s plan for northern Kenya should be expanded to include the improvement of the Rumuruti- Maralal- Baragoi road to facilitate trade in livestock and tourism in the picturesque Suguta Marmar -Malasso Valley which rivals the wild beast migration in the Maasai Mara in natural exquisiteness.

The business community in Kenya stands to benefit immensely from the ongoing and proposed infrastructural developments in the marginal range lands of northern Kenya. These developments and enhanced security will reduce government expenditure on security, open up the region for financial exploitation; create new metropolis, greater economic space and fresh frontiers for investment. This will help to lessen the demographic pressure on Nairobi and other urban centers and may be preferable to the suggestion by the Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK) to relocate the congested city of Nairobi to a new site. Far from giving political mileage to the government, the economic blue print for the NEP and outlying districts will address historical disadvantages and make reparations for the economic neglect and injustices occasioned to the people by past political regimes.