Hello to everyone who is following our experience. We are into our fifth month and always find this journey a great eye opening experience in so many ways. I wanted to share some of my views on the social, political, economic and health care events I have witnessed, read about, talked about with average Kenyans and somewhat digested. It is important to note that I come from Canada, the best country in the world that overall has excellent systems of social capital, political legitimacy, economic wealth and a health care system bar none. (Thank you Tommy Douglas)
First I would like to share on what I am really missing in Canada; the freedom to walk at night, the freedom to walk anytime without being continually "on guard". I miss my friends, of course. I miss driving on roads that are in good repair. I miss streetlights, clean streets, shop fronts that are not blown out that have displays to entice you to "Come Inside". I miss a sense of community and the social contract that we watch out for one another and one another's children (even if we are not fond of each other) I miss government systems that work. I miss our idea of poverty, and how small our poverty is compared to Kenya. I miss our police force, our ambulance and fire departments. Just some of the many things we take for granted.
The social fabric of Kenya is very thin. Most of you have heard about the political violence back in 2007/8 which I have mentioned before. There were many killed in this insanity over power. Recently there was a women in Eldoret who was bringing her chickens to market (she has a small micro business) and was followed out of Eldoret by four men. Three of the men had AK47's and the forth was a kid napped taxi driver. The men assumed she had a large amount of money because she had just dropped her goods. The men cut her off and used force to entered her car. They drove her to a field and robbed her of her small amount of money and her car. She and the taxi driver must have made a report to police because last week the men tried the ambush method again. This time the police were waiting. The three were shot dead and the AK47's recovered. This type of violence is typical. The concerted police effort is not. There are roughly 115 murders across Kenya every week. (Kenya is about the size of Manitoba) Most murders and crimes of violence are not investigated fully because the government does not have the funding, systems or political desire to drive an accountable judiciary system. Generally speaking the culture is to take care of yourself, your family and drive any one else down as far as you can. It is very male dominated and women and young girls are the most vulnerable.
In regards to the political system it is corrupt from top to bottom and the only reason you would become a civil servant is to ensure you get your small pension at the end of your time. I can elaborate on politics in Kenya and Africa at some later blog but if you want to read some books on issues related to Africa and its ongoing struggles try "Dead AID", "The Politics of Aid: African Strategies for dealing with Donors", or a rough cut like "Shake Hands with the Devil"and "Its our turn to Eat."
Economically and health wise, Kenya is struggling. The AIDS epidemic that has infected about 30 million Africans (as far as we know) combined with the governments lack of coordinated response is taking its toll on the economy. When you are a farmer and you have AIDS you can not produce. Your wife may die because you spread the illness to her. The daughter is then required to stay home and help tend the fields and raise the remaining children. She can not go to school and excel. This in turns cripples the nations ability to have educated people to run government agencies and so on and so on. There are some areas that have clinics to supply retro drugs but this is very difficult to execute regionally. In addition all retro drugs are supplied by developed nations through AID programs. There is yet not one factory in Africa that produces its own retro viral drugs for AIDS treatment. One might think that since the late 1970s up to today the governments of Africa would decide to start producing their own retro drugs? Unfortunately there is a real culture of denial still happening throughout the country combined with a dependence on AID relief.
In addition there are the growing concerns around food security and weather patterns causing prolonged droughts in some regions of Africa.
Lastly, the governments overall dependency on AID weakens its responsibility to the people who suffer the most. Generally the more AID dependent the nation is the higher levels of poverty coincide. This makes sense because the government can graft or steal the AID that comes through its Treasury and utilize the funds for the individuals own ends. This is a parallel to our First Nations peoples where the Federal Government (AID) transfers our tax money to the Chief and Council members who do the same as above. Enabling perhaps?
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