Photos courtesy of Omorisia Chakobo
#HurumaTragedy Will Always Be With Us
By Donald Kip
When building tragedies happen in Kenya, the response is so predictable: Red Cross will rush to the scene, the injured rushed to KNH, the dead to City Mortuary, recrimination occurs between City Council and National Construction, national leaders are silent. Then we move on till the next tragedy.
But collapse of buildings in Nairobi is symptomatic of a bigger problem: Inspite of all the big projects you are seeing, Kenya is still not out of the woods. In Human Development Index, we still compete at the bottom of the world with such miserable countries as Sierra Leone, Somalia and Afghanistan. 51% of our people live in absolute poverty. The income inequality between the rich and the poor is ever widening.
For Kenya to pull itself by the straps of its boot, few things are needed: accountability must be real and working … Everyone elected or employed to a public office ought to deliver or go … And they ought to be arrested. Accountability includes moral responsibility for failures.
Construction of Tarmac roads and power and water supply to every village. And people must demand for public services and accountability without tribal blinkers. Poverty and tragedies affect all tribes.
