By Alex Kiambi via fb
HE President Uhuru Kenyatta launched the second phase of SGR the other day. Our mainstream media, without thought termed it as a “Railway to Nowhere”; a very unfortunate, ill informed description. To them, Suswa and Naivasha are “NOWHERE” not even in Kenya. Maybe, they are in a “KUSADIKIKA” sort of setup..just utopic places that just exist in our minds. To me, that was too low for mainstream media to exhibit such un-inhibited levels of ignorance of facts. Simply..
1. These media are based in Nairobi, did they take a minute or two to reflect how Nairobi came to be. They didn’t. FYI; Nairobi wasn’t to be the capital centre but Machakos. It was just a stopover and rest point of the railway workers. But it was endowed with flat lands and water.. with that..it became a favourite and a CITY was born. Yes, midwifed by a railway line..
2. With the Government offering incentives and concessions for the upcoming dryport, a new city is in the offing. In Naivasha. But media houses are either too lazy to capture the future potential or are just too willing to deluge a noble mega project with innuendos just to capture audience.
3. The SGR is being built in Kenya, heading to Naivasha and eventually Kisumu. Is this “NOWHERE”? Am looking forward a few years down the line, God keep me well, to see same reporters rushing to do features of maybe..”Hidden City…Suswa City…”.
4. Lastly, our existing cities are already over populated, crowded and overstretched. There needs a visionary thought to open up new frontiers and decongest them. Only infrastructure would facilitate such an initiative.
