Thanks for highlighting the cliche! How true indeed. It is a characteristic similar to ‘No hurry in Africa’. Anyways, to add to what you have articulated, why is it that when we visit foregn countries, we duly adapt to the host country’s rules and regulation without much of ado? For instance, throwing litter in garbage bins, keeping to sidewalks and no jay walking, etc, etc. Yet, immediately we land home, its the total opposite? I say, Africans (i mean indegenous and non indegenous alike) are simply not proud of themselves or where they come from. All in all, the blame rests again, squarely on leaders. In your case, you exempified the traffic cop and the civil servant flouting the very rules they are supposed to have upheld. These are leaders too in their own right. Our system is all awry, and its stards right from ones household, the family, and the other basic systems, like education, political and religious institutions.They have all failed. The result is what we see in our society. The rectification is in these basic units too.

The examples you gave are spot on. It is terribly frustrating trying to do business in Kenya when you can’t even trust the power company to give you an accurate bill. Or the water company to give you ‘any’ bill.
Where we have a close 10million dollar ‘5/6 km concrete’ road that took all of 5 years to build and still looks like it was done with the quality of a low-grade high school project.
Where no one thought it prudent to expand the city exit and entry point roads before they got totally clogged(Hello Jogoo Road/ Ngong Rd).

Where (see westlands), they decided to widen the roundabout as a traffic log-jam solution instead of ‘ding ding’ expanding the single lane exit towards Sarit Center. (They obviously have never noted that the Uhuru Highway side almost never has traffic leaving Westlands and hence is the reason for the former’s need for expansion).

Where we have 85% of our budget going towards re-current expenditure and of the 15% developmental left almost 40% comes back to the gov’t as unused Project Implementation funds. Reason(most common given by the source themselves),a lack of Project Implementation capacity or gov’t red tape.

Oh my and don’t get me started on the Grand Regency or Safaricom refund debacle. (Hello, Class Action Lawsuit anyone? To think, it is absolutely preposterous that they are people still chasing their refunds…..Sue, sue..and sue again!!.).

As for Mugabe and his ilk, tsk..tsk…the dinousars at the AU need a Comet/Meteorite to come along and sweep them all away! Shameful is what comes to mind, way past even mediocrity.

And when our Finance Minister is a 75+ year old man in a country(because there were none ’suitable’ or qualified enough to be found…because they should as a qualification need to be an MP first)-So a choiice from a grand total of 210 MPs. All this in a country whose median age is 18 years of age and which possess perhaps the deepest pool of Human Resource on the continent.

One can only plead for divine intervention. Of which I doubt will even come by, because the Good Book demands that we help ourselves first. But we can’t even do that. So what gives?

We are truly in a fix!

I also can’t get over Mbagathi Way, our famous concrete road. A ‘high school project’ indeed!