INSECURITY/ELECTRICITY:BY GEOFFREY OMEDO ,ELIJAH OKWENA

RURAL ELECTRIFICATION GOOD IDEA BUT… I commend the government’s effort of ensuring that even rural areas are no longer in darkness by coming up with rural electrification exercise. The exercise of supplying electricity to every corner of the country is welcome unfortunately no all people will manage to apply for power due to the fact that it is too expensive. It is quite unfortunate that those who will slightly manage to ply for power will only be rural elites such as teachers and extension officers. Not rural peasants who leave in less that a dollar in a day. To apply for electricity on must put a side more than Ksh.60, 000! I wonder where all this money would come from. In this case only schools and dispensaries will benefit due to the fact that it has been said that the supply will be for commercial purpose. Those who spend dearly in kerosene will continue to suffer. Those who have small Kiosks with hope of getting electricity so as invest in major areas like welding,posho mill, carpentry, saloon among other things will never enjoy the benefit due to obvious reason-to drop a cable is too expensive. The government should know that to fight poverty rural electrification must be cheap and accessible to all people. Whatever little rural people get they spend in other crucial things like in educating their young ones who are in school or colleges, buying food stuffs, medical care among other basics. Why all these rates? Ksh.57, 000 for a cable! No. It is damn expensive. The government should be lenient and considerate. This is over exploitation to a poor mwananchi who is struggling to make other ends meet in each day. I’m not saying that the supply should be free, but fare. Let the maximum figures be Ksh10, 000 or Ksh15, 000.To be honesty rural peasants can not raise these entire amount at once. Most of them depend on peanuts which come out of tea, coffee among other cash crops. Unless the government increases their payments in these products, otherwise electricity will run through the plots of many but they will never have them in their premises. Alternatively, let the government supply electricity in the form of loans so that to allow people pay slowly. - To make matters even worse, it is long overdue for those who apply for power due to the fact that it takes long for Kenya Power to drop cables. FROM ELIJAH OKWENA NAIROBI . geoffrey omedo wrote: INSECURITY: ARE THESE SECURITY ADVISORIES REALLY FAIR AND ACCURATE? Being a Kenyan delegate at the just ended Governing Council Global Ministerial forum at the UN Gigiri complex provided me with a rare opportunity to look at Kenya from the International guests’ point of view, especially on the thorny issue of insecurity in Nairobi. It seriously left me completely unsure whether to defend my country’s record on security by dismissing the United Nations and USA embassies security advice to their international visitors, or whether to sympathize with their security concerns to the apprehensive delegates from the global community. But then, when I got a look at a copy of the Security Advice from the UN to the international delegates attending the forum, I was completely stupefied at the gravely blatant exaggerations within the document. For instance, on personal security, it was written that , “street muggings can occur at any time of the day or night in both Nairobi and Mombasa” Surely this is a clear cut case of implantation of unnecessary confusion through instilling fear in the visitors to Kenya. The security brief also went ahead warning the visitors to only visit the main parts of Nairobi, and to avoid any other places of which they are not sure of. This advice was well intended but then, which are the main parts of Nairobi and which ones are not? The visitors are further warned to be “particularly wary of people hanging around and outside hotels, since it is a favorite place to catch tourists and mug them”. This could be true, but what the advisory failed to advise the international visitors was the fact that all major hotels have gone to extra lengths of hiring their own security detail to guarantee the safety of their clients. This advisory automatically converts any one found around a particular hotel into a potential security threat hence subject for intimidation, and or unprocedural arrests. But perhaps the biggest misinformation provided within this security brief is on road travel. Apparently, the United Nation has only 3 companies of taxi cabs that they have accredited to operate within the UN premises. The criteria for selecting this three taxi companies is not the subject for discussion here. However, the assertion within the circulated security advisory document that, “the local unlicensed taxis are often unreliable, unroadworthy, and should be avoided: is both wrong and unwarranted. The advisory also strongly advises the visitors against traveling in matatus and buses however exciting that would appear. In the case of matatus, they are described as ” often unroadworthy, are usually bad driven and their accident record is appalling” The clincher is added on Kenyan matatus and buses as perfect targets for pickpockets and petty nuisance elements. On the road condition in Nairobi, the circular describes the Kenyan roads to be in a very poor state with some being completely impassable. The visitors are implored to “always drive defensively, expecting the worst and from unlikely sources” But perhaps the fact that the visitors are further advised to “open the car windows 10 to 12 centimeters particularly when stopped at traffic lights” seems to be the point at which one begins to question his loyalty to ones country and a desire for a truthful report of issues around insecurity as captured by such advisories. While most Kenyans agree that indeed the insecurity problem in the country has reached some grave proportions, it is important for the advisories issued by the United Nations and other foreign bodies in the country to be faithful to the need for moderate logical reporting. The truth remains that the largest fraction of Kenyans are not security risks, but rather the very victims of this rising insecurity. However, it is important for the government security apparatus to improve their intelligence wings in order for these escalating crime indices to be brought under control. Geoffrey Omedo.