Our construction industry may simply be entrenching poverty in concrete

In Summary

• By the time projects such as Migaa are completed, there will be, for example, a myriad of roads, which I can only assume with be all-weather in Kiambu County to enable approaches from multiple directions.
• Much as urban areas may seem to be on a growth sprout, they may at the same time be ticking time bombs unless the necessary interventions are put in place.
• It might be that they believe the micro-economy under which many of these areas operate will be completely destroyed by officialdom.

By MUTHONI THANG'WA
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Research by the Institute of Security studies suggests that Kenya will not meet the Millennium Development Goal of reducing poverty by the year 2030. No surprises there.

They have cited many useful reasons in their recently launched report. Some are highly debatable, such as economic growth being restricted to urban areas.

What impact, if any, has the growth of large housing and shopping complexes and developments such as Two Rivers, Migaa, Tatu City, Buffalo Hills, Thika Greens and many such others in rural or peri-urban areas had on the economic outputs in these areas?

Such development obviously shifts a work force away from urban areas and helps the growth of infrastructure in the rural areas in which they are located. Nevertheless, their impact on agriculture and its growth nationally is equally alarming and not well thought out.

By the time projects such as Migaa are completed, there will be, for example, a myriad of roads, which I can only assume with be all-weather in Kiambu County to enable approaches from multiple directions.

The growth of the construction industry in urban areas such as Nairobi may present none-growth indicators, since the accompanying development of infrastructure, except perhaps roads, has largely not taken place.

The slum upgrade, first in Mathare and now in Kibera, is perhaps the one indicator of growth whose impact is still growth.

The dailies are awash with members of the public complaining about lack of water for weeks on end in middle and upper middle-class areas such as Kilimani and Kileleshwa

Definitely the sewer system has not been expanded or modified in any way, and might be loaded with more than 100 per cent of the capacity for which it was originally constructed.

Much as urban areas may seem to be on a growth sprout, they may at the same time be ticking time bombs unless the necessary interventions are put in place.

Some informal settlements and middle to low income areas such as Zimmerman, Ruai, Embakasi and Githurai are still without basic infrastructure such as sewer systems. Yet their growth is exponential, while being almost devoid of the human development aspect.

A good indicator of a non-growth governance model, and one which needs to be belaboured, is one in which the government cannot access the poor.

The current interaction between the government and the poor is oriented around confrontation or harassment or political campaigns. None of this interaction models contribute an iota to economic of human development.

Long gone are the days when the government would hold a baraza to educate citizens, inform or discuss matters. Today the government descends on the public when in search of terrorists, illicit brew or drug dens, or when buildings collapse or land is grabbed.

No doubt only government can intervene in these heavy matters, but a negative interaction model will yield zero growth results year after year, way beyond 2030.

One of the reasons that many economic researchers fail to mention for this is that sometimes the poor do not want help to break out of poverty from the government.

It may be that their experience with government, as indicated above, is negative, so they make sure that government can only access them in emergency situations or under coercion.

It might be that they believe the micro-economy under which many of these areas operate will be completely destroyed by officialdom.

Such experiences are also a good reason why economic research should always encompass a component of social-cultural research, otherwise it will consistently give economic findings whose real cause are socio-cultural, and cannot therefore be remedied with economic interventions.

One of the most difficult things for government to do is to access the poor. Most governments in Africa are only interested in accessing the poor for their vote - which is priority number one - and for data.

The vote is obvious; each party brings a whole new load of top public servants into office.

Data is an important tool not only for policy and decision making, but also for political manipulation.

The only other reasons to reach the poor is to bash and bombard them with none-growth ideas on every subject under the sun - assassinations, mysterious deaths, corruption (but not how to end it), interparty politics - as long as it does not contribute to human development.