Skip to main content

A culture of wanton waste

There is nothing as bad as having something that does not become useful to someone else just because you prefer to waste it.

Africa's biggest challenge is not a lack of resources; rather it is a problem of mismanagement of what we have. It has been said before that our Continent is rich beyond our imaginations.

Be it food, electricity, water, or even our energy, we expend these with absolute disregard to efficiency.

Look at what happens in our offices during the weekends for instance: it is not uncommon to leave the lights on in the entire building over the whole weekend even though no one is making use of them. The automatic flushing water closets especially in urinals also keep pumping water though there's not a single soul making use of them. Even worse is the fact that we leave lights on during the day in our offices whilst the sun lights the rooms.

This is characteristic of the way we also handle food. In my village, Kathiranga in Meru County, for instance, farmers usually usually plant the same food crop at the same time. When it's cabbage harvesting time, therefore, there's more crop than the market needs at very low prices. More than half the crop rots in the farms as farmers realize no gains for their hard work. What is even more shocking is the fact that the cycle is repeated every year.

Workers at a Kenyan dairy plant spill part of 10,000 litres of milk this month, saying the factory’s capacity had been overstretched. - Photo courtesy of Business Daily Africa



These harmless looking small wastes contribute to the big challenge of resource loss. This coupled with human brain drain, capital flight and other forms of corruption, leaves our continent impoverished.

What can we do? Small deliberate acts of thrifty resource usage should be a daily act. Turn off the taps and lights when not in use, cook and consume only enough food. Engage in useful activities that ensure maximum output. Farmers should look for better ways of management of harvested food.

As a nation, we must first seal the proverbial leaking cup, before we attempt to become richer. I strongly believe that this is the way to go whether as an individual, as a country or as a continent.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Opportunities and challenges presented by the AfCFTA

President Kenyatta joined other African heads of state on March 21 in signing the #AfCFTA. What does this mean for Kenya? It means that Kenya's goods and services could have a broader market to sell to. It also means that locally made goods and services will face increased competition from similar products in the African market, especially if other countries have a comparative advantage. What is the projected net effect of these two sides of trade? Well, it's difficult to predict. It depends on which goods are on the schedule of reduction of tariffs both for other countries and Kenya. Pres. Kenyatta signs the AfCFTA Image courtesy of PSCU   Looking at other similar regional pacts such as North America's #NAFTA or the EU, we can see that trade between countries increases many fold. But as in the case of Mexico which saw the bankrupting of peasant farmers due to cheap corn and other agricultural produce from subsidized American farms, the aggregate effect might be po...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 2: To Bali, New Year's Eve

We spent most of new year's eve in transit. We left Ibis Styles Hotel at 10.30am, got to Jakarta international airport, got our tickets to Denpasar (in Bali) and left for Bali about 2.30pm (about 30mins late due to air traffic density at the airport) In transit at Jakarta Airport domestic departures; after check-in on the way to Denpasar Photobombed by Tom Hilde and Tom Jones We arrived in Denpasar around 7pm, where we met with Sunday who had arranged our transportation to Ubud. It took us the next hour and a half weaving through ever narrowing roadways towards Ubud, which is our home for the next six days. The driving in Bali immediately reminded me of Nairobi. Traffic wasn’t too bad, but driving a car involved checking both sides of the mirror because scooters, mopeds and motorbikes weave in and out of lanes at breakneck speed, with little warning or caution. Further, while passing huge vehicles like buses and lorries, our drive honked twice to let the other car know...
Post a Comment
Read more

No one knows what it's all about

We are all in a rat race, whose beginning we do not comprehend, and whose end we cannot fathom. Therefore, in typical human fashion, we have invented systems that keep us sane, as we try to figure out what it's all about. We invented religions, economic systems, socio-cultural systems, political systems and so on, all to make meaning out of our lonely and short existence. But all this has fallen short of fulfilling us. We know we are on a journey, but don't know a journey to where. We do not know how we will know once we get there. Is it possible that the destination is behind us, but we have not recognized it? "Preposterous," we think to ourselves. Aren't we higher beings able to shape our own paths? Would we not know where our paths are headed? History does not agree. Every system that has been built seems to have been the ultimate one. Political & economic systems have struggled to lay claim to the title of the "best" and most "sustainabl...
Post a Comment
Read more