[kictanet] Bitange for President? Extended due to Public Demand-internet price?

[lordmwesh]

Thank you Dr. Ndemo for trying to articulate issues of Environmental change,
and degradation, which has a big impact on the life we live now. A few
people benefit by destroying nature, while the rest of us suffer.

You've hit the nail on the head " we must make very tough decisions if we
want a better future. ....   There must be no rights without responsibility"

I have the privillage to always cross a river that cuts The University of
Nairobi Chiromo campus into two. Since Hon. Michuki engineered a thorough
cleaning exercise on Rivers around Nairobi, I have seen several tortoises,
and wild ducks swimming along that stretch, and the water is clear. The
beauty of such nature in our midst made me shed a tear.

I wonder what other changes we would see in Kenya if Michuki had more powers
over running of government. Again, I agree " we must make very tough
decisions if we want a better future. ..", and we have seen Michuki apply
this rule very effectively in the past.

Kind Regards
Mwendwa Kivuva.

On 13 August 2011 23:57, <bitange at jambo.co.ke> wrote:

> Walubengo,
> You can dig for your answer in my write up below.
>
> This week I had an opportunity to fly to Laikipia for a lunch meeting with
> investors who wanted to kill two birds with one stone by having a Safari
> and discuss business at the same time.  They paid the bill.  The one hour
> flight to and from Laikipia got my head spinning.  The pilot has been
> flying here for more than thirty years and has seen many physical changes
> in Central, Eastern and Rift Valley.  I pestered him with many questions.
>
> At some point he told me that all the rivers that flow through Central
> Kenya had crystal clear water in the 7o's and 80's but as farmers
> encroached on riparian land, soil erosion crept in and now they are all
> red dragging the best of soils into the Indian Ocean.  In spite of several
> Departments of Geography in our Universities there are little or no
> studies on the long term effects of what is happening to our ecosystem.
> We study both human and physical geography not to apply the knowledge but
> as a means to get papers for employment.
>
> A quick research will tell you that we are not only food insecure but also
> water insecure.   Although Kenya’s water per capita in cubic meters at 647
> is above world average 360, we do not compare well with other progressive
> countries such as India at 1,911 and China at 2,840.  We were better at
> independence since we had many dams built by the British but are now
> non-existent.  People planted Ndumas in most of the dams.  We must now
> admit we did not know the impact and still we do not know until our
> academics get down to work on research.
>
> Soil erosion means we are also eroding the most arable land in the
> country.  Per capita arable land in Kenya measures only .14 hectare per
> person.  Here we fall below the world average of .21 hectare per person.
> The statistic implies the world must manage this resource better in order
> to feed everybody.  The British had started this policy on African
> reserves sort of rural urbanization.  We rightly shunned it but without
> studies to look into our future.  We must re-introduce this with a better
> name and better housing with all utilities.  My research findings on such
> housing will cost about Ksh. 200,000 per unit of three bedrooms.  In other
> words we can construct 340,000 households from the Goldenberg loot if we
> were to recover it.  This will translate to all of Northern Kenya from
> Kacheliba to Wajir.
>
> We have about 6 million households in Kenya of which 3 million can afford
> to pay for such a house or better.  The Government can indeed manage to
> build for the remainder through improved tax collections (we pay about 40%
> of the potential income tax and about 20% of the potential local authority
> taxes such as rates).  Of course there will be other savings from health
> budget that goes into opportunistic diseases that we can eliminate from
> the face of Kenya.  These include water borne diseases.  Typhoid alone
> costs Kenya billions that need to be used to improve the livelihood of our
> people and meet the constitutional demands.
>
> Therefore, the question on Lake Victoria water will not arise if we dammed
> all the waters that flow into the lake and elsewhere.  As for affordable
> prices for broadband, I have no doubts that we shall meet this even before
> the end of this year.  The shared infrastructure negotiations are going on
> smoothly.  In a few weeks time we should move forward with the LTE open
> access program.  If we all understand the open access principle where big
> and small will use the infrastructure at same access cost.  More agile
> companies will indeed provide very competitive pricing.  As we move the
> Government more online, the more the number of internet users meaning we
> shall reach the critical mass much faster.  With the critical mass and
> many providers, the price can only go downwards.
>
> The biggest problem and one asked by Monda is the question of vested
> interests.  I know some sectors have a real problem with this issue and
> negatively impacts on our economic growth.  In our sector we have been
> lucky in the sense that much of what we do is new and the rapid
> technological changes discourage power brokers who may entrench themselves
> to build strong vested interest.  This is not to say that we are not often
> asked to do things differently.  Our savior is going to be open government
> and in this I pray that every Kenyan understands this concept because it
> has a way of not only dealing with vested interest but also impunity in a
> way.  If I had time I could delve into this more.  To date I do not think
> even media has understood this powerful tool.
>
> Back to my flight.  Coming back I found myself humming Jim Reeves’ song
> “we thank thee each morning for a new born day ….. we thank thee for the
> sunshine and air we breathe, for the rivers that run, for the birds that
> sing, for the eyes to see this things…unfortunately we may not hear the
> birds sing since from above you can see that we have eliminated their
> habitat – percent of total land area in Kenya covered by forest is 2%
> compared to world average of 31%.  We may not see the rivers as they were
> before since all our soils are polluting the what remains of rivers as
> eucalyptus has swallowed much of the water and wetlands.
>
> Hovering over many towns across the land you get hurt by what you see.
> Although there are planners in all local authorities you see a cry of
> unplanned structures with visible problems of managing solid waste.  You
> simply see chaos in a country with literacy levels approaching 90%.  What
> you see are the sources of many diseases and problems such as the jigger
> menace in some parts of the country.   I grew up fairly poor but we did
> not have this level of disorganization.  At least health officers did
> something to prevent many diseases.  I saw dirty butcheries and
> restaurants closed by health officers.  There was a semblance of planned
> dukas.  Where the madness of unplanningness came from I do not know but
> this is one of the things “candidate” Ndemo will deal with.
>
> In conclusion, we must make very tough decisions if we want a better
> future.  I know the new constitution has brought all sorts of rights but
> it is all nonsense if we undermine the future with unplanned population,
> unplanned urban centers, unplanned future, etc.   There must be no rights
> without responsibility.
>
>
> Ndemo.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Bw PS,
> >
> > nice insights you have below.  Mine is simply to ask what your thoughts
> > are, in terms of making consumer internet prices affordable. Yes, cost of
> > bandwidth at international gateway level used to be 5,000USD per MB (over
> > satellite) but now it has dropped below  500USD per MB.  Basically it
> > has dropped by 10 times - HOWEVER- in our cyber cafes, the cost of
> > accessing internet is still 1/- to 2/- per minute, pretty much what it
> was
> > during the satellite days.
> >
> > Mobile data internet which is the more common form of access is not any
> > cheaper either.  There's has been NO  drop per-se, just marketing
> > gimmicks of increasing the amount of bandwidth for the same (HIGH) price.
> > It is like saying lunch costs 2,500/= at some 5star hotel, but since
> there
> > has been good rains/harvest, for the same 2,500/= you are free to eat ALL
> > you want...sounds good, but ONLY for those who could afford the 2,500/=
> > lunch bracket in the first place - who unfortunately are not
> > many....particularly in an economy whose average monthly income is around
> > 8,000sh.
> >
> > So how do you intend to tackle the internet price problem when you get to
> > be President?
> >
> > walu.
>
-- 
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Mwendwa Kivuva
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