THE KENYA WE YEARN FOR;A PEOPLES’ DIALOGUE WITH THEMSELVES ABOUT THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

By MAXIMILLA WAFULA & PATRICK KIMANZI 

The County Diary news

Reporters

Kenya is indeed a wonderful place to live in and has been a major source of inspiration for songs such as “My Land is Kenya” by Roger Whittaker, a Kenyan born British singer, whom  sadly passed on on 13th September this year.

On this particular song, he captured the beauty of our land in his nostalgic and hauntingly beautiful song and this land, given and left to us by our ancestors, is now in our hands as the people of Kenya ,therefore, we need to take time to dialogue with ourselves about this land, our home, our nation our hope and the hope of all future generations, born and unborn. 

The questions raising the dialogue include what is being done to the land,and through the activities, a land that will be worthy of more ballads in future is created or an environment that has been inherited from our forebears is being destroyed and also what will be handed over to our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

Due to the same, Architects Alliance, calls for a national dialogue focusing on the physical environment and  management of it as the people of Kenya and they mentioned that the dialogue must involve all  including Citizens of all cadres, the Government at the National and County Levels, Non-State Actors, Professionals in the physical and built environment and all other interested parties, for through this process, they will, collectively come up with a national blueprint on how to manage and secure the physical environment so that all citizens can enjoy the best quality of life possible while ensuring that future generations are assured of a worthy heritage.

"We have observed with dismay the deterioration of our physical and built environment and we are of the opinion that the way to fix this is to involve every citizen in appreciating the value that good physical environments bring to all of us as a people and the importance of preserving the heritage handed down to us so that we can pass it on to future generations and the consequence of this is that the entire populace will understand their role as physical environment wardens and will resist destruction of the environment and all citizens will appreciate and value good built and physical environments and will demand for it in their neighbourhoods and communities," added Architects Alliance. 

They mentioned that the physical environment in which we live is a major determinant of the health outcomes of our people for many diseases and illnesses are consequences of poor physical environments characterized by ill designed and built living spaces, pollution and other deleterious environmental factors.

The Nairobi We Want initiative culminating in the Nairobi City Convention of 1993 gives  an example of what can be achieved by getting all citizens focussed on an issue that being but a distant memory having taken place almost 30 years ago, this initiative galvanized all the residents of the city to focus on what they considered desirable for the city and from the findings and wide public participation, a report was made collating the ideas that the people had articulated and this was converted into policy initiatives. 

Having  people engage, think and haveconversations about their physical environments and focusing on sensitively designed and built physical structures that take into account the unique flora and fauna of our land and ideal space for our people to live in is the starting point. 

Urban Centres in Kenya have in the past been well planned with robust management plans that availed clean, secure and lively environments and this is something which was taken for granted in the past,for instance, those of us who lived in 1970's Nairobi tell of a city with well-planned, designed and built neighbourhoods like Buruburu Estate with playing fields and corner shops; where public transport was orderly and run on schedule; where open parks and children playing fields were common fare and where even the president's children attended public schools, but all these sound like utopian fantasies today for the Green City in the sun has become a shadow of itself, public spaces have been encroached on, grabbed and privatized, public good has been sacrificed at the altar of avarice and the desire for a quick buck from all and sundry and we see the symptoms of this great illness in our midst all the time, with the demolition of structures built on contested land, running battles between police and protesters being the order of the day.

On the very issue, fingers have been pointed,protests have been protested in various ways and made long statements to show displeasure, all to no avail.

"Today, we stop talking and start doing,and we ask all citizens of good will to join us in putting the issue of the built environment in the front burner and jointly taking action to improve our lot, and that of our neighbours and all generations of Kenyans now and into the future," they concluded. 

Ends..