Nandi County take-off to prosperity: Core issues for 2012 and beyond

Nandi County in Rift Valley presents an interesting face of Kenya. Geographically, it stretches from the low-lying soiin to the south through the lush green highlands of Kapng’etuny (Nandi Hills) to the stretch of endless plateau in Mosop to the North. The landmass seems to rise laboriously from the tip of Kapseng’ere to the west through the pristine forested midlands of Chesumei through Kapsabet to the elevated ridge of Ol’Lessos to the forests of North Tindiret. In between lie the tea estates and a whisper of wattle plantations. Cultural melting pot it is also, owing to the ethnic diversity of the inhabitants and the over 795,000 residents enjoy what is no doubt an eye-catching mix of culture, economic and socio-political menu. Nandi is home to such minority groups as the Okiek, Ngerekek, Luhya, Luo, Kikuyu, Kipsigis and Terik all living in harmony. Thanks to the new constitution, each of these peoples’ rights are protected and future county governments must cater for them by ensuring their inclusion in matters of governance. There are also special populations like the disabled, single parents and widowed families each facing their unique challenges. Our society must provide space for them. Nandi is still faced with challenges in land ownership, lack of title deeds in some areas and people living as squatters. These are issues that require firm action in order to enable every resident feel a part of our rich county.

Nandi is home to some 66 potential tourist sites (from the eye-catching water-falls at Mulangu to the North to the caves in Keben to the East), holds the religious HQ of the Nandi at Kapng’etuny (Nandi Hills Town) which is home to Koitalel Samoei Museum, the traditional suicide cliffs (Sheu) at Kibolewo near Kaprochoke and Moropi in Kapsimotwo. The County is blessed with institutions of higher learning led by the prestigious Kapsabet Boys High School right at the centre of Nandi. In a radius of only several kilometres, one finds Kapsabet Girls, St Joseph’s High School Chepterit and the University of Eastern Africa, Baraton. These are not enough, Nandi needs more better schools, middle-level colleges to absorb and train artisans and youth who would be ready to go into self-employment as well as a university or two to alleviate the problem of shortage of education places. The future of university education might as well mean that there is need for 47 county universities. Nandi County must not be left behind in this.

• Dealing with history

Nandi bore the brunt of British expropriation of land and the murder of the Nandi Orkoiyot, Koitaleel arap Samo-ei at Kapng’etuny in October 1905. With his death came a disenfranchisement of a whole community, murder of hundreds of others, capture of their livestock and eventually forceful eviction and relocation to the concentrations camps called the Nandi Reserves (a division of 25 locations until 1926 when a new one, for the Talai, Kapsisiywa Location number 26 was curved from Location 1 and Location 25). Although this is not spoken of, with this migration came an economic disorganisation of a proud people who had lived peacefully with the environment. The highlands in Nandi Hills were given to Bwana, a settler who either grew tea or coffee or sugar cane. The Nandi who chose to serve ‘Bwana’ adopted servitude and a life of complete dependence in which they had to pledge loyalty by carrying a Kipande and signing themselves to perpetual slavery courtesy of the blue ink ‘teben buluu’. These people were turned into squatters overnight, aliens in their own land. With rocky patches to till, a restricted number of livestock to keep and tethering around a Bwana with little travel, life in the occupied territories resembled life in Jewish concentration camps. The Bwana could rape the Nandi women unhindered, in the process leaving behind children whose lives could not survive the harsh environment in the squatter camps. These are the scars with which we live each day. Yet in the constitution and the National Land Policy, there are brave provisions to redress historical land injustices. A firm leadership strategy is required to mainstream land expropriation issues and pursue compensation without fear or favour. Thankfully, this is provided for in the National Land Policy Article 189-190 on Historical land injustices and in particular disinheritance of our people from our ancestral land. This is a very critical aspect in economic €mpowerment. As we seek justice for atrocities that can be traced back to colonial expropriation of land, we must boldly embrace a paradigm shift that acknowledges that peasantry won’t help us out of our economic morass. Land remains a ruthless master to so many people, yet it is becoming increasingly scarce. This calls for a radical shift from subsistence to a system in which we specialise and move into organised urban set-ups. By specialisation, we mean that we all cannot be farmers. It is time to accept that some of us are good at farming while some of us are better at processing, alternative businesses et cetera which promotes better money circulation since what one does not have, he/she can purchase from the one who has.

• The Nandi County: Take-off to prosperity in 2012 and beyond.

To position Nandi strategically, and enable us compete with the rest of the counties in Kenya, we need a new thinking. Proper diagnosis of our problems, and suggestions on how to deal with those problems decisively demands strong leadership in touch with reality and able to work across the board. Building barriers won’t take Nandi anywhere. In the new Kenya, we need bridges with other counties and beyond. A quick look at key areas that need leadership focus and investment is bound to define where we shall be with regard to vision 2030. The first step in realising this dream is to domesticate the national vision 2030. We need to look at decentralisation and devolution of the ambitious national programmes in terms of school enrolment and quality of education, road construction and maintenance, affordable and quality health care, promotion of local tourism, preservation of our language and culture, friendly and sustainable use of the environment and a promotion of a pro-business image in order to attract investment apart from taking bold steps to start agro-industries in order to add value to our agricultural produce. The new County Government will have to pursue a transparent, consultative and all inclusive policy in all its dealings with the residents, aiming to deliver real GOODS and services to the residents.

• Education

A great philosopher said “Education is a companion which no future can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate it and no nepotism can enslave.” How so true! You can lose everything in an inferno; you only lose education when you lose yourself. In recognition of the fact that education is a game changer, the new Nandi County Government will have to take a census of all the residents and compare the statistics with the available education places from pre-primary, through primary, secondary, tertiary and other colleges. The aim will be to expose any gaps in demand versus availability. The Government will then have to actively progress several initiatives to address any gaps. The final picture should be that any resident of the county should be able to access any education they require within the county without the need to seek for it outside. Of course the other important factor is the quality of the Education. Various initiatives will be implemented, to ensure that the quality of education is quickly improved to match both national and international standards. Among these are incentives for the teachers of the various schools. It is sad that while my generation went to public schools, and still made it through to prestigious secondary schools, in our country at the moment excellence in education is almost directly proportional to the amount of money invested by the parents in their kids who have to study in high-cost private schools. What ails our primary schools?

Don’t the teachers who teach there also go to the same teacher-training colleges as those who teach in private schools? Nelson Mandela says, and I quote: Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that a son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farm workers can become the president of a of a great nation. What a great inspiration! The only tool that levels the field for the son of a pauper and the daughter of a magnate is education. As the world-famous neurosurgeon and author Benny Carson says “Education is the great Equaliser” and I believe, in paraphrasing Carson that “Education is the most powerful socio-economic equaliser”. To help our residents escape from squalor, we have to invest extra energy and innovativeness to fix our primary school system in order to spur performance. Our children go to a public school in Germany, and here there are few, if any, private schools. Those public schools are doing pretty well. Why can’t our public schools in Kenya do the same, or even better? What happened to the tigers of the 70s and 80s? What happened to Terige Primary School and Koyo primary school of yesteryears? What happened to Siret Primary School? Where did Kaboi Primary, Kapseng’ere, Sereem, Kabiyet, Lelmokwo, Kilibwoni, Kibukwo, Kabireer, Mogobich, and so many others disappear to? Where is the lustre of the 1970s and 1980s when these schools produced nothing but the best? It is time to accept that not everybody can afford to put their kids in boarding, private and high-cost schools. Yet, those schools in the villages must perform. To achieve this, the County government will require a leader in the education department who understands the game. We won’t accept to sit pretty as our schools fail to transform the lives of the villages. Urgent measures to identify the rot, fix it and work on inspiring competition in schools must be started. A long time ago there was the Iten Maths contest. Nandi can have a similar product to provide a challenge for our students, not necessarily in maths but some competition with tacit support from the county education department.

We appreciate the cost of schooling in Kenya has risen. At the moment, every family wakes up to the challenges of fees arrears. Yet the schools still run even with outstanding fees amounting to several millions of shillings. We need to revisit several aspects of costs in order to alleviate this problem and ensure smooth education.

• Some schools have large tracts of land under crop, should they charge same amounts of other monies as those schools without land/investments? There is potential for commercial farming and expansion of those schools in order to absorb more students.

• As I have emphasised before, Uniliver Tea educates four students each for Kericho, Bureti and Bomet districts (12 in total in each given year) in university under corporate social responsibility (CSR). Does anybody care to know why KTGA does not do this in Nandi? The County government will need to enter into negotiations for the establishment of a Nandi County Scholarship funded jointly through CSR and the county government and other partners.

• There has been a lot of heat recently with regard to the future status of some schools in Nandi County like Kapsabet Boys, Kapsabet Girls and others. Should these schools be upgraded to national schools or should they be retained and expanded as county schools? My personal stand is that Kapsabet Boys should be retained as Nandi County premier school. The reasons range from the numbers of boys who would be admitted there in the event of an upgrade (only about eight per district!), the cost of education at Kapsabet currently (about KShs 50,000/= per year) would sky rocket to well over KShs 80,000 – 120,000/= per year. Kapsabet Boys is producing As and Bs that our boys could get at Alliance High School at a much elevated cost. Even if we ignore other incidental costs like travelling etc, we would have better reason to offer monetary support for our top schools as a county in order to ensure they remain affordable, competitive and able to absorb and produce our top-notch performers. I wish to provoke further debate in this. Should we open up Kapsabet Boys or do we encourage development and upgrading of other schools? Besides, the government has given money for the development of centres of excellence. We need a strong leadership that recognises the urgent need to ensure that we have enough secondary schools, fully equipped, computerised, with functional laboratories and motivated teaching and administrative staff to ensure Nandi produces a competitive manpower to meet the challenges of economic take-off in Kenya.

• We need to urge our investors in the tea industry to borrow a leaf from their counterparts in Kericho and invest in more secondary schools with better facilities in order to cater for the expanded intakes in primary schools.

• Nandi will need to think of a county university. While in Uganda in December 2010, I met a sizeable number of Kalenjin ‘students’ at Kampala International University (now cheekily called Kalenjins in Uganda!). Why do we have high school kids going to Uganda? Why do we have people seeking education opportunities in Uganda? Can we invest in a competitive educational facility in order to way-lay and tap the capital flight to Uganda? Do we have land, and the will power to invest in this venture either as a devolved government or in partnership with private investors? Are we ready for a Nandi Koitalel Samoei University or a Nandi Jean-Marie Seroney University? Let us not limit ourselves.

• Would it be beyond our mandate to determine that we have at least each primary school provided with electricity in order to aid children from poor families who cannot afford reading lamps? While in primary school, I read books using a spent tyre. The problem of reading light remains a challenge to many families. If we believe that education is the game-changer, and that reading beyond the school time is important for better results, we dare invest in facilities that would aid our children in school preps. To do this, we need bold investments in electricity or solar energy for remote schools. It can be done, it must be done urgently. So that those kids whose parents cannot afford mafuta taa can still read and compete with those whose parents can afford. If we truly believe that education is a game-changer, Nandi County ought to ensure that each and every school has reading lamps and/or electricity. With solar lamps now available, this can be done. Let us do it.

• Agriculture

Anybody would do anything to own land in Nandi County. Our productivity is continuously being undermined by the rapid rise in population, continuous fragmentation of land and the bad habits that we must discourage in which one considers sale of land over utilisation as a short-cut to fix cash-flow problems. Aside from this, Nandi is very productive. The County is endowed with rich fertile soils and fairly adequate rainfall. The new County Government will have to take stock of all Agricultural activities to ensure that the farmers get the best available advise, farm inputs, farming technology, and stable market price for their produce. Policies and laws will have to be implemented to protect farmers from exploitative pricing of produce, and any other unfair trade practices. Traditionally, Nandi farmers sell their produce to Kisumu, Western province and Eldoret. In the present politics of devolved systems, a strategy must be adopted to recognise the import of those markets and ensure that nothing is done to rock them. In addition, the trip between the garden and the kitchen must be delayed. It is our hope that bold steps shall be taken to introduce value-addition to our products, particularly maize and milk so that farmers are cushioned against price slumps during times of product glut. In the 1990s, as a university student, I did business in fresh vegetables which we supplied to Kibuye and Kondele market in Kisumu. At times the prices were so high, the vegetables were insufficient and the scramble for the farms was intense. Yet at times we’d go all the way, find a glut forcing us to sell the vegetables at throw-away prices, or if we didn’t want to sell, we had to pay the municipal council to dump the vegetables. To guard against this, we need to think about agro-industries. Just imagine what we’d achieve with cottage industries processing the tomatoes from Usoon, Tereno and Tindiret into tomato ketchup. Apart from the employment opportunities, we are sure to stand a chance in regulating the market prices. Furthermore, with the Eldoret airport just a stone-throw away, and the bold steps taken by our agricultural extension workers (Like Barnaba Maru of Nandi South) as well as the shipping companies dealing with fresh-produce export (for example CanKen Ltd with Dominic Biwott) who export passion fruits, farming need not be a burden. But let us be cognisant of the reality that selling passion fruits might be profitable today. However, over time as other producers catch up, the consumer-driven market might be increasingly competitive. There is need to explore processing options in order to convert these into juices and pastes, which can last longer. The same case obtains with milk. Imagine a farmer with the fast-growing Kabiyet dairies supplies his/her milk at between KShs 25-30 per litre to the cooler. Kabiyet sells it in turn to KCC at KShs 32, barely breaking even. KCC takes that milk, converts it to Mala and sells back to the tired farmer who has gone for pay at Kapsabet at KShs 50 per half-litre packet (meaning KShs 100 per litre). If you get the story of the growth of value from the KShs 25 to 100 per litre, you’re tempted to ask as I do: Bo ng’o teeta (whose cow is it)? Does it belong to the farmer or to the final processor? What if we took bold steps to grow Kabiyet, and many other coolers, into fully fledged processors? Wouldn’t we be able to have farmers earning bonus payments like the farmers who supply milk to Githunguri Dairies? It can be done. It must be done. There are many other examples with potentials in mushroom farming, sheep and goat farming (even dairy goats!) and beef farming. Let us dare to try.

• Industrialization and business

Nandi has some ‘centres’ like Mosoriot, Kabiyet, Ol’Lessos, Maraba, Kaptumo, Serem, Kobujoi in addition to the two main towns of Nandi Hills and Kapsabet. These are the main driving forces for business. One would expect that over time, some of these centres would grow into thematic centres with unique business characteristics, be it manufacturing in agro-industries, tourism, educational and so many others. Just as mentioned under agriculture, the new County Government will have to deliberately seek to bring to an end the exportation of raw materials from the county. To do this, we must take bold steps to explore and publish a county investment brochure, outlining investment potentials in agro-industries. Mainly we might wish to think of a maize miller at Mosoriot or anywhere in Mosoop. This would help our farmers move from selling maize in a gunny bag to selling maize flour in a sachet. Maize is more than food. Even where we cannot produce starch, biodiesel and other products like oil from it, we should be able to establish an in-house processing system which ensures the farmer gets value for maize and a guarantee for the market. We must explore avenues of investment, ranging from discussions with the bilateral friends that we can make (the Chinese helped a women’s group in the South Rift, I went to school in China, why can’t we explore this also!). The farmers can also be sold shares of an ambitious Kaburwo Millers or whatever we wish to call it. If farmers own it, and it is well-managed, there is not any reason to doubt its sustainability. Milk processors, fruit and vegetable processors, commercialisation of local tea packing and exploration of our own coffee miller are existing potentials with far-reaching impacts on our economy. As much as is practically possible, all produce must be processed within the county, and sold as finished products, so that the County residents will continue to enjoy stable price for their produce, employment for the youth is created and the Government gets the tax benefits. The government must be willing to enter into partnerships with foreign investors, with the county providing land and tax breaks if possible provided the employment opportunities are reserved for county residents. The Chinese have what they call Joint Venture Corporations, JVCs, as investment ventures between local governments and multinational corporations like Siemens and Nokia. We can domesticate that idea and utilise it to give ourselves an edge. Besides, where we have such an investor, we are almost guaranteed a market for our products back in their land of origin. It can be done. Nandi stands at such a vintage point from the Eldoret International Airport, can we monetise this to our benefit? Yes we can! The question that comes to mind is “what can Nandi do to be an investment choice”? We need to encourage investors by offering land incentives, tax breaks and other attractive packages which means we get 100% jobs for our County. With surplus money to spend, our people would then encourage more investment. A critical aspect in my opinion is the need to ensure that EVERY dime of the devolved funds is spent WITHIN Nandi County wherever possible. Support for our businesses has a multiplier effect, if we buy books from the bookshops in Nandi County (or ask them to bring the books we can’t get), our booksellers would have to expand. By expansion, more jobs are created. This too can happen with our hardware shops. The main motive behind devolution was the complaint that national resources were being dished out favourably. We wanted a share because we argued it was “tetaab Senge”, meaning everybody deserves a share. It won’t be fair for Nandi to act as a clearing conduit for resources which are designated for Nandi only to be spent outside the county at the expense of our businesspeople who pay taxes in Nandi and employ our people. This is not segregation. This is to ensure good value for money.

• Transport and communication

Infrastructure is the nerve of commerce, so the saying goes. Nandi can be the most fertile region in the whole world. Without access to the markets, farmers won’t be motivated to produce more and consumers would not spend their money on our products. To reach the markets we need functional roads. Nandi has that challenge. Mosoop in particular has just a rumour of tarmac road. Thankfully, the Mosoriot-Kabiyet-Chepterwai-Kapkatembu road, 66km in total, is slated for tarmacking at over KShs 2.4 billion. Yet that is just one out of the 273km of what we may call major roads that need maintenance and upgrading plus another network of 234km of minor roads which are not insignificant. I wish Nandi could get something like KShs 20 billion in one swoop, we could tarmac the Baraton-Kapsisiywa-Kebulonik-Kaiboi road, The Chepterit-Kapkagaon-Mulangu road, The Mutwoot-Lemook road, the Simaat-Kabiemit-Willever Academy-King’oroor-Teresia road et cetera. Since this cannot be done in one swoop, the county administration must put a firm end to the culture of year-in year-out repairs of the same roads. What is it that makes our rural access roads impassable yet we see some well-maintained roads with murram standing all the seasons. Is it a cash-cow? This has to be stopped. Yet the county has to make bold statements with investments in opening up the county. I realise that road construction can eat into devolved funds. We should explore other avenues. Get out of our comfort zones, and because the County CEO is empowered to borrow from bilateral donors, we could start there. That is why I envy other counties like Kiambu which are plied by Thika Road. Needless to say, while we shall begin to work on our roads network, those counties with modern bitumen grade roads will shift attention elsewhere. But this is the decision we have to make. Some roads will be constructed by government, some might be left to the county government and the local authorities while for others we have to reach out to partners beyond Kenya. Some of us are more than prepared to do this in our private capacities. However, we always encounter the question: who are you! The new County Government will have to actively seek to link to main towns Mainly Eldoret and those in Western and Nyanza provinces with good roads and the latest communication technology through various partnerships, but more importantly, the new County Government will look for ways to encourage Telecommunications companies to invest more in linking up the country through concessions and incentives. It is easier to promise modern roads, the delivery of those roads must be faced with boldness as we seek more funding in the form of roads levy, budgetary investment and other efforts aimed at ensuring that transportation within Nandi County is as safe and reliable as it possibly can be. Now tell me, what do we do with our transport system? Would Nandi dare invest in publicly managed busses plying the main market centres? Would we dare invest in busses that leave at timed intervals in order to enable for some discipline in the transport sector? We need debate.

• ICT

There are no more arap Busienei, arap Tuwei, arap Arusei. That was the advise of one Ng’eny from Emkwen when I spoke to a group in 2010. Yes. There are no bulls anymore. There is a shift into the bulls of information technology. Where a man boasted of the number of cows in his herd in the past, a young man with a laptop and knowledge in ICT and software engineering can basically buy off the farmer and his cows, turn the farm into an ICT centre and there we have a millionaire. The development of today and a good part of tomorrow remains IT and biotechnology. Nandi cannot be left behind in this. Our youth, with the right training, can be the open source software engineers that we see in the world. We have to invest in the establishment of connected centres, provide training and exposure to our talented youth and inspire, inspire and inspire; so that they may rise and stamp their authority and presence in the nation and beyond. A bold governmental intervention must be developed to ensure that this is achieved. The new County Government will have to immediately digitize and network all its services and records for maximum efficiency. The officials can be looped into mailing lists in order to ensure quick access to resources and officers. I look forward to a day when a permit applicant in Tapsagoi or Chepsaita to the extreme north, Kapkereer to the extreme South East Kapkuong in Chemase or Kamarero in Tindiret or Kabore to the extreme by Moi University can sit in front of his/her computer, fill in an application form, pay the fees by Mpesa and submit. One week later, the permit should be right there. This would save a lot of productive man-hours wasted on impassabled roads, ensure the applicant enjoys the comfort of an educated county taking advantage of connectivity plus the efficiency of service delivery would be greatly enhanced. We have to commit ourselves to eGovernment. Where one has no access to the internet, the government should consider setting up special sms access numbers like Kass FM’s 5552, through which inquiries can be made and answers promptly provided. It happens in Germany that every email written to an officer must be answered. Why not in Kenya? The people who would lead us must appreciate the value of time in service delivery. Connectivity is one way of solving that lag. The new County Government will also have to encourage ICT innovation through various incentives, such as encouraging the youth to come up with practical ICT solutions to daily challenges

• Youth and Women €mpowerment

I have deliberately chosen to replace the ‘E’ with the Euro sign ‘€’ in my writings in recognition of the need to pursue the economic growth over mere talk. Our politics ought to change from the “power politics” of today to the “politics of €mpowerment” in order to add value to our peoples’ lives. You probably hear people paying a lot of airtime to speak of youth and women €mpowerment. I chose to use the Euro sign, €, instead of the E for a reason). We have to stop paying lip service to the youth and women while in reality we consider them as activists and not fit enough to lead. Consider that where we have a male contestant for a seat that requires a deputy, it would be a slap in the face of women to have an all-male ticket. Watch out. There are line-ups already. If I ran for the post of Governor, I’d ensure that a lady is my deputy. Nandi has to move into affirmative action. To €mpower the youth, we have to share responsibilities with them. Anything else is merely an insult. If we really believe that women are a major voting bloc, let us stop treating them as AOB. I look forward to a day when our leadership will rise to say where we have a male Governor, we should have a female Senator. That is not asking for too much, is it? But then let me hasten to provide a caveat. Our youth and women must not sit pretty and expect those seats. They have to show that they are up to the tasks. Step out and show your mettle, demonstrate ability over sympathy and vie for office like anybody else. When you are honoured with a chance to serve our people, do it diligently and without any excuses. Yes the Bible says “Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.” The new County Government will have to involve the Youth and Women in all its key decision-making organs, to ensure that the input from the Youth and Women are incorporated into the activities of the new County Government. Again the youth must guard against grey-haired masqueraders who’d be juxtaposed in critical government positions while the under 35s are ignored. It is also important that the youth be part of the county government and demonstrate their ability to deliver. In addition, our youth must start NOW, rather than next year, to develop and establish themselves into business units so as to bid for the openings in the various service provisions that will arise in the county. The essence of devolution would be defeated if services and businesses were to be outsourced whereas our youth could be encouraged to bid competitively for those jobs and service provisions. No devolved funds must be spent outside of Nandi county unless those services are not available. We should instead encourage businesses to invest in Nandi, employ our workforce and hence help lower the menace of unemployment. To do this, a pro-business model should be adopted while the youth and professionals must arise and stake their claim to the openings that would arise. Yes we can!

• Tourism/Environment

According to the curator of Koitalel Museum Mr Francis Tallam Baroswa, Nandi County is blessed with 66 tourist spots that need development. These range from Chepki-iit Water Falls in Mulangu to the North, the footprint at Tabolwa, the Caves at Keben, the two Sheu points of Cheboiin/Kibalewo and Moropi/Kapsimotwa, the Sitatunga Antelope at King’waal Swamp, the bird sanctuaries and of course tea tourism. I’d propose that the first task for the new County Government would involve a negotiation with the Central Government to take over the management of Koitalel Museum. Once that is done, it would be important to attempt something I saw and spoke about in a region of Austrian Alps in which the story of the Iceman (5300 years old) is relived. Imagine a thematic village showcasing not only the Nandi culture of yore but with Kalenjin themes. From food, architecture, medicine, iron and blacksmith work to a film/documentary on the Nandi/Kalenjin lives and times. A village show-casing our everything for our children. Combine that with classes in Nandi/Kalenjin language for the holidays and you have a monetary strength to keep the story going. Think about a Kalenjin week in October to coincide with the Koitalel murder anniversary, how about a half-marathon at the end of the week in which all the Kalenjin people bid for the honours. That way we monetise our story, use it to cement our friendship and interaction and Nandi Kaburwo grows. The new County Government will work with practitioners and stakeholders in this vital sector to develop tourist facilities up to international standards, and to develop a tourist circuit and market it both nationally and internationally. The local residents will benefit through employment opportunities, the investors will get business income while the Government will earn tax revenue.

There are many other things that need to be done. There is an urgent need to conserve our wetlands at King’wal. With the Sitatunga antelope and the magnetic pull coming with it, Nandi must adopt a friendly deal with the environment. We ought to plan our urban centres, create parks with tree sheds and flowers, reclaim grabbed land which was meant for recreation and name our streets. Nandi County is blessed with a huge untapped tourist potential. The environment is not an enemy.

• Sports

Kipchoge Keino, Peter Rono, Henry Rono, Pamela Jelimo, Wilfred Bungei, Bernard Kipchirchir Lagat, et cetera were born in Nandi. The farmer of Kenya’s Steeplechase, the only event in which Kenya has never lost the chance to win an Olympic Gold, Amos Biwott is languishing at Mulangu. He was born in Nandi. The home of London Marathon conquerors Martin Lel and Emmanuel Mutai, the home of Boston Marathon winners Hussein Kipkemboi and Mwafrika Cheruiyot is Nandi. The shame of Nandi is the dilapidated stadium at Kapsabet. Over the last 40 years, Nandi County has produced countless world class athletes. The new County Government will have to seek to upgrade existing sports facilities to international standards, put in place sustainable talent scouting and development programmes in athletics, soccer, tennis and many other sports disciplines. Sports tourism will have to be launched to create business opportunities, employment opportunities and revenue opportunities. We have to adopt a strategy to reconstruct Kipchoge Keino Stadium through Government, donor and our own fund-raising means. I have proposed before that we should consider something like Nandi Sports Ltd, a limited liability company. Why don’t we sell shares to our people all the way to the village, to our athletes and the business(wo)men. With the money raised, we invest in constructing the stadium at Kapsabet. Make it modern with all the facilities. Let us have our own football team based at the stadium, may be one day it will be in the premier league. We lease out the stadium for functions, even political rallies. Nothing for free. Let us have gyms and the like.

We need to diversify into other sports. Tennis, Rugby, Archery (how can someone who grows up knowing how to shoot an arrow not win an Olympic Gold in the same sport?) and many others. We can deliberately have sports academies. It can be done. We have retired athletes who can help us spearhead this. With sports also comes a success story for which Ambassador Peter Rono is known: student athletes. That our athletes can beat the world in academics is not a figment of a fertile imagination. It can be done.

Link this to the recently introduced Kass Marathon which links Nandi County to Eldoret. With the marathon kicking off in the heart of Nandi, how do we monetise this? Would we invest in better lodging facilities, encourage our youth to make merchandise that can be sold and related spin-offs? Come on people, it is about business and advertisement for the existing and potential opportunities for Nandi County. There is potential for business for our sport can be both a tourist and business venture. There is an urgent need to honour our athletes. It is time for Nandi to have a Hall of Fame for our athletes. We must invest in this, even if it means setting up a museum of sports. The land that beget the world beaters cannot lack space to show-case the same conquerors. Let us do it Kaburwo.

• Health

Access to quality health in a county where there are about 8000 people for every qualified doctor is scary. Nandi County needs equipped hospitals and dispensaries, we need to reduce the number of people in illegal practise because they endanger lives. More investments in dispensaries are not enough. Our people must be encouraged to eat healthy cheap foods available in our very productive ecosystem. Prevention is better than cure. With the help of our partners, sons and daughters abroad and others, Nandi County needs to expand our two premier medical facilities at Nandi Hills. I look forward to a time when Nandi County would be a destination of choice for medical tourists, people who come to us instead of going to India. To do this, our county needs to invest in medical equipment, ensure ambulances are working and encourage the citizens to enrol themselves in the medical insurance schemes like HSSF. Kenya is losing a lot of money in our obsession with the dead. Every funeral includes fund-raising for medical bills. With proactive steps, like a health insurance, this burden can be taken away from family and friends and vested in an insurance scheme. The living need to go on with their lives. The new County Government will have to take stock of all health facilities, and work to ensure that health facilities are well equipped and resourced to cater for a majority of the needs of its residents. More Health centres will have to be put up, resourced and equipped in conjunction with the various stake holders. Specific emphasis should be put on primary health care, nutrition and maternal and child health care. One might wish to ask whether Nandi County should not have health facilities funded through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) like happens in Kericho with the Uniliver Central Hospital. In my opinion, there should be one such facility, or at least a reasonable investment by the tea industry in the hospitals to which they refer their sizeable workforce.

• Culture and language

Nandi County is the headquarters of the Nandi peoples’ culture and language. The county government has to answer the question: Do we teach vernacular where possible in lower primary schools? Do we make deliberate investments, jointly with other stakeholders and donors, in offering PhD scholarships in Nandi language/linguistics/anthropology? Many scholarship bodies, with the right concept paper, can support such a venture. We need to study and document Terik, Oki, Nandi and many other minority languages before they die off. It is hoped that more than what we see now can be done to mainstream our language. The Koitalel Museum could be a central focus for both the language and culture studies and this means it can also act as a reservoir of the same. Whether the county government would be willing to invest more resources should be left to a decision against the priorities. I look forward to a day that the Nandi Culture and language shall have a strong institutional presence in Nandi County. We should be more than willing to allow debates at our county meetings in both Nandi and English/Swahili with translations either way. This is important so that we are not perceived to discourage anybody merely because of communication barrier. The Europeans do it in their parliament.