Audio By Vocalize
Now and then, I am reminded of the offensively ugly statues erected on the eve of Eldoret City’s inauguration. Eventually, county leaders felt embarrassed enough to remove them. As far as I know, there are no plans to erect well-designed monuments in the city.
The Eldoret example distills the general ugliness of public spaces in Kenya. Too often, our public works reveal a complete lack of attention to aesthetics and durability.
Some readers will recall Nairobi’s ugly wildlife statues at roundabouts and the monstrosity that is the Tom Mboya monument near the National Archives. This is a national problem with real consequences for our people.
It results in roads getting built with lanes that end abruptly, or with power poles or flyover pillars right in the middle of lanes. Sidewalks are considered a luxury, even in places where the majority of people commute on foot. Running water, toilets, and waste disposal are afterthoughts, even in schools and hospitals.
Unmitigated ugliness reigns. These concerns are not just idle ruminations of an entitled middle class. When we do not pay attention to the quality of the things we build, it results in shoddy work. Public works are part of our collective material culture. The types of roads, civic buildings, schools, and hospitals we build reveal what we think of ourselves as a people.
By not caring about aesthetics, safety, comfort, and durability, we cannot build anything to last. For example, allegedly, new roads develop potholes within weeks. Safety is seldom a concern. And in the end, we pay with the lives of our people and even more cash for repairs (often we just ignore potholes until they become hazards of their own).
Notice that the failure to pay attention to design, durability, safety, and aesthetics is not a matter of corruption. There are lots of corrupt jurisdictions around the world that nonetheless build durable and beautiful public infrastructure. Ours appears to be a basic problem of lack of self-respect and a sense of history.
Those in charge of public works do not believe we deserve nice things. Not caring much about the past, they have no tacit desire to build for the future. Their primary concern tends to be what they can eat in the moment. It is as simple as that.
Finally, some may argue that the offensive ugliness of our public infrastructure and inattention to aesthetics merely reflect our level of income. After all, we are still a poor country with a per capita income of less than Sh300,000.
That is horse manure, for two reasons. First, poverty is not incompatible with having a sense of history, an appreciation of beauty, and a desire to build for posterity. We can build beautiful and durable things that demonstrate that we respect ourselves, even at our current level of income.
Second, the sums involved in many of these projects are huge. We have the money. We just do not care to do good work. And the individuals involved are not incentivised to want to be proud of the work they have done.
Chief architects and engineers sneak around in the shadows because they cannot be proud of the work they do. Thoughtless theft and eating in the moment dominate. And the rest of us get to pay not only through our taxes, but also by having to use unsafe and offensively ugly infrastructure.
-The writer is a professor at Georgetown University
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By Ken Opalo