It’s the public of course, which has implanted that idea in the minds of our leading politicians and their many advisers. The usual complaints heard from such members of the public tend towards “we need better roads” – or better schools or better health facilities.
Part of the reason for this infrastructure fetish is historical: during the 24 years of the Daniel Moi dictatorship (1978 to 2002) one of his most effective political gimmicks was to appoint a very pliant Minister for Works (as it was back then). He would then personally take charge of allocating the funds available to that ministry for roads, public buildings and just about any other capital expenditures which could be defined as “development”.
And he would only dole these out at a public meeting, at which – once the traditional dancers had finished their performances – local leaders pleaded with him to please look into improving this or that road; or “bringing electricity” to their small towns and villages.
This was tactically brilliant insofar as it established an official visit by the President as the prerequisite for any meaningful “development projects”. And MPs who had dared assail the Moi government’s corruption and nepotism – speaking under the cover of parliamentary immunity – could hardly hope to be granted such a visit.
This built-in capacity for imposing marginalisation which the presidency held for all those years came to an end, first with the creation of the Constituency Development Fund, and then even more with the 2010 Constitution’s establishment of county governments.
But even from the early years of the CDF, it was already clear that infrastructure only led to this much-sought-for development if it was part of a long-term plan for economic growth.
All across the country, there soon sprung up CDF-funded “clinics” which stood as empty shells, since the medical supplies and trained personnel required to make them operational them were never sent by the central government.
Also, in the rural parts of Central, back then overrun with criminal gangs, dozens of “police stations” were built using CDF money and subsequently remained empty. Not a single policeman reported on duty at any of these new stations.
However, this is not to say that infrastructure does not achieve much by way of generating economic growth. Rather it is just that it takes a while before such an investment in infrastructure bears fruit.
And that time gap between the building of that infrastructure and the emerging of the latent economic opportunities, is usually fatal to the hopes of any leader seeking reelection.
Consider the infrastructure project which I would argue was the most impactful in recent decades, when it comes to the creation of new economic opportunities. This is (back in 2009) what was proudly referred to as “Teams” – The East African Marine System cable – which provided Kenya’s first connection to the global undersea fibre optic cable system: the key to high-speed internet.
And unless I am missing something, this was the last time we had a wonderfully successful public-private-partnership anchor project, which worked as advertised.
This cable was the indispensable factor in the creation of an ICT ecosystem within Kenya which made possible the proliferation of ICT innovation hubs, and for Kenya to dream of being host to the “silicon savannah”.
What we have seen thus far may not have quite fulfilled our expectations, but still they have allowed young Kenyans to participate in the emerging opportunities which would otherwise have been beyond us.
So here is my question:
Suppose that the government of President Mwai Kibaki had managed to bring this fibre optic cable onto our shores just three years earlier (i.e. in 2006). This would surely have allowed President Kibaki to go into the 2007 general election with the boast that his government had placed us on par with South Africa in terms of the digital infrastructure, which was the key to future economic opportunities.
Now tell me this: would that have handed Kibaki a clear-cut victory against the emergent Raila Odinga political challenge?
The writer is a columnist
