From: Mugo Muchiri
Los Angeles, CA
Febuary 3, 2013

Q: Happy belated New Year, Bwana Mugo! I know we’re well into 2013 but tell us how you sum up the year 2012? What for you were some of its highlights?

Mugo: Asante sana and Happy New Year to you too. 2012 was a good but tough year. I’m sure the continuing challenging economy has made a more resilient lot of us Kenyans in the US. But the thankfulness has also been there, at least on my part, for the good things that we mustn’t take for granted: additions to the family, good health and meaningful work.

The icing on the cake has got to be my recent visit to Kenya which provided a rare opportunity to be with my Mom, brothers, sisters and in-laws, and to be introduced and fall in love with a whole bunch of hitherto unknown nephews and nieces. That, plus connecting with long-lost friends……..could you ask for a sweeter Christmas gift? I don’t think so.

Q: So how’s Mom doing? You always sign out as the son of Ndunge….so tell me how the mother of ‘the son of Ndunge’ is fairing?

Mugo: Asante for asking. Mom is doing reasonably well for an 81-year woman. She’s still her old jovial self. Her gait is obviously a tad bit slower. She occasionally has to use a walking stick, but in her eyes, you still see the joyfulness of life. It was a warm presence to be around with so many beautiful memories shared.

When you see your mother live (rather than through Skype), you feel like blessing all the mothers of the world. In your Mom, you see the center that nourishes everything around, that’s at the basis of all family relationships and values. So for two weeks, every day was a joyful ‘Mother’s Day.’

Q: So when was the last time you were in Kenya, if I may ask?

Mugo: Slightly over 24 years! I see your jaw dropping, bwana. This was the first time I went to visit Kenya since coming to the United States in August of 1988. It was a long absence.

Q: MUNGU WANGU! You mean you had chuchuma’d here for 24 years! I think you’ve set a record among Kenyans in the US. I thought Ngugi wa Thiong’o had the ‘gold’ but you’ve outdone even the Great African Bard!

Mugo: Well life is interesting, isn’t it? However, I only recently found out that our family friend from Miami, Bwana Paul….. well he’s at 27 years and still counting. So I’ll have to settle for ‘silver.’

Q: So how was Kenya, especially after all those years? You must have been overwhelmed by the changes.

Mugo: Overwhelmed yes. Actually I was floored. The changes are simply amazing. Nairobi is just teeming with people. So is Nakuru, Thika, Makutano and other places I visited. You feel this raw energy in the air. Kenyans are just everywhere. And they’re mostly young. I rarely saw wananchi with gray hair like me in the city center. Perhaps most had retreated to the countryside for the holidays. It was a sea of mostly under-30-somethings.

One of the things that impressed me was attire. This was especially true among the ladies. When I remarked this to my brother Kamande, he told me that Mitumba (second-hand clothing) had been a savior. To my eyes, there was minimal difference between dress codes here in US and back in Kenya. And perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising; most clothing is actually sourced from the US.

Q: Did you get a chance to travel around some. Were folks in rural areas equally presentable?

Mugo: Yes I did, and yes they were. Now two weeks is a very short time especially since most of the things I intended to accomplish needed my presence in Nairobi. Still I managed to go to Murang’a from where I hail. It was critical for me to visit some of the 2007-8 hotspots and this led me to Nakuru, Naivasha and Nandi Hills. And yes, everywhere I went, people including small children seemed to be well-fed. They were certainly decently clad.

Now 24 years ago, it was common in my hometown of Saba Saba to see kids with long shirts (no undergarments) with makamasi dripping from their noses, and flies mulling around their faces. In fact kids didn’t even bother to swipe at the flies. You don’t like washing dirty laundry in public, but this was the reality. Today, it’s a 360 degree turnaround: children are clean and well dressed. I didn’t see a soul without shoes. So this was gratifying. You saw before your very own eyes the benefits of cross-border trade. And I think this mustn’t be lost to Kenyans, especially during this electioneering season, where it’s common to hear isolationist hues and cries.

Q: So would you say that living standards have improved since you were last there?

Mugo: With respect to what my eyes saw, I’d say yes. But it’s a qualified ‘yes.’ Time didn’t allow me to go areas like Kibera, Mathare and Mukuru where the bulk of our population resides. Now take Kibera as an example. It’s one of the biggest slums in Africa. In fact, according to Ngugi, an in-law of mine who lives in Karen, there’s only a forest of about a mile – the time of a brisk 20-minute walk – that separates Kibera from Karen. So the sprawl is alive and well, and will increasingly put the squeeze on high-cost, up market areas. Standards of living cannot be gauged without taking this significant portion of Kenyans into consideration. That’s why you have to ringfence my answer.

Q: Tell me more about Nairobi. Has it physically grown? And what’s the state of traffic in and around Nairobi?

Mugo: I didn’t care much for Nairobi. Its livability index is very suspect in my eyes. The area encompassing the City Center is nothing short of hazardous to your health. The main reason for this is the pollution from the seemingly numberless matatus and City Hoppers that rule the roadways. They all run on diesel for the most part.

You remember how President Obama described the first-ever US debt downgrade as “a self-inflicted wound?” Well, the hike in sickness rates in the coming years will have been a self-inflicted wound in a similar vein. We’re just doing it to ourselves, we’re acting in a manner to precipitate higher asthma and cancer rates among Nairobi urbanites. The only entities to benefit will be Big Pharma and all who come under its umbrella. In my mind, the government really has to get going on regulating the matatu industry. Not tomorrow, but NOW. Otherwise a rapidly gathering health threat is sure to morph into a fully-fledged crisis.

Q: Haven’t they partly done it though? In our last encounter, we talked about the inauguration of the new Syokimau railway station by President Kibaki as a step in the right direction.

Mugo: This is true. I continue to laud the investment efforts of Kenya Railways. They’re well-reasoned and appropriate to the need. But when you’re actually on the ground, you’re confronted with the issue of immediacy, the urgency of speeding things up. Let me give you an example. I was staying at the Transcendental Meditation ™ center in Valley Arcade in Nairobi. One day, I decided to take the 30-minute walk to Hurlingham. I then hopped onto a matatu which proceeded to head to downtown Nairobi. My brother Ng’ang’a was waiting for me in his office.

Q: Yes, I recall Hurlingham being on the tonier side of Nairobi.

Mugo: It took me another 30 minutes of waiting at the Hurlingham terminal before I boarded the matatu. While waiting at the bus stop, matatus would come, slow down, then leave. Each vehicle would belch diesel fumes into our faces. You cannot avoid ingesting the poison. By the time I got to my brother’s office, I was actually ‘high’ on diesel. And I thought, ‘What about these folks who have to endure this every single day of their lives.’ A Maasai friend I met in Namanga told me that folks from his community enjoy almost perfect health until they go to Nairobi. Then all hell breaks loose on them.

Q: What about the physical aspect of Nairobi?

Mugo: This is definitely an economy on the march. If you asked me, we’ve stolen Uganda’s national symbol – the crane is now our ‘bird’ – and lately it’s been busy in the service of building, building, building. As a point of fact, cement manufacturers aren’t able to keep up with demand. I don’t understand where all this credit is coming from, but it’s flowing like booze at a sailor’s party. What we need to watch out for is planning. The planning function is weak. Towns I visited like Kitengela, Juja, Thika and Makutano (or Kenol) to pick a few all exhibited deplorable planning.

Unlike what we’re used to in the States, there’s a dearth of park areas, broad streets, walking pavements, biker lanes, etc. These are important elements that contribute to a more superior quality of living. The multi-use functionality that newer buildings in LA have incorporated is a lesson that needs to be imported. This way, lofts, studios and apartments on higher floors co-exist with the ground floor service functionality of restaurants, dry cleaners, salons and what have you. In Kenya, outside the higher cost areas like Westlands (very admirable developments), it’s a jungle. Planning is haphazard.

Q: But I don’t imagine the LA of today is the LA of, say, 100 years ago.

Mugo: This is true. But must we wait for such a long time to achieve parity? Let’s appeal to, reach out and grasp ‘best practices.’ The LAs of the world may have had to develop it by themselves. This was an awfully slow roast. The advantage for today’s younger economies is the wealth of knowledge that exists out there and the relative ease of securing cooperation across seas. New city design and planning in China continue to benefit significantly from infusions of American expertise and ingenuity. Remember, a stitch in time saves nine.

Q: Would you say that Kenya is the land of opportunity?

Mugo: There is no doubt that Kenya today is the land of opportunity. The amount of wealth generation is simply staggering. As Hillary Clinton said at her going-away speech at the State Department last week, 7 of the 10 most rapidly growing economies are in Africa. Return on invested capital in Kenya towers over their comparables here in the US. What I’m saying is that the Carnegie Mellons, the Rockerfellows, the Huntingtons of Kenya are being created as you read this. It’s a hugely exciting and inviting time for investments in Kenya, and by extension in Africa. This there can be no doubt about.

Q: Where specifically are opportunities rife?

Mugo: The most obvious is land. About 6 years ago, an 1/8 of an acre in Kitengela was going for KSh 350,000. Today, it easily fetches KSh 1.5 million. In the last 6-7 years, Kenya has seen an explosion in land prices. Populations are moving further out for more spacious, better quality living. Now future increases in land may not be as dramatic as what I’ve just described. Even so, I think land especially in farther-out areas like Kitengela, Konza, Utawala can be good holding investments.

Residential construction is another area that can provide home-run returns. The demand –especially in the lower cost market segment – continues to far outstrip supply. I visited several home and apartment developments, notably Bahati Ridge in Gatanga, the Chania development in Thika and so forth.

Bahati Ridge is pioneered by the Kibe family. The family patriach was a Permanent Secretary in the Water ministry many years ago. In any case, he’s hived off half of his 180-plus acre farm and is developing so very beautiful homes whose quality is nothing short of outstanding. The contractor is Epco Builders of Industrial Area. The development is definitely a thumbs-up and I’d invite readers to check out bahatiridge.co.ke. Despite the hefty prices, they’re going, going and going.

I hope that my next visit will allow me more time to scout investment opportunities that I can share with my fellow Kenyans in Diaspora. But take it from me, this is NOT a time to whine about trust issues. Just find a good partner and jump in there. Opportunities stare you in the face.

Q: OK Bwana Mugo, asante for your insights. It’s been a joy to share and tuonane next time.

Mugo: Poa. Tumesmake. GOOD LUCK PETER KENNETH, GOOD LUCK MARTHA KARUA!!!!!!!!!! AMKENI KENYANS, GOOD LEADERSHIP IS STARING YOU RIGHT IN THE FACE. RISHI