Clean, safe streets spur tourism

 

Kenya is one of those beautiful countries whose citizens can decide to put their feet up and watch its tourism industry pour billions of shillings into their purses. But instead of doing tourism marketing the easy way, we always choose the hardest way possible. 

It is fine to rely on tourism ambassadors but it may not be the pill the industry needs. Viral retweets and influencers on Instagram have no patch on the humble broom that could do better marketing.

Like many Kenyans, I followed the hullabaloo surrounding the appointment of British supermodel Naomi Campbell as the country’s international tourism ambassador. I am flabbergasted by it all. We cannot want her money and investment but treat her as a foreigner when she is willing to revive our declining fortunes.

Anyhow, Naomi has a wealthy fan base that she can send our way as tourists and we can only be grateful. However, I believe her profile pales in comparison to the stature Kenyan tourism has globally. But we destroy it time and again by failing to develop and protect core things that can boost the industry — which we fail with our violent electioneering, insecurity, corruption, poor roads, lack of clean water, poor pay for workers, sick healthcare and, above all, dirty insecure cities and towns.

Turned into a fanfare

I read last week that the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) will set aside a day every month to clean the city. Nairobi City County had a similar scheme too. 

These city clean-ups are often turned into such a huge fanfare that even President Uhuru Kenyatta has graced. He has been photographed on the red carpet in the midst of a rubbish mound to commission the monthly clean-up, flanked by city leaders. As soon as he leaves, the exercise is forgotten and rubbish piles up again. But we should not cleanup for the President’s eyes or other leaders’ political mileage.

Fast-forward to 2021: The city is still full of garbage and now NMS, and not City Hall, is seeking the help of residents to clean the city. And I am troubled by this. 

Both the county and NMS (as the de facto city regime) have a duty to the residents to keep the streets clean. They collect taxes, which ought to go into service delivery. To ask residents to pay taxes and then demand of them to do the job is fraudulent.

The status of Nairobi as a global city requires both NMS and county officials to have all hands on the deck to ensure it is clean and safe; first, for its residents and, crucially, for visitors, who include tourists and ex-pat communities drawn from many international organisations and businesses headquartered in the country.

Nairobi needs to be globally competitive. Kenya ought to harness the opportunities that come its way and through tourism to open up the city and the country to investment. Investors hate disorder, which we unashamedly seem to embrace.

Garbage collection

NMS and city county officials must remember that cleanliness is a daily routine, not a monthly one. Some global cities work round the clock to keep their streets clean so as to make it fun, liveable, safe and attractive places to invest in. Diseases and investors do not have time to hang around. It is a miracle that we have not had an epidemic due to rotting garbage. And it is no surprise that investors are wary of Nairobi due to its chaotic management style.

NMS has done well in reclaiming the green spaces for the residents of Nairobi. It can now go one better and make street clean-up its next goal. With many Kenyans unemployed, it can find enough people to do the job and create job opportunities. 

Garbage collection is a basis for good public health. It should not be a footnote but a major department that oversees the cleanliness and the wellbeing of city residents. A clean and beautiful environment is good for mental and physical health, so say the experts.

It was lovely to see families turn up and enjoy themselves at the refurbished Uhuru Park during the festive season. Who knows how much more joy could be unlocked in clean and orderly streets?

Most of our church-going leaders have, perhaps, been reading the Bible upside-down. If they read it the right way, they would learn that cleanliness is next to godliness. Yes, we are craving for tourists and lining up tourism ambassadors, but the magnet lies in the simplicity of the acts of cleaning streets and improved security.

NMS and all counties need to remember that it is their duty to keep public spaces clean. It is time they became serious about unclogging our towns and cities of garbage for better public health and aesthetics in order to grow the economy.

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I recently received a request I could not ignore from a concerned Kenyan to write about Jua Kali traders around Kariokor cemetery and Gikomba. 

He says they are desperate for toilets, sheds and clean drinking water. Over to you NMS and Nairobi City County.