corruption and campaigning

This is a picture (if you zoom really close to the right side of the picture) of a herd of zebra we passed on my latest bus ride. Damn digital camera's have a 10 sec delay, but I swear they are there somewhere...

But the roads are baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad. Actually I dont mind them, but lots of people do. The Ministry of Public Works are who control the road money and for one reason or another those funds are the easiest to take and allocate according to politics. For example the whole of Kisumu got 30 million Kenyan shillings for roads (and its the 3rd largest city here), while Lamu (a tiny island with one road and only one car) got the second highest award of money for roads, something like 600 million. That's because Kisumu is the Luo tribe base, and that is the tribe/party that is in opposition to the current party system so that is why they are purposely marginalized and neglected. This of course leads to regionalism and tribalism, which hinders the development of the whole country. If the Luos get in power you can be sure they will seek political revenge on the current party and its associated tribe (Kikuyu).

Some of these roads haven't been rebuilt since before independence, which is why avoiding potholes is a serious art here, which if done improperly can result is serious car damage.

Just check out my bouncy picture.



I went for another trip to Kisumu this week, this time for work although I stayed at the Kisumu house some of the time. I went to interview two different MPs (Members of Parliment), which ended up being very interesting since this is nearing campaign time. One of the reasons they were so helpful is that having a video camera following you makes you look like you are doing important things... but I guess it was Win-Win in the end since I got a lot from it too.