THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAIL

That indefatigable and patriotic son of Africa, President Julius Nyerere, is said to have admonished his countrymen by telling them not to waste their time visiting western centres of capitalism when they could do with a complete replica in Nairobi. I know not everybody agreed with the late Mwalimu's acerbic sense of humour but in a strange analogy, South Imenti in Meru, in my opinion, is a model political constituency which may rival some of the best in the west. Therefore, I would like to urge both President Kibaki and Premier Raila not to waste any more taxpayers money by sending out government officials to familiarize themselves on how implement the new constitution when a bus ride to Nkubu would do the trick. A bit of history will help us understand this constituency better. In the first independence elections, the people of South Imenti traveled 35 kilometers to Chogoria to ask Hon Bernard Mati, that maverick MP who could have easily become our president in a different era, to represent them in the Legislative Council (LEGICO). It's important to know that Hon Mati is from a different clan than those found in South Imenti and thus the people that time ignored our present pastime of clanilism/tribalism and instead went for the ideal so as to satisfy their common good. Thereafter, Hon mati was replaced by renowned politicians like Hon Kamunde, he who encouraged people to plant coffee, that thereafter helped in educating the present crop of leaders and intellectuals from the area and thus laid a solid rock for future development. Hon Kabeere M'Mbijjiwe helped establish the Mitunguu Irrigation Scheme which today forms the agricultural pillar of development in the constituency. Today, South Imenti is a leading banana producer in the country and every family is involved in one commercial agricultural activity or another. Although the area has only 20% of the Meru population, 50% of every student joining university from Meru is from South Imenti. Every family has access to potable drinking water, every person under 40 years has had secondary education and 95% of children join secondary school. I dare say that even before the UN mooted the Millennium Development Goals, South Imenti had fulfilled all the seven! The tragedy, however, is that this unique model of development hasn't rubbed-off to infect the five most backward constituencies in Meru. Perhaps this could be explained by the fact that the five MPs representing them may be suffering from denial, because when they regularly buy bananas at Ntharene for their families, most likely they are never candid enough to disclose that they "pinched" them from another man's shamba! Although the current MP of South Imenti is a towering political figure in Meru, it would be foolhardy to attribute the development in the area to him alone while forgetting the pioneers who against conventional wisdom brought in a "foreigner" who planted the seed of political goodwill which the people continue to enjoy today. In July 2009, when I told a senior provincial administrator in Tiania that I had helped found Tiania Trust to fight hunger and poverty in Tiania, he wondered loudly whether I could bank on any political goodwill from the local leaders. He said that with the current political leadership in Tiania, the area is likely to remain backward for a long time to come by likening the planting of the 1st banana plant in Tiania with the 1000th in South Imenti. How prophetic! Perhaps it's prudent for the people of Tiania to start planning how to import a "foreigner" in 2012 who is likely to accord them political goodwill to enable them realize that elusive development which is being enjoyed by their cousins only 25 Kilometers away!