It’s tough to find the truth in Newspapers these days, but right here Paul Mwangi serves a bowlful, just like I like mine – naked and bitter to swallow. Eat it Kenyans. “The reality is that gone are the days when we were the “island of peace” in an unpredictable and violent part of the world. Over time, the world around us has changed, but we are yet to wake up and smell the coffee. Ethiopia is no longer in civil war and is quickly becoming a better investment opportunity for manufacturers both due to the low price of its electricity and the size of its population, about 90 million people. It is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Tanzania is no longer socialist and is now the darling of America. Apart from its own vast mineral, oil and gas deposits, Tanzania is the new gateway to the DRC and is receiving mammoth investment from both China and America. China is building what is being called a “mega port” for Tanzania at Bagamoyo, which is more than 30 times the size of Mombasa, as part of a $10 billion investment package for Tanzania. When completed, it is bound to take away all central Africa business from Mombasa port, which will be left to serve only Kenya and Uganda. To underpin the importance of Tanzania to China, the Chinese President Xi Jinping travelled to Tanzania in March this year to personally deliver the deal. President Obama has recently visited the country and launched the “Power Africa” project, a $ 7 billion project to produce 10,000 MW of electricity to sub-Saharan Africa. Kenya was not part of the deal. In the meantime, our signature project, Lapsset, to connect Lamu to South Sudan is failing to attract investors and, in fact, a new deal is being negotiated by South Sudan and its northern neighbours to take the project upwards connecting the South Sudan to the Red Sea. The new deal is said to be better for South Sudan and there is a real danger that Lapsset may never see the light of day. Sudan is itself fighting to convince the southern nation that it should continue exporting its crude through the pipeline to Port Sudan. In the meantime, we are proceeding on the basis that the world cannot do without us. We even have the effrontery to demand that the whole world ignore the international law, yet the more we push, the more it appears that our principal interest is to continue with our renowned practice of perpetuating impunity. Let us stop comparing ourselves with other countries. The painful truth is that Kenya is not Syria. In the Middle East, Syria is the only foothold for China and Russia. The rest of the countries are either fundamentalist or pro-Western. In Africa, China and Russia are spoilt for even better choices. They will only go so far to help us out.” nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/As-Kenya-believes-its-own-hype-the-world-looks-away-/-/440808/2078250/-/56ca2q/-/index.html
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 04:40:02 +0000
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