Joseph has his say I am stuck in a traffic jam in downtown Nairobi, and in desperate need of the new issue of The Economist of London. Joseph Googi shows up, not for the first time, and takes my 700 shlllings, returning 20 shillings in change. The Economist cover stories are about immigration into Europe, and the xenophobes of UK and the Netherlands. Most migration is internal rather than international. Joseph, whose people were farmers, has been vending his wares on the streets of Nairobi for 30 years, and he knows to pick out the blue Pajero on Monday mornings. How he has survived carbon monoxide over three decades is beyond me. He could have stayed on his half acre holdings in Central Province, like so many of his fellow Kikuyu, cultivating coffee and hoping that the price goes up (a forlorn hope this year, at least for the producers). His wife of 29 years lives up country with four of their six children. The eldest of the six, 25 years old, is a student at the technical university; the second is finishing her high school. Josephs daily earnings of 1000 shillings ($12) go up country, probably by SMS. One of the great successes of modern Kenya is the cheap, efficient money transfer system available to any mobile phone user. Safaricoms M-Pesa system, now over five years old, permits 15 million Kenyans to send and receive cash by phone without opening a bank account. It is the finest innovation since sliced bread. Googi lives a spartan life in the Nairobi slums, paying 3000 shillings, or about $40, for a one room place with water and bath outside. Like so many migrants, he lives frugally so that the next generation may prosper. I dont ask his politics. If he does not support Uhuru Kenyatta, he is one Kikuyu in a million. Politics here in Kenya runs along ethnic lines. Fortunatelly, we have nothing like that in the U.S.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 06:55:15 +0000
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