Wi-Fi Slums

The crowd gathered in an open space within Mathare valley in a little corner of the slum known as Shantit. The crowd comprised of corporate company officials, top government officials, top personalities in the I.T industry, slum residents and slum geeks as well. It was another day of triumph for the slum I.T nerds who had done it again. They were all gathered to officially launch another highly successful software. A software that had been thought up, developed and brought to a level of innovative excellence within the walls of the slum. This was not the first successful software or mobile app to come from this slum and other slums like Kibera. What where once the breeding ground for thugs, prostitutes and drug addicts were now I.T. labs churning one ingenious innovation after another. 

This transformation did not come about overnight or magically appeared. It was the result of a deliberate journey started over a decade ago when these I.T nerds we were celebrating today were just toddlers. This gurus were brought up in the information boom that rocked urban slums in Nairobi a decade or so ago. They were brought up in what was then known as Wi-Fi slums. Wi-Fi slums meant something different to different people. It was a campaign tool for politicians, a corporate social responsibility initiative for corporate companies/private sector, fertile grounds for innovation to I.T. firms, community development to the civil society, national development and prosperity in a digital fashion to the government of the day and lastly to the slum dwellers, this was simply free internet.

When the idea of Wi-Fi slums was first floated, it coincided with a time of extreme optimism in the country. Therefore we would all be forgiven to have imagined that Wi-Fi slums would mean that all the slums in their geographical entirety would be free Wi-Fi hotspot offering free internet to everyone within the slums environs. Frankly speaking this project was delayed for sometime as many championed for every inch within the slum environ to be covered by free Wi-Fi. Of course this was after the initial resistance to the whole project by skeptics who believed that what slum dwellers needed was food, shelter and basic services as opposed to free internet. Nonetheless a time had come for the globalization of the urban poor so to speak, and where else better to start than from the utmost bottom of the social strata, slums.

Many wanted the whole project to be halted for years so that we could strategize on the shape and form that it would take on the ground. What the free internet would be used for and package its utility to the slum dwellers. Some would say that without proper planning, the youths would only use it for ‘facebooking’ and other mundane indulgence. The rest argued that there was no master plan on the use of the internet when it was first invented. That the use and application of the internet took a life of its own and no one had foreseen its present usage. So the best thing was not to figure out everything before we set out but allow the community to mould itself within this new opportunity. 

Surprisingly the biggest opposition, which was at a closer look only ignorant opposition to progress, was from the so called elite in our society. Their concern was that free internet would only magnify social ills within the slum. That the evil that is imagined to take place in slums would now permeate into their ‘safe’ communities through the virtual world. That social decadence prevalent in the dark corners of the internet would now be readily available to be propagated by this new entry of previously marginalized community. This type of victimization, stereotyping and attempt to classify the entire poverty stricken community as one homogeneous heap of social decadence was silenced by the realization and acceptance that morality and strength of character is not pegged on the socio-economic affluence of an individual. 

Wi-Fi slums did become a reality, a first in Africa and around the world. But in the beginning it was not at the large scale level that the most optimist among us would have wanted. Not every inch of the slum was covered by free Wi-Fi. In the first phase of the project free Wi-Fi would be found in and around government compounds such as the chiefs camp, all community schools within the slums (from primary to tertiary schools) both government sponsored and non-government sponsored, youth and women self help groups project locations, all community based organization offices within the slum, some of the church and mosque compounds within the slums, assorted community projects locations and last but not least all major ‘base za mtaa’.   

Contrary to the belief that it would be impossible to quantify the impact of Wi-Fi slums at least in the short term, a lot could be said about the impact of this new found information power. The information flow was not only from the world to the slums but also from the slum to the world. While the children born in this new information age were being nurtured in this digital movement, those of age (the youth) found themselves thrust into new found freedom and power. Freedom to access information relevant to their situation at the touch of a button and power to tell their story to the world. Now they could not only Google or YouTube best practices to tackle their most pressing challenges but could also Facebook, tweet and blog their victories and defeats alike to the world. 

Slums were no longer black spots of information where little was known of the happenings within them to the outsiders and even less information would trickle down to them. Now with the influx of the poor slum dwellers into the social media spheres, it was now impossible to ignore the voices of this multitude proponent of our society. Now with networks that joined them together on the virtual world amongst themselves, it was now far much easier for slum dwellers to rally behind a single purpose or objective as a constituency. It was the end of the road for those who preyed on them through misinformation or because they were uninformed. Now they could not be ignored but actually influenced socio-economic agendas of which they were only spectators to in the previous information regime. 

So here we were at the launch of yet another mind blowing software application made in one of the urban slums in Nairobi, Kenya. This was the culmination of hundreds of software apps that were created in our silicon/slum valley. At first the creations that were produced were meant to be small scale in their usage as they targeted different socio-economic challenges that were unique to our urban slums. But as natural progression or evolution of ideas would have it, many an entrepreneurs had taken up these little known apps and applied them on an industrial scale targeting greater geographical areas and population. Just as Facebook was first meant to just target university students and later became a global phenomenal. This was the same script of progress that many of these apps created in the slums played. 

These Wi-Fi slums had opened up the slums for business. Job creation in the ICT sector shot up to the delight of the government. I.T hardware firms touched base in the slums with donations of laptops and other electronic devices. This was yet another successful government and private sector partnership, an initiative between government and telecommunication companies. What started out as Wi-Fi hotspots in airports, cafes, schools, offices was later localized the Kenyan way first as free Wi-Fi in Matatus and now free Wi-Fi in Slums. There was already a vibrant community development sector in the slums and free internet only served to strengthen their development strategy and processes, only this time on an extraordinary level. What an exciting time we live in.  

End of Cattle Rustling by 2030

The year is 2030 and I am on my way to visit an old man on the shores of Lake Baringo. I am a junior journalist with a leading county newspaper. I am writing a piece on the last traditional cattle tracker. In the height of his carrier, he was in high demand and was used by both anti-stock theft police and villagers in tracking down herds of cattle that had been stolen by cattle rustlers. His was a dead profession, a victim of technological advances but a firsthand witness to the dramatic end of cattle rustling in Kenya. 

He is not bitter as I come to find out; at the vanishing of a traditional profession that had been passed down from generation to generation. His father had been a renowned tracker and he had passed on his expertise to him. However as the passage of time would have it, his skills became obsolete. Unbeknown to him, his profession and way of doing things had been a source of embarrassment to the government for some time. The government at the time had been found wanting in its fight against cattle rustling. That in the 21^st century, in the age of digital innovations, it still relied on analogue traditional ways. That in the age of GPS tracking systems, it still relied on traditional trackers who analyzed foot prints and broken grass blades to track stolen cattle. 

Cattle rustling was one of the most violent runaway crimes carried over from pre-colonial times. When a community would invade another community and carry away their women and cattle. Though human beings were no longer stolen and carried away into neighboring communities, it was still a bloody practice. They no longer carried away human being but rather slaughtered them mercilessly. Women and children would be sprayed with bullets; pregnant women stomachs ripped open and their cattle, their source of wealth carried away. These marauding gangs had the audacity at one time to ambush and kill hundreds of policemen who had tracked them down. 

The government was desperate to put an end to this barbaric practice once and for all. Many ideas were floated and it seemed the government was ready to try just about anything to put an end to cattle rustling. One of the popular ideas was to purchase tens of helicopters to respond whenever there was an invasion by cattle rustlers. Though this idea appealed to the public in respect to its portrayal of commitment, it failed by a long short in its practical applicability and long-term sustainability. What was needed was an innovative approach that utilized relevant and available technologies. The use of apparatus that would be low on cost, low on human resource and lean enough in its operational demands that county governments could easily manage with little support from the central government. 

So instead of purchasing tens of helicopters, the counties that were victims of cattle rustling would share only two attack helicopters and two teams of special Para military squads of twelve members each. The rest of the money that was meant to purchase helicopters was used to purchase GPS tracking systems. And a fraction of the recurrent expenditure that would have been incurred fueling the helicopters was used to keep an operational GPS tracking network. 

The GPS chips were no bigger than a finger nail and would be injected on the horns, hoofs or beneath the hide of the cattle. At first they were placed on one out of say 10 cattle. Since what was needed was to track one of the cows in the herd to find the rest. Later the chips were so readily available that each cow had one. In the beginning this chips were provided by the government but later on they could be bought at veterinary shops like other agricultural products. In addition to the GPS chips, the government provided community police reservists and area chiefs with satellite phones. So that in the initial phase there was a satellite phone for every 10km radius and later this came down to 1km radius. This allowed for swift reporting in case of an incursion by cattle rustlers. Once the response center received a report, they would isolate the cattle from that particular village on their GPS network and identify their exact position and movement. This would be communicated to the rapid response team of Para troopers who would ambush and eliminate the attackers using their attack helicopters and heavy artillery. With the element of surprise on their side, their recovery record stood at 100% from the day the GPS program was launched. 

During the feasibility study of the GPS program it was argued that if the west could plant GPS chips on their pets, cats, dogs and humans alike how much less on cattle. If a hundred cattle were stolen and just one had a GPS tracking chip it could lead to the recovery of the whole herd. It was also argued that if even one satellite phone existed even in a radius of 30km, any attack would be reported within the hour. And if there existed even one attack helicopter, the response team of Special Forces would be on the heels of the attackers within the same hour. It came to pass that there were only five or so attacks after the GPS program was implemented, of which all the cattle were recovered and cattle rustlers finally gave up on these hopeless missions.  

Once it was possible to inject every cow, camel, goat and sheep with a GPS tracking chip, a tagging system was introduced. This tagging system would allow each chip to be uploaded with full information on the cattle; its owner, geographical area of origin to the village, types of vaccines and medical history. All this information would be available and in fact was demanded by all abattoirs before an animal was accepted for slaughter. This system of tagging had long been used in the flower and horticulture industry. It was illegal to buy or sell cattle without authenticating the GPS and information chips. It was also impossible to transport any cow, goat or sheep on the Kenyan roads since police inspection involved accessing information on these chips. This was a case of traditional way of life being overtaken by the advent of technology and eliminating a bloody practice on its wake. 

I learned from the traditional trackers that in some communities, cattle’s rustling was considered a form of initiation into adulthood. That one could not be considered a fully fledged man if he had not participated in a raid and even killed a member of the opposing community. They would scar themselves for every raid or kill that they had participated in. So for a while after the implementation of the GPS program these communities had toyed with the idea of having their youth invade their neighboring communities not to shed blood or steal cattle but to steal special paraphernalia that would be hang on trees deep inside their opposing community villages. This was to be regarded same as stealing cattle. However this practice did not take root as cattle rustling had long lost its cultural value but had been turned into a criminal venture for financial gain.

Kenya Railway System in 2030

The year is 2030, and sitting on the train from Mutindwa in Buru Buru to the city center with my friend from the US. I couldn’t help but smile in pride as I watched my awe struck friend admire our Nairobi train service. Having left the country some 15 years ago, he felt like the plane dropped him off in South Africa rather than Kenya.

When he left Kenya, Outer Ring Road was a typical two lane tarmac road, now it was a four lane highway on each side. He smiled as he cruised through Thika Super Highway to Outer Ring Highway and then branching off at Mutindwa to take another  train ride in the new Nairobi Metro Service.

As we parked in the train station car park I stopped my friend from reaching out for his wallet to pay for the tickets and removed my metro card. We intended to take the train to City Stadium and then take a city bus to the middle of the city center. It was possible for a while now to use the metro card for train and bus rides in the city of Nairobi. 

In say the year 2014 when half the transport industry in Kenya was dominated by Matatus, there was a lot of doubt about where the train service project was headed to. The new political administration had promised to deliver such a project, the physical plans and architectural designs had been public knowledge for some time now. But in the eyes of the public, only witnessing an operational train service seemed to be the only thing that could quench their pessimism. Now there were just as many train routes as there were matatus if not more. The same integrated transport system had been replicated in all major cities in Kenya such Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, Nakuru, Garissa and towns such as Nyeri, Siaya and Turkana. 

It is remembered that the first modern train station was launched by the third president some 15 years ago. He set the bar so to speak for successive president. So much so, that the 4th president ran for election on the platform of modernizing our train transport. He was quick to show his commitment to this dream of many but as it is in all democratic societies, reaching a by partisan approach to even such an important project was no walk in the park. The event to launch the architectural design of the entire train network in Nairobi was met with mixed reaction. There was rebuke and ridicule for what many saw as an event of little significance compared to the magnitude of the overall undertaking. It seemed that with a history of ghost projects, the people wanted to board real train and not stand to look at train models on a table.

However critics were proved wrong when the 4th president and his deputy launched simultaneous maiden train rides, one from Nairobi to Malaba through Kisumu and the other one from Nairobi to Mombasa. The president took the train from Nairobi to Mombasa and his Deputy took the train to Malaba. Within 3 hours both trains had reached their destination and the president was giving a speech in Mombasa as the deputy president was doing the same in Kisumu.  However the hallmark of the launch was when the deputy called the president on his cell to announce his arrival and both chatted away on speaker phone in the full glare of the media. 

Back to my friend, before this train ride from Mutindwa, he had already taken the train from where there used to be a roundabout dissecting Outer Ring and Juja road to city center and onwards to Kawangware. This ride on Juja Road was particularly memorable because the train tracks runs in the middle of the road with vehicular traffic going on different directions on each side of the train track. The tracks had elevated stations on both sides of the road allowing for traffic to move underneath. Before going back to the Diaspora he also planned to sample the Mombasa train network say from the city center to Bamburi. 

From what he saw, the train transport culture had really taken root and adopted a uniquely Kenyan face. For example in the majority of train routes, the last train wagon was reserved for the youth. The interior were filled with graffiti generated by art clubs. Loud music was acceptable and train routes from say Eastland’s estates had really loud music and special conductors to keep the highly charged youths in check. Some of this youth wagons or digital wagons as they are commonly known since they came with free wifi would be used by music bands and artists to show case their talents onboard the trains. Several theater groups, music bands and solo artists had made their name on this trains and even had some of the wagons known by their names. 

In Nairobi everyone had a metro card for the trains within Nairobi. For those without a card for whatever reason one could book and purchase a train ticket online and pay via mobile money or simply at the train station as you wait for your train. The train conductor only verifies tickets and metro cards but never receives any money. If found on the train without a ticket then you are liable for arrest. The metro card could of course be bought at major retail outlets like super market petrol stations or mobile money agents. The metro cards could be topped up though mobile money, ATMs, super market tillers, station ticketing agents etc. The metro cards are universal and could be used in all transport services including buses, matatus and boda boda. 

The Diaspora guy browsed through his phone and was mesmerized with the railway service website. One could find a complete time table on all the routes; you could buy a ticket online and get a verification sms on your phone. Tips on the shortest route to your destination to save money and time if you needed to board multiple trains to reach your destination. Reserve wagons for special occasions. One could also sign up for notifications on delays on their favorite routes.  

My friend smiled at the progress made, he nodded and strained to hear the loud music coming from the last wagon reserved for teenagers and those wishing to remember the old times of music matatus.

The County Council of Nairobi in 2030

As I wait in a queue outside the cashiers office at city hall. There is some murmuring going on among the patrons at the front of the queue. The murmuring goes a notch higher as everyone realizes that we must use cash to pay for the different services provided by the council. There is a big commotion as those already in the cashiers office refuse to give cash and demand to use the cashless system. 

It is 2030 and it’s been 15 years or so since the introduction of cashless transactions with the city council and all other government institutions. Payment for services, licenses, fines and all transactions are now done through cash cards, similar to those used to pay for transportation in our matatus, pay supermarket bills etc. This system of payment was introduced to curb runaway corruption, document transactions and in the case of matatus for national security reasons. 

Some 20 years ago the situation at city hall was anything but rosy. It was crazy to say the least. At one time no revenue was collected by the city for close to 3 months. Yes the city hall financial statement for three months read nil. Money was collected from the usual places but none was remitted to city hall. Or it was remitted but there was no record of it. It was normal for many years for 30 to 40% of city hall revenues to disappear between the collection point and the city hall bank account. For many years this was considered normal and little was done to address this spill out of public funds. So when entire records disappeared for revenue collected in three months, this was considered the last straw. Many were charged with misappropriation of funds and forgery but not surprising the money was never recovered. After the mass sacking of the entire financial department, major reforms were introduced that laid the foundation for the city hall that we are proud of today.  

Surprisingly at the top of the list of the public disaffection with city hall was not with revenue collection but with the rogue city askaris. To the public these were gangsters in the name of city askaris who ruled the streets of Nairobi with the blessing of city hall. Much dreaded than even gun totting police officers were this group of shabby dressed, club wielding and handcuff swinging hoodlums. With powers to arrest, brutally assault Kenyans and detain them at city hall. The city askaris were hated and loathed by all. Kenyans preferred to be arrested by the police rather than the city askaris. 

As it were there were numerous documented cases of city askaris menace and their evil was well known. In one sad case the council askaris arrested a young couple on their way to a church night vigil. The man was mercilessly beaten and unbeknown to the askaris all this from the moment of wrongful arrest, extortion of a bribe and subsequent beating were all captured on camera. Inside their infamous pickup van the lady was sexually molested by both the city askaris and street men. When pictures of what transpired were aired on TV and newspapers the country was enraged. Though the city askaris were arrested and charged in a court of law, in the streets of Nairobi their fellow askaris continued wrecking havoc unabated.    

The city askaris were just the human face of the decay at city hall. From anywhere you stood all that could be seen was the insurmountable mess both human and administrative. It was an accepted fact that city hall no longer cleaned or collected garbage from city estates. Estate roads and lighting were all non-existent, council houses had gone for half a century without any repairs and services offered by city hall were nonexistent. City hall had been reduced to a building that the public patronized to renew their business licenses. In the same light of decadence, the licenses offered by city hall were valid or not valid depending on the interpretation of city askaris doing impromptu inspection of businesses. If they decided that your license was not valid, either because you looked gullible or they were just too broke to let you go scot free. You definitely had to part with some cash. 

High on the agenda of the reform commission as per the demands of the Kenyan people was the stripping of city council of all cash transactions. This was meant to curb the greed for money that had crippled all other considerations for service delivery to the common mwananchi. It was also crucial in keeping records of all transactions and for the first month after its implementation, documented and accountable revenue of city hall shot up by 800%. Not even the city hall workers had any idea just how much money was siphoned out of the council. This was until the publication of the cashless transaction accounts and everyone was stupefied by just how much public funds had been going missing from the coffers.   

So all renewal of business licenses, parking fees, land rates and all other form of payments made to city hall were now done through a cash card. These cards could be bought at any supermarket, neighborhood duka or even from a money transfer agent. Depending on the amount one would like to top up, one could do it at the bank, a money transfer agent, supermarket, petrol station, local duka etc. This cash cards could further be used for other personal transactions like buying milk at your local duka, paying for transport on a matatu, buying petrol at a station, shopping in supermarkets and all major retail outlets. 

The infamous city askaris pick up vans were quickly phased out and replaced by saloon cars. City askaris were no longer allowed to arrest anybody. If found to be in violation of any city by-laws one was handed a ticket and booked in the system and asked to pay the fine within a certain period of time. Failure to do that one would be liable for arrest at any government office or if booked again for an offence. Kenyans new bio-metric id allowed for the storage of information on an individual, different level of personal information could be accessed by different entities. For Example your financial status could be accessed by a bank, your medical history by a doctor, city bylaw violation by city askaris or criminal history or any outstanding arrest warrant by the police. A banker could not access your criminal history or a policeman on the streets access your financial status. Only what was relevant to the requisite authority could be accessed by that official. 

Further reforms by the city council were the online data base of all their employees that could be accessed by the public. All employees received biometric employment cards that allowed them access to city hall offices. A member of the public could take the employment number of city council official and enter it on the council website and the said member of public would get information on the said employee. Information such as their picture, duties, area of focus and their supervisors name and contact. For those without internet access this could be done on their mobile phones by using a USSD code format. So no longer could a parking attendant fleece you for paying land rate, or a council askari purporting to represent the business licensing department. This did away with ghost workers completely. 

Back to the queue at city hall in 2030 the situation was not getting any better. Members of the public could not be convinced that the automated billing and payment system was down and under repair. The public argued that if that was the case then the cashiers office should be closed until the system was up and running. They argued how one would tell what amount of money was paid on that day if the only record would be paper receipts that could be forged or even destroyed. Try to argue on the part of the council that they used to do the same during the analogue days did not go very well with the public. What started as a small dispute on the manner of payment had in a short while attracted the attention of the media as well as county assembly representatives. 

Calls were made to the governor to avail himself and provide a way forward. But before his arrival the automated paying system were back online and the public could pay for services as they were used to. Whether the system malfunction was the work of insiders or normal breakdown was not immediately established. However systematic diagnostic checks were ordered and the results would be out in the next 24 hours. With the fraud investigative arm of the anti corruption unit fully functioning even at the level of forensic audit. I have no doubt that the real cause of the system break down would be known and made public. Personally I don’t believe that this shut down was deliberate, as i truly believe that Kenya and Kenyans had moved on from its mad city hall ways.