One of the more insidious, yet invisible, things in Kenya is how we have lost our public spaces. And not just in the sense that few of our urban areas are green and available to citizens and residents (although that's a big problem, and a growing one).
No, the bigger problem is that now Kenyans are living their lives in self-contained bubbles, and these bubbles are designed never to intersect. Maybe I'm being unrealistically nostalgic, but not too long ago (in Nairobi at least) everyone lived in the estate (the high-end 'ordinary' estates being the likes of Buru Buru, Ngummo and PlainsView in South 'B') and worked in town. Children from most families, except the very wealthiest, attended public primary and secondary schools, or relatively accessible private ones (think the likes of present-day Makini).
Nowadays, however, people live in small blocks of flats, gated apartments or small clusters of townhouses. Children will be lucky if they can find even five of their age group, with whom to form friendships. People will travel between these, by private car, to suburban office parks. Shopping, including grocery shopping, is done in shopping malls whose design, decor and security measures are designed to keep out those from the wrong end of the income scale. School, needless to remind you, is now private, and many even opt out of the Kenyan system in its entirety, choosing to have their children go through a foreign system.
Even something as simple as the media has been overtaken by money and technology. Where many could relate with each other through the goings-on of a television or news programme from last night, many now subscribe to pay television, or consume most of their entertainment on the internet. There is no national public square any more.
Many say that that is the cost of progress, but I think that may be a price too high to pay. If we don't have shared experiences, shared (physical) spaces and shared memories, then the nation we're trying to build is a sham.
Very precise!!! Absolutely true! We really have lost what comes with public spaces. I grew up in the village, we watched movies when the file truck cane to town and spent days in groups ruminating thodera films. I remember the towns had social halls, where people of all ages converged and just, socialised. Very insightful piece!
ReplyDeleteQuite* Precise. Kindly don't dissect my grammar on that one. 😊
ReplyDeleteVery correct
DeleteSad stated of growing up these days. I look at the freedom I had as a kid to move around and socialize with neighbours in public space, but that is all gone now.
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