So much for Self Help

Sunday May 10th.

This morning I was totally lacking inspiration about what to write this week. Not that there is any shortage of topics to pick up on around here. That was before taking a stroll through town this afternoon.

First, a little about Kilifi town. Kilifi and it’s smaller twin, Mnarani, across the creek basically grew up to serve passengers waiting to catch the ferry which crossed the estuary cutting through the Mombasa-Malindi road. That was before a bridge was constructed in the mid-80, which at the time was reputedly the longest in Africa. Kilifi town is bordered on the west by the Mombasa-Malindi road, by the estuary to the south and by the Indian Ocean to the east. The one paved road in town follows the estuary around to the ocean before looping back to the Mombasa road. The house is just across the road from the town.

Alongside most of the roads in town, one could find any form of clothing along with choices of whatever produce happens to be in season. Mangoes are currently plentiful, the biggest and juiciest imaginable for 10-20 KShs (80 Kenya Shillings to the US Dollar)! Bananas and peanuts seem to have no season.

Sadly my use of the past tense above was not a grammatical misstep. Sometime since late yesterday afternoon just about every small vendor stall in town was demolished. As recently as Friday Anne and I had stopped in one of the larger stalls selling kanga – the brightly colored material worn by all the women as skirts, headdresses and baby backpacks. The stall keeper’s inventory probably ran into a few hundred dollars worth. In all likelihood she acquired it through micro financing. At least her goods were not perishable. Dozens of the smaller stores with a few dozen tomatoes, garlic and greens were not as lucky. Young women, with babies and toddlers, operated most of the stalls. The few shillings they were able to get for the little extra produce they had managed to grow doubtless represents a significant portion, if not the sum total, of what they are able to earn.

There is no obvious rationale for the structures’ removal. Sure, it is highly unlikely they were paying the 16% VAT to the government. But then how many are? A few stalls, but only a few, obstructed direct access to the more established businesses standing behind them. It was not obvious whether the authorities had also removed the structural material or left it to be recovered by the stall owners. There is a large open space that would make a natural open-air market. But since government offices surround it, that won’t happen. It will be interesting to see what happens next week. I suspect, however, that whilst there may be much talk there will be little action. Given the poverty evident everywhere here it is hard to see life will ever improve for the disenfranchised when their own government seems intent on snuffing out the smallest of enterprises.