How Africa is Incubating Local terror

‘Returnees’, then, according to police, are lads back from Somali, where they had sojourned for training in terror.

It’s frightening to imagine the curriculum these people have undergone. One that emphasizes, among other things, attacking places of worship. But wait a minute; let’s get a typical profile of that lad, or lass.

Residing in the shanty neighborhoods; they account for sixty percent of the city’s residents.

Anyone who’s ever been interested in Africa is bound to have come across some culture shock of a kind. The main thrust of this article.

Founding and former CEO of Safaricom, Michael Joseph, a giant Telco nowadays, lamented his shock with what termed peculiar talking habits of the natives.

He was having problems understanding the ‘flash culture’ in which a call is generated and terminated before the receiver organizes enough wits to receive the call.

In the process a code, such as rapid ‘flashes’ for:‘I am back’, would already has been delivered; the service provider would be left with no spoil. Joseph later recovered from the shock, to build the largest Telco in east and central Africa.

In the deep vast rural neighborhoods, you come across barefooted; bright and hard set by the rigors of daily life: walking twenty kilometers to and fro school; change the school outfit, for recycling the day that follows.

Pass by the kitchen, most probably there will be ugali, a local deli, and a jug of tea; all cold.

The family cow would mow loudly; enough to remind the young lad that he had to go get some pasture for it, before milking it a pint, enough for morning tea.

The lass would pick a quarrel for the ugali her brother ate without sparing a slice for her. A twenty liter Jerri can to fetch water is her next task.

It’s not that dull, indeed it’s important time for everyone.

The most privileged being the men, who would hang in groups drowning their sorrows with brews, some local.

Ladies would get the time for their dose of gossip; boys would steal mangoes from the neighbors’ yard; the girls would giggle along the village path.

With education being out of reach for the very bright, only the elite are lucky enough.

Those who drop out head to the nearest urban centre; dejected and bitter.

What we have, at this stage, is a home-grown terrorist; is that not so? How do you explain some of out bursts, verbal and physical, we saw during election time.

Determined as ever in spite of all the odds, the opportunities, for them, are narrowed down to bare possibilities. If it’s a lass, for example, the options are: get a rich man by whatever means; no wonder the incidences of HIV/AIDs.

For the lad, the options are: crime, corruption, vice.

Sooner, they are joined by their ‘luckier’ and more educated counterparts. Most have nothing to show but hope, and, probably, an eerie of sophistication. Enough to elicit back biting.

With diminished hope, revenge come unconsciously in form of local terror.

What, now?

Some of the finest communities on the planet have embraced Human Development Index (HDI) as a tool to monitor the well-being of their citizens

HDI is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education, and standards of living for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare.

It is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, developing or an under-developed, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life.

Despite, for example, the recent scaling up of government spending, we, unbelievably, boast of a forty percent unemployment rate; no wonder the home grown terrorists.

There are also HDI for states, cities, villages, etc. by local organizations or companies.

Kenya, is, no better, at 143 out of 187 countries surveyed in the 2011 Human Development Index (HDI).

Australia and the Netherlands lead the world, while the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niger and Burundi are, neighboring Kenya, at the bottom of the Human Development Report’s annual rankings of national achievement in health, education and income

It is a civic duty, therefore, to put our leaders to task, concerning how they plan to address their main resource: the people.

As we have seen, failure to do so is proving toxic to the national fabric.