Stepping onto the balcony, reflections from Seattle

Over the last one month, July 2013, I have had privilege to be among 17 conservation leaders from around the world attending a month long Kinship Conservation Fellowship training at the beautiful Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington state. I have also had time to catch up with relations living in America and generally reflect on life in a fast paced western city.  And what a month it has been, being able to step away from work and have time for reflection.

I arrived in Seattle with three goals; tour the city made famous by Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan’s’ 1993 movie – Sleepless in Seattle, participate in the Kinship Fellowship the best way I could and see my former student and protégé who moved to Seattle six years ago.  

I was perhaps naïve and expected all the three to fall in place chronologically but as in many events in life, things happen when they happen not when you wish them to happen. Needless to say I achieved all my goals but not in the fashion I had imagined them. At first I had not reckoned with the intensity of the fellowship training as well as the amazing sense of camaraderie that grew among the Fellows. It became difficult to leave the group without feeling you are walking away from a moment when a genius idea might pop( and many did pop).  In a weird sense it was like being in the Big Brother House only this time the reward is spending time with 17 really smart people trying to solve problems in far off places around the world.

I finally met my friend Betty and her family and we had an amazing reunion. I am sure those among you with teaching (or mentoring) experience always get this warm glow whenever you meet a former student who is succeeding. In a sort of reversal of roles Betty became my teacher in this “evergreen” state of the US and I experienced typical Kenyan diaspora day – upward of 20 hours of work, efficient and focused folks but also extremely tiring days.

Kinship Conservation Fellows is ground breaking program that every year selects 18 promising conservation leaders from across the globe and introduces them to market based tools in payment for ecosystem services. I know that sounds gibberish but to break it down, it might broadly be called “the benefits of nature to households, communities, and economies or, more simply, “the good things nature does. In our Kenyan context, the Aberdares ranges forest and people owning land upstream of Tana River provide the city of Nairobi with water (yes, the Nairobi water is manufactured so far away). In a market situation then, and because there is nothing for nothing, the people of Nairobi ought to pay people of Aberdares for keeping the water manufacturing machine (forest) running and intact. 

The 2013 Kinship Fellows Cohort

One might argue they do that through the water bills but how much does Nairobi Water Company invest back in the Aberdares? That is clearly a debate the company is involved in and it is very positive. Same case with East Africa Breweries and Coca Cola, without Aberdares and Mt Kenya forests there would be no Tusker lager (and White Cap ad infitum) and even no Coca Cola. These companies rely on water to make their products and therefore have a great incentive to make sure their primary input is safeguarded. Fortunately, there are some visionaries inside these companies and the thinking seems headed towards investing in conservation upstream of the water sources they use

The Fellowship explores all these market tools but also teaches adaptive leadership and how you apply those skills in real life leadership challenges. I left the Fellowship with sense of purpose to apply all the learning to my country and hopefully do something that ensures we treat our collective home better and safeguard the fantastic natural heritage we are blessed with.

My intention to become a tourist didn’t quite pan out as I had envisioned. On my wish list was a visit to the houseboat in the movie Sleepless in Seattle but that didn’t materialize. Instead I learnt a hell lot more from a four year old son of my friend.   I did a day babysitting Sean (who quickly and aptly nicknamed me Uncle Kenya) and although I have two kids of my own, it really made me appreciate what a task it is to satisfy curiosity of a 4 year old, be a part time kindergarten teacher and cook meals that kids actually like to eat and are healthy rather than are forced to eat. However, I got two days to visit downtown Seattle and also visit the birth place of the modern aviation industry, the Boeing Field and The Museum of Flight. Although it was my dream to visit the famous Seattle skyline marker – the Space Needle - and being the impatient Kenyan I am I gave it a miss after being informed that I would be on the queue for nearly three hours. 

The Museum of Light in Seattle turned out to be a delightful experience and a very stark reminder of how far the aviation technology has advanced in the last 100 years fueled by war (and therefore need to innovate better and faster fighter planes) and sometimes brilliant cooperation between outwardly competing nations especially during the space race during cold war years. My dream of being in a supersonic Concorde and Air Force one (more or less like the one in Harrison Ford’s Air Force One) was fulfilled, albeit on a museum grounds. 

I missed the Seattle boat house but not the spaceship!

So what did come back to Kenya with? Four important lessons I would say. Contrary to all the gloom painted about our country sometimes by some partisan international media, Kenya is still one of the better recognized brands in Africa. America has many problems too and although one would admire the adherence to rule of law, there are also many ugly problems. Racism (back home we call it tribalism) is still prevalent. While visiting, one particular incident stood out. The (in)famous George Zimmerman trial was happening then and for a non-American like me, it was beyond comprehension how one George Zimmerman, a white vigilante and a cop wannabe, could shoot to death unarmed black teenager Travyon Martin walking home in rain and therefore with a hoodie up and claim self-defense while clearly he was the aggressor.

 In a hard to understand legal mumbo jumbo, an aggressor in Florida can, while in the process of engaging with you, become the victim of your need to defend yourself. Here is how. If you defend yourself too well and he feels threatened he can “stand his ground” shoot you and walk free. It was the scariest thing for a black man visiting America to imagine that whenever I passed through a neighborhood and depending on how I walked – upright, stooped, too slow, too quick – people can profile me to be a thief or otherwise. It almost seemed that there will be a need for the Americans to come up with a “good black man walk” where people don’t profile you based on how you walk or dressed. I can imagine many fathers and mothers having a difficult conversation with their sons on how the world is not fair even though it outwardly claims to be. In Kenya we have our tribalism but that case in America was truly scary.

Far away from racism another enduring lesson was the need to plan and think really long term. We have a vision to achieve – Vision 2030 - but I came back with a conviction that great vision without great people is irrelevant. We need great people to achieve a great vision. There is very little buy-in from the public on the vision 2030. It is almost like some bureaucratic jingle that only a few technocrats understand the composition while the rest of us sing the chorus. I became convinced that our work ethic has to change, that everybody including the teachers, ought to be paid by the number of hours worked. Basically what you put in is what you should take out, plain and simple. In Kenya, there is no doubt we have smart people, we lead the world in some innovations including the mobile money, but we cannot be satisfied with just being good, we have to be great and that requires the leadership at both political and business arenas redefine the landscape in which our superordinate goal – a middle income economy by 2030 is realized.

Another lesson and more relevant to my taking the month in Seattle is that the environmental degradation can be reversed. With visionary leadership we can design innovative solutions like the Catskills watershed programme that saved the New York City billions of dollars and provides low cost water service to the city of New York. Costa Rica reversed a near catastrophic deforestation rate and the country is slowly but surely increasing forest cover.   When juxtaposed with New York, Nairobi is a not insurmountable in providing an efficient water service. Fortunately there is desire to link ecosystems services in the business thinking of the water company. When we conserve the upstream watershed in Aberdares and Mt. Kenya, we are guaranteed cheap and reliable water supply. Having water running in our taps is not merely a technical fix, it is tied to the well-being of Aberdares and it is time city fathers and Nairobi County started investing in the counties that ensure it gets water at the lowest possible cost..  This may in fact need the Water service (WASCO’s) companies to levy an environmental conservation levy that goes directly to the communities upstream. I know for sure my water provider lists something named “conservancy” in my bill but it does nothing to make sure my water is cheaper 

My final lesson was on how hard the Kenyans in diaspora work. While the folks back home appreciate the remittances, it would be good if they ask themselves how that money is earned. For majority of those I met (and it is not a big sample) one thing run common, they value work, put is insane hours and live a very on the edge life. Kenyans in the diaspora are also respected for their hard work and adaptability. Although there is now a constitutional provision for dual citizenship, I believe we need a specific targeted strategy to bring the great diaspora skill resources to benefit our economy. It must go beyond rhetoric. Companies hiring highly skilled diaspora people need to get incentives to keep them in our country either through a tax benefit or some other mechanism. For nearly 1 million people, majority who dearly love their Jamhuri, we have to find a more strategic way of engaging them either at national or at the individual county levels beyond the remittances which are clearly a pillar of our economy