Living Life:Your East Africanness, Again!

About two years ago, I wrote in these pages about a simple altercation I had with a lady at a Kigali video library over unfair levying of fines. She then made a sweeping statement. “You East Africans disturb us too much.” I was initially elated that someone bothered to call me an East African. As newfangled as it may appear, it would be nice to have people roaming about for business and pleasure all over the five countries of the region, without wondering about how you are going to be treated in the next country. Though I knew that in the real sense, the lady called me East African because she thought she was not - yet. Today, I must gladly say that many Rwandans are comfortably East African, not because they belong to the East African community but more because of the integration that Rwanda has won itself in the community by throwing the gauntlet down for its eastern neighbours – the starling business reforms and working environment that are making Rwanda the envy of the world and to some extent, a reason for the other east Africans to feel proud of being more identified with Rwanda’s world renown reputation. It must have helped a little that one Alpha Rwirangira did us the justice to win a regional music talent show in Nairobi and he’s now back there with a new swagger and stronger Rwanda identity to flash. Such and many other regional events have put Rwanda is its right place, at the centre of East Africa, really. So it’s no surprise that this week, a Kenyan newspaper runs an article which says, Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, is slowly replacing Nairobi as the regional economic hub. Before you dismiss it as just another romanticised story of a Kenyan journalist who came to Rwanda, saw and fell in love with the orderly nature of Kigali, that article apparently is a result of a research by Price Waterhouse Coopers , one of the most respected consultancy firms in the word in that arena. Am confident that many people admired the tenacity of Rwanda’s ambition to become a regional hub but am sure like many other naysayers, they would take these ambitions with a pinch of salt. This report perhaps is one indication that Rwanda’s dreams have began to materialize. With this trend, it’s now the time that Rwandans began to think about exporting the Rwanda brand to the other four partner states and taking advantage of our East Africanness. With the speed of intake of ICT developments, it would be nice to see Rwandan firms challenging the form book by setting up shop in Nairobi, Kampala or Dar to shake up the traditional equations of economic cum business power. It can begin with something as small as a victory in talent competition, move towards best regional reformer in business and with such ambitious projects like the methane gas power project; surely our neighbours will begin to notice. It is already on record that Kenya and Uganda have now followed Rwanda to roll out pre-paid electricity and water billing systems. If you thought that Kenyans, Ugandans or Tanzanians were taking Rwanda for a ride by exporting labour then perhaps time has come for Rwandans to take advantage of the huge market at its disposal. To sum it up “Kigali is increasingly being looked at as an ideal economic hub for the region, especially due to the elaborate infrastructure outlay for ICT compared to Nairobi,” Steve Okello, a partner and head of tax at PwC tells The Standard, A Kenyan Daily Newspaper. That statement alone is perhaps a hint of what lies ahead for innovative Rwandans. I wish you an enterprising weekend. kelviod@yahoo.com