Oh what a noisy week for East Africa

THE East African region has been fed with a fair dose of noise from different directions in this past week. Listening to the noise, surely, would make one either very angry or a little happy. As one advances in age, noise becomes more of a nuisance than a pleasant thing unless one has had a drink that comes with percentages.The process of electing new members for the East African Legislative Assembly resulted into a noisy affair depending on the country and its brand of politics. While in Rwanda it was a rather smooth sail, in Kenya and Uganda the daggers were out for most of the time. There were talks of boycotts or threats to boycott the process if the acceptable representation quotas were not met. The noise was particularly from the opposition ranks with claims that ruling parties were planning to hog all the slots at the Arusha based legislature. At the end of the day, the noise went down, ballots were cast and soon we shall have new faces ready to embark on drafting legislation for the five-member community. As these fights, were going on, I wondered whether these people who were elbowing for EALA jobs really knew what the community expected from them or they were just trying to find a new employer. On a rather sad note, a bomb went off in the middle of Nairobi on Moi Avenue creating yet again the kind of noise that many of us are terrified to hear. There is currently no capital city in the EAC that has not had a taste of the evil works of terrorists. The only clear difference about the acts of terrorism in the region remains the degree of the act and probably the reaction. With Kenya coming close to an election season, the bomb only seemed to provide politicians with another forum to spruce up their chances of being elected. Soon after the incident, different politicians flocked to the bomb scene clearly interfering with ongoing investigations to show remorse as well as sound another warning to the terrorists who are believed to be the sour losers of the recent military and political events in Somali. As if that was not enough noise for one to deal with, the guys at UN did not allow us to even rest before they claimed that Rwanda was training rebels to fight in the current conflict in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. This came to the scene after a leaked UN report found its way into the hands of BBC and soon spread like a wildfire as all false rumours tend to. Of course these claims could hardly stand the test of reasoning and as expected UN started shifting its position to try and save face. It is indeed strange that the dubious report by MONUSCO was taking focus away from the refugees who needed help and limiting it to what Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Louise Mushikiwabo had aptly described as another “batch of recycled rumours designed to implicate Rwanda.”With all that needless noise going around in the region, I must confess it was refreshing to hear of some pleasant and promising kind of noise from a place called Syokimau. The last time Syokimau was in the news was when the Kenya Airports Authority was demolishing huge bungalows that had encroached on its land. This time however the noise was for a good and promising reason. It was the sound of a train engine taking off with passengers who included Kenya’s Transport Minister, Amos Kimunya. It was the launch of the completed 2.2 kilometre railway line connecting the newly built Syokimau station with the old Embakasi line. The rail road shows a clear effort to put actions towards as far as the old dilapidated railway transport in the region is concerned. It is part of a larger $300 million urban transport network that will connect Nairobi’s residential areas with the central business district. According to the story carried by Kenya’s Business Daily newspaper, Mr Kimunya also said, “Construction of this line is a start in what should eventually be a shift from road to railway transport in Nairobi.” This indeed is a sign of better things to come not just for Nairobi but for the region in general. An improved rail transport system should reduce the burdens of being landlocked that countries like Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi have had to deal with for ages. The noise made by the train engine in Syokimau clearly brought a smile to those of us who watch the region keenly.