There’s a major transformation of our sleepy ( rural towns) by rapid disorganized urbanization. So that clean air, quiet town you know will soon be gone. Think about it, 20 years ago going to some shags, your dads car arriving from Nairobi drew a huge spectacle. But today, electricity everywhere, everyone is electronically connected and informed.
So that rural home you build today may be surrounded by a 16 floor apartment complex just like Nairobi, in 15 years.
Firstly, where did the concept of retiring to ushago come from? Because our ancestors did not do it. A symptom of colonial rule perhaps? Retreat to your people? There were no real borders in Africa up until the 1960s. There were no passports. You woke up and went anywhere. Go 7 or 8 generations from you and you will find your great great x 5 grandparents were not from the area. And we’re highly mobile. They lived where they moved to. More and more retired people are abandoning life in rural areas unless they spent their adult lives there.
The good thing is that with globalization opening up the world, lots of places to acquire cheap land to build and retire if you must. And very accepting to even Africans. From West Africa to many Caribbean Islands. Places with low cost of living.
Ukabila has partly led to this trend. I wouldn’t be too comfortable retiring back to Lodwar or Nyeri amongst people of different ethnicity when I know I have a two acre shamba in Nyamira
Personally i would love to retire at the coast kilifi county, have even got myself a big kiwanja there. As for that shags inheritance shamba, if my only kid won’t be interested in it, nauzia my relatives
I always take that story about Africans not having boundaries with a pinch of salt… There were territories back then, and territories have boundaries. In fact back then, tribes were more homogenous than they are now. You couldn’t wonder into another tribe’s territory that easily especially during scarcity (drought in particular). There were kingdoms too. Mzungu just created “formal boundaries” which cannot be breached.
Secondly, when you retire, you want to go to relax and not live where everything is still fast-paced. Very few old chaps would want to stick in 3hr traffic when they are off heavy work. The fresh air is important when you are slowing down. But it is true, our rural areas have changed very much. In fact, our indigenous languages are losing to swahili and sheng even in the rural areas. Watch out.
Well said. I am building in my Ushago and I will retire there. Have a farm and will keep some mammals. It is quite, no traffic jam, no noise, no wall fences yet. Very nice place to live in.
Exactly there were strict tribal boundaries in precolonial african societies. Eg venturing into the plains where the maasai grazed their livestock meant instant death. So hii maneno that anyone could move anywhere is just bullshiet. Even many European explorers and their porters and guides were murdered as they tried to pass through tribal territories.
If you think you are smarter than those who retreat to ushago then retire in the city udeal na makelele 24/7 za magari, mandege, pumps za maji, watoto wa jirani, upstairs tenant, mosques, clubs and churches. Anyway, what are the chances your ushago will become a mojor town in 15 years? My ushago hata lami for the last 15 years haijawekwa.
Uhuru alifanya kazi buana. Stima, internet, tarmac roads everywhere. My village shopping centre has street lights and is better lit than my estate in Nairobi. The 4g internet in the village is faster than what i have in the city. All my neighbours in the village have flat screen tvs, some even have Netflix. Some use gas kupika and village shopping centre has 2 shops selling gas. There is even a petrol station in the village something that was unimaginable some yrs back and it serves the cars and bodas, canters, tractors, water pumps in the village.
Give Uhuru his due. His idea to supply all schools with power in readiness for digital learning ensured that electricity penetrated to all corners of kenya. Then one only needed 15k to connect to the power that was now available hapo mashinani. Some were even connected for free under the rural electrification program/last mile project. Then there was the project to light up all market centres to promote 24hr economy. With power available, many business sprouted mashinani such as welding, cyber, barber shops, electric posho mills etc and this has greatly boosted rural economies. Due to the available power villagers also bought TVs among other electronics. They also bought submersible electric pumps that have helped household water supply and irrigation. Cooperative societies also bought milk coolers improving the milk supply and marketing chain. Ongeza tarmacked barabara mashinani, national internet fibre network and you can see that Uhuru really transformed kenya in just 10yrs.
