Bradford Kamami IE Application EssayQuestion G

G)Do you think that the lifestyle of the inhabitants of your town or city reflects behavior that is in line with the concept of sustainable development? In your opinion, what should be improved?

A city

Re-definition: A city is its:

i. citizens, ii. its infrastructure, iii. its economy iv. and the sum of interactions between; the citizens

and the infrastructure, the citizens and its economy and above all the citizens among themselves and with citizens of other cities.

Take one element away and you have an incomplete and incomprehensive city.

Sustainable Development So to develop a city sustainably,

efforts should be made to grow all four elements of the city.

Overdeveloping one element leads to under developing another. For instance focusing on building an elaborate road network without making it easier for traders to do business is a zero sum game. Whose goods or services will the roads facilitate?

Development should therefore grow the people, the economy, the infrastructure and the interactions of these in tandem.

My City: Nairobi

My City: Nairobi

I have lived in Nairobi for 25 years(99% of my life).

Quick Facts about Nairobi • Total Area 696 km2 (269 sq mi)

Elevation 1,661 m (5,450 ft)

Population (2009)

 • Total 3,375,000

 • Density 4,850/km2 (12,600/sq mi)

 Nairobi means place of cool waters!!

8-)

Now to answer the question… Do I think that the lifestyle

of the inhabitants of Nairobi reflects behavior that is in line with the concept of sustainable development? In my opinion, what should be improved?

Do Nairobi citizens have a lifestyle that will see that the infrastructure, the economy, their interactions result in sustainable development? Not really. Allow me to explain

Lopsided Development

Over the past 20 years there has always been a fashionable sector that defined what in government’s and citizens’ minds described: Development( for the government) Investment(for the citizen)

These led to overdeveloping certain sectors of the city more than others.

Lopsided Development and Investment

ERA DEVELOPMENT EMPHASIS

INVESTMENT FAD

1980’s Housing Shops and Retail Kiosks

1990’s Roads Matatus ( Mini vans used for commuting)

Early 2000’s Social Programs for schools, women

Mobile Phone Accessories

Mid 2000’s Revenue Collection Town-Centre exhibition stalls selling goods from China and Dubai

Late 2000’s Ease of trade within Nairobi

Real Estate

The effects of uneven development

The city has not built extra schools or expanded the sewer system since 1975.

The city has not built an extra referral hospital or roads since 1963.

The citizens’ herd investing characteristic led to inflation in the investment fad they undertook. For example high mobile phone prices then a sudden depreciation of the same.

Currently the housing and land prices are at an all time high. There’s the danger of food insecurity as agricultural land is converted to a block of apartments or is subdivided into agriculturally unviable sizes.

Property gluts as at 2014

What should be done to improve this?

Nairobi County Government’s role The County government should

invest in the citizens opposite direction of investment. ▪ If citizens oversupply one

sector of the economy, the government should invest in the neglected sectors. If citizens go into real estate, the county government should subsidize agriculture or even actively invest in it for instance.

What should be done to improve this? Nairobi County Government’s role

The County government should facilitate the citizens interactions with the elements of the economy.

Build schools for better educated citizenry, hospitals for healthier citizenry, roads for better movement of goods and services and security to protect the gains made.

What the citizens should do: Hybrid Products

How? Hybrid Products. I propose the creation of hybrid products

that combine more than one economic sector of the economy and citizens that should invest in.

A product that combines agriculture and real estate for instance. This fosters simultaneous growth across the economy without running the risk of a sudden inflation of a good or a sudden depreciation of the same good due to oversupply. Both occasioned by group think in investors.

Hybrid Products: It’s been done before unintentionally

In Kenya bride price is paid by grooms for their girls

The measure is usually in a number of cows in exchange for the girl. Unknowingly we’ve linked the cattle industry to the educational industry . A more educated girl is worth more cows. It’s safe to say as long as there’s love in the air, cows won’t go extinct.

Maybe if we linked tourism and love, our elephants and more so the tourism sector would be safer.

If we linked agriculture and real estate, we’d be sheltered and fed!

Step 2: Deconstruct the hierarchy of jobs and industries

The citizens should believe that a hairdresser’s business can be scaled up into as much profitability as the legal firm’s business. All businesses can grow to the skies!

Businesses should be built on skills and passions inherent in a citizen and not what is the trending investment idea in town. Then we’d have as varied business empires as Nairobi’s 4 million cosmopolitan population.

Step 3: Scale up the dark horses

Have investors and business savvy people investing in the varied prospective business that are left unattended by the government and the group-think investment wing.

They will invest in the gaps left by both the government and citizenry. Invest in security, waste management, health, clean water and renewable energy.

Scaling up the dark horses…continued

Such investors who grow startups and ideas need a solid understanding of business operations and business management.

I think an MBA from IE Business School will help me scale up businesses of this nature.