two days of thinking
So it has begun. Yesterday was the day we started discussing and defining our projects here in Kisumu. The ones interested in marketplaces, the ones in eco-tourism and/or both, or simply the ones interested in doing something totally different were divided into three groups, with 17 project ideas. Now what? We had to narrow it down a little, to do so we needed a little more information.
As the Thursday morning arrived four little Swedes headed for Kisumu Hotel with Maria Nyström in the front. The target, Plannned City Extension Kisumu UN-habitat meeting. At the same time, eight eager students followed Catarina to a meeting with the municipality of Porsgrunn, Norway, that happens to be the friendship town/sister cities of Kisumu.
At the UN-habitat meeting we were told what the master plan of the lakefront would be. Together with the city council, a numerous stakeholders, KLIP and representatives from Uganda we listened to the proposals of an investment and development of the Lake Victoria waterfront in Kisumu and the establishment of a Congress Centre. Due to the new constitution in Kenya, the country is in for a real change when it comes to land usages and ownership. The discussions now are directed towards the issues of how to deal with all the private owned land, and how it can and needs to be public. A lot of stakeholders with different agendas trying to meet in the development of Kisumu is the scenery. What is the UN-habitat proposing? The UN-habitat is proposing a 50-50 split of public and private space in the city centre. (We have also come to the realisation that Kenyans like to state an answer and then repeat in when answering it in every lecture/speach we have heard so far. We have banned this method the Barack rhetorics.)
Another key point that we managed to get out of the meeting was that of "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail" and "we need to set the rules of a game on which we all can work together".
In the meeting with representatives from the municipality of Porsgrunn, our fellow mates learned the following. Porsgrunn is in town to follow and discuss ongoing projects done by the town if Kisumu. At the moment the focus lies on a marketplace project in the slum area called Nyavita. During the week Porsgrunn has met a lot of stakeholders and representatives from the city and the county and discussing the visions and ideas of the different groups. If we students choose to work with an upgrading plan for the market, we could contribute to an application for finances from UN-habitat.
Back from the meeting, the decisions of which way to go about the projects were well thought through.
By the way, the rain is here. And boy, how it is here!
