October my cousin my mentor and I on a
Thursday somewhere during mid morning we
were walking through the town of the res
LOM and we were looking at buildings so
my dad knew how much I love architecture
and he had asked an architect to show my
cousin and I around and she teaches the
basics of architecture so as we were
walking we passed by this area called
I’m not sure at school they don’t
remember but I called it the colonial
district so the houses were those houses
what you find in the old times when we
were colonized hence the name but as we
passed we saw a building set we just
stood there and looked at it after some
time my mentor said ill huh ands offered
which is my cousin’s name this is
progress this is our future it’s what it
looks like so at first I didn’t
understand what he meant and i continued
to wonder why he had said the statement
after some time we passed by this group
of local people at home would call them
was Swahili and they were just going on
with their daily business but they
seemed happy so I asked myself why are
they happy they don’t live in big houses
they don’t work in skyscrapers so this
is pointless they shouldn’t be happy and
I went on my way so first we’ll do a
small activity I just want you all to
close your eyes for a few seconds as you
close your eyes try to imagine a city
that you would like to live in the
okay now open your eyes but still keep
that image so I’m not psychic but I wish
I was but some of the images you might
be seeing in your mind right now look a
bit like this clean rhetoric city mostly
this example it’s very good it will go
with Ambassador cause it’s a Coast City
I think so your city’s lack the fact
that we have built our cities and homes
to document our progress now in the
statement that i have just said we
forget the key words we have built our
cities together so this plan to
modernize our cities is a new urban plan
is a new westernizing plan coming up so
that we can look better for
international investors because honestly
if you were an investor would you look
to invest in an area that looks like a
village no okay we disregard the fact
that forty-five to fifty one percent of
Kenya’s population alone lives in
poverty and this poverty these people in
poverty live on land that’s attractive
to builders and architects everywhere so
as we continue to build our houses and
cities we continue to push these people
away and increasing the percentage of
people who live in these areas okay so
on the internet I when I was researching
what’s the purpose of a city since it’s
the key point of my talk it said that a
city is a way for a modern population to
be organized in
way that the person who pays your
payroll who gives you a payroll can be
able to give it to you and the person
who takes away your money the taxes may
be able to locate you easily in doing so
but after i did this i started thinking
and this was when I thought like
Sherlock Holmes because I was like yeah
now I know who done it because we did
[Applause]
we’re the ones who have done it to
ourselves we forgot that a city isn’t
actually just about the physical
infrastructure it’s about what we build
amongst ourselves it’s an area where
we’re meant to live together in a cool
harmonious way where we can share help
and receive help from others regardless
of who you are how much you have how old
you are and yeah who you are covers
gender and ethnicity so in doing so
everybody would be aiming for the same
goal that is to develop but together so
one of my friends are no Sh she told me
while I was practicing that maybe you
should look at it like this the further
you are the further you are from what
really matters and they put this in
context to skyscrapers so if you live in
that upper floor up there you forget
what’s going on down here which is the
real meal and that that is we are the
city the city is us and it’s not what we
milked we can destroy it all and still
be happy but together thank you
[Applause] you