SAM'S SENSE: Barcelona and Baba Dogo - Mind the gap!

Last week I spent my time in Europe, specifically in Barcelona, Spain. And there I came face to face with a country and a society that even though quite advanced, still has its share of challenges. And I have four areas of reflection from my tour, that is: transport, football, tourism and technology.

I begin with transport, which is a key factor to connectivity and movement of people and goods. You see Barcelona in Spain is at the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.

A city of many vehicles and trains. A city like many Western urban centres that depict thoughtful structural planning.

Properly structured with underground rail transport, appropriate underground parking spaces. I was there during the Mobile World Congress week and therefore there was unusual traffic especially during rush hours.

I did not at any moment witness overlapping by matatu drivers or jaywalking by pedestrians rushing to beat the lights. I did not see matatu drivers revving their vehicles in annoyance to scare pedestrians or drivers of smaller vehicles.

I saw the smooth flow of traffic, respect for all road users whether on foot or wheelchair, on motorcycle or bicycle, on vans or buses. And Yes, cyclers have demarcated paths that no-one else uses.

In my seven days there, I saw no dark smoke coming off the exhaust pipes of cars. And I only saw one petrol station in the town centre on my way back to the airport. And I asked why? I was told that gas stations are mainly in the residential areas, and they are far between.

That the land in the town centres is so precious and that petroleum retail market is not one of the lucrative businesses there.

A world of contrasts where a single road in Nairobi can have as many as five petrol stations, selling the same product to the same customers.

You may wonder, how then do Barcelonians earn their money. You see among the many businesses carried out there, Catalonians have properly understood their economy. It is rich in tourism, which is one of the top four contributors to the region’s economy.

Arriving in Barcelona, you are met with the architectural works of Antonio Gaudi. He designed and built churches, buildings, and parks. They have introduced site seeing rates from as low as 10 Euros for a park to as high as 38 Euros to visit one of the oldest churches still under construction.

I passed by the Sagrada la Familia, a church whose construction begun in 1882. It is expected to be completed in 2026. People pay to see it.

In Kenya, Yes, people pay to visit our parks, to see wildlife. We receive millions of tourists both foreign and domestic.

Have we gone out of our way to design services for tourists and maximize this naturally occurring resource? Have we built new sites for tourists to keep coming?

On football, I was eager to travel to Barcelona hoping to watch Barca play on the Saturday I arrived. One ticket cost a low as 75 Euros to as high as 140 Euros.

That’s a minimum of Ksh.12,000 to watch 90-minute action. But the tickets can go higher than that depending on fixture and ticket type. And people do pay. And then I went to see the Nou camp which is being rebuilt, the home of Barcelona FC.

At the side, a football museum where lovers of the beautiful game go to view the history of Barcelona, from the trophies, to prominent players, to an immersion tour where once in, you have the audio-visual experience of stadium action. And you pay for it.

Different rates for different services. It can be as low as 31 Euros or as high as 60 Euros. That is anything between Ksh.2,000 and Ksh.10,000, for the love of football. And then there is a shop for football team merchandise.

A Barcelona FC jersey may cost you as little as Ksh.12,000: A serious football economy that goes beyond talent or ‘talanta’ if you like.

My last wonder is on technology. At the mobile world congress, dozens of companies that begun as manufacturers of computers, mobile phones, chips and others are now in the thick of innovation to influence the future of technology.

It was disappointing to see very minimal representation from Africa. And those in attendance were just observers or participants, there to take part in panel discussions or just watch and marvel.

I attended one session where a public official from Kenya was in attendance. And the official had a moment to say what Kenya was doing to tap into the Artificial Intelligence technology.

Well, after enumerating some of the major interventions being undertaken by the government of Kenya, the official concluded by saying that the efforts were being made before “artificial intelligence comes to destroy jobs.”

And the room was quiet as fellow panelists turned to the Kenyan official with empty gazes. It led me to the question; is that our best understanding of Artificial Intelligence?

To say that the Kenyan government is working on the legal and policy framework in readiness for emerging technologies is a nice thing to say. But do we have a strategy to harness these technologies as they come?

I know Barcelona maybe miles ahead of Nairobi geographically and progress-wise, but in today’s interconnected world, it is possible to leapfrog. Why use a knife to curve a wood joint, when a chisel is available?