Macharia Gaitho: Why Raila’s East Africa Spectre should design and build next Titan submersibles

The world was recently transfixed by the episode of a small submarine that imploded whilst trying to reach the wreck of the fabled Titanic cruise ship some 13,000 feet at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

The story of the Titan submersible that disappeared shortly after launch in the wintry seas between Canada and the United States was at once an uplifting story of human endeavour and bravery, the spirit that drives adventurers and dreamers to venture at great risk towards where no man has reached before.

But it was also a tragedy attributable to criminal recklessness and ineptitude. Put simply, the Titan was not built to reach the desired depth. Despite warnings by his own staff and external deep sea enthusiasts, Stockton Rush, the owner of OceanGate Expeditions, the American company responsible for the pioneering venture, cut corners in construction of the submersible craft.

One might say it is to his credit that Rush fully believed that the craft was strong and durable and able to withstand the extreme water pressures at such depths. He was on the ill-fated expedition and perished alongside his four paying passengers.

Read: Missing Titanic sub crew believed to be dead, OceanGate says

Anyway, the fact now is that the mini submarine suffered a catastrophic implosion, opposite of explosion, not too long after launch. And that is where we come in. The Kenya Kwanza policy of achieving lower consumer prices by allowing tax-free imports intended to push exploitative tax-paying manufacturers out of business will have many casualties.

Unless they smell the new dispensation and adjust accordingly, many very well-established industrial concerns will have to close their doors, and of course lay off hundreds of thousands of employees.

But they need not despair, as under the brilliant initiatives conceived and implemented by merchants close to the movers and shakers in President William Ruto’s government, they have the opportunity to retool and rejig their factories. They can take advantage of that big shift to employment creation by building houses and so many other major projects which nobody really needs, all paid for by taxpayers. An enterprise that comes easily to mind as overdue for total rethink is the cooking gas cylinder manufacturing outfit started by opposition leader Raila Odinga.

East Africa Spectre is a staid old family business that for years has enjoyed an almost unchallenged monopoly in manufacturing and supply of Liquefied Petroleum Gas cylinders for the Kenyan and wider east and central African market. It should worry Raila that half a century after Spectre was launched, it remains stuck in a time warp, fabricating the same old metallic pressurised cylinders.

Even if the wheelers and dealers of the Ruto government were not out to kill the Raila firm by granting themselves waivers to import tax-free cylinders, there can be no doubt that Spectre is headed for extinction once the metal tubes for our cooking gas become obsolete. The OceanGate submarine, being crushed like a lightweight aluminium beercan, should give him food for thought.

Even as he is preoccupied with on-off agitation aimed at forcing Ruto out of office so he can take his rightful seat, Raila must not let the family firm fade into extinction. There is a yawning chasm somewhere in the north Atlantic waiting to be filled, and as a fabricator of pressurised iron vessels with 50 years of experience, East Africa Spectre is well-placed to design and build the next generation of Titan submersibles. It’s a business strategy that would, to Ruto’s consternation, fit neatly into Kenya Kwanza plans to kill established local enterprises that for their innovation and success stand accused of being monopolies and cartels.

Read: Ruto now targets Uhuru, Raila business empires

Kenya Kwanza sycophants will cheer themselves hoarse when Spectre is run out of the gas cylinder business by tax-free imports. But it will be completely unprepared for the mini submarines that will float out of the Industrial Area factory.

Through that vast colonial era underground storm water drainage network, the subs will navigate their routes to Kenya’s main waterways to surface in the Indian Ocean, from where uber-rich citizens of the world will be able to pay premium to dive into the depths of Atlantis.

The Ruto houses and other super-scale job-creation projects will already have created the steel and other industries required for converting the gas cylinder plant to make seagoing tubes. We have titanium aplenty in Kwale County, which is a vital component of the submarine bodies, as well as fibreglass factories in Ruaraka that can easily upgrade to produce super-strength carbon fibre.

New venture

As for skilled manpower, there will be no shortage there as Raila is himself a skilled welder, the best of the best. The German Master’s degree in mechanical engineering that conceived and built East Africa Spectre out of nothing will easily lend itself to the new venture.

And who will pay for that brave new enterprise? Ruto, of course. Or to put it more accurately, the Kenyan taxpayer. Soon and very soon we will all be hit with yet a new tax to fund enterprises that create jobs. Building submarines obviously should be one of them, presuming that opportunities are not strictly reserved only for family, relatives, friends, business partners and political acolytes of those in power.

Discrimination to the benefit of Kenya Kwanza shareholders will, of course, be overturned by our highest courts, which will find in favour of equal opportunity to loot the public purse, as well as the principle of collective irresponsibility.

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