My hopes were recently lifted when I saw a KBD car number plate with all the letters and numbers of equal width, sitting straight up on the same baseline. I thought, we have cracked the number plate design problem. I have since seen later registrations with letters and numbers so distorted, I often wonder why vehicle buyers accept such poor quality plates (like it’s not part of the vehicle).
Why can’t we design pleasant-looking number plates like those we see on vehicles from Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda? Who is responsible for ordering Kenyan number plates? Doesn’t this agency or person have minimum quality standards which the vendor (Kamiti Prison Industries) ought to meet? Are prisons the best makers of number plates?
Alongside the roads, I observe the Kenya Power & Lighting Co people replace old electricity poles or put up new ones. It is rare to come across new poles standing upright. It is as if bent is better than straight at KPLC.
Kenyan architects are no better – seen any building in Kenya as iconic as the 1970s KICC? I bet not.
Yet we talk of being a middle income country in 20 years. Name any developed country which did not have a strong design aesthetic. None. Get the message Kenya.