My late father once calmed my anger with a les­son that qui­et­ly shaped my pub­lic life. After I had com­plained at length about some­one, he wait­ed until I was done and asked a sim­ple ques­tion: are you fin­ished? When I nod­ded, he said every human being has four sides: front, back, left, and right. No one is bro­ken on all sides. If one side is dif­fi­cult, anoth­er car­ries strength. Your task, he said, is to find the strongest side, hon­or it, and move for­ward with­out bit­ter­ness. Progress begins when we stop star­ing at weak­ness and start work­ing with what is right.

Kenya today faces plen­ty of crit­i­cism, much of it jus­ti­fied, but it is increas­ing­ly lack­ing per­spec­tive. We often loud­ly crit­i­cize what the gov­ern­ment has not done and tend to over­look areas where con­sis­tent, seri­ous progress is hap­pen­ing. One such area is avi­a­tion and tourism, espe­cial­ly the renewed focus on Malin­di Air­port as a gate­way that could boost the entire coast. I write as a hum­ble par­tic­i­pant in avi­a­tion, as some­one who has made Malin­di a sec­ond home, and as an Hon­orary War­den under Kenya Wildlife Ser­vice, observ­ing vis­i­tors arrive for beach­es, her­itage, and wildlife, only to waste time and ener­gy due to avoid­able connections.

I have been encour­aged by the seri­ous­ness with which our insti­tu­tions are approach­ing avi­a­tion as a devel­op­ment tool. The increas­ing focus on strength­en­ing air con­nec­tiv­i­ty between Europe and Kenya, and on unlock­ing Malin­di as a direct leisure gate­way, sig­nals a gov­ern­ment learn­ing to link pol­i­cy with liveli­hoods. This mat­ters because access gen­er­ates demand. Italy alone sent near­ly one hun­dred thou­sand vis­i­tors to Kenya last year. That’s one Ital­ian arrival every few min­utes, year-round. Inter­est isn’t the issue. Fric­tion is. Every addi­tion­al con­nec­tion, delay, or uncer­tain­ty qui­et­ly turns enthu­si­asm into hesitation.

The case for Malin­di is clear. Tourism brought in over four hun­dred bil­lion shillings for Kenya last year, sup­port­ing work­ers in hos­pi­tal­i­ty, agri­cul­ture, trans­port, and cul­ture. Behind that num­ber are hotel staff, farm­ers, fish­ers, guides, dri­vers, arti­sans, and young peo­ple wait­ing for oppor­tu­ni­ty. Malin­di does not need to com­pete with Nairo­bi. It should com­ple­ment it as a peace­ful, effi­cient leisure gate­way. Vis­i­tors remem­ber how they are treat­ed, not the size of ter­mi­nals. Direct access min­i­mizes waste, boosts con­fi­dence, and keeps oppor­tu­ni­ties alive on the coast.

The tech­ni­cal chal­lenge is clear. Malindi’s run­way, approx­i­mate­ly 1.4 kilo­me­ters long, restricts air­craft size and direct flights. Extend­ing it to meet inter­na­tion­al stan­dards requires land, safe­ty enhance­ments, and prop­er fenc­ing. Past com­pen­sa­tion esti­mates have reached into the bil­lions and become more bur­den­some with each year of delay. This is the qui­et hard­ship of infra­struc­ture projects stalled by unre­solved set­tle­ment and spec­u­la­tion. Kenya must be com­pas­sion­ate to gen­uine house­holds, but it should nev­er reward sys­tems that ben­e­fit from obstruct­ing nation­al progress.

This moment demands engi­neer­ing courage and pol­i­cy inno­va­tion. If tra­di­tion­al expan­sion becomes too cost­ly, aero­nau­ti­cal experts should care­ful­ly eval­u­ate alter­na­tive run­way align­ments that reduce dis­place­ment while ensur­ing safe­ty stan­dards. If effec­tive, costs decrease, time­lines are short­er, and con­fi­dence is restored. Mov­ing the air­port should remain a last resort, not a cause for paral­y­sis. Respon­si­ble nations expect engi­neers to pro­vide solu­tions, not rea­sons to delay.

The ben­e­fits go well beyond tourism. A func­tion­al Malin­di Air­port boosts fish­eries, hor­ti­cul­ture, and region­al trade, spreads growth out­side Nairo­bi, cre­ates skilled avi­a­tion jobs, and adds resilience with an alter­na­tive nation­al hub. Direct arrivals elim­i­nate unnec­es­sary trans­fers, reduce emis­sions, and direct vis­i­tors through a gate­way capa­ble of sus­tain­ably sup­port­ing coastal marine and for­est conservation.

This moment requires shared respon­si­bil­i­ty. Land issues must be resolved legal­ly, spec­u­la­tion replaced with access, and nation­al insti­tu­tions aligned across tourism, trans­port, agri­cul­ture, and con­ser­va­tion. The mes­sage to part­ners must be clear. Kenya is ready to turn good­will into results.

An air­port is more than just con­crete and lights. It sym­bol­izes jobs, dig­ni­ty, and nation­al readi­ness. When we focus on build­ing upon what’s work­ing instead of argu­ing over what isn’t, we can final­ly ful­fill that promise. Think Green. Act Green.