BY JANE WACHIRA
Time has been defined as the measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues. It is what is measured as seconds, minutes, hours, days and years. Time is God-given and free like air, sunlight and the wind. Sunlight, wind and air have been classified as natural resources and their use and disuse is regulated by well-codified laws; so what if time was classified as same and the government regulated what its subjects did with their time?
Article 260 of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 defines natural resources as the physical non-human factors and components whether renewable or non-renewable, including; sunlight, surface and groundwater, forests, biodiversity and genetic resources, rocks, minerals, fossil fuels and other sources of energy.
Natural resources are an important material basis for a stable natural economy and social development. To further development, nations have had to exploit their natural resources ranging from minerals such as oil, gold and coal, they have used their water resources to provide hydroelectric power and have cleared forests to make way for human settlement, setting up of industries and to amass land for agricultural use.
Exploitation of natural resources refers to their fullest, most economic use for growth and benefit. Exploitation has not been without negative consequences including pollution, depletion of resources and climatic change; the world is always in a natural resources and environment Vis-a-vi development dilemma, hence the regulation of how natural resources are used.
Regulation of time would not occur without resistance. First it would be the human rights activists arguing that the regulation would be infringing upon people’s rights and freedoms, the liberal democrats will argue that this is curtailing the principle of self autonomy. It would be labeled the most retrogressive law history ever encountered. A campaign to declare it unconstitutional would be lodged immediately after its assent, while the international community would be up our necks seeking liberation of the Kenyan people from the oppressive law.
Be that as it may, codification of time would not be a sham of a law; its main aim would be to enhance economic growth. It is probably the law that leads Kenya to the First World countries league. Regulation of time would be a case of benevolent hegemony, a bittersweet kind of law; while it would enhance economic growth it will also infringe on citizens rights and their autonomy.
24/7-Economy
No government offices function beyond 6pm, the Close of Business hour is 5pm. Shops and business premises around the country including those in the Capital city, Nairobi are closed by 9pm. Nakumatt High ridge in Parklands area was usually closed at 8:30 pm and it was not until neighbouring Nakumatt Ukay in Westlands suffered the effects of the 2015-2016 El-Nino rains that it was turned into a 24-hour supermarket.
The National Economic and Social council (NESC) presented a working paper; A 24-Hour Economy: The Next Frontier in Kenya’s Economic Development, the aim of the paper was to lay out a plan to make Kenya a 24-hour economy. The paper was mainly informed by Vision 2030 development plan. In its introduction, it outlines that the Kenyan economy can be made more competitive through harnessing our most available resource (‘time’). Vision 2030 emphasizes on setting up of a 24-hour economy as a target of development, its intention is to position Nairobi as an all round 24-hour, globally competitive business and tourism city whose residents would enjoy high quality of life.
A 24-hour economy means that the 8–hour working day can be performed at any time during a 24-hour period, for any given work situation. This can mean working in shifts, the normal practice being three shifts of eight hours each per day.
Japan has been at the forefront of 24-hour marine operations for decades; fishing is done on a 24-hour basis as fish factories on board ships allow the fishermen to catch, prepare, store and package the day’s catch with ease. Tokyo has a great all-night economy; there are specific locales within the city, which are dedicated to the experience of nightlife, including restaurants, bars, discotheques, nightclubs and shops. June 1 2016, Japan set to pass a law to allow clubs in Tokyo to stay open until 5am; this is not the first legislation of its kind. There was a similar law in 1948 during the US occupation. Kenya is already implementing this not by law but by culture. Clubs are run until the wee hours of the morning.
The Traffic menace
According to Transport and Urban De-Congestion Committee report, 2013, Traffic congestion in Nairobi city costs the economy an estimated Sh37billion annually. It is also a major air pollutant due to emission of green house gases and the precursors of smog.
Every morning, between 7am and 8am and evening between 5pm and 7pm in Nairobi, Kenyans grapple with the menace of traffic congestion. Traffic congestion also contributes to delays, lost opportunities, higher costs of living, increased accidents, reduced competitiveness and frustrations. Codifying time and the introduction of a 24-hour economy would help solve this problem.
Not a new phenomenon
In Belgium, the decrease in working hours, from 45 to 38 hours a week between 1956 and 2001 was enacted by statutory laws, placing stronger emphasis on work schedules. The flexibilization and individualization of the work schedule were increasingly considered as tools to improve economic competitiveness. A collective agreement and statutory law was passed in 1987 enabling companies to introduce new work schedules that relaxed the restrictions on nighttime and Sunday work. This change in legislation has been implicated as the starting point for a 24-hour society and economy in which round-the-clock production and consumption are considered as normal practices. It is important to note that the law forbade Sunday work in 1905; it became and has since remained an exceptional practice. Most shops and business premises, government places of work are usually closed on Sundays and public holidays.
Changes in work schedule arrangements were determined from data derived from two time-use studies (TUS). TUS registered people’s daily time use and are therefore suitable to map societal changes. The data collection was carried out between Belgians of 19 and 65 years of age, who kept one diary to record their time use. A second study was also carried out between Belgians of between the ages of 12 and 95 years who kept two diaries one weekday (Monday – Friday) and one weekend (Saturday or Sunday). A time-use questionnaire was also used as a method of data collection. The laws codified were informed by time-use date collected from the public.
Conclusion
From the idlers lying at Uhuru Park, to the jobless corner faithful at Jevanjee Gardens and the haul of frustrated motorists stuck in traffic jam every morning and evening; a time regulation could be their saving grace. Specific and varied work schedules will ensure that not every government worker, businessman or newspaper vendor will be travelling to work at the same time. Varied working hours at every hour of the day will incorporate the jobless into the working class society, which they were previously excluded from by the traditional 8am to 5pm work schedule.
Codifying time as a natural resource is what our economy direly needs.
