As someone who spent a lot of time delivering fertilizer and seed in rural Kenya, you're really wrong about this Sam.
Even the best regional roads in Africa are two lane roads. Unlike the US, cars have highly variable top speeds though, which means nearly constant passing. Cars will drive in the wrong lane for significant periods of time and hastily merge back. But there are large number of buses that are heavily incentive to go quickly at any cost, so they will often off road and suddenly pass on the left. I've seen a two lane road with 5 lanes of traffic on it.
That's the best case scenario. A large chunk of the country is only accessible via rough road spurs. If you're trying to deliver, say hypothetically, 10 tons of fertilizer and seed on the back of a truck, it means you're going 10mph instead of 45mph.
My family worries about me getting murdered in Kenya or the government suddenly melting down, but really traffic is what they should be worried about. And this is Kenya, which is one of the most developed countries in E. Africa. There's a real need for some more roads.
desalination requires infrastructure, and most of the water needs are in places like the sahel which are super far from the sea, the problem isn't desalination, it's that there's no water in the ground in some geographic locations
