By Prof. MWAI WACHIRA
Sometimes in early 2010, about 100 MPs met at Panafric hotel will the aim of raising funds for the mau eviction victims, William Ruto, Uhuru Kenyatta and Kalonzo Musyoka were the guests of honor. Other notable attendees included Kiraitu Murungi, Johnstone Muthama and Najib Balala. It was Balala who stole the show by saying, any political leader who is not here will not be in the next government and his prophecy came true 3 years down the line.
It is in this meeting that Uhuru and Ruto brought their troops together for the first time and as they say, the rest is history. The idea of having Jubilee party as we know it today was first mooted in this meeting and later on buttressed by the ICC cases. Jubilee could have redeemed itself had it shown interest in forest conservation after their win in 2013, but so far they have not shown any interest. The only interest one can talk of is in the building of many dams, conveniently forgetting that water for those dams comes from the water towers.
Kericho and Murang’a where the dams are being built are experiencing water shortage. There might not be any direct correlation between the two but the sustained assault of the forest cover has contributed to the current state. Deputy president Ruto ban on logging for 90 days will not help much, what will help is genuine conservation of water towers and expansion of the forest cover.
For those Jubilee supporters who see and hear no evil, there are reports of Cholera outbreak in Gatanga in Murang’a county. The residents are said to have drawn dirty and contaminated water from one of the remaining rivers and tens are now in hospital with cholera bout. Gatanga host Ndakaini dam, yet the residents draw their water from the dirty rivers.
