By Njoroge Kinuthia
Weathermen become more predictable than the weather
Perhaps we should borrow a leaf from South Africa and threaten the weathermen with jailtime, for wrongful predictions. You see, something is quite amiss with our Meteorological Department. Either their equipment has gone rusty or they need some refresher courses to sharpen their skills. Why? Because their predictions have become predictable — almost always misleading.
Take the current scenario for instance.
In March, the weathermen issued an advisory to farmers warning them to expect ‘poor rains’. The Met said there would be “depressed and poorly distributed rainfall over most parts of the country”. Only the western Kenya and northern Coastal strip “were likely to experience slightly enhanced rainfall”, claimed those weather guys.
El Niño
Well, we now know the truth: Relentless rains, floods, death and devastion. The ongoing rains can only be compared to the 1997/98 El Niño rains. How did we miss the signs, lead weatherman, Mr Joseph Mukabana? Has the weather become smarter than the weathermen? Whatever the case, Kenyans deserve more precise predictions.
KP wayleave leaves family in squalor
A widow, Ms Elizabeth Kemunto, is accusing Kenya Power of rendering her and her six children homeless.
Through her son Mr Benard Barare, Kemunto alleges that Kenya Power approached her in 2009 and requested her to vacate her one-acre piece of land in Mwamang’era, Kisii County. She was promised that she would be compensated swiftly to facilitate her resettlement.
Kemunto was paid Sh300,000 as compensation for her houses that were pulled down by the company to make room for the power lines.
Three years down the line, Kenya Power has not yet compensated her for her land.
“I have visited Electricity House many times and I am always told that their surveyors have not visited my land,” she claims. Kemunto, who has been living in a rented house since she was ‘evicted’, says the cost of living is steep and she cannot afford to pay rent any more.
She regrets the decision to give Kenya Power wayleave. “Will I ever be compensated or was I conned? Should we go back and build under the dangerous lines?” She can be contacted on 0737190050.
A conspiracy against Peponi Court?
There seems to be an uncanny ‘teamwork’ between a road contractor, Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company and Kenya Power to frustrate innocent citizens, claim some residents of Peponi Court in Kileleshwa.
The trio, they say, have made their life difficult by failing to work in concert and in a timely manner in the ongoing construction of Nairobi western Ring Roads.
Consequently, their roads and environment are now in a mess. A mountain of soil, they say, has stubbornly blocked Oloitoktok-Makueni junction, for three weeks now and no one has bothered to clear it. They are blaming the ‘mountain’ on the NW&SC. Part of the road under construction, by Japanese company Nippo Corporation, has been washed away by flood water, making it hard for them to access their homes by road or foot. The roadworks, they claim have been snail-speed sluggish since November last year.
unimpeded
In addition, another sewer, in addition to the one they complained about in PointBlank on March 28, has gone aburst and NW&SC is “as usual sitting idly, waiting for pay day”.
They want Kenya Power to relocate their power lines from the road’s path to enable to work contractor unimpeded.
Outlaw graveside politicking now
Time is ripe, opines Justin Osey, to outlaw politics at funerals. Osey says the obviously abnormal habit has become normal in Kenya today. He wants the law amended so that those who engage in politics can be punished. The tug-of-war between supporters of PM Raila Odinga and his deputy Musalia Mudavadi during the burial of mayor George Aladwa’s father at the weekend “left genuine mourners in an awkward situation”. “Although we are headed for political campaigns, we should not allow politicians to worsen the grief of bereaved families for political expediency. Let’s respect the dead.” he says.
DON’T YOU FORGET
Did Kericho council stop cemetery trespassers?
Kericho resident Christopher Kamaina wrote to PointBlank on October 20, 2011 complaining that the Kericho Municipal Council cemetery had been turned into a ‘haven of immorality’. Kamaina claimed that there is adequate evidence that ‘immorality’ was going on in the cemetery. Used condoms, he claimed, were scattered all over the cemetery. And that isn’t all.
Drug users have a perfect hideout in the cemetery and robbers lurk in the shadows at night waiting for their prey. Herders also find the unfenced graveyard a perfect grazing field ... and some Kericho residents “jump from grave to grave on their way home”. Did the council end this insult of the dead?
