Amid the promises of 'unusualness', let us conserve environment

There is a need for everyone Kenyan to join in the conservation of the environment and demand action from their leaders [Courtesy]

A few days back when, after witnessing the swearing-in of new Cabinet secretaries, President Uhuru Kenyatta averred it was going to be ‘business unusual’ on his second watch, I believed him. Too much has been happening lately to vindicate this unequivocal assertion.

It cannot be anything but ‘unusual’ that constitutional stipulations on individual and media freedom, the citizens’ right to access information, the independence of the Judiciary, the right to free movement, and fidelity to the rule of law should appear to have been suspended, bar a referendum. Cabinet secretaries and other bureaucrats who should set a good example disparage and snub parliamentary committee summons - not that Parliament itself inspires any confidence - and proceed to reply to issues raised in public gatherings. One moment newspapers are declared meat wrappers, the next, government functionaries swear they only read about court orders in newspapers.