Use the green scorecard on our leaders to track real progress

Green Thinking Action Party leader Dr Isaac Kalua when he met with Prince Albert II of Monaco.

Kenyan farmers across the country are anxiously waiting for the rains. The long rains season is upon us. Most farmers have already tilled their land and are ready to start planting as soon as the first raindrops hit the ground.

Thanks to these farmers, Kenya produces three million metric tons of maize annually. Most of that maize ends up either in large maize millers or in thousands of small-scale posho mills. The resulting maize flour enables our 12.2 million households to consume ugali nearly daily.

Most people fail to appreciate the way ecosystems converge to put food on our table. In the case of maize and all other crops, land patiently waits for rain to nurture seeds within it. That rain is enabled by forest ecosystems. That’s why heavily forested areas like the Aberdares and Mau experience more rain than other regions.

Indeed, ecosystem services secure food and livelihoods for millions of Kenyan households. That’s why section 43 of our Constitution is categorical that every person has the right to ‘clean and safe water in adequate quantities.’

This same section also states that we all have a right ‘to be free from hunger, and to have adequate food of acceptable quality.’

Clearly, these rights are rooted in healthy ecosystems. In the same vein, our GDP of Sh10.8 trillion relies heavily on healthy ecosystems.

Against this background, it is critical for us to entrench into our society a green scorecard that will guide the social-economic contract between the people and the political class. This scorecard will assess the green agenda of political parties and candidates. Thereafter, it will hold them accountable and keep them on toes between elections.

A green scorecard doesn’t just dwell on traditionally green issues like forestry and freshwater. Rather, it encompasses the entire economy, which is largely reliant on ecosystem services.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals contain about 120 environment-related indicators that underpin the world can use to measure not just environmental conservation but also a green economy. Among the 120 indicators are four that are critical pillars of the green scorecard.

They are as follows: Proportion of agricultural area under productive and sustainable agriculture; Proportion of population using safely managed drinking water services; Renewable energy share in the total final energy consumption; Manufacturing employment as a proportion of total employment.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), agriculture employs more than 40 per cent of Kenya’s total population and more than 70 per cent of Kenya’s rural people. Through the green scorecard, the citizenry will hold leaders accountable on the quality of this employment.

Such quality can only be guaranteed through an expansion of sustainable, mechanised farming. Such farming will ensure that we eventually compete with the likes of Russia and Ukraine that collectively provide a quarter of the world’s wheat.

We should also ask our leaders this question on a regular basis – how many more people in your administrative area are using safely managed drinking water services? In the same vein, we should pose this other question to them – by what percentage has renewable energy grown in your administrative area?

Kenyans are currently paying the highest ever petrol price which underscores need for us to take bolder steps towards renewable energy.

The fourth question in the green scorecard is – how many manufacturing jobs have been created in your administrative area? For an extended period of time, manufacturing in Kenya has contributed 10 per cent of the GDP. This figure must increase. Through the Green Scorecard, citizens can track manufacturing progress or lack thereof.

Herein lies the beauty and power of a green scorecard. It focuses on figures and figures don’t lie. There is no way one can be ambiguous or evasive about figures. We the people are the bosses of leaders. We must therefore hold them accountable in a systematic manner. Think green, act green!