Governors have a duty to boost safety of boda boda operators

Fifteen years ago, upcountry Kenya was a serene mass of land where you could disappear to, away from the madding city crowds. Today, as I have said before, it is a strange concrete-and-steel jungle colonised by Chinese products. First came the gasoline-propelled chain saw. While trees used to be felled in Mt Kenya Forest and other water towers around the country before, it was all on a small scale.

Felling an old tree took long, and hauling the huge logs out of the forest took extremely strong men, who were in short supply. Those were the days when you bit your lower lip and suppressed tears of wonderment at how immaculately the road outside Embu was carpeted by purple Jacaranda flowers, which seemed to be in full bloom all round the calendar. Until this breathtaking marvel of nature was snuffed out by the nagging sound of the Chinese tree-felling contraption.