Environmental policing a duty for all citizens

If the Deputy Chief Co-ordinator at the Interim Co-ordinating Secretariat on Mau Forest Restoration John Sang is to be believed, climate change is at its worst level.

And as the country records extreme swings in weather conditions and climate, the resultant drought, desertification and flooding are visiting misery upon swathes of population.

All these are facts showing that mankind is his own worst enemy.

The sustained burning of indigenous trees in the vast Mau Forest and large areas of Eastern Province for charcoal to feed wood fuel-hungry urban stoves is a case in point.

Up in smoke

But again, it seems it is a business that is paying big-time going by the charcoal sack stacked lorries we see lumbering through our neighbourhoods.

In Kitui, Kisumu, Kisii and several other districts, sand harvesting is leaning crater-size holes that eventually cave in and cost human lives or leave the areas unsuitable for any other sustainable land use.

The Kenya Forest Service rangers, police and Provincial Administration who look the other way after palming a miserly inducement are letting our forest cover literally go up in smoke.

Thirst for more urban settlements to shelter a burgeoning population is fuelling the sand trade. And all we can say is: Let the National Environmental Management authority (Nema) put its house in order!

But what about the rest of us who watch these goings-on silently and see no evil in degrading our shared biodiversity, hear nothing of the clinking coins that change from one greasy hand to another?

Environmental policing is a shared duty for all humanity. Drought in northern and eastern Kenya has impacted upon other lives elsewhere. The Mau deforestation has life-threatening ramifications right up to Alexandria.

And who said Kenya environmental resources should be left to Nema to defend? Wake up Kenya. As county citizens, you shall soon hold the fate of your immediate homeland in your hands.