Lake Turkana’s clear waters emerge like a glassy screen, breaking through the rugged rocks and dry earth that precede its approach.But Lake Turkana, slightly salty and alkaline and abounding in 40 fish species, faces a severe threat from across the border in Ethiopia. The row with Uganda over the tiny Migingo Island in Lake Victoria is nothing compared to the environmental catastrophe staring at Lake Turkana.
By the way forget Migingo Island(which is only 14km away from kenya and over 240km away from Uganda), the ugandan flag is there already..mta-du. Forget the constant threats from our Somalia underdogs…oops not underdogs anymore, since we are unable to counter them.We dont have a governemt that cares for its citizens at all, but what the big fish will take home from the loot.
Back to our Lake Turkana,Ethiopia is midway through construction of a dam upstream on River Omo, which is Lake Turkana’s main tributary, giving it 80 per cent of its water. The other rivers, Turkwel and Kerio are seasonal and can barely sustain the lake’s water level.
The giant project poses a greater danger to 300,000 people around the lake in Turkana Central and Turkana North.
Its aquatic life, including the Nile perch, which they largely depend on for food and cash, could die out as salinity increases with the lowering of water level.
Similarly, a lake-dependent forest, one of the last pristine dry land forests in Africa, would also be in grave danger.
The tragedy looks real as the Gilgel Gibe III hydroelectric dam project(Ethiopian) is being built with the knowledge of the Kenya Government, which hopes to benefit from surplus power projected to be generated.
Too sad.
What of the Mau forest issue?
Kenyans today stand to lose half the land in their country: All that region to the west of the Rift Valley is going to suffer a disaster of big proportions; it’s drying up, the farms are producing less, rainfall is decreasing, it’s becoming hotter, the lakes are vanishing.
In the fullness of time, it will be a wasteland like the North, poor and able to support only a handful of people and animals. It is a disaster we are inflicting on ourselves.
Kenya has five sources of water: The Cherangany range, the Aberdares, Mt Elgon, Mt Kenya, and the biggest of all, the Mau Escarpment and its various forests.
Lake Nakuru(that is now drying), especially, may become history in a decade or less, while Lake Victoria is also under great threat.
The sad fact is that all these tragic consequences will have been caused by the greed of a few – individuals so myopic that they could never see their pursuit of quick wealth could mean the death of millions. These are the same people who are now threatening to unleash violence should ‘‘their people’’ be evicted.
The gate collections from the Mara and the Lake Nakuru National Park are more than a billion shillings a year. The total direct and indirect revenue from those two parks is more than Sh5 billion a year.
These forests are the life support system of half of the country and beyond. Tea grown in Kericho and the Nandi Hills, worth an estimated Sh8 billion a year, is nurtured by the moisture and ambient temperatures provided by these forests. Five million people in the Lake Victoria basin owe their livelihood to those same forests.
Kenyan is sold!Did you spot the story below…..
……….The agreement signed between the Kenya Airports Authority and Qatari investors to build a five-star hotel and five office blocks at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport grants liberal privileges to the investors but little in terms of benefits and earnings to Kenya.
According to the fine print of a confidential Cabinet paper seen by the Sunday Nation, the KAA will only be entitled, during the first five years of the operations of the hotel, to a concession fee of five per cent calculated on the gross turnover of the business. The fee increases to 10 per cent after five years and must be renegotiated in the 15th year.
The only other fee KAA is entitled to under the agreement is $1,000 a year, which will be paid by the companies renting space in both the five-tower office complex and the multiple exhibition centres — and a Sh10 million annual rent.
In exchange for this, the agreement grants the investors from the wealthy Gulf state a massive 90 acres of land strategically located within the airport area.
In addition, the Qataris have the right to exclusively own and manage the complex they will be putting up at the airport for an uninterrupted period of 80 years.
And another Qataris deal:
