NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 16 – The government announced on Friday that it mulls to partner with the private sector to protect, rehabilitate and promote sustainable utilisation of natural resources.
Environment Minister John Michuki said many of the efforts have to a large extent been isolated to a small group of stakeholders and the impact and sustainability have not been effective.
He stated that neither government nor the private sector acting alone has the capacity to effectively develop and implement strategies for sustainable management and utilization of natural resources.
“In seeking the balance between environmental and economic goals, we must never forget that our outstanding environment is a key part of what makes our country to be considered as strategically special and endowed with diverse environmental resources,” he said.
In a speech read on his behalf by Administrative Secretary Paul Nyando, he said that the business community relies heavily on environmental renewable and non-renewable resources.
He urged that country’s resources must be used wisely.
Currently the ministry has working partnerships with the Mau Forest and the Nairobi River Basin Programme.
He said rapid population growth is posing a huge threat to the water towers, adding that the land available per person is projected to drop to 0.3 hectares person by 2050.
At the same time, the Committee on Lands and Natural Resources wants the government to priorities action towards sensitization of environmental conservation efforts.
Committee member Cyrus Rutere said it was unfortunate that the matter is not being given priority despite the consequences it poses nationally.
“Unless our legislators have to take this one seriously, it’s even more important than Agenda 4; which has preoccupied everybody, the case of the IDPs has preoccupied everybody but if the environment was conducive if we reclaimed all the land that is now towards desert everybody would be willing to move from the Rift Valley,” he said.
He added: “It is a matter of life and death, as we have realised the current drought has been so bad that everybody has felt we need now to go back to the drawing board and rearrange our priorities where do we put environmental conservation how do we fund environmental conservation.”
The Imenti North MP said Parliament must be in the forefront in providing good governance to end further degradation of the Enviroment.
“Why are we making so much noise about the Mau, who messed up with Mau is it the citizens or the government, when we talk about the water towers, who messed up the water towers is it the citizens or the government?”
They were speaking during a National Enviroment Trust Fund Stakeholders meeting aimed at setting up public private partnership platform for sustainable environmental management.
Mr Rutere said: “It is as a result of bad governance, that we are where we are today, and the result is disastrous that’s why we are faced with floods, famine, poverty, landlessness every other shortcomings is brought about by bad governance it is time that Parliament saw to it that there is good government.”
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