It may not have been possible to blast three Cabinet Secretaries in front of President Uhuru Kenyatta during Madakara Day celebrations in Kisumu. But the option was on the cards.
Two incidents conspired to spare the CSs the angst of the citizenry.
President Uhuru Kenyatta cut short his tour of the Lake Basin. There was, therefore, no opportunity for him to appreciate the magnitude of water crises, fake projects, ghost roads and environmental disasters.
The President did not drive along the Kendu Bay-Kanyadhiang'-Pala-Homa Hills-Homa Lime-Kodula-Kandiege-Kadel Ring Road. The road named for pioneer freedom fighter Ojijo Oteko is a museum of impunity.
The multibillion-shilling road is built in patches. The thin layer of tarmac, largely on black-cotton soil, is peeling off. Decrepit colonial bridges, hardly six metres wide, have been preserved. It's failed workmanship, failed supervision and collapsed accountability. Yet reports allege the construction is complete.
Roads CS James Macharia should go out there to verify how public money, largely foreign credit, is wasted.
The President's make-good visit, due next month, may be the opportunity for him to appreciate how other Kenyans, away from the highways, survive. The area, especially West Karachuonyo, is off the grid of national attention. It's therefore possible for local government officers to report completion of fake projects.
The new West Karachuonyo Oindo/Kanyamfwa/Mirengo waterline, which is reported to have consumed Sh100 million and is 98 per cent complete, does not exist. The saboteurs who allowed the postage of this fraudulent information on the Presidential Delivery Portal (https://www.delivery.go.ke/countyprojects/43#) should explain themselves.
Leaders who should raise these issues are suspiciously silent. Or what reason would there be if elected leaders cannot condemn the impudent waste of public funds in their constituencies?
The water crises around Lake Victoria, the country's largest water mass, are an environmental crisis that cries for redress. Water is the single silver bullet that can transform community lives, especially among the peasantry.
The rains came in April, and fell generously for 45 days, then stopped like a tap turned off. There is raging famine ahead. The challenges of climate change are real. Climate change adaption is an urgent infrastructural imperative.
Environment CS Keriako Tobiko's ministry is indifferent to off-grid environmental challenges. The danger invites urgent multi-sectoral national attention. Climate change adaption funding is available out there for countries that apply.
Veteran journalist Alex Chamwada raised these issues in a documentary, The Chamwada Report: Effects of Gully Erosion in Homa Bay County, in April 2018. The actionable information is available on YouTube.
Tobiko sent a delegation down there on May 2, 2018, but there was no follow-up. A multi-sectoral team spent public resources on a failed fact-finding trip.
The team's county guide told them a broken culvert had cut off the Kadel-Kandiege road. But there were five alternative routes to disaster sites. A former senior secretary in the ministry, Dr Alice Kaudia, was the team leader of the delegation from Tobiko's office.
Water CS Sicily Kariuki faces multiple court cases for allegedly meddling in the management of water services boards. The states corporations under the ministry have boards, which supervise CEOs. The State Department also has a principal secretary, who has no problem working with meriting CEOs.
The case of these three ministries illustrates why public projects, especially in rural areas, fail or stall: There is simply no follow-up—no accountability.
