Meetings That Pay; Climate Change Bill

Imagine yourself at a four star hotel where ambiance is the order of the day. A place where the waitresses are super beautiful and equally benevolent. A place where you'll meet the entire county government administration because that's where they profligate the county's resources - having sumptuous lunch. Where food that you never knew of is served in plenty. A place where your intestines are for the first time introduced to their Mr. Right in terms of food. The many cuisines we have around and they are for some time saved the grappling from ugali mix or worse still matumbo. What a major breakthrough! Thanks for imagining. Now stop (and move on like....)! That's how I spent my weekend, the fact it was just for a day notwithstanding.
On 30th May, I had the pleasure of representing AYICC-K at the Murang'a County consultative forum on the draft Climate Change Policy and Bill details of which can be downloaded here. A bill that is in Parliament currently awaiting its second reading, the first having been on 6th March 2014. Hotel Nokras was a perfect choice of venue by KCCWG (the event organizers) as you can see from my introduction. Anyway my first task was to find the three ladies who had invited me; Susy Wandera, Annette and Wanja. Shouldn't I just act normal and say that they didn't disappoint, both in their beauty and later on their presentations. I am a man (a straight one for that matter) for Christ's sake and there are some things I can't help but write in a blog. The meeting was called to order by Ma'am Cecilia Chege after a round of introductions. I must say at this point that we really struggled to get someone to pray for us until the rapporteur saved the day. Bad- mannered Murang'a people.
Our main guest Governor Mwangi wa Iria's absence however was accentuated by the empty seats at the front. That didn't kill the spirit though as Hon. Albert Mwaniki welcomed us all to Murang'a County and, being a Friday, stressed that we shouldn't be in a hurry to leave. He promised most importantly that his county would be the first to implement the Bill if it became law. He then excused himself as he had other commitments to meet and so he left. These politicians! The chairman of KCCWG was next in line accentuating the dire need for streamlining of climate change in our development plans including the Vision 2030. He however sent shivers down the members with his jokes on jiggers and occasionally forcing grins from us. He at one point joked that he was shocked not to see any of us barefoot. We almost stoned him. He then gave evidences of climate change including unreliable rainfall and the melting of ice at Mt. Kenya. I can second him on that as some time back we used to wake up and go out to sunbathe in the sun but nowadays the rays of the sun wake you up. To further prove this, there is talk that the boom in tourism around Mt. Kenya and Kilimanjaro is because the tourists want to see the snow before it melts completely. <== I cooked that up though.
The speaker then talked of the many opportunities presented by climate change ranging from selling solar lights to carbon trade. Or is it not true that every disaster provides an opportunity. He summed up by saying that Africa being the least contributor to climate change at 3% is the most vulnerable and suffers the most. My take however is that we shouldn't just sit down and watch as our poor children and women suffer just because we're not the cause. We need to respond by adapting to climate change and mitigating where we can. With that, our stomachs demanded a tea break to recuperate from the agony of sweet smelling delicacies. And delicacies we were served! I am still laughing at the thought of those many guys who - given an option between coffee and fruit juice - chose both. Yes, that's who I am, a morbid snitch! I'd let out a diabolical laughter - albeit silently - as women and men in equal measure struggled to use the cutlery not knowing on which hand to hold the knife and on which to hold the fork. I remember my first time using such 'complicated apparatus' I ended up with more than half of my meal in the dustbin. Chops of meat would slide all the way to the floor. But that was then. At least now I know that the fork should be held in the left hand and the knife on the right. I digress!
The next presenter was none other than the wonderful Susy Wandera whose aura of captivation tethered us to the presentation, not to blink away. Susy is one of those people who you'd want to precede your presentation because she'll successful excite the public for you, and talks longer thus saving you much time. She talked about the roles of the 2nd Medium Term Plan (MTP2) - something I never knew of - and the County Integrated Development Plans in aiding climate change mainstreaming. The Bill, tabled in Parliament in 2002 was discussed in detail with the focal point being the establishment, powers and functions of the National Climate Change Council as proposed in the aforementioned bill. The role of the council to both formulate and implement such matters as pertains to climate change was questioned owing to past failures by other similar bodies. The speaker was however precipitous in clarifying the clearly defined powers of the Council. The presentation deserved no further questions due to the clarity and lucidity conferred to it by the speaker.
Mercy Mburu from KENAFF (Kenya National Farmers Federation), a body that prides itself with representing the interests of about 2 million farm families, was the next speaker in line. She exhaustively talked about the impacts of climate change with a special focus on the farmer. The impacts ranged from droughts, water scarcity, conflicts over resources and the sprouting up of climate change refugees. Agriculture was termed as one of the sectors affected by the climate change menace among others such as biodiversity conservation, energy, fisheries, health, forestry, tourism and water supply. A closer look in many treatises revealed that energy, industries, forestry and agriculture are leading in contribution to climate change.
The discussion was then scaled to the plenary session where many issues on both the Bill and the Policy were raised. Of particular importance was the choice of response Africa had chosen with regard to climate change. there were questions as to why Africa, and in particular Kenya, should be involved in mitigation measures when it's total contribution to the same was a meager 3% half of which came from South Africa. The clarification was that African countries had focused on Adaptation while developed countries opted for Mitigation as their respective responses to climate change.
To sum the session up was Paul Murage from Kenya Meteorological Service whose presentation was mainly on the responses put in place combat to climate change. He briefed us on the Early Warning systems at his organization including monitoring and prediction tools, dissemination of information, risk knowledge and response citing a case study of the landslides in Kiriko-ini village in Murang'a. He advocated for the need for long term solutions top replace the short term solutions that are currently in better as a better response to common hazards within Murang'a. These hazards include: droughts; floods; landslides & mudslides; rising temperatures; and fog. The County is faced with the challenge of meteorological stations with only one station that is at KARI, Thika. The role of the media in early warnings and response was also emphasized. With that presentation, the session was brought to a halt. But not without a hand of appreciation, that was way above commensurate with our participation, from the organizers. We all queued in line to get a token that was to cater for our travel expenses. I don't know about the rest but mine was enough to spend for the Madaraka Day celebrations and lasted till this morning to cater for my fare. I am still in awe. I mean who gives you Kshs 2000 to just sit and listen to them? Not unless these guys at KCCWG have political motives.
With the money safely in our pockets and/ wallets depending on where one found safer, we were then invited for a buffet details of which I won't reveal to avert the dangers it would cause to you. To AYICC-K I say thank you for that chance. To the organizers, KCCWG, I say thank you too. I'd have followed you to Vihiga (the next venue) just to pocket the 2000 were it not that JamboJet doesn't fly that route.


PS. The Draft Climate Change Bill can be downloaded here