Our Planet with Anthony Mugo

  A message that has been going around on social media authored by Mr. Doanh Chau, President of Vietnam Gas makes very sobering reading. Having recently met with both President William Ruto and the Prime Cabinet Secretary, Musalia Mudavadi, Mr. Chau makes observations that have immense sense to any right-thinking Kenyan and African. His readers can reasonably deduce that Mr. Chau’s company may have received some kind of expression of interest from President Ruto and his senior officials about investing in Kenya. The conversations revolved around energy and about Kenya’s future— investment, infrastructure and public housing. The very honest summation of the Vietnamese’s impression of the two gentlemen, which he referred to as the “painful truth” was clear. He observed that the ideas being fronted by the Kenya Kwanza Government are very lofty and good. However, they are just that. Ideas. In his words, “there is no serious execution culture”. He goes ahead to identify the core rea...

  Consulting as an occupation remains poorly understood in Kenya beyond a few traditional professions such as medicine, law, accounting and human resources. For other professions, tertiary training programmes generally do not emphasise the possibility of their graduates starting their own practice in their areas of specialisation. This is even though some professions can offer vital capacities that are universally required and for which companies and individuals are willing to pay a premium to build. This situation makes it doubly difficult for those trained in some professions to package themselves as consultants. This is principally because there are very few or even non-existent tailored training programmes specifically for consulting, particularly in many non-traditional fields. For those who decide to navigate the murky waters and gain the requisite consulting skills through trial and error, the journey towards success can prove to be particularly arduous. Many get discour...

As the dust settles following the freezing of the activities of the United  States Agency for International Development (USAID) globally, work supporting climate change interventions, particularly Climate Smart Agriculture in developing regions of the world will face a serious setback. Most of this  work has been going on under the flagship USAID initiative known as Feed the Future (FTF). FTF was launched in 2010 by the United States Government and the Obama Administration to address global hunger and food insecurity. Divided opinion Opinion remains divided about the abruptness of the freeze, which will officially last for three months (90 days), and which was made on President Trump’s first day in office. The point of contention is whether it bodes well or ill for beneficiary countries. Those who support the move argue that for most developing countries, particularly those in Africa, including Kenya, still rely on donor aid for essential life support services – food prod...

The historic comeback by Donald Trump to the US Presidency, a country which is the world’s second largest source of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, after China, is a major potential setback for global efforts to combat climate change. Trump, whose climate scepticism is well known globally, adopted the mantra “drill baby drill,” while on the campaign trail. The implication is that he would remove any restrictions for drilling and use of fossil fuels in the US that have so far been justified on the basis of getting America to increase its share of renewable energy and, therefore, reduce emissions that are responsible for global warming. In effect, Trump was openly denying, as he has done in the past, the scientific evidence that the climate change being experienced today is the result of human activities. This despite indisputable proof by no other than the highly respected Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that most GHGs emission is as a result of use non-renewable fossil...

Time has come for African countries to step up their strategies for demanding fair treatment from developed countries that are responsible for causing global warming and, therefore, climate change. For the last decade and a half or so, African countries have had a unified voice, being too aware that the adverse impacts of climate change cause the most damage to the Continent yet it contributes negligible Green House Gas (GHG) emissions totalling only 4 percent. Taking a unified position during global meetings such as the annual Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) known as CoPs, forces industrialised countries to pay better attention. Hopefully this will compel them to take concrete action to fulfil their obligations to compensate Africa for the loss and damage emanating from climate change. To be sure, most industrialised countries have acknowledged this reality. In response, the global consensus, in the context of the Paris...

  If President William Ruto survives the ongoing onslaught by the Gen Z, Kenya and indeed many African countries where dictatorship has creeped in, have an opportunity to transform in ways not possible before. One of the declarations by the Gen Zs, that sounds like music to the ears of many among the older generations, is that they believe they are tribeless. Indeed, ethnic identity and politics of tribe have proved to be the main impediment to Kenya’s, and Africa’s progress. It is clear now that the Gen Zs, who constitute 75 per cent of Kenya’s population, realise the power that they can wield from their sheer numbers, not to mention high levels of literacy and availability of communication tools for mass mobilisation. The next thing they must do to achieve peaceful change now ought to be registering as voters, guarding the sanctity of the voting card with the same zeal they have fought for their right to picket and being ready to vote in their numbers. If they do that, they wil...