Our Planet with Anthony Mugo

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...

  Much as the forced displacement of people who have settled along riparian land in Nairobi is painful to those being forced out, it is a necessary measure to make right mistakes that have been made over the years due to poor leadership. No settlement should be allowed on riparian land. Period. One of the main reasons for this is now plain for all to see. Water follows its natural drainage course no matter what may have been erected along natural waterways. Obviously, the heavier the rainfall the more forceful the water and the more damage it causes, the most serious of which is unnecessary loss of human life. Time has, therefore, come for Kenya’s leadership to determine how much distance from a water body should be considered riparian land based on expert advice. Once this is done, this land must be left unsettled and allowed to regenerate naturally and human settlement or cultivation permanently prevented. Current measures being taken to remove people from riparian land in Nair...

  The current flooding being witnessed in Kenya and the larger East African region caused by unprecedented levels of intense rain has led many to re-focus attention on the negative impact of climate change. The extent and distribution of heavy rains that have affected every corner of the country and caused nearly 200 deaths (by 2 nd May 2024), the displacement of thousands of people and loss of more than 5,000 assorted livestock, has raised questions about the role of the international community in easing the burden borne by developing countries such as Kenya and her East African neighbours. Questions have arisen about global preparedness and capacity to cope, particularly by African, Latin American and Caribbean states and Small Island States and least developed countries, with what are anticipated to be increasing and worsening climate-induced catastrophes. It may be recalled that the topmost agenda of the most recent United Nations Climate Conference (Cop 28) was the operatio...