Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Solid unshakeable way forward

This article was just heartwarming. Some many years ago, I remember having this conversation/discussion/argument with a group of people. I recall that most of us agreed that as long as there were rivers that could be used for irrigation, villagers or people as a community needed to come together and find ways to irrigate if they lived in arid or semi arid areas. True, the local government should initiate and supervise all such things. Its food, a staple need for all, it's a trigger based of common sense, right? Well, not so. And people become empowered when they start to show those who ought to be working for them that by not doing it, they make their work harder, but not impossible. Still recall some people felt strongly that that was one way to encourage laziness from the government. Question is for how long do you argue with the truth? If the government is a non-performer, at some point, the fat lady has to sing about it.

Hopefully, two things come out of this. One, may teh locl government suffer form great embarrasment. It should have initiated this project. Also made efforts to provide tools to ease the difficult work. Yes, hoes will do the job. Imagine how much faster a caterpillar engine would be. Which brings me to the second point. I hope Kenyans learn that the power lies in their hands. True, the politicians suck from here to Timbuktu. They suck, doesn't mean everyone else has to. Find ways and means to work around them. It's a polite "you're incompetent" notice.

Kudos! Hope this project is a success and that many others are inspired by it. Nice to note financial assistance being provided for it by the government too. Still I wonder how much progress such a town would have seen by now if this had been done say 5, 10 years ago...

1 comment:

AfroFeminista said...

Are you referring to the story about the villagers putting up their irrigation system? If so, yes that was positively inspiring . . . Highly doubt though that the Local Government can possibly be shamed into doing something in future:)they're beyond shaming or feeling any shame - typical Kenyan leaders