One of the world’s largest desert lakes is facing one of the worst human undertakings of the 21st century. Yet despite the numerous side-effects it has on the indigenous population, the lake as well as the flora and fauna that inhabit this ecosystem, world’s most remarkable institutions have continued their support for the project in blatant disregard of the glaring disaster they are manufacturing by their otherwise reckless, negligent and ignorant actions.
As the
source of life for over a million living creatures, it is incumbent on any
government and development agency to tread with circumspection while venturing
into those allegedly ‘beneficial’ initiatives. Not even in the jungle is there wisdom
in extinguishing the lives of some in order to improve those of others. It
unprecedented and is not recorded anywhere in the chronicles of history.
River
Omo which accounts for close to three quarters of the total water in L. Turkana
is a river shared by both Ethiopia and Kenya. Riparian ownership demands inter alia that riparian owners have an
obligation to have the water flow onto their land in its natural quantity and
quality. The unilateral decision by the Ethiopian government to block the
waters of the Omo in order to establish hydro-electric dams that came with
human rights abuses on the part of the government in the Omo basin is one of
the greatest testaments to Africa’s disregard of international law, sound
resource governance and the mandatory Free, Prior and Informed Consent of the
indigenous communities.
Environment
Impact Assessment reports and Scientific analysis by activists indicate the short term and long term massive
effects the dam will have on the human and animal population. For centuries,
the people on the western and eastern shores of the lake have known nothing
else for fishing and domestic water other than the lake. That’s why they are
fascinated when a whole president who is constitutionally mandated to take care
of these poor Kenyans is pro a project that is anti-their very existence. From Argentina
to the Americas, water bodies are being destroyed in the name of development
and achievement of set-goals; yet no one is willing to stop and ask their
conscience whether or not the step taken is one leading to Eldorado or one of
minus a thousand lives plus one vision.
Former Liberian
president Charles Taylor, while addressing the Special Tribunal for Sierra
Leone in which he was being tried for crimes against humanity and war crimes charges
had this to say:
“In the word
of today, if America and Europe want you to live, you live. If they decide that
from now on, you will not live, you will not live. They will eliminate you. That’s
why I am standing before you today”. These words had a lot of sense then and
still have a lot of sense today. In the world of Eastern Africa, if Ethiopia wants
you to live, you live and if they want to extinguish your sojourn on earth in a
micro-second, you die. From the mufti-billion Gibe Dams to diverting the Nile
to Ethiopia while oblivious of the fact it is the heart of Egypt upstream, the
Ethiopian government has in the recent past acted with a lot of impunity. Which
begs the question, what do they think they are to the people of the eastern Africa
region? And to the doomed Kenyan leaders, this superiority over others when it
comes to shared rivers cannot be solved through magical abracadabra nor
senseless lectures and verbal diarrhea. Arise and safe us from the enemy or soon
count us part of the team that will launch an offensive against human rights
violations by the Ethiopian government.
It is the
law of nature that if an agency, government or individual has nothing important
to give to you, they should pack and go and leave you as they found you. Not the
source of problem that they have become. What is shocking is the fact that the relevant
government officials are not aware a ticking time bomb is in the making in the other
part of the country. Someone tell Ethiopians that having not been colonized doesn’t
make them any more important than others. Someone tell Ethiopians that you have
a right to abuse your own resources but let the effect not be felt by your
neighbours.
Ekai Nabenyo is a law student at the
University of Nairobi and blogs at
INFORMING KENYANS- www.ekainabenyo.blogspot.com
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