Went the way of so many other promises. In the 70s, when some of these promises were made, 2000 looked as though it was too far. Shock on them when it arrived. Our biggest failure, it seems, is not in lack of planning but rather in execution of the said plans.

As an aside, I'm reliably informed that the water supply initially intended to supply Machakos town (I think hiyo maji aitha inatoka au inapitia pande za Emali) was diverted by a top politician, no longer with us, to water flowers in his farm. On the other side, if you take the road from Machakos to Kitui, I was shown another farm (I forget the exact name of that place) said to be owned by watermelon, where water intended to supply towns such as Matuu, Kanyonyo, parts of Mwingi & Kitui, etc has been diverted into the shamba. The pipes and canals are clearly visible right from the main road.

@Rankaz, i like your analysis. I also agree with your analysis of the Wakamba: hardworking and goodnatured people. BUT i disagree with the notion that much food will allevoiate poverty. If this was true, agriculturally rich counties like Nyandarua would be full of rich people but this is not the case. Infact, abundance sometimes slows down innovation and makes people lazy

Its the nature of man to look for something else to do once the issue of food is settled. That is why the Industrial revolution came after the Agrarian revolution.
Am curious to know the current poverty rate of Nyandarua. In 2005/6 It was 46.3%, compared to Turkana which was 94.3%.
Anyway, I think most leaders of Ukambani don't want to get their people out of poverty. That poor man will always vote in the rich guy who gives him 50/-when he visits.

Let me tell you where I'm coming from. Take a walk with me here. Imagine a child or even an adult facing malnutrition. What does that portend? Ill health of course, chiefly because the antibodies required to fight off infections are protein in nature. That means then such a person will spend more time bed-ridden due to illness and has no energy or indeed even time to attend school and/or engage in other economic activities. All because of lack of food, something that could easily have been alleviated if there was water.

Similarly, imagine a child who walks for 10kms (some walk longer by the way) in search of water for domestic use. Do you think such a child will have time to go to school? Of course not. And by the way, if they have to walk that far to get their drinking water, you can already begin to visualize that theirs is a rather dry, parched, hardly productive land.

With those two scenarios in mind, can you now see how the simple act of provision of water will impact on both healthcare and education standards? By the way, it's also a proven scientific fact that malnutrition especially in early life, results in stunted growth and development. Obviously the brain is most affected by this, which then means acquisition education becomes an uphill task. All because of lack of water. You can almost begin to see how that poor child in the interiors of the dry Ukambani, Turkana or indeed any other part of Kenya has to surmount incredible odds just to catch up with his well-endowed colleagues.

Now, take a walk to Mwea, and the interior of Kirinyaga district (huko pande za Kagio, Mbarichu, etc) and see the wonders of an act as simple as provision of water for irrigation purposes. You recall the wars they fought with the national irrigation board in the late 1990s? Thing is, soon as the NIB was kicked out, rice farming as well as use of irrigation water was kinda 'liberalized' to areas beyond the mwea irrigation scheme proper. Today, there's so much rice being produced in areas beyond the original scheme proper and in fact, right now as we speak, the Japanese gov't is almost finishing their project to rehabilitate the scheme as well as expand it by building more canals and increasing water supply. Why did this happen? Because the gov't long realized, practically, that the existing supply is inadequate and since there clearly is demand for more, why not? Talking of which, have you seen how fast Mwea town has grown in the last 10yrs or so?

In short, hata huko Ukambani in the remotest of places, let them put the first 1000acres under irrigation waone. Guys will swarm there like bees onto nectar and in no time, it'll be time to expand the project. Eventually, this area may well be our future bread-basket albeit untapped for now. Of course, by selling their surplus, they then get money to invest in alternative economic sectors and begin to sort of diversify their production, but the seed money will have come from agriculture. Of course as the area expands, settlements crop up creating demand for other services and in no time, the gov't will have to provide the requisite roads, hospitals, schools and other social infrastructure. You see how a simple act, provision of water, can have far reaching ramifications beyond our wildest of imaginations?

As I always say, droughts are natural occurences but famines are man-made. Right now as we speak, large swathes of the U.S are facing their worst drought in decades and so did Australia just the other day. But we're unlikely to hear of entire populations there facing certain death by hunger. You know why? Planning and implementation of programmes, part of which includes irrigation.

I say, give the hardworking farmer in Tseikuru some water and this country will never have to beg ndugu zetu to sell us green grams and other cereals again. Let's try it and see. I've seen the zeal with which they take to that land whenever it rains and it amazes me.

While we are waiting for water from our leaders, 'Monsanto' and other corporate entities are introducing their products and at a profit.

This one of 'monsanto' is a true tragedy.. Another catastrophe happening before our very own eyes. I wonder what I can do to 'fight' them beyond good organic farming.. and spreading the word.

I hear people cry Leaders leaders leaders and wonder! How does one expect 40million people to agree on something? Is a bad leader born with a mark somewhere in his body for voters to know? And what if we elect bad leaders/good leaders gone bad, does it mean for 5 years we sit and wait for the next elections while busy dieing?

Change is you and me. Cry about leaders when you've initiated a project to start something. Don't waste airtime crying leaders behind a keyboard, for those leaders aren't going nowhere!

This populist idea of "giving resources to the poor" will get us no where! It is and ideology peddled by NGO-types who are only interested in protecting their jobs!

Here are two basic problems with such a policy:

1] How do you define "the poor"?
2] Which resources do you suggested we give them - land, money, or what?

Its the nature of man to look for something else to do once the issue of food is settled. That is why the Industrial revolution came after the Agrarian revolution.
Am curious to know the current poverty rate of Nyandarua. In 2005/6 It was 46.3%, compared to Turkana which was 94.3%.
Anyway, I think most leaders of Ukambani don't want to get their people out of poverty. That poor man will always vote in the rich guy who gives him 50/-when he visits.

Umesahau Garsen, kule kwa mla mamba (where did he go by the way?) If you take the route from Malindi to Garissa, for miles and miles on end, as far as your eyes can see it's just bare land (soon getting colonized by the nuisance mathenge plant, aka Prosopis juliflora). And yet the self same river tana just flows idly by enroute to the indian ocean.