‘God lives in Turkana and visits Nigeria frequently’

When blessings come, it appears, they come in droves. Just think about Turkana, hitherto, a barren land with so many hungers and so many dejected faces. That neglected wasteland  forgotten by nature and government. That godforsaken place.

Well, Turkana, will soon be a  basket case no more. The poorest district in Kenya is poised for a turn-around, and if justice is served, and there is no reason it shouldn’t, Turkana might become one of the richest, if not the richest place in Kenya.

It is only the other day, that  the Government broke the news that Turkana has huge deposits of oil in its belly. But even before we decipher what that means, God has smiled at Turkana again. This time we are told that it has some of the biggest water deposits in the country. To quote Water Resources Director John Nyaoro, “Kenya has over 60 billion cubic litres of underground water with Turkana area carrying a bulk of this”. The land of so many hungers, now has so many blessings. Clearly former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo was  wrong: God lives in Turkana and visits Nigeria frequently.

GSU officers who envy traffic police

Ms Silvia Mwangi alleges that there is some uncommissioned harassment going on outside the British High Commission in Nairobi.

She claims that some overzealous GSU Officers stationed at the High Commission randomly stop innocent wananchi and “start asking irrelevant questions”.

The officers, she adds, usually stop vehicles on one side on the road, in the process blocking other road users.

“If you move onto the other side of the road so as to pass their barrier, they pull you aside and accuse you of committing a traffic offence.”

GSU Officers, she says, appear to have forgotten that they aren’t traffic police officers.

According to her, the officers sometimes waste even up to 30 minutes of motorist’s time.

“I was recently stopped at the barrier close to Geminia Insurance and asked a lot of ridiculous questions,” she say adding that she knows several other people who have suffered the same ordeal.

Silvia wonders whether the High Commissioner is aware of this ‘harassment’, which she wants stopped forthwith.

Thika Road’s ‘bridge in the bush’

Residents of Green Valley (Ngoingwa) estate along the Thika superhighway are a very disappointed lot, according to Mr Eliud Murimi.

In fact, Mr Murimi suspects the contractors of the road  have a hidden agenda to punish the poor residents of Ngoingwa and even endanger their lives.

For instance, he wonders  why  there is no footbridge or even speed bumps near the junction of Mangu Road.

“Sadly the contractors have put up a bridge in a bush with no residents in sight. Their only consideration was a church that is being built there.”

He says the footbridge should have been located at the junction, “which serves many people and where  pedestrians keep on ducking speeding vehicles in their bid to cross the killer highway”.

Black spot

Besides that, Murimu claims there is another disaster in waiting as motorists coming from the direction of Muranga, intending to join the Mangu Road are made to branch off “at a blackspot and join the road at a blackspot”. Considering the foregoing, is there a good reason why the footbridge wasn’t built at this junction, Mr Franklin Bett, Roads minister?

DON’T YOU FORGET

Has Njoka’s loud cry reached you, Dr Shaban?

 In the recent past, Maendeleo Ya Wanaume Organisation chair Nderitu Njoka has been having a very hectic time. He has been running up and down attending to battered men. Cases of husband abuse, he has told us, are on the rise. According to him, over one million men are assaulted by their wives every year. However, as we wrote in this column on January 16, Mr Njoka can’t achieve much because although he is willing, he lacks the wherewithal. In fact, he alleges discrimination by the Ministry of Gender which funds women empowerment via Maendeleo Ya Wanawake Organisation. The Government, he has said more than one time, has refused to give Maendeleo ya Wanaume even a penny. Just why won’t Government fund Njoka, Dr Naomi Shaban, Minister for Gender?

Right of Reply

City Council behind Uhuru estate project

The article appearing in the PointBlank Column on June 6, 2012 in which one of your readers complained about the grabbing of a playground in Uhuru Estate Phase IV is an insult to the residents of the entire estate and our councillor.

The claim by the reader that the playground has been sold is a total misrepresentation of the truth since the ongoing project of a social hall is a project of the City Council of Nairobi, who are the owners of the plot in question.

The project came about as a result of several consultative meetings convened by LASDAP, who are the financiers and the Nairobi City Council who are the developers and also the residents who were invited to give their input.

 It is true that in the meetings there were a few dissenting voices but the majority supported the project and so did LASDAP and the City Council. Our area councilor, Robert Mbatia, relentlessly pursued the matter with the relevant authorities to the fruitful end we are witnessing now.

Ours is to say thank you to this dynamic young man who has displayed selflessness as opposed to all past leaders who never did anything worth mentioning.

A social hall is what all other estates yearn for as it is a multi-purpose place where our youth can be engaged in activities such as drama, boxing, karate, badminton, among others. We should also note that there is no any other social hall in the entire Uhuru Estate.

In the same article the reader describes our leader as one who salivates on seeing an open space.

This is untrue and should be trashed as we know the councillor as a man of unquestionable character and whose duty to the residents and especially the youth has been demonstrated during his tenure.
 

Wilson Maingi,
Nairobi

Point of Order

Take all 2008 post-poll chaos suspects to court 

Commenting about the life sentence handed Mr Kipkemboi Ruto, Mr Justin Osey commends the Nakuru court for setting “a good precedent”. He also wants all the 5,000 poll violence cases prosecuted speedily to serve justice to victims, and deter a recurrence of such violence.