Kenya may miss growth target: Raila

• Gains made hurt by climate change, PM tells UN forum

Kenya might not attain the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, Prime Minister Raila Odinga told a United Nations’ conference on Tuesday.

The country was perennially accosted by the “twin disasters” of drought and flooding that have dimmed hopes of attaining the goals, Mr Odinga told top government officials from various countries at the UN headquarters in Nairobi.

The disasters, he said, were brought about by the degradation of the environment.

Global warming

The officials are attending a three-day conference under the auspices of the South-South Cooperation, a UN unit that focuses on trade and development in Southern hemisphere countries.

“Global warming may erase the development gains that we have made,” he said, adding that many countries on the continent may not meet the MDGs for similar reasons.

Next year, the UN General Assembly is expected to hold a meeting to assess the progress made towards the goals.

The Prime Minister singled out development barriers of poverty and rising food prices as being tied to the effects of rapid climate change, which ultimately hindered the achievement of the goals.

He told the officials to urgently avert the disastrous effects that global warming was posing on their states by lowering industrial emissions and conserving the natural environment.

Lately, a spirited attempt by the Prime Minister to conserve the country’s largest water tower — the Mau Forest — has resulted in a political backlash.

In an interview with the Nation, Planning minister Wycliffe Oparanya also shared the same sentiments.

“Although Kenya has made impressive gains in areas of education and health, we have not done as well in environmental conservation,” he said.

Mr Oparanya, who was elected the president of the conference, said that member states of the South-South Cooperation would be going to the climate change meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, with a common goal.