The State cannot love Wangari Maathai but hate Uhuru Park

The government can’t love Wangari Maathai but hate on Uhuru Park.

Sometimes you wonder whether government policymakers actually live in this country, because evidence points to the contrary.

You get the feeling they drop from outer space, sign concessions with multinationals and return to their safe havens, leaving us to choke in their mess.

Anyone who gives the green light for the mutilation of Uhuru Park has zero respect for the heroes who fought for the Park’s preservation, and neither are they supporters of environmental conservation.

Uhuru Park is one of Kenya’s last remaining symbols of national defiance.

It took a courageous unit of daring women to look President Daniel Moi in the eye before warning him against touching that public space we enjoy today.

The struggle did not come easy. These women were called all manner of derogatory names and clobbered for sport.

HIGHER PURPOSE

Putting your life on the line for a public utility is not an easy decision to make. This is not a personal war — many would not even consider it a life-and-death situation.

Those supporting Uhuru Park’s destruction will always argue that Kenya has no shortage of free land.

Questions linger in your mind if it is worth fighting for a cause that neither confers individual benefit nor comes with commensurate compensation.

In a country that treats heroes like doormats, sometimes it is difficult getting convinced that the fight will be worth it.

It was just last week, during Mashujaa Day celebrations in Mombasa, when President Uhuru Kenyatta dedicated his official speech to celebrate Kenyan heroes, past and present, dead and alive.

Wangari Maathai was named as one of the Kenyans who left a legacy for us to pick up from. Her struggle to sustainable development, through environmental conservation, is what won her the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.

IMMORTALISE MAATHAI

If the government cannot protect Uhuru Park for the sake of ordinary Kenyans, who have no other place to cool off from this punishing regime, at least they should do it out of respect for, and in honour of, Wangari Maathai.

Our leaders love hanging around success they did not work for, nor have no idea how they came by — one of the Cabinet secretaries is so annoying with sending congratulatory messages she has been nicknamed the Minister of Congratulations.

The government needs to choose whether they truly want to immortalise Wangari Maathai or they are doing it for international clout.

If you’re going to milk the international image Wangari Maathai left, at least have some respect by protecting the Uhuru Park she got brutally clobbered defending from encroachment.

People don’t just wake up one day to lay their lives for the sake of the greater good.

Kenya hosts the only United Nations headquarter office in the developing world, which happens to be the UN Environment Programme (Unep).

LIFESTYLES

The irony is not even lost on our leaders that as the world entrusts us with being the crucible of global environment matters, our leaders are busy proving why we don’t take this rare privilege seriously, and then cry foul when someone suggests that the office be moved out of Nairobi.

If mutilating Uhuru Park is one of the conditions for being granted a loan, then it is only fair that our negotiators flying to Beijing register our collective discontent with, and contempt for, the blatant disregard for Kenya’s public utilities by those who loudly preach that they’re our friends but cannot match their words with tangible actions.

If you’re part of the government team who negotiated this deal giving the go-ahead for the defilement of Uhuru Park’s sanctity, it is time to own up to your puerile error of judgment.

If your children are too posh to use Uhuru Park for exercise and making new friends, you should be informed that they’re in the minority as most Nairobi parents cannot afford private recreational facilities and have no resources to make it there.

It cannot be that government officials whose lifestyles are financed by the taxpayer are the same people killing public spaces jobless taxpayers go to for a rest from this punishing government.

CLIMATE CHANGE

At a time when climate change is causing global concern, with countries making firm commitments to protect existing green spaces and create more liveable cities, we cannot allow our government to make us the laughing stock in the league of nations signing international treaties we don’t intend to keep.

If it is the intention of the government to convert the City of Nairobi into a giant concrete jungle, choking of bad air and devoid of public recreational spaces, then there’s no use having a government of humans when a plague of rats could offer the same results, and without eating our taxes.

The writer comments on topical issues; gabriel.oguda@ gmail.com