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The fight for water rights in Kenya
June 20, 2015 12:57 pm CDT
Analysis of an environmental struggle in Kenya by Chris Williams. Go to the original for the accompanying photo essay by Maria Davis. --PG
Damming the future
Source: Truthout
The struggle to protect Kenya's Ewaso Ngiro river
Wednesday, 17 June 2015 00:00
By Chris Williams, Truthout | News Analysis
"Had the local district officer not had a swimming pool filled with clean water, maybe there would have been more for us to drink."
White highway markings gleam from the hot black tarmac, as if newly painted. The almost completely deserted A2 road, immaculate in its pristine underuse, snakes its way from Nairobi on the way to Ethiopia. Five hours north of Nairobi, the road, a powerful symbol of the modernizing imperative of the Kenyan state, passes through the small, but now rapidly growing, town of Archer's Post.
In a chilling throwback to Britain's hideous colonial occupation of Kenya and brutal counterinsurgency war, Archer's Post still hosts a British military training base, notorious for leaving unexploded munitions that kill and maim local nomadic herders and their children, as well as for frequent sexual assault, rape and violence against local women. Archer's Post was in part chosen for British Army training because of the dry scrub, intense heat and, according to Lt. Col. Andy Hadfield, commanding officer from the 1st Battalion Mercian Regiment, because of the challenging terrain. Hadfield noted that the Samburu National Reserve, which surrounds Archer's Post, is similar to the terrain and heat of another postcolonial outpost - Afghanistan: "There are a lot of thorn bushes out there - hostile animals and insects. And, for the soldiers coming here, operating within that environment really makes them better, more robust, and develops their natural fortitude."
Despite the river flowing through the center of town, the dry and dusty terrain surrounding Archer's Post, so useful for British Army maneuvers, is symptomatic of a problem the Kenyan government has long known about: water shortage and the lack of infrastructural development. Decades ago, in a more hopeful and politically self-conscious era, it published a prescient and forward-thinking paper on issues facing the newly independent country, which included the need to address water scarcity and degradation. Sessional Paper No. 10 "African Socialism and its Application to Planning in Kenya" (1965) states:
In a chilling throwback to Britain's hideous colonial occupation of Kenya and brutal counterinsurgency war, Archer's Post still hosts a British military training base, notorious for leaving unexploded munitions that kill and maim local nomadic herders and their children, as well as for frequent sexual assault, rape and violence against local women. Archer's Post was in part chosen for British Army training because of the dry scrub, intense heat and, according to Lt. Col. Andy Hadfield, commanding officer from the 1st Battalion Mercian Regiment, because of the challenging terrain. Hadfield noted that the Samburu National Reserve, which surrounds Archer's Post, is similar to the terrain and heat of another postcolonial outpost - Afghanistan: "There are a lot of thorn bushes out there - hostile animals and insects. And, for the soldiers coming here, operating within that environment really makes them better, more robust, and develops their natural fortitude."
Despite the river flowing through the center of town, the dry and dusty terrain surrounding Archer's Post, so useful for British Army maneuvers, is symptomatic of a problem the Kenyan government has long known about: water shortage and the lack of infrastructural development. Decades ago, in a more hopeful and politically self-conscious era, it published a prescient and forward-thinking paper on issues facing the newly independent country, which included the need to address water scarcity and degradation. Sessional Paper No. 10 "African Socialism and its Application to Planning in Kenya" (1965) states:
http://socialistworker.org/blog/critical-reading/2015/06/20/the-fight-for-water-rights-in
Damming the Future: The Struggle to Protect Kenya's Ewaso Ngiro River
Wednesday, 17 June 2015 00:00
By Chris Williams, Truthout | News Analysis
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/31316-damming-the-future-the-struggle-to-protect-kenya-s-ewaso-ngiro-river
