No budget for saving wildlife in Kenya

Earlier this year I wrote an open letter to my President, Uhuru Kenyatta, asking him to expand his Big Four Agenda to Big Five to include environment as a major component of the national strategy for growth and prosperity. The Big Four is how he is delivering on Kenya's Vision 2030 which is meant to be a road map to prosperity.

The article is on my linked in profile here https://www.dhirubhai.net/…/kenyas-vision-should-big-5-4-pa…/

I shared my Linked in letter with certain relevant Cabinet Secretaries who stated that there is no need for a pillar called "Environment" since "environment" is an underlying issue and is captured in every pillar.

Fast forward to the national budget 2019. Budget highlights are clearly linked to the Big Four agenda according to this article in the Finance Ministry Website https://www.treasury.go.ke/…/1443-budget-highlights-19-20.ht…

Here is what the budget specifically caters for on "Environmental conservation"

The Government remains committed to the provision of a clean, secure and sustainable environment and adequate drinking water for all Kenyans.

Allocations in FY 2019/20 are as follows:?

Ksh 27.4bn for Water & Sewerage infrastructure;?

Ksh 25.1bn for Dams construction;?

Ksh 1.3bn for Water harvesting, Storage & Flood control;?

Ksh 1.0bn for Water harvesting and storage for irrigation;?

Ksh 1.0bn for National tree planting campaign

That's it! From a budget of 2.3 Trillion, 1 billion is allocated to tree panting and that's the entirety of investment in environment 0.04 percent of the national budget! The rest of the budget under Environment is actually going to damage environment - Dams!! These destroy land area and cause real problems for migrating fish.

This week I was asking a team of Wildlife Warriors what and who needs to change if we are to secure positive conservation outcomes in Kenya. Two people said - the Ministry of Finance must allocate more funds to conservation and management of parks and forests.

So it's not just me, People are not blind to the fact that wildlife and wilderness is simply not getting any attention It's becoming abundantly clear that the burden for wilderness protection will fall on private sector and I predict that certain predatory organizations under the guise of conservation, are lining up to gobble up parks and lands adjacent to parks. I personally think that Amboseli and Samburu/Buffalo Springs will be first to go with smiling fat cats shaking hands as the ministry promises that foreign investment in the parks for the next 25 year is the way to go as our Government is simply too busy on other priorities (read the national leadership is detached, ignorant, negligent and perhaps worse but I won't say it here).

I expect to witness the opening of wildlife culling, cropping and even some hunting (it'll probably be announced shortly) as urgent mechanisms for our poor communities to benefit from wildlife. This is like throwing a dog a bone. It's not going to have any lasting impact because there are no mechanisms in place to regulate or enforce such an industry. Once land is gone, wildlife will go and it's not going to come back.

I expect to see more roads, railways,bridges, pipelines, power lines and other infrastructure being pushed through parks and reserves. To avoid delays and legal challenges in courts, the National Environmental Tribunal will be crippled, and the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) will certainly be left without funds and forced to approve every EIA that comes their way regardless of scale, impact or consequences. New policies that undermine or waterdown the environmental legislation are expected. There's no question, our protected areas (including parks, reserves, forests, marine protected areas are all under attack in the name of development and this is not about national interest, this is as a result of run away corruption. Look at Lamu Coal, dredging marine sand in the pristiine Diani coastline, farming in forest reserves, mining in national parks, energy transmission lines from private energy farms (wind and solar through wilderness areas).

It's worse, I also expect to see a lot of buffer zone land being subdivided and land conversion to agriculture, mining, energy production. It's happening as I write in Amboseli where the Olgululi Group Ranch is being subdivided despite the catastrophic impact that this could have on elephants. Some people are challenging it in court ... but we all know how that goes in rural county courts. And, Yes, I expect that unless the powers listen to the people of Lamu (for political reasons) the coal power plant will go ahead even though it has been adequately shown that the project will fail to deliver it's promise on cheap energy (never mind the environmental impact). Courageous people are fighing to stop coal in Lamu but they seem to be up against a Government that is protecting a private interest development. I have just seen a tweet that the Kenya Government is fighting to prevent discussion about the impact of Lamu Coal at a UNESCO meeting (Lamu is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that the same Kenya Government asked to be registered as such).

All Kenyans are wondering where our leadership steering this wobbly ship of ours to? It feels like were hurtling towards a cliff.

The silence from those who can make a difference is deafening.

People ask me why I still fight. Well, sometimes I ask myself that very same question. And then I look at the faces of the young people that we work with, who come on tours with us, who watch our TV series Wildlife Warriors. I don't know if we will ever hold those who are currently destroying the country to account, but I do know that the future belongs to the young of today. We need to prepare them now to be responsible citizens of the future.

And, it is still my belief that Kenya should plan for being the World Super Power of Wildlife. We must treasure our great wilderness and wildlife. We have more antelope species than any other nation one earth. Our elephants are the best studied and the best known in the world. Our habitats are more varied than any other country in Africa, from coral reefs, to desert dunes, ice clad mountains on the equator, and rainforests, Great Migration, Great lakes and the Great Rift Valley. Wildlife makes an enormous contribution to the economy (200 billion shillings vs budget of 1 billion for forest protection!). Tourism is predicted to improve, and to contribute to massive growth in jobs. Yes, we are a country of greatness but sadly, we don't seem to know it or value that status.