KENYA BLAMED.

Agwanda Jakkorandoh.

Wildlife and Forestry Minister Dr. Noah Wekesa has said Kenya is to blame for the enormous dilapidation of the Lake Victoria wealth.
 
Wekesa said the unrelenting demolition of forests and key water catchments areas in the Kenyan highlands is solely responsible for the sullied state of the Lake Victoria and its basin. The Minister said forest destruction is rampant in several parts of Kenya and that had affected the flow of water from the sources into the lake.

He however affirmed that the line Ministries of Agriculture, Forestry and Environment are committed to the implementation of the resolutions reached at councils of the riparian states of  Lake Victoria aimed at conservation.

The Minister was speaking on behalf of Kenyan Ministers attending the 6th Ordinary Meeting of the Sectoral Council of Ministers of the East African Community, Lake Victoria Basin in Kisumu. He was accompanied by Fisheries Minister Dr. Paul Otuoma, and Assistant Ministers Mwangi Kiunjuri of Energy and Ramadhan Kajembe of Environment.

The meeting brought together Ministers and other delegates from Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. 
 
Burundi’s Minister for Environment Eng. Deo Ndikumana said the over 30 million dependants of the lake stand to be beaten a great deal if the diminution and dreadful conditions of the lake resources is not curbed.
His emotions were reverberated by other chiefs of delegations, Rwanda’s Minister for Natural Resources Vincent Karega, Uganda’s Minister for Water Jeniffa Namuyangu and Tanzanian’s Minister for Water, Prof. Mark Mwandugu.
 
The Ministers called the partner states to revere the spirit of the community and put into operation resolutions made by the council as soon as doable.

Executive Director of the Lake Victoria Basin Commission Tom Oukurut said the Lake Victoria as a shared resource stands to gain a lot of conservational funding through projects that should be accepted by all the partner states.