Editorial

We are once again in the rainy season. During this period of the year, there is usually a rise in the number of people who have stomach troubles like diarrhoea and sicknesses like malaria. There is also the danger of accidents and flooding.  We deem it important to advise the general public to take precautionary measures so that we can avoid these unnecessary diseases.

Cleaning our streets to ensure the removal of waste that litter the environment, and ensuring that our children stay indoors when it is raining are good precautions. We should also not allow stagnant water in our vicinity. Such water provides breeding grounds for mosquitoes, the odious insect that transmits malaria, which is a killer disease in Africa. Besides diseases, rainfall can cause electric shock, traffic accidents and flooding. We recommend that our drivers drive slowly and with care, and if possible avoid driving, especially long distances, when it is raining heavily, since hydroplaning makes driving on wet roads much more dangerous.

Flooding is another big problem we encounter during the rainy season. While government is doing all it can to tackle the problem, it is important that individuals and communities play their part. We should desist from throwing things into the gutters as this affects the drainage system adversely. However, the KMC and all the other stakeholders should endeavour to cover the drainage cannels that have been left open particularly the ones around the West Field junction. This would aid greatly in the crusade to ensure a safe environment during the rainy season. It is obvious that if we all play our part, we will surely experience a problem-free wet season.

Finally, we also hope that people are fully prepared to go and work in their farms. An agrarian nation is a wealthy nation. Records indicate that the failure of the last cropping season has triggered a massive response to the back-to-the-land call. We hope the momentum is sustained, so that we can achieve food self-sufficiency for the country. The rainy season is the period to take control of our natural environment to achieve the much-desired development that the leadership of the country has always been advocating for. Besides, farming will greatly reduce unemployment and many other development challenges confronting us today.