28 April 2007
Kigali — There is no doubt that if environmental concerns are not taken more seriously by African leaders, we are sitting on a self-destruct bomb whose fires we are stoking, which is climate change. Every African everywhere, even in far-flung small localities, has seen what this change can mean; not enough food because the land is no longer there for cultivation, or no longer as productive as it used to be; less and less rainfall, making it unconducive for agriculture - basically because nature has been insensitively interfered with.
There are so many ways we have abused mother-nature, and little wonder therefore that she is frowning upon us.
A recent research by an American environmentalist has warned about increasing intensity in global warming, which will crash our food production capacity. The only way forward is, to put it in simple, layman's language, to redress climate change through good environmental practices like doing away with polythene materials, planting trees and yet more trees (and protecting the ones we have from being felled), preventing pollution of the land surface, the water bodies and the skies, and a host of other good environmental practices.
It is only through this that we hope to tip the balance and regain our precarious hold on Man's continued existence. And every Rwandan can do this. The rule should be for everyone to do their bit.
Uganda should take Rwandan to court
Reports emerging from Uganda indicate that there is a person of Rwandan origin who has been denied the benefit of the courts for as many as 16 months. Acleo Kalinga is reportedly languishing in a Ugandan jail without being taken to court, where we presume his guilt or innocence would have been ascertained quickly so that he is jailed constitutionally or else set free.
The Ugandan government, with which Rwanda enjoys a warm relationship, must surely be following up this serious travesty of justice upon a foreign person, and it is to be hoped that there are no other such cases that have been 'overlooked' as Kalinga's.
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