Kangundo MP Fabian Muli Kyule kept a low profile until becoming a media sensation this week for a proposal he says could end water shortage in Kenya.
The second-term MP wants the government to stop building dams and instead direct the military to pump water from Lake Victoria and the Indian to all parts of the country.
The proposal has thrust the 37-year-old lawyer, who has worked in the United States, Afghanistan, Iraq and Qatar into the limelight.
“My phone has not stopped ringing since. The BBC and other top media houses have called me. Three organisations have expressed interest in the idea,” the MP told the Sunday Nation.
He said Kenya is experiencing drought because it has not rained for long.
“What are we going to do if it does not rain in the next four or five years? Shall we sit pretty and wait to die? Shall we keep going back to Nyayo Stadium?” he asked, referring to the venue of the recent prayers for rains attended by President William Ruto.
He added that the idea is a sustainable way of managing drought.
“We do not need any new law to address water shortage. Through this, we can fix the country’s water crisis in just three months,” he said.
Banking on 1929 and 1959 deals, Egypt has rejected proposals like dams or other large water projects on tributaries of the Nile in the upstream countries of Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia.
“The military has enough labour and machines to address the water problem Kenya faces,” the lawmaker said.
The plan, he added, entails giving Kenya Defence Forces the money meant for providing water by the Ministry of Water and the departments of water in devolved governments.
“The government should deploy the army to map out the country, lay pipes and set up desalination plants and tanks for distributing water to the last mile,” he said.
The lawyer, who worked for a company contracted by the US military in Afghanistan and Iraq, said he knows the plan is costly.
Empty boreholes
But he added that the capital outlay and the cost of infrastructure maintenance pales when compared to the amounts the government has been using to address the problem.
“Present and past administrations have used hundreds of billions of shillings to sink boreholes and build dams. Yet many have since dried up. The dams are dry because it no longer rains and the boreholes are empty because the water table has gone low,” Mr Kyule said.
He cited the UAE, Qatar and Santiago County in the US as some of the regions that use water drawn from oceans.
“To do the same thing over and over and expect different results is insanity. We need to change,” he said.
Mr Kyule’s suggestion has drawn reactions, ranging from outright dismissal by ODM chairman John Mbadi, and support from others.
Mr Mbadi said the Kangundo lawmaker is illiterate. The MP shrugged off the ridicule.
“New ideas are always confronted with resistance. Those dismissing us should know that we will emerge victorious, just as the Wright brothers’ idea of making an aeroplane,” he said.
Mr Kyule has fuelled discussion in his backyard where Azimio and Kenya Kwanza coalitions campaigned on the platform of addressing water shortages.
The MP, elected on Grand Dreams Development Party, is not known as a hardliner.
He floored veteran Katatha Maweu, who flew the Wiper Party ticket, and enjoyed the backing of current Machakos Governor Wavinya Ndeti. BY DAILY NATION