Kangundo Member of Parliament Fabian Muli came under sharp criticism after advising President William Ruto to pump water out of Lake Victoria and Indian Ocean to address the country's drought crisis.
On Wednesday, February 22, Muli challenged Ruto to abandon his dam project and instead pump the water from Lake Victoria and Indian Ocean.
The lawmaker further asked Ruto to deploy the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) to pump the water to different homes in the country.
Defending his sentiments, Muli indicated it was key to helping Ruto's administration slash its expenditure.
"It is a high time we stop this nonsense of building borehole and dams. We need to cut all the budget and give to Kenya army bring the water from Indian Ocean, Lake Victoria and pump it to the whole country," Mule stated.
Muli made the sentiments while commenting on a petition tabled by engineer Victor Okuna to amend the Water Act (2016) to provide for solarized ward-based boreholes to address the perennial water shortages.
Okuna argued that solarised boreholes were key to solving water shortage due to climate change.
Following the petition, Deputy Speaker Gladys Boss Shollei committed the petition to the Public Petition Committee for consideration.
However, Muli's sentiments attracted mixed reactions from Kenyans. A section of Kenyans expressed fear that if Ruto was to heed the advice, it would lead to drying of Lake Victoria.
"When Lake Victoria dries up like Lake Nakuru, then," African Juss wrote on twitter.
Others faulted the lawmaker asking him to conduct extensive research to determine its applicability in Kenya.
"I thought MPs have budget for research staff in their offices.Seemingly, he has none. Maybe the wind blew his mouth to make such a submission," Alex Ogada wrote.
While reacting to Muli's suggestion, another social media user stated that the water from Lake Victoria was not enough.
Despite the backlash, Muli received support from a section of social media users who bought into his idea. They argued that water from Lake Victoria was benefiting other nations yet the country was battling drought and acute food shortage.
"Lake Victoria water belong to Egypt....we are just custodians...even people of Kisumu who should be supplying the rest f the country with food also need water for Irrigation from Dakaini .....that is how comical thing are," social media user commented.
To address water shortage, another social media user argued that the government would adopt the desaliation process to remove salt from large water bodies such as Indian Ocean to benefit residents.
"On a second thought,desalination of Indian ocean water is very welcome. Thank you!" Chrystal Kristie insisted.
Kenya is grappling with acute drought that hit most parts of the country, occasioned by erratic rain patterns. In its latest forecast, the Meteorological Department announced that parts of the country would expect rain during the last week of February.
"Rainfall expected over some parts of the Highlands West of the Rift Valley, Lake Victoria Basin, South Rift Valley and isolated areas of the Highlands East of the Rift Valley," weatherman's statement read in part.
