Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06NAIROBI145
2006-01-12 11:42:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Nairobi
Cable title:  

LIVING WATER INTERNATIONAL MAKES SPLASH IN KENYA

Tags:  PGOV PREL PHUM SENV EAID OREP KE 
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UNCLAS NAIROBI 000145 

SIPDIS

STATE PASS TO USAID FOR AF A/A LLOYD PIERSON
STATE FOR AF A/S FRAZER
STATE PLEASE PASS TO OPIC ROBERT MOSBACHER AND TO CONGRESSIONAL
OFFICES OF SENATORS FRIST AND BROWNBACK AND REPRESENTATIVES
CHRIS SMITH, TOM TANCREDO, JOHN CULBERSON

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM SENV EAID OREP KE
SUBJECT: LIVING WATER INTERNATIONAL MAKES SPLASH IN KENYA


UNCLAS NAIROBI 000145

SIPDIS

STATE PASS TO USAID FOR AF A/A LLOYD PIERSON
STATE FOR AF A/S FRAZER
STATE PLEASE PASS TO OPIC ROBERT MOSBACHER AND TO CONGRESSIONAL
OFFICES OF SENATORS FRIST AND BROWNBACK AND REPRESENTATIVES
CHRIS SMITH, TOM TANCREDO, JOHN CULBERSON

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM SENV EAID OREP KE
SUBJECT: LIVING WATER INTERNATIONAL MAKES SPLASH IN KENYA



1. Living Water International, the Texas-based Christian NGO
that specializes in bringing clean water to rural communities
in developing countries, scored a signal success in Kenya
January 10 when President Kibaki and cabinet ministers spent
more than 8 hours with the group inaugurating two new wells
in drought-stricken Maasai land. As in other rural parts of
Kenya, these areas of Maasai land, less than two hours from
downtown Nairobi, are currently dustbowls where scrawny
cattle and goats scavenge a bone-dry landscape.


2. Stung by criticism at home of an allegedly slow GOK
response to the drought and widespread hunger, President
Kibaki appears to have seized the opportunity presented by
Living Water to demonstrate his involvement in projects to
ease rural suffering. All major media January 11 carried
photos and stories of President Kibaki turning on the taps at
the two wells and personally filling plastic jerricans. In
his remarks to large crowds at both locations, Kibaki
repeatedly thanked our American friends, Living Water
International and the US Embassy and government for coming
forward to help Kenya in a moment of great need.


3. In its 11 years of operation in Kenya, Living Water asserts
that it has dug more than 300 wells and brought clean water to
one million Kenyans. Some of the wells serve rural communities
and agricultural and livestock production (as do the two wells
lls
opened January 10),and some serve schools and hospitals which
otherwise, lacking reliable water, would not exist.


4. Long-standing relationships with Kenyan religious and
humanitarian counterparts, plus good relations with a number
of key politicians and cabinet figures, have enabled Living
Water to operate widely and continuously across Kenya over
the past decade. The Living Water commitment to Kenya
appears to extend well into the future, with plans for
bringing additional drilling rigs into the country and
locating new sites already well underway.

Bellamy