Stunned by the over two billion shillings lost by water companies through illegal connections, leakages and unbilled customers, the water regulatory authority has set up a team of citizens who will monitor and file reports on such connections and other problems facing the water sector.

The new initiative where citizens, in confidence, report on their neighbours, employees of water service providers involved in illegal connections business or those who take too long to rectify a leaking pipe, is being piloted in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and Kakamega.

Recent reports of cholera outbreaks in Turkana and parts of Nyanza are clear indicators that our water quality is compromised and a source of killer diseases.

This year’s World Water Day, whose theme was Clean Water for a Healthy World brought home the painful reality that millions of Kenyans and more than 1 billion people in developing countries are forced to rely on unsafe drinking water.

Hundreds of Kenyans are dying or getting their limbs amputated after snakebites even as dozens of doses of anti-venom vaccines lie un-utilized in government hospitals, some within a kilometre from their homes.

Those who have been amputated after failing to get the vaccine are instead trooping to Kenya Wildlife Service to seek compensation.

Can you imagine keeping a snake, an animal considered by millions of people as evil and of deceit character as a pet? This is exactly what officials at a government outfit who care for snakes are requesting Kenyans to do.

Concerned with the high numbers of snakes dying due to the current cold weather or those being killed by people in Nairobi, officers at the National Museums of Kenya are now appealing to those who find snakes in their houses to treat them humanely and as pets.