If we do, we have been clearly warned, Egypt will attack us under a 'treaty' signed between Egypt and our former colonial master, Britain.

Some 39 years after we supposedly became "independent", we can't even harness our own natural resource and use it to develop our country.

Meanwhile, Egypt exports, loans out and shares the Nile River waters with its Arab neighbours and takes it all the way to develop the Negev desert. And why not the whole Arabian peninsula, if it so wishes? All it has to do is to allocate itself more water.

The rest of us, in the other five eastern African countries that share the lake and/or the Nile River, just watch and take the open contempt of the Arabised North towards us with diplomatic talk about "negotiations". Shouldn't they be the ones asking for negotiations in this case and in all fairness?

I am not going to try to speak for all the other countries that have been cowed by the threat of Egyptian military might should they ever attempt to use the waters of the Nile. But speaking as a proud Kenyan, from the land where 'total men' are in plenty, pray, why should we be bound by a treaty that we were never signatories to in the first place? And why should we fear Egypt's military?

To me, it comes down to the fact that we wouldn't really know what to use the lake water for, other than the usual subsistence fishing. So, we maintain the status quo, smile with our Arab neighbours and accept supervision every time we need to use the water from the lake, while we remain underdeveloped. This, to me, is a situation so painfully reminiscent of the contempt every one seems to have for the people and nations of the sub-Saharan Africa.

Some day, we might actually get a development conscious government which will actually see the need to harness this expansive and most important resource in East Africa for our own development. 

And when that day comes, let's throw out all these so-called treaties away and claim our natural heritage. If anyone wants to fight, let's fight, too. My fellow Kenyans, please, let's wake up. 

PAUL MUNYA, 
Iowa, US.