The recent public spat between the land commission and the country’s custodian of historical sites over construction of a seawall to protect Fort Jesus is, to say the least, unfortunate.
All it would have taken to avoid being left with egg on the face is a simple meeting between the National Land Commission and the National Museums of Kenya for each side to air their views.
That would have averted the public spectacle that the country was treated to.
When Kenya’s curator deemed it fit to put up a wall to secure one of the country’s famous sites, the concern was on the safety of an edifice that has withstood the fury of the ocean waves for 500 years.
Perhaps the threat by Unesco to delist Fort Jesus as a World Heritage site may have opened the eyes of the land team boss Muhammad Swazuri on the folly of rushing to make whimsical fiats.
The lesson here is that State agencies must find means of ironing out their differences in boardrooms instead of letting what would have been resolved by a simple phone call become a national source of shame.
In the same spirit both government and private entities must embrace dialogue as this would save the country billions of shillings that eventually go into litigation when matters are taken to court.
Dialogue saves time and scarce resources, which could go to building the economy.
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