At both places, I was impressed by America's holistic thinking when it comes to matters of national security, which they take quite seriously. For several decades now, there has been reflection within the American military-industrial complex and intelligence communities on the connection between the environment and Uncle Sam's security interests, home and away. And even when both Democrats and Republicans remain divided -- in public, at least -- on whether or not global warming is real, the men and women who think and fight for America continue to do the necessary, and provoke public debate where appropriate.

I was on the Hill ahead of the historic American polls last year, and every think-tank or Congressional event I attended had Americans probing their present and future with regard to the environment, regardless of political persuasion. At the American Enterprise Institute -- traditionally a Mecca for America's right -- I attended an even where both Democrats and Republicans appeared to agree that whoever would take over from President George Bush would have to stay true to America's triad of defense, diplomacy and development in re-setting the button of domestic and foreign policy. In Africa, it was argued, such a foreign policy would have to be re-calibrated to include America's sensitivities on the environment, even as profit remains the bottom line. I'm not certain anyone from the Kenyan embassy attended, but I remember seeing friends from various African missions in Washington, D.C taking notes religiously.

In major Western capitals, and even the East, where Nairobi is looking to these days, there is an acknowledgment -- even if silent in some quarters -- that national security in our days is going to rely on much more than a small, mobile, well-equipped system, or even such an effective thinking as the Powell Doctrine, deployed effectively in the first Gulf War.

In a sense, therefore, security and intelligence experts are these days giving as serious attention to changes in weather and climate patterns as they are to social, economic, military and political changes in countries within their spheres of influence.

Which is why Defense Minister Yusuf Hajji's reported attendance of the Mau "fund-raiser" last Wednesday left a bitter taste in my mouth. With the privileges that go with his position, this is a man one would expect to know what is unfolding in the country, with all its permutations. Even without the, doubtless, quality intelligence from the Kenyan military and the National Security and Intelligence Service (NSIS), one presumes scientific research already in the public domain would have found its way to the man in charge of Kenya's external defense, as indeed his counterpart for internal security.

Which makes me wonder, what political interests would be so precious as to blind the minister and his friends from this understanding? What future are we supposed to wait for in 2012, if we are, in the words of Francis Imbuga, "already killing our future?" For it is Imbuga's Mosese Tonga who, in Betrayal in the City, laments:  "It was better while we waited.  Now we have nothing to look forward to.  We have killed our past, and are busy killing our future."

As a believer in a strong national defense and intelligence system, I dare suggest that our politicians are the biggest danger to Kenya's security interests. From reckless remarks, activities and - in the Mau affair - irresponsible associations, they leave no doubt that they would gladly have us fry in our oil as they build their futuristic fantasies. Even more appalling, this is coming our way from a people whose fellow countryman -- Wangari Maathai -- has won a Nobel for understanding the link between the environment and political stability.

Much more damning, in my view, is the ideological implication:  The Mau fund-raiser brought together orphans of what is generally seen as Kenya's conservative political wing. From Melbourne to London, Ontario to D.C and everywhere else, conservatives are folks who are supposed to score high on national security and put the fear of God in seemingly spineless moderates and leftists. What Prime Minister Raila Odinga, traditionally viewed as center-left, appears to have cast himself as the precise opposite on this subject upsets the apple cart for those with a keen eye for policy-based politics.

True, there may be genuine humanitarian concerns in the on-going eviction process.

But it may well just be that in the future Kenya and East Africa, some kids will review their history books, and wonder about a forest called Mau, a generation in government that was frighteningly "futuristic" and a Prime Minister who saved the day at great personal cost.

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The write is a political strategist (www.jesse-masai.com)