Aviation East Africa Issue 2 by AVIATIONEASTAFRICA

KISUMU INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT: KENYA’S 3RD HUB - P10

EAST AFRICA

a ir p o rts ISSUE No. 0002 March 2012

technology

i n fr a stru c tur e

KSh350 • USh10,080 • TSh6,570 • RF2,340 • BIF4,780 • USD4

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What every school leaver needs to know about Job opportunities in Aviation SECTOR P46

Aviation

Careers PEO

TRAV ELLER’ S

0002 March 2012

PLE

PLAC

IDEA

TALES: Epic Er uptio

ns - P9 0

THRE E CUPS WITH BABU - P114

A Special Report

Cover Photo | Jonathan Kalan

ISSUE No.

Interviews with leading industry regulators & trainers- P28 Colonel (Rtd) Hilary K. Kioko, Director General Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA)

The for TIutaly Conce rkana rt P106

Open Le tter to Green th Minister e Next P82

Global Ec Certific osphere Retre ations at P98 and

INSIDE EA Flyer: The Italy for Turkana Concert P106 Mrs. Pau line

Kalonzo Musyok a’s

Italian Ambass ado r Pao March 2012la

Imperia | 75le.

March 2012

Contents March 2012

KISUMU INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT: KENYA’S 3RD HUB - P10

EAST AFRICA

aIRpoRTS ISSUE No. 0002 March 2012

Technology

InFRaSTRUcTURe

KSh350 • USh10,080 • TSh6,570 • RF2,340 • BIF4,780 • USD4

www.aviationea.com

WhAt EvERy SChool lEAvER NEEDS to kNoW About Job oPPoRtuNItIES IN AvIAtIoN SECtoR P46

P28

Aviation

Careers No. 0002

PEO

PLE

March

LLER’S

2012

PLAC

IDEA

TALES:

Epic Eruptio

ns - P90

THREE CUPS WITH BABU - P114

A Special Report

Cover Photo | Jonathan Kalan

TRAVE ISSUE

Interviews with leading industry regulators & trainers- P28 Colonel (Rtd) Hilary K. Kioko, Director General Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA)

The Ita ly for Tu rkana Concert P106

Open Letter to the Green Next Ministe r P82

Global Ecosph ere Retreat Certific ations P98

INSIDE EA FlyER: The Italy for Turkana Concert P106 Mrs. Pauline

Kalonzo

Musyoka’s

and Italian

Ambassador

MarchPaola 2012

Imperiale.

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March 2012

P24

Editorial | Aviation East Africa .......................................................... 7 News Briefs | Kisumu International Airport......................................... 10 Airport Services............................................................... 12 Business Briefs | A Busy 2012 for EA Airports............................................ 14 Market Share.................................................................... 15 Technology Briefs | Boeing Insists on New Identification Standard............. 16 Galileo vs GPS.................................................................. 18

P10

P64

Airport Review: London Airports.................................. 24 Dispatches | Letter from New York ...................................................... 56 Letter from London ........................................................ 60 Letter from Kampala ...................................................... 62 Letter from South Africa ................................................. 64 Legal Opinion .................................................................. 66

P70

Special Feature: Flying with the Military...................... 70 EA FLYER | Environmental Notebook............................................... 82 Traveller’s Tales................................................................ 90 Foreigners........................................................................ 95 Big Ideas Forum............................................................... 98 Cover Story/Events........................................................ 106 Essay............................................................................... 114

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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material.No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without written permissionfrom the publisher. The views expressed in the articles are those of the authors. Return undeliverable copies to: East African Flyer Magazine, Woodley, Ngong Road, Box 636 - 00100 GPO, Tel: +254 020 8019387, Email: sales@aviationeastafrica.com, www.aviationea.com

Editorial Team PUBLISHER Professional and Advisory Management Consultants P. O. Box 636 -00100 Nairobi email; pamc@aviationeastafrica.co.ke BOARD MEMBERS Eric Mwandia (Chairman) emwandia@aviationeastafrica.com Samuel Kahiga skahiga@aviationeastafrica.com Commissioning EDITOR Wycliff Muga wmuga@aviationeastafrica.com CONSULTING EDITOR Matt K. Gathigira mgathigira@aviationeastafrica.com

DESIGN Peter Githaiga William Odidi PHOTOGRAPHY Jonathan Kalan Anthony Njoroge Thinkstock.com ADVERTISING INQUIRIES sales@aviationeastafrica.com SUBSCRIPTIONS Aviation East Asfrica is published monthly. Subscription rates: Individual, one year KSh3,360 aviation east Africa Box 636 - 00100 GPO Tel: +254 020 8019387 www.aviationea.com Printed by Atlas International Dubai

Welcome March 2012

The Voice of the Region’s Aviation Business Sector

Editorial

By Aviation East Africa Chairman Eric Mwandia

Aviation Industry a Growth Sector Despite Economic Downturn

ur Cover Story looks at various aspects of the growth taking place in the aviation sector, even in the midst of the economic downturn in the West and the phenomenal growth being registered in Asia and Africa. Aviation East Africa magazine is dedicated to addressing issues of interest to industry players and users of aviation resources and services. As we indicated in our first issue, for instance, this magazine’s interviews with policy and management leaders will be with individuals and institutions that represent the best of the sector in this region, offering expert opinion, analyses, diagnoses and prognoses. We aim at stimulating debate and interaction. The Cover Story features two wideranging and eye-opening Executive Interviews – with the Director General of the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA), Colonel (Rtd) Hilary K. Kioko and the Acting Director of the East African School of Aviation (EASA), Ms. Justina Nyaga. There are also two conversations with two young pilots – Captains Carol Wanjiru and Arnold Rotich. In our CEO vision interview – the Executive Interview – Col. Kioko elucidates the role of the KCAA, aspects of Kenya’s and the region’s aviation growth, policy and great expectations, going forward.

ew | Executive Intervi

The story of the EASA, an institution that is much better known outside Kenya than in Kenya, is a remarkable one. The School trains a host of foreign students, including from southern, Central, western and northern Africa. What’s more, its Kenyan graduates, particularly air traffic controllers (ATCs), are to be found as far afield as the Middle East and are in great and continuing demand. The interview with EASA Director Nyaga was conducted in her offices near the old Embakasi Airport by Business Writer Andrew Njuguna. Ms Nyaga, who was accompanied by her management team, including Registrar Academic Affairs Lucas Mak’Omondi, Dean of Students Timothy Ngugi and Registrar Administration Joseph Yator, told us that the School had reached a point in

K. Colonel Hilary Above & below: in his General KCAA . Kioko, Director during the interview office at JKIA

ches Region’s ‘Aviation Matic wth’ Econom Gro HILARY COLONEL (RTD) r K. KIOKO, Directo Aviation General, Kenya Civil to Aviation Authority spoke s Writer Busines Africa East NA in his ANDREW NJUGU Headquarters offices at KCAA ta at the Jomo Kenyat t International Airpor AFRICA: AVIATION EAST about yourself Tell us a little ... professionally I was born COLONEL KIOKO: Lower Eastern in the and raised I went to school. Province, where I joined high school After finishing where I ty of Nairobi, the Universi ring. ical Enginee studied Mechan studies of university On completion

an Railways as I joined Kenya and ical Engineer Assistant Mechan Force, in the Kenya Air up then I joined l Officer. I grew 1980, as a Technica of Colonel. rank the ranks to the military service In my military my In Kenya worked all over g service I have ents includin appointm d in various ing, comman training, engineer and diplomatic tration, and adminis included tours of duty service. My Forces College, the Kenya Armed National Defence Laikipia Air Base, ce Factories Ordinan College, Kenya African and East Corporation, iat Secretar Community und in the Q: Is your backgro you in your to military an asset ? current position hard the discipline, A:Yes it is. It is from m I learned me work and patriotis have assisted the military which tasks at hand. on the to be focused Turn to P32 March 2012

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The Voice of the Region’s Aviation Business Sector

Editorial

Aviation Industry a Growth Sector Despite Economic Downturn

its history, and the aviation sector had reached a juncture, where Kenyans ought to become much more aware of what it has to offer and to make much better use of it than they have hitherto. Consequently, the School is embarking on an awareness, PR and marketing drive to popularize its services, which, surprisingly, include outsourcing expertise in machine calibration. EASA has a technical department that has the capacity to offer advanced training facilities to technicians and others in such divergent but specialist fields as the manufacture of beer and soft-drinks. In other words, even massive corporates like East African Breweries and Coca Cola can profit from sending their technicians to EASA. EASA is acutely aware of the need that some of the companies neighbouring the School have in regard to training of their machine operators. The School has the capacity to train machine calibration experts such as those from Coca Cola using its lab facilities. Students from the University of Nairobi have taken advantage of these facilities when the institution comes to hire both EASA equipment and operators to conduct exams. Private companies are welcome

to train their staff at EASA instead of taking them abroad and this maybe beneficial to the School in raising awareness about these courses and facilities and its management looks forward to becoming a major training center for experts in machine calibration in the region. Special Correspondent Amy Fallon reports from Uganda on the 15th anniversary celebrations of the Kampala Aero Club and Flight Training Centre. Writer Eric Mwiti provides a young man’s insight into the long-term benefits of careers within the broader education sector, pointing out, for instance, that while the training costs for pilots may be prohibitive, the support functions on the ground are not only affordable but create opportunities both within Kenya and the broader sub-Saharan region. When our New York Correspondent Lars Dabney had the chance to be embedded with a company of US Marines in strife-torn Afghanistan, he jumped at the opportunity. In our Special Report, he gives a fascinating account of flying with the military in a war zone. Welcome to a features-packed second issue of Aviation East Africa.

Our vision and mission are fused together – to be the premier aviation journal in our region, which encompasses the East African Community nations of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi

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extending to the Great Lakes Region, South Sudan and Ethiopia

News |

Kisumu International Airport

Kisumu, Kenya’s 4th International Airport and 3rd Hub By ANDREW NJUGUNA

resident Kibaki officially opened the much-awaited Kisumu International Airport in February, Kenya’s fourth international airport after Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Moi International Airport in Mombasa and Eldoret International Airport in Eldoret and third hub after JKIA and MIA. The airport renovations and expansion, which started in 2008 and cost the Exchequer Sh3.3 billion is among the top eight busiest regional airports in East Africa, with chartered flights coming in from as far afield as Europe. President Kibaki, who was accompanied by Prime Minister Raila Odinga, was hopeful that the new airport would inject some life into the economies within and around Kisumu City. He also urged residents to be ready to harvest the multiplier effect of having the airport within their county. This follows the successful completion of the upgrading works carried out by the China Overseas Engineering Company (COVEC), which won the tender in October 2008 to do the project, funded jointly by the Government of Kenya and the World Bank. Giving highlights of the progress of the project so far to journalists in Kisumu, the Airport Manager, Mr. Joseph Okumu, said the project was delayed by a few months after the initial works, which included extension of the current runway by just a kilometer to two, were changed to 3.3 kilometers by 45 meters wide. The new airport boasts a modern control tower and a terminal with separate lounges for arrivals and departures, the passenger, cafeteria,

10 |

OPEN FOR BUSINESS: President Kibaki officially opens KIA as Prime Minister Raila and Transport Minister Amos Kimunya (left) and Security Minister George Saitoti (behind Kimunya) applaud.

VIP lounge and offices alongside a parallel taxiway and a cargo apron. The airport is also expected to start handling cargo. Currently, fish and flowers for export from the region are transported to Nairobi by road, resulting in heavy losses in terms of time lost, wastage and added transportation costs. Commissioning Just before completion of work at the airport, Minister for Tourism Najib Balala confirmed that the facility met the international standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization. Before its commissioning, the airport was receiving at least 500 tourists per day. But, according to Kenya Airports Authority Managing Director Stephen Gichuki, today it can

handle 5,000. This is now expected to rise to 2 million passengers per year. The expansion of the airport will see a rise in flights into and out of Kisumu, with increased cargo lifting and shipping of goods, thus an exponentially much busier airport than before. The expanded airport presents an array of opportunities for the Western Kenya region, with major investors eying agriculture and fisheries. “Further, the Kisumu International Airport will enable passengers and cargo to be airlifted directly to regional markets, thereby creating investment opportunities, jobs and stimulating economic growth”, said Okumu. He also confirmed that the airport has already begun receiving inquiries from international airlines

Photography | anthony njoroge

which intend to use the facility in optimizing the opportunities now offered on the Kisumu route. The airport now has the capacity to receive large airliners, craft such as Boeing 767 or Airbus 300 and 310, by late March. “We have now shifted our operations to the new terminal. All airlines operating at the airport have also been allocated offices at the new terminal. There are still more spaces for new airlines expected to come”, said an upbeat Okumu. He added that more airport staff will be hired by the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) to meet the demand

for quality service. Some will be absorbed to work as customer service personnel, safety and security staff, operational and maintenance staff, among many other roles. “We expect to have more airline staff, more taxi operators while parastatal and government ministries

FACT KIA • It is the third busiest airport in Kenya and the country’s fourth international airport • The airport has a new terminal with the capacity to handle 700 passengers an hour • Has a 3.3km runway

UPGRADED: Above, a prospective passenger admires a section of KIA Below, Air Force One awaits the Presidential party at the end of the red carpet on the apron

or agencies such as the Kenya Revenue Authority, Immigration and the Kenya Bureau of Standards will now have to post their teams here. Horticultural companies, additional health staff and medical personnel, more caterers and ground handling staff will be required,” he said. Currently, the airport has three international routes – KisumuAddis Ababa, Kisumu-Entebbe and Kisumu-Musoma, Kisumu-Mwanza. Okumu disclosed that direct flights from South Africa to Kisumu will be operational by the end of March. Tourism, which accounts for a huge chunk of the country’s revenue, will definitely gain from the Western tourism circuit. “I am optimistic that this facility will open the western part of the country to the world, create more jobs and spur the region’s economic development,” Kibaki said. Experience Some of the cultural sites in Western Kenya which will experience a rise in tourists arriving via the Kisumu International Airport include Kit Mikayi, Got Ramogi, Kang’o Ka Jaramogi, Thim lich Ohinga, Simbi Nyaima, and Nyamgodho. Others are the Crying Stone of Illesi, bull fighting and famous shrines, all in Kakamega County. Towns as far away as Ahero were already feeling the growth ahead of the commissioning of the new facility, which will open up the region for serious business undertakings with the rest of the world. Locals also enjoy enhanced security while the value of land adjacent to the facility has appreciated tremendously. Several construction projects have also sprung up around the KIA while numerous hotels have been built or are under construction within and around the lakeside city. Other prospective beneficiaries are those currently residing in the sprawling Kisumu slum areas of Bandani, Riat, Obunga and Otonglo, which neighbor the airport and are part of the slum upgrading program. The election of Barack Obama, whose father hailed from Kogello in Nyanza, as the first black President of the USA in 2008, put the Nyanza region on the world map, and the opening of the airport in Kisumu is a most timely phenomenon indeed.

March 2012

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News |

Airport Services

Stakeholders Staggered by New KCAA Fees By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

ttempts by the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) to pass on increased costs to airline operators met considerable resistance from key stakeholders in the industry during a meeting held at the East African School of Aviation mid-last month. During the opening of the forum, the KCAA Director General, Colonel (Retired) Hilary Kioko, explained how his semi-autonomous office that has to create its own revenue channels was in dire need of money to compensate its Air Navigation Services (ANS), wing which had so far invested over Sh3.5 billion in stateof-the-art facilities recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to enhance air safety over Kenyan airspace. The airspace safety regulator issued a gazette notice dated November 1st 2011 on the reviewed charges. Under the previous charges that were last reviewed

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STUNNED: Kenya Airways Chief Operations Manager Mbuvi Ngunze (second from left) and other stakeholders listen grimly at the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority/ stakeholders’ encounter in February.

in 1998, the Authority collects KSh124 million annually from the aviation industry, an amount that it considers insufficient and unreflective of current market rates. KCAA’s annual budget is Sh2.8 billion and the Authority does not receive any funding from the Ministry of Finance. Resentment However, the proposed cost and debt recovery plan was met by a gust of resentment from the stakeholders, most of them representatives of regional carriers, who were adamant that the new KCAA charges would threaten both their operations and Kenya’s position as a regional aviation hub. They claimed KCAA had already breached a gentleman’s agreement on the implementation of hugely controversial new regulations last year. Several aspects of the planned fee increases have also been vehemently criticized, such as plans to raise fees related to pilot

trainees, with certain examination fees tripling under the proposed new regime. Col. Kioko cautioned the stakeholders that if KCAA did not meet the global safety standards, which came at a cost, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) would be forced to ban Kenyan flights from entering specific airspace. Such a ban had already been slapped on Mozambique, whose CAA had failed to meet EU standards. The regulatory body also disclosed that its annual maintenance fees alone had shot up to Sh200m per year. Fly 540’s Operations Director Nixon Ooko conceded that the new fees had forced them to increase some of their charges by over 300%. He recommended that KCAA suspend the fee increment until wide and amicable consultation had been sought with all stakeholders and that the government ought to step up to its responsibility in ensuring safety

within Kenyan airspace. His sentiments were echoed by Kenya Airways Chief Operations Manager Mbuvi Ngunze and Jetlink Express Managing Director Elly Aluvale, who warned that if KCAA did not revise the charged downwards to a reasonable level, then local airlines will become uncompetitive. “If you add costs to operators who are already struggling yet there is no level playing field internationally, we shall throw away jobs. For KQ, our major competitor is Ethiopian Airways and if the new charges are left unchallenged, we stand to lose out in the region, especially against ET,” said Ngunze. Surcharge An official from the Association of Air Operators suggested that a fuel surcharge be introduced to cover all these costs, saying that even the person who rarely uses air transport should be made to pay. The industry should also come up with a system of cost-sharing with passengers, where locals can pay an additional charge of Sh50 while international customers can pay US$10. Mobile phone service providers Airtel and Safaricom were also present. They expressed fears that, apart from being consulted, KCAA should reduce Mast Survey fees down from 233% alongside the Annual Oversight fees. “The operators and stakeholders have the right to demand quality services and products, likewise in turn there are costs involved which they should be ready to be responsible for,”” said

Francesca Omunga of Airtel. She was seconded by Safaricom’s Mwendwa Nundu. Ministry of Transport officials present during the meeting did not comment on the views expressed. But Kioko moved in to explain that KCAA had severally petitioned the Government to cushion it against costs that pertain to standardization of safety within and without Kenyan airspace and that he was optimistic that their proposal would be honored by the State. Towards the end of the fiery debate, an action plan was proposed to arbitrate on how the charges would be shared out amicably. It was agreed that two committees would be set up comprising four officers from KCAA and seven from the industry, with the latter including persons from Kenya Airways, private-practice pilots and low-cost carriers. It was also agreed that the Communications Commission of Kenya would nominate two members to represent the interests of the mobile service providers. Recommendations from both committees will be received in three weeks time. The aviation industry is already facing a serious challenge to find enough experienced pilots as it is, and fleet expansion by Kenya Airways and ongoing brain drain to the Gulf have prompted aviation observers to question the wisdom of making pilot training more expensive, instead of making it more affordable to create a larger pool of future commercial pilots.

SKY-HIGH FEES: Kenyan airport services now the most expensive in the region

News bytes >> Volcanic Ash Upsets EA Flight Schedules

Flights in and out of East Africa were affected as ash emanating from an Eritrean volcano hung in the region’s skies for the better part of January. Satellite images obtained by the French Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre showed plumes of smoke billowing from the Nabro volcano in Eritrea. The dormant volcano, which erupted on Monday January 16, had been threatening to erupt since June 2011. The explosions gave rise to huge clouds of volcanic ash which have brought some airline activities in the region to a grinding halt. The ash had wreaked havoc over Sudanese, Ethiopian, Djibouti and Eritrean airspace, making several airlines totally avoid flight to these countries. Eritrea borders all three nations and it has a population of 5 million people. German carrier Lufthansa initiated the cancellation of flights into the Horn of Africa. Spokesman Marco Dall’Asta said flights from Frankfurt to the capitals of Ethiopia and Eritrea may be affected by the volcano. Speaking for Ethiopian Airlines, Getachew Tesfa said that they were closely monitoring the ash levels, while incorporating the advice of the local weather department. Other airlines which suspended flights to the region are Kenya Airways and Dubai’s Emirates, which cancelled flights to both Djibouti and Ethiopia. Current weather patterns suggest that the volcanic ash will reach as far as Egypt and into Saudi Arabia and beyond. “The ash’s direction and its intensity were very high but the Modis (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) satellite shows a weakening,” said Atalay Ayele, a scientist at the Geophysical Observatory Centre of Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa University. The cancellation of flights in the region caused US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to postpone indefinitely her visit to the West African states of Cote d’Ivoire, Togo and Liberia. Last year the International Civil Aviation Organization had advised national civil aviation authorities to avoid okaying flights through contaminated skies after the Grimsvotn eruption in Iceland led to a closure of huge swathes of European airspace. The same advice has been repeated for the Eritrean case.

March 2012

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Business |

Market Share

Competition for EA Airspace to Soar in 2012 as Airlines Expand By ANDREW NJUGUNA

ith Precision Air’s expansion following the issuing of shares on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) in December 2011, this year’s stage was already set for the busiest 12 months in East Africa’s airspace. Despite the IPO raising only $7.5 million of the expected $17.5 million, it underscores most plans laid out by East African airlines to raise funds for fleet expansion so as to meet ready demand within and beyond the region. With most carriers targeting the lucrative Middle East and China routes, many airlines are fast turning to development partners for funding. For instance, Rwanda Airlines closed 2011 with a $60 million financial arrangement advanced by the PTA Bank for its expansion plans in 2012. Tanzania Air is also set to receive $500 million from Export Development Canada early this year, while its neighboring competitor, Kenya Airways, is floating a $400 million rights issue to finance its expansion programme. Precision Air hoped that with the success of the IPO, it would raise enough money to purchase new assets, including a new fleet that would consolidate its position in the regional aviation industry. But all is not lost. The airline enjoys good shareholder confidence, which means that it may still turn to the debt market as it seeks to bridge the financial gap left behind by the flopped IPO. Global oil prices took a huge toll on regional carriers, where some were forced to stall expansion

14 |

SPREADING WINGS: A Precision Air aeroplane is loaded before take off in Tanzania

programmes so as to cushion the blow. Oil counts for the biggest single cost for airlines. For example, oil costs accounted for almost half of Kenya Airways total expenses, which total $275 million. Setbacks This is besides the costs of maintaining their assets and workforce. However, Kenya Airways CEO Titus Naikuni expressed his desire to continue the airline’s expansion programme even with the prevailing economic setbacks. Kenya Airways has already fired warning shots to its competitors by

being the first airline in the region to acquire the latest Boeing 737-800 Dreamliner jet. It intends to add nine of these jumbos to its fleet by 2013 with an option of leasing four others. Following closely is archrival Ethiopian Airlines, which will have 10 Dreamliners delivered to Addis Ababa in early 2012 and will also be the first to operate the grand machine in the region. With most airlines well funded with millions of dollars, the battle lines will be defined by who rises up first to take control of the East African skies.

Air Zimbabwe Bows Out Under Pressure

Besieged and cash-strapped Air Zimbabwe has been struggling to settle debts with local and international creditors amounting to $140 million, a figure which its new management claims is unaffordable unless government intervention is sought. The battle to mollify creditors and avoid dissolution reached a head after the airline was placed under judicial management, which effectively means Air Zimbabwe is in receivership. The airline, which has been plagued by viability challenges since 2008, has already been placed under an arm of government, meaning that the stage is

set for a looming liquidation. In December, reports indicated that Air Zimbabwe’s long-haul aircraft, a Boeing 767-200 known as Victoria Falls, was seized by American General Supplies upon landing at London’s Gatwick International Airport one Monday morning from Harare International Airport. American General Suppliers also secured a court injunction in the US that gave them the power to impound the aircraft over a $1.2 million debt. The airlines management was reluctant to comment on these misfortunes. The airline was nowhere out of the woods by the end of February. The current raging competition from regional airlines saw the largest Chinese-owned private airline, Hainan Airlines, acquire a large but undisclosed controlling share of Air Zimbabwe as the government, which appeared reluctant to intervene, finally ceded its shareholding.

Biz bytes >> EU ‘Polluter Pays’ Policy Rejected by World Airlines The European Union’s new law to charge airlines for carbon emissions on flights plying the Continent has been dismissed by airlines from Asia and North America, which view the policy as an impediment to trade with the EU. The EU had stated openly that it was willing to engage constructively with anyone during the implementation phase of the legislation. “No one wants to see a trade war. No one wants to pay huge fines, sabre-rattling”, Jean Leston, senior transport advisor at the World Wide Fund, said. Some US airlines lost a lawsuit filed at the European Court of Justice last December against the EU, claiming that the introduction of permits would not only raise operation costs but inconvenience travelers on the major continental routes. The US State Department had already raised the red flag in opposition to the legislation. The Chinese Air Transport Association was quoted by the Observer newspaper as being strongly against the new EU policy.

>> Brazil Auctions Airports Ahead of World Cup

US and EU Accuse Iran Fresh fears have emerged in Washington over Iran’s nuclear programme, with a senior official terming it “increasingly worrying” and saying an urgent diplomatic solution needs to be found. Iran has over the years made its nuclear ambitions known to the world, with the US and Israel coming up strongly against the move. Iran denies it is seeking nuclear weapons in its plans, saying its strongest critics also possess nuclear assets. “Iran is violating international obligations and norms. It is becoming a pariah state,” said Robert Einhorn, the US State Department senior advisor for non-proliferation and arms control, during a news conference in Seoul, South Korea. “The situation in Iran has become more and more worrisome. The timeline for its nuclear programme is beginning to get shorter, so it is important to take these strong steps on an urgent basis. If we do not, pressures will grow for much stronger actions”.

The US and Israel maintain that, without warning, they shall impose military action against Iran’s nuclear plants should diplomatic talks fail in a bid to stop the Tehran regime from developing nuclear weapons. Tough talking Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad was quick to shoot back that his country will not stand stay mum over the matter back will defend its action by all means possible, including fighting off aggressors. Iran claims to have shot down a US spy drone, an unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) which had illegally entered its airspace in December.

The Brazilian Government privatized three airports in early February, including Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos, the country’s largest and busiest at a $14 billion auction ahead of the 2014 World Cup. Three different consortiums made up of domestic and foreign operators won concessions to upgrade overloaded terminals at the airports, which are to handle the tens of thousands of tourists expected for the World Cup. The 20-year concession for the Sao Paulo Airport went to the Invepar-CSA consortium comprising three firms – Invepar, OAS and South Africa’s ACSA – with a bid of more than $9.4 billion. Aeroportos Brasil – made up of Triunfo Participacoes, UTC Participacoões and France’s Egis – won the 30-year concession for the terminal at Viracopos Airport in Campinas, Sao Paulo state with a $2.27 billion bid. There are about 70 public airports in Brazil, and many are in need of upgrades ahead of the World Cup and the 2016 Olympics due to take place in Rio de Janeiro – AP

March 2012

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Technology |

Innovation

Boeing Sets Automated Asset Identification System Standard

oeing wants to make the new Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) asset tracking and management system mandatory on both commercial and military aircraft. Developed by the Electronics giant Fujitsu and launched in October 2010 with the aim of fitting it as standard equipment on the Boeing 787, the RFID is a system where an asset can be tracked from its first day of manufacture all through its lifespan and down to its sunset by use of automated barcode readers. This is a departure from the old way of manual tracking, where inventories would be populated by information collected manually by persons charged with monitoring respective assets. Advantage Toshiya Sato, general manager of the Fujitsu unit that is working with Boeing, says that the most obvious advantage is saving time. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is easier to wave around an RFID reader than to crawl into nooks and crannies, read labels and make a written record. There also are opportunities to avoid fatigue, to ensure that a part and its record are properly matched, and to analyze the data. The dangers of bad handwriting are avoided, too. Engine parts, such as line-replaceable units, cannot be fitted with RFID tags but can take contact memory buttons (CMBs), tough little digital devices that must be touched by a reader device to recover information.â&#x20AC;? The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) begun to certify all RFID systems beginning 2012. The Airbus A350XWB commercial aircraft was the first

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Commercial airplanes giant wants to make new RFID mandatory for both civilian and military aircraft, reports ANDREW NJUGUNA

to carry electronic records on all parts, identifying service history. Considering that an average aircraft has over 2,000 parts, the RFID makes it easy to track the use and condition of a part, especially during airplane maintenance checks and quick recovery of information in the event of an air crash. Affixing such tags with Dow Corning glue that is used to hold conventional metal data plates onto parts seems to raise the risk of their becoming irremovable, leaving parts without identification and records. However, for some

parts, the RFID tag will have to be removable; in those cases, straps might be used to hold it on. RFID, which is a standard factory requirement, ensures that contact memory buttons could also be used to preserve photos of repair work for later reference. Other aviation RFID systems are available, including one from Eastern Aero Marine Worldwide that tracks safety equipment at risk of theft by passengers, such as life rafts. The weight is insignificant, just 12 grams for the heaviest RFID tag.

Hypersonic Weapon Designed to Shell Terrorist Arsenal

The US Pentagon has finally unleashed the latest “toy” in their war chest, the Army’s Advanced Hypersonic Weapon, a move which is described by allies as the flexing of muscle power in a bid to warn off enemies who intend to produce weapons of mass destruction. Designed to fly 6,100 miles per hour or a mere eight times the speed of sound, the missile can nail a target thousands of miles away on earth in less than an hour. The weapon is said to have succeeded Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 – an intercontinental missile that splashed into the Pacific.

The Army’s conical shaped AHW, lifted by a 34-foot, 16,329kg rocket, went about 60% as far, 2,400 miles from Hawaii to Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific, before hitting its original target that was 4,100 miles away. The Pentagon said the test was relatively easy, and the $200 million weapon effect could wind up playing a key role in the military’s so- called Prompt Global Strike to almost instantly whack targets half-a- world away. The weapon was designed solely to smash nuclear silos or a terrorist’s biological weapon cache in the shortest time possible.

Tech bytes >> Smart Phone Kiosk Services Add Value to Airport Experience Few things satisfy a passenger’s desire to acquire information about a trip than receiving it from the comfort of his or her mobile phone. This convenient service is being enjoyed by flyers at Frankfurt International Airport who are leading the way in the uptake of mobile self-service travel solutions. Passengers at the German airport have the highest use rate of mobile boarding passes of the major airport hubs included in the 2011 SITA/Air Transport World Passenger Self-Service Survey, with 37% of Frankfurt respondents reporting the use of a mobile boarding pass at least once, compared to 17% worldwide. The rising influence of the smart phone is a key finding from the 6th annual SITA/Air Transport World Passenger Self-Service Survey carried out with a representative sample of the 283.5 million passengers who pass through six of the world’s leading airport hubs – Abu Dhabi International Airport, Beijing International Airport, Frankfurt International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson (Atlanta, USA) Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (Mumbai, India) and Sao Paulo-Guarulhos (Brazil). Most passengers interviewed during the survey say that they are more than happy to send and receive information about their flights from their mobile phones since they can react to information almost immediately.

>> US in $1 trillion Warplane Upgrade

Pea-Sized Airborne Robots Sending the Message Home If you were asked to briefly describe the average size of an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance drone, you would probably conclude that it is nothing larger than the average door to your house. Well, think again. The US Air Force has been involved in research and development of bird-like flapping wing drones that act like cyborg insects controlled by microcomputers. This time around, the Air Force Research Lab at Wright Pattterson AFB in Ohio has built a “Micro Aviary” that is tasked with building tiny drones that are largely indistinguishable from insects or birds that can surreptitiously move about undetected, performing surveillance and intelligencegathering missions or even delivering payloads like tracking devices or even weapons. The tiny robot aircraft,

which resemble tiny helicopters disguised as dragon flies that hover like a humming bird, will be able to fly within about a tenth of an inch of the target range. This will make them one of the best micro-helos able to fly undetectably while collecting data able to determine the need for military missions. Data from these sensors will not only evaluate the performance of the drones but also inform the design of future generations of flapping-wing drones.

The Pentagon will delay acquisition of more than 100 early-model Joint Strike Fighters, in a bid to save money upfront and give more time for testers to work out the F-35 warplane’s many technical complexities. Committed to buying nearly 2,500 of the stealth jets at a cost of approximately a trillion dollars, the real surprise is that a newly cash-conscious Defence Department still seems fully resolved to put to an end the problems bedeviling the F-35 programme. In the short term, the military will purchase only 30-60 JFSs per year from 2013 to 2017, an almost 25% reduction that could save $15 billion in the next few years. News of the delay comes at the same time the White House and Pentagon are rolling out a new US military strategy that de-emphasizes grinding land wars in favour of air-and-sea deterrence in the Pacific. The military still aims to eventually buy about 1,800 copies of Lockheed Martin’s stealth, single-engine fighter for the Air Force, and another 700 or so for the Navy and Marines.

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Technology |

The New Space Race

Is Europe’s Galileo Project a Latter-day Heresy before America’s GPS? By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT 18 |

urope’s move in developing an independent satellite navigation system called Galileo, to rival the planet’s most comprehensive, best known and most widely-used system, the American Global Positioning System (GPS), has the communications, aviation and aerospace sectors atwitter with speculation and great expectations. The field of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) has long been an American and Russian preserve, with the US hogging both the limelight and the action. As at the end of 2011, the only fully globally operational GNSSs were the American NAVSTAR Global Positioning System (GPS) and the Russian GLONASS. The Chinese appear to be at the same stage of development with their GNSS as the Europeans. China has a regional navigation system, the Beidou, which it is in the process of developing into the projected global system named Compass by 2020, also the target full-operational date of Europe’s Galileo. France, Japan and India are still developing regional navigation systems and their plans for global coverage are all for much later in the century. When it comes to GNSS, the rest of the world remains mere spectators and customers of the services offered by the world powers, the US foremost among them. A year ago in January 2011, the European Union nations received a report entitled “Mid-term review of the European satellite radio navigation programmes” that contained some seriously bad news, penned by the European Commission itself. According to Space.Com, “it tells European Union (EU) governments that building and operating a 30-satellite positioning, navigation and timing constellation will be subject to costs these governments n e v e r

Photography | courtesy

considered when Galileo was first proposed and accepted as a European Union programme”. Suddenly, one of the most ambitious space programmes outside the USA began to sound like a Third World white-elephant project, complete with steep cost overruns and implementation delays. Space. Com went on: “For governments that had hoped Galileo might somehow remain within the current budget — 3.4 billion euros ($4.5 billion) between 2007 and 2013, the planned date of full operational service — the news is not good. “The commission now expects that Galileo, and its complementary overlay satellite service, called Egnos, will cost an additional 1.5 billion euros to complete, plus 400 million euros in a proposed contingency fund to protect against future unforeseen charges, for the period between 2014 and 2019”. Satellite navigation is the eyes and ears of the planet, making the human race the only species that is able to monitor the Earth from space

as well as to keep eyes and ears on the far reaches of the Cosmos itself. The mapping of the Earth and the Cosmos was not complete until the deployment of satellites over the past four decades. Indeed, superpower status and economic advantage will long be based on how much GNSS capacity a nation or cooperative of nations has. GNSS involves the use of radio signals from satellites for navigation. Developed for the US military in the 1970s by a team led by one Colonel Bradford W. Parkinson, who is now Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University, GPS/NAVSTAR has transitioned into civilian use right around the globe. It is therefore one of those offshoots of the US military that have entered the civilian sphere worldwide with countless beneficial outcomes, the others being mostly medical, for instance in the fields of AIDS and malaria research. Today, GPS systems are outfitted in Turn to P20

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The New Space Race

Photography | courtesy

From P19

everything from SUVs and other highend motor vehicles to aircraft, ships and submarines. The movement of animals in the wild, including in East Africa, is now routinely tracked via satellite as is the ominous movement of the Earth’s techtonic plates that sometimes results in earthquakes. America’s GPS, which has dual military and civilian uses and deployments, with the military side of it being much more advanced and restricted, has been available free of charge to end-users. In contrast, Galileo will charge fees and touts itself as the world’s first non-military GNSS system. The development of Galileo is not without its politics, both intra-European and transatlantic. The transatlantic dimension is captured neatly by Lieut. Col. Scott W. Beidleman of the United States Air Force (USAF) in his paper GPS versus Galileo, Balancing for Position in Space (see separate boxed item), who extols GPS in the following terms and then issues an ominous warning: “Over the past quarter century, GPS has established itself as the world’s standard for position, velocity, and timing information, providing a free, continuous, and all-weather navigation service to the entire planet. With innumerable

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applications such as guiding precision munitions, synchronizing the Internet, or locating a seafood restaurant in an unfamiliar city, GPS has become embedded in global society”. Saying that GPS has become a “global public good” and “an international utility paid for by the American Government”, Lieut. Col. Beidleman loses his cool and declares explicitly that Europe’s pursuit of the Galileo GNSS “approaches heresy from an American perspective”. He characterizes the EU’s development of Galileo as an acquisition of an independent space capability in a manner that seems destined to clash with American national interests. Inside Europe, there are constant tensions between German and French inputs into the development of Galileo that were fully exposed during the Wikileaks leak of US diplomatic cables a year ago. The leak depicted German distrust of the French agenda and led straightaway to the fall of famous German space industry executive Berry Smutny, CEO of OHB Technology, who called Galileo “a stupid idea” and a waste of taxpayers’ cash that panders to the age-long French obsession with autonomy from the US, within the hearing of American diplomats who promptly communicated the

unguarded remark to Washington. SpaceNews.com reported in January 2011: “While Smutny did not know it at the time of his remarks, OHB subsequently was named prime contractor for the first 14 Galileo satellites”. The OHB Board had to let Smutny go if it wanted to transact future business with Galileo. Whereas the American GPS system has not been directly commercialised, it has spawned a veritable ecosphere of recreational and professional products utilising its powerful navigational capabilities to huge collective financial gain. Many of the products are American but other economies are increasingly benefiting from the Industry. The aviation sector has now selected satellite navigation as the basis for its preferred next-generation air navigational systems for both en route and final approach in civil aviation. There is no doubt that the satellite navigational systems industry is going to further heat up. Into this mix will enter an openly commerciallyoriented European Galileo system and a whiff is in the air already of a battle royal brewing between the GPS and Galileo systems, with not a little transatlantic national pride and ego at stake. Here comes the space race of the 21st Century . . .

Galileo versus GPS – & GPS versus Galileo By LIEUT. COL. SCOTT W. BEIDLEMAN, United States Air Force

n contrast to GPS, Galileo plans to offer five types of services—Open Service (OS), Commercial Service (CS), Safety-of-Life (SoL) Service, Public Regulated Service (PRS), and Search and Rescue (SAR) Support Service. Open Service OS is similar to the GPS SPS in that it is intended for the general public and is provided for free. However, since OS will be transmitted on two frequencies, users of this basic service can correct for ionospheric effects and obtain better accuracy than with the GPS SPS. Specifically, the ESA expects to achieve four meter accuracy with a service availability of 99.8 percent. GPS will not provide this level of accuracy until the Block IIF constellation is operational circa 2012. Again, similar to the GPS SPS, the OS provides no service guarantee or integrity information to the general public. Like the GPS’s civilian users, Galileo’s OS customers use Galileo at their own risk. GPS VERSUS GALILEO Commercial Service CS is a combination of OS plus two encrypted signals separated in frequency from OS signals. Like OS, CS will not explicitly carry integrity data; however, CS accuracies will be guaranteed. Designed to support users requiring higher performance than OS, CS’s additional signals allow the development of professional applications such as producing highdata-rate broadcasting, resolving ambiguities in differential applications, and integrating Galileo with wireless communications. Access to the encrypted signals will be restricted to fee-paying users who will subscribe to CS. Third-party service providers will determine the specific

services offered and will purchase the rights to utilize the encrypted signals via a license agreement with the GOC. Finally, the company will provide a guarantee for disruption or degradation of service and will provide timely warning to users. Failure to meet standards would lead to compensation to affected users and/or service providers. Service guarantees addressing liability constitute a major difference between Galileo and GPS. Safety-of-Life Service SoL will offer the same accuracies as OS, but it will provide both integrity data and service guarantees

for a fee. SoL is designed to serve safety-critical users who require precision accuracy and signal reliability. Anticipated customers include airlines, trains, and transoceanic maritime companies. With SoL, Galileo plans to comply with “levels of service stipulated by law in various international transportation fields,” such as those prescribed by the International Civil Aviation Organization. SoL’s integrity monitoring is essential to meeting this goal. Galileo will reportedly inform users of outof-tolerance conditions within six to Turn to P22

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The New Space Race

From P21

10 seconds of occurrence, supporting safety-critical applications such as Category I landings (aircraft landings with weather conditions of a 200foot ceiling and visibility of onehalf mile). However, this additional service comes at a price. Users will need specialized receivers to get the enhanced signals, and the EC retains the option to encrypt integrity data and administer access fees. GPS VERSUS GALILEO Public Regulated Service The objective of PRS, according to the EC and ESA, “is to improve the probability of continuous availability of the SIS [signal-in-space], in [the] presence of interfering threats”. Envisioned as a protected navigation service for government and public service users, PRS will employ robust signals with interference mitigation technologies to reduce susceptibility to jamming and interference from terrorists, criminals, or hostile entities that could affect national security. Furthermore, PRS must remain operational during crises, when other services may be jammed. Hence, Galileo transmits PRS on two wideband signals (to increase jamming resistance) and spectrally separates them from other Galileo services, so these other services “can be denied without affecting PRS operations”. Additionally, PRS will be encrypted to restrict access to interferencemitigation technologies and to prevent hostile use of PRS against EC member states (in this paper, the word states used in context with Europe refers to EU nation-states). Accordingly, EC member states will control PRS access via cryptological keying systems. Based on this description, the Galileo PRS sounds very similar to GPS PPS and presents a potential military capability in a system strictly trumpeted as “the first satellite . . . navigation system specifically for civil purposes”. In fact, while Galileo is frequently touted as “a civil system, operated under public control” and “a nonmilitary programme”, the design and spectral locations of PRS signals mirror future GPS military upgrades,

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potentially navigation concepts.

conflicting with US warfare (NAVWAR)

Search and Rescue Support Service SAR will augment the CospasSarsat system, which assists international search and rescue efforts by detecting and locating distress signals worldwide. Galileo satellites will employ SAR transponders that will detect distress alerts and relay the detection to Cospas-Sarsat ground stations. Moreover, Galileo will also send an acknowledgement to the stranded persons, informing them they have been located. Consequently, Galileo will reportedly fine-tune alertlocation accuracy, greatly improving the current specification of five kilometers. GPS VERSUS GALILEO Galileo will provide near-realtime reception of distress messages, greatly reducing the current wait time of one hour. In short, both GPS and Galileo provide basic PNT services open to all users, as well as augmented services restricted to authorized users. However, Galileo plans to offer additional features such as

service guarantees, global-integrity monitoring, and additional data services supporting commercial markets in an attempt to capitalize on GPS limitations from a civilian perspective. Limitations and Vulnerabilities In general, the performance of GPS and the impact of its PNT capabilities have led to its perception as a global utility. However, like every system, GPS has limitations and vulnerabilities. While the proposed Galileo design will purportedly overcome several GPS deficiencies, including liability, integrity, and inadequate civilian accuracy, other issues affect both systems. These include “urban canyons” (often occurs in cities, created by tall structures obscuring signals), susceptibility to jamming, and hostile use by potential adversaries. One of the primary differences between GPS and Galileo is the latter’s liability service guarantee. Unlike GPS, Galileo plans to provide a guarantee against disruption of service in terms of accuracy, continuity of availability, and integrity, where interruptions “would have significant [safety] or economic impacts”. This translates to a service guarantee for Galileo’s CS and SoL

Photography | courtesy

service. Thus, Galileo will provide a legal framework to increase the confidence of users previously reluctant to utilize space-based radio navigation signals as a primary means of navigation. As mentioned before, the GOC (the private company chosen to manage the constellation) will commit to providing the signal quality required to support the specified services and will compensate users if signal quality falls short of specifications without adequate warning. In this manner, Galileo users sidestep the potential barriers faced by GPS users who file claims against the US government as GPS owners— GPS does not provide a service guarantee. On the surface, a service guarantee appears marginal or insignificant—the general public will largely ignore it.

GPS VERSUS GALILEO A significant subset of users (such as air traffic controllers) would highly value service guarantees for safetycritical or precision operations. The functions these users provide, primarily accomplished through national governments employing Galileo and GPS as the basis of their transport policies, do affect entire populations. The lack of a service guarantee could impede GPS’s ability to compete in this critical niche. As a senior fellow on the Council on Foreign Relations observed, “Until GPS is certifiable for aviation use worldwide, its usefulness will be unavoidably curtailed.” The viability of Galileo’s service guarantee remains to be seen. Its credibility depends on the system’s ability to compensate a user’s loss, leading to a multitude of contractual

and liability issues beyond the scope of this study. In short, the EU foresees the guarantee relying on legal mechanisms “to prevent, inform, alert, or compensate failure, disruption, or provision of a service” due to failing specifications. These may include certification of risks, licensing usage, and mechanisms to manage compensation or reimbursement and jurisdiction/ recourse issues, yet to be defined. The crux of Galileo’s service guarantee is adequate warning of substandard performance, accomplished via integrity monitoring.

Excerpted from GPS versus Galileo, Balancing for Position in Space, by Scott W. Beidleman, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF, CADRE Paper No. 23, Air University Press, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama

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London Airports

Photography | courtesy

AirportReview |

Does London Need a New Airport? By AMY FALLON

here’s been a crisis in Anglo-French relations lately over the euro. But before French President Nicholas Sarkozy started berating his British counterpart over currency problems there was another British politician looking resentfully across the Channel for a different reason. Sarkozy’s finance minister Francois Baroin sparked a row last month when said he would rather be French than British economically. When it comes to the battle of the skies the French do appear to be superior to the Brits, if figures highlighted by London Mayor Boris Johnson are anything to go by. According to statistics reiterated in November by the mayor, travellers

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can fly to 238 airports from Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport. In comparison, London’s Heathrow airport serves 200 destinations up from 167 a decade ago. “Paris CDG has 56 departures per week to Brazil. Heathrow has 27, which may explain why Brazilian inward investment in France was $800 million in 2009, and only $1.7 million in the UK,” said Johnson. Capacity “The straightforward shortage of slots and capacity is cutting us off from vital markets.” And on he went, on one of his favourite topics, in the Evening Standard newspaper, even asking,“Are you really trying to tell me that France is 10 times more

attractive and interesting to visit than Britain.” He argued that with London “bursting at the seams” and Heathrow currently running at 99% capacity, the city couldn’t just adopt that old British mantra, “keep calm and carry on”. Back in 1971, the Roskill Commission into a third London airport backed a site near Cublington in Buckinghamshire, but then Prime Minister Ted Heath chose a location at Maplin Sands near Southend, a seaside resort in Essex. In addition to Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted and London City airports, Johnson has called for a new hub facility on an island in the Thames, where flights will be organized in waves of arrivals and departures in order to allow large volumes of passengers to make a wide range of connections. A £50

billion plan has been proposed. This may create up to 70,000 new jobs, his aviation adviser, Daniel Moylan, claimed. It was first reported in 2008 that Johnson wanted to close Heathrow, the UK’s largest airport and the world’s third busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic, and turn it into a technology park. The scheme could be running within six years and was likely to be located near the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, The Telegraph reported after Heathrow disastrously opened its Terminal 5. Dream Two years on Johnson still hasn’t gotten his dream, dubbed Boris Island. But the debate over whether the British capital needs another airport has been reignited. In January 2011 a report recommended a new airport for south-east England if Britain wanted to prevent losing out on jobs to other European destinations such as Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Madrid. In terms of destinations served by worldwide international airports, Heathrow has fallen from second in 1990 to seventh in 2010, the study overseen by Moylan showed.

Runway use at Heathrow and Gatwick airports (approximately 99% capacity) is leading to delays and reliability problems, with Heathrow handling up to 75,000 extra daily passengers, the report also claimed. In May 2010 the British Government announced it was scrapping plans for a third runway at Heathrow and ruled out extra runways at Gatwick and Stansted, following opposition from climate change protesters, councils and

residents. Former leader Gordon Brown had maintained that a new runway was vital to “help secure jobs and underpin economic growth”. The British Labour party has since refused to commit to a third landing strip for Heathrow, which employs 76,500 people, including those working for its owner BAA. Despite saying no to an additional runway, Prime Minister David Cameron has concededthat a new Turn to P26

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AirportReview |

London Airports Photography | courtesy

From P25

airport is an option for London. “We made a promise about not building a third runway at Heathrow but we have to look at aviation to work out how we can make ourselves more connected,” he said in November. On the same day it was reported that no decision on the Thames Estuary airport would be made until at least the middle of this year, but ministers may reject the plan due to “practical difficulties”. These include the cost and the highly explosive SS Richard Montgomery, a sunken US warship, which lies on the floor of the sea around the Isle of Sheppey. Johnson, who resurrected the iconic London Routemaster bus, putting his own 21st Century spin on this, has acknowledged that he will need “sustained political determination” to build a Boris Island and he’s certainly right. Anti-Heathrow airport expansion group Hacan is still against his proposalsand London Assembly Green Party member Darren Johnson has called them “dead duck plans”. Election Ken Livingstone, the former mayor of London who is standing against Johnson in next year’s election, has labeled the idea “zany”. ‘Red Ken’ has long opposed the idea of a new Thames estuary airport on the grounds that it’s environmentally damaging and will threaten Londoners’ quality of life. Livingstone, who says further Heathrow expansion isn’t justified, wants to create Europe’s largest new park in the Thames Gateway instead. Of course it’s not just the French who Johnson, a so-called Eurosceptic, is worried about taking over the skies. Of the 20 cities forecasted to achieve the biggest GDP growth between now and 2025, 13 are in mainland China. However only two of those cities are served directly by London airports, he stresses. The country’s biggest airline, China Southern, has blamed a lack of space at Heathrow for the reason it does not serve the UK. “In the next 15 years, 75 million Chinese households will enter the middle classes. It is a phenomenal market and we need our engineers to be able to hop on a plane and build their infrastructure,” Boris says.

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Passenger demand for London airportsis predicted to skyrocket from140 million passengers a year in 2010 to 400 million travellers a year by 2050, according to the Greater London Authority. Recent traffic figures show that demand for Scotland’s airports, particularly Aberdeen and Glasgow, is continuing to grow, while lessening for those in England. In November Heathrow handled 5.2 million passengers, down by 0.5% compared to 2011. The North Atlantic market saw continued growth, with a 3.8% rise in passengers, supported by an increased number of flights, BAA said. “In contrast, domestic passenger numbers continue to decline, by

12.3% in November, as a result of reduced flights,” they said. “This sustained domestic decline reflects the UK regions being progressively cut off from the UK’s only hub airport by a lack of capacity at Heathrow.” The airport recorded their busiest day ever on July 31, with 233,561 passengers passing through. On the day after the London 2012 Olympics, 13 August, some 218,000 bags are expected to leave Heathrow. With the city’s mayoral election being held in early May, by that time Londoners will know whether they will get a Boris Island, or if Johnson’s proposal really is a “pie-in-the-sky” plan, as one critic, Medway Council in Kent has branded it.

CoverStory |

Overview

Aviation Growth, Demand for Skills and Services Soar While airlines grow (the planetary commercial aircraft fleet will more than double to 150,000 plus in the next 20 years), airports too are stepping up their game. There is a tremendous spurt of expansions and rehabilitation in Asia and Africa, including very vibrant activity in Eastern Africa By ERIC MWANDIA

here is some good news for the aviation industry coming from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the United Nations Agency mandated to oversee the industry. The aviation sector, according to the agency, is growing strongly worldwide. ICAO projects that for the 20-year period from 2010 to 2030, growth in the industry will be very robust. True enough, in line with the projections, 2011 was a good year for aviation. Even the economic slowdown in Europe and the US did little to dampen this growth. Indeed, the only blot on the industry performance last year was the low performance turned out by North Africa and that accounted for the African region’s atypical

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10% decline. This, of course, was expected, as the region had suffered massive political tumult resulting from the so-called Arab Spring. This glitch is however expected to pass quickly enough, and the industry on the continent generally to resume its growth trajectory.

Good News

ICAO’s projections are indeed good news for aircraft manufacturers, airlines and airports eager to get a bigger slice of the industry cake. Records show that for the world’s large airframe manufacturers who are already sitting on long order lists 2011 was a good year. It was a record year for orders at Europe’s Airbus, whilst Boeing and Bombardier, the North American manufacturers, too, have been making very optimistic

noises. Not to be left behind, Brazil’s Embraer has announced expansion plans, including the setting up of new manufacturing facilities in old colonial master Portugal. China, the home of world manufacturing in the 21st Century, also wants to join the party and has thrown its hat into the ring, courtesy of new airplane models to be launched by the stateowned COMAC that will, in the first instance, target Asia’s huge market for regional aircraft. While airlines grow, airports too are stepping up their game. There is a tremendous spurt of expansions and rehabilitation in Asia and Africa, including very vibrant activity in eastern Africa. There is good news for skilled professionals in the sector too. The attendant outcome in the industry

growth is that there will be a boom in demand for sector-specific skills.

Photography | jonathan kalan

Good News

In this agreeable milieu, however, there is a little bad news for the industry as a whole – that the demand for qualified personnel will consistently outstrip the supply over this review period. At current HR development rates, ICAO predicts that the industry will continue to experience recurrent shortfalls in human resources skills across the board, including key on-board professionals, maintenance staff and ground-based specialists. This may not sound like bad news at first, but it is a significant challenge for the industry to address and, for Africa especially, this is very bad news. African regulators should be preparing themselves for a bruising battle ahead. More on this later! ICAO’S forecast is that a total 151,565 commercial aircraft are going to be in services with operators globally by 2030. By way of comparison the total planetary fleet as at the year 2010 was only 61,833. The fleet size will more than double in 20 years. Airports are, as a result, going to handle a much larger traffic load. In fact, the number of flights is predicted to double from 26 million to 52 million. Naturally, these additional aircraft will require a whole new army of pilots – in fact, over 330,000 of them by ICAO’s reckoning and plenty more on-board crew. In addition to flight crew, the fleet will need over 450,000 new aircraft maintenance personnel and 70,000 new air traffic controllers and plenty more air traffic management professionals. These are huge numbers indeed, but it is a large world out there. How do these numbers stack up back here at home? Africa has got the second fastest industry growth rate after Asia and within Africa the eastern region is doing particularly well generally. The region has robust and growing airlines, with Ethiopian Airlines and Kenya Airways firmly at the apex of the first tier of African airlines and with several smaller airlines beginning to make a mark on the regional scene. The region’s airports too are doing very respectably in Africa’s top tier. Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi, though not quite among

Africa has got the second fastest industry growth rate after Asia

”

the global giants, quite rightly benchmarks itself against only the best and brightest. The industry in Kenya and the East Africa region is therefore keeping pace with, if not outperforming, its global competition and is performing well within ICAO’s projection. One would be hard-pressed to finger glaring problems in the regional industry. The question, then, is whether, as predicted by ICAO, the industry in the region might become a victim of its own success and fall foul of the constraints that could result from the coming manpower crunch. The region hosts several quality world-class aviation training institutions. In Kenya, there is the ICAO-certified East African School of Aviation (EASA) that trains air traffic management professionals and engineers. Uganda has the Soroti Flying School, which is slowly rising back to its former glory. In Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Aviation Academy is a respected centre of excellence in training, providing services to students from far and wide. Kenya in particular has a thriving training sector, with quite a few aviation training schools instructing students in both flying and maintenance skills. Most of these schools are run by the private sector and, unfortunately, not everything is quite kosher – the level of training served out varies extensively from the excellent to the virtually worthless. In fact, among employers tired of having to interview clueless job seekers a code to dismiss the quality of an applicant is to retort that he or she was a graduate of the ‘mtaa’ school of aviation – ‘mtaa’

being derogatively chosen as any location most unlikely to host a school of aviation, such as Riruta or Buruburu. This is a sad indictment of the disrepute that the ‘school of aviation’ tag has acquired in the marketplace. Recently, one of the more popular ‘school of aviation’ colleges located in the Nairobi CBD closed apparently without warning, leaving a lot of hapless and distraught students in the streets pondering their next move. It is easy to see why the ‘school of aviation’ appellation is so alluring to school owners. There is a touch of the exotic associated with aviation, a promise of travel and distant lands, the sense that the good life and glamour associated with flying is close at hand. What a shame that many of these institutions that are usually targeted at the poor and gullible are guaranteed to lead only to further joblessness and disillusionment. The trouble is that much of the course subject matter is defined to international rather than national standards, making intervention by traditional education authorities essentially inappropriate if not improper. However, if the country is to obtain real value for money in aviation, something is going to have to be done about quality assurance. Only then can students, parents and institutions invest in reasonable confidence about the outcome. A major characteristic of aviation sector training in Kenya is the rather heavy concentration on foundation level training, with Turn to P30 March 2012

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CoverStory |

Overview

Photography | thinkstock.com

From P29

higher qualifications only being achieved abroad or from experience. For example, Kenya has been quite successful in producing entrylevel pilots. In fact, some estimates suggest that the country may now have an over- supply of these ab initio trained flyers. In skills development, Kenya and East Africa generally will need to go further than ab initio training. The important task at hand will be to upgrade this training to keep in step with evolving technologies and to keep up with the ever- increasing complexity of the sector as the industry matures and becomes ever more sophisticated. We will need to deepen and broaden the existing skill capacities and enhance capacity at the higher skill levels.

KAA and KCAA

To its credit, the Kenya Government, through its two aviation agencies – the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) and the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) seems to be alive to the looming challenge. In a presentation made as chair of the HR working group of Airports Council International (ACI) Africa in 2010, Ken Kaunda, the General Manager, Human Resources, at the KAA, among other issues, succinctly enunciated the same issues as presented in the ICAO report. His conclusions were that the shortfall in Africa between capacity and demand would be most felt in airport operations. During the ICAO Open Day in December 2011, the Director General of the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, Colonel (Rtd) Hilary K. Kioko, reiterated these issues in his keynote speech. In our executive interviews in this issue, he has again shown his and the KCAA’s clear grasp of the enormity of the challenge ahead. Their short answer in terms of training is that KCAA is already enhancing and expanding its training portfolio to answer these challenges through its training arm, the East African School of Aviation. These indeed are good signs and steps in the right direction. Nevertheless, the vastness of the task cannot be gainsaid. How these two organizations respond to the challenges will be crucial to the

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continued ascendency of the aviation sector in Kenya and the vital role that the sector is beginning to play in our economy and that of the region. It is essential that they are given every support and encouragement from central governments. Governments must continue to listen carefully to the entreaties from the air operators, aircraft maintenance organizations, aviation schools, tourism players, the air cargo operators and the myriad other stakeholders. Industry experts opine that, especially in the case of KCAA, there is a need to divorce the regulatory entity from the part of the organization that performs commercial activities. This will allow the commercial arm to compete openly without either distorting the marketplace or with its hands tied behind its back. This, in turn, will leave the regulatory arm free to function uninhibited by direct commercial concerns. The industry too has a role to play. East Africa as a region is a very competitive environment for the aviation sector private companies. Some argue that the competition in the market is too fragmented and that some consolidation is required in order to enable the industry to benefit from economies of scale and to put sector in a better place to compete with all comers, including

Shortfall in Africa between capacity and demand would be most felt in airport operations

”

the very aggressive Middle-Eastern competitors. It is important to keep competition alive because it is this very same competitive environment that can hone the region’s cutting edge to produce the ingenuity and entrepreneurship that will be necessary to participate successfully in the global marketplace. We earlier suggested that Africa will need to have her wits about her to respond to the skills challenge and the following is the main reason why. We can illustrate the situation by analogy to that of the health professionals. Many doctors and other trained medical personnel from the Third World have ended up working in the developed countries or in other developing countries that can offer better remuneration, a better workplace environment and better quality of life. These are not things than can be changed overnight and even raising salaries alone is no quick fix when your professionals have got the world at their feet. East Africa may therefore find itself donating skills to the developed world, skills that are sorely needed at home and that took a lot of time and resources to develop. Stopping the looming heamorrhage while upgrading skill levels is going to be a great test of the competence of our authorities.

Executive Interview |

Above & below: Colonel Hilary K. Kioko, Director General KCAA in his office at JKIA during the interview.

‘Aviation Matches Region’s Economic Growth’ COLONEL (RTD) HILARY K. KIOKO, Director General, Kenya Civil Aviation Authority spoke to Aviation East Africa Business Writer ANDREW NJUGUNA in his offices at KCAA Headquarters at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport AVIATION EAST AFRICA: Tell us a little about yourself professionally . . . COLONEL KIOKO: I was born and raised in the Lower Eastern Province, where I went to school. After finishing high school I joined the University of Nairobi, where I studied Mechanical Engineering. On completion of university studies

I joined Kenya Railways as an Assistant Mechanical Engineer and then I joined the Kenya Air Force, in 1980, as a Technical Officer. I grew up the ranks to the rank of Colonel. In my military service In my military service I have worked all over Kenya in various appointments including training, engineering, command and administration, and diplomatic service. My tours of duty included the Kenya Armed Forces College, Laikipia Air Base, National Defence College, Kenya Ordinance Factories Corporation, and East African Community Secretariat. Q: Is your background in the military an asset to you in your current position? A:Yes it is. It is the discipline, hard work and patriotism I learned from the military which have assisted me to be focused on the tasks at hand. Turn to P32 March 2012

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Kenya Civil Aviation Authority

Photography | jonathan kalan

From P31

Q: As a former aviation trainer and commandant of Kenya Armed Forces Technical College, what is your take on the current state of training in the aviation sector? A: Aviation training in Kenya is very good both in the military and in civil aviation. That is why personnel trained in Kenya are in high demand worldwide. We in KCAA wish to see the standards and quality of training improve further. That is why we are certifying all aviation training organizations. I see a very good future for aviation training in Kenya. Q: We have lately heard a lot about skills shortages in the aviation sector. In which specific areas are these shortages being felt the most? A: Over all, there are skills shortages in all areas of aviation; however, the most critical are in the

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Regulator of Kenyaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Airspace: Col Kioko with a Kenya aeronautical chart

professional areas such as Pilots, Engineers and Air Traffic Controllers. Q: Is this shortage an East African phenomenon or is it Africa-wide, regional or across the world? A: No it is neither an exclusively East African nor African phenomenon. It is a worldwide issue and it is affecting all countries. It is only more acute in the poorer nations due to the fact that they do not have the capacity to attract and retain the necessary people they need. Q: Is this a long term trend? A: The way things look, yes it is long term. This is mainly due to the time it takes to train a person to be a fully qualified and competent officer.

Q: What have the authorities been doing to address this situation? A: Most nations, including Kenya,

have fast-prioritized the training of aviation-related staff so as to ensure that the gap in supply is reduced in the short term and removed in the near future. Q: We all know of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Aviation collegesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; that seem to be pandering to this situation, most are often better known for producing the most unemployable, low quality graduands. You cannot blame the parents who waste their hard-earned money on worthless certificates, since, from their point of view, the mere fact that the Government allows the dud colleges to operate means that they are legitimate. What is the Government doing to ensure that well-meaning parents and eager students are not fleeced by such colleges? A: In our regulations promulgated in 2007, KCAA has oversight of the training of aviation personnel. The regulations were put in place

setting of today skilled personnel will endeavor to seek opportunities wherever they are. At the same time organizations will also seek to attract the best professional they need. So it is inevitable that states or organizations will lose some professionals to others. Other states coming to East Africa and getting the right personnel here is an opportunity. First, it validates what we have been saying for a long time â&#x20AC;&#x201C; that we are able to produce top quality aviation personnel.

to ensure good quality of aviation personnel, starting from the students. To this end we are in the process of certifying the Aviation Training Organizations (ATOs) and the East African School of Aviation (EASA) is the first institution to be ATO-certified by KCAA. Other colleges are at various stages of the certification process.

Q: What areas do you think private schools can best contribute?

Secondly, by these professionals moving to other states they are opening up an opportunity for other professionals to take up their positions.

A: They can contribute in all areas. In fact, we would like to see more ATOs set up. This will increase competition, reduce costs and enhance quality.

Thirdly, when these professionals return home they are able to transfer some of the knowledge they have gained to the other professionals.

Q: Would you encourage the aviation clubs and pilot training that we are beginning to see in local schools? A: It is a good idea to have aviation clubs and we encourage the formation of the clubs. The aviation clubs play a vital role in educating and keeping their members up-todate on new developments in the industry. They also act a first step in oversight of the members in that they have rules that their members must adhere to. The clubs are also a good point of reference when undertaking studies on the industry. In fact, in the US, Canada, Australia and South Africa, the clubs are so strong and professional that they have been delegated some oversight roles by the local CAAs. Q: Are there any good quality bona fide local training institutions in this sector? A: Yes. Q: The East African School of Aviation is an ICAO- certified regional training school that falls under the KCAA. What has its performance been in terms of specific skill sets and numbers in addressing the training needs of the region? A: As you have stated, EASA is an ICAO-certified training institution. EASA not only trains for the region but is also attracting students from other countries outside Africa. The

Fourthly, it is a good opportunity for training organizations to train more personnel in the areas with huge demand. In my view, the challenge is ensuring that there is no gap in the skill sets of those taking over, nor is there a short fall in the personnel needed to adequately run operations.

Eye on the sky: The JKIA Air Traffic Control tower School has a diverse portfolio of courses that meet the needs of the aviation industry. These range from the Ab initio courses to specialized professional courses. With this portfolio of courses, EASA has been able to grow its revenue base, improve its infrastructure and attract more students. Q: In some sectors such as health we see locally-trained manpower being lured away to such places as South Africa, the Middle East, Europe and America. Is aviation another example of a sector where East Africa is producing trained professionals only to lose them to other places? A: I think we must understand that in the globalised economic

Q: Is there a structural problem in terms of remuneration packages and incentives in this sector, especially when compared to other sectors? A: I think the main challenge in remuneration is the high demand for skilled and competent personnel and the limited supply of the people with these competences. Using basic economic theory, the higher the demand, the higher the price. Q: Is there any concerted attempt to harmonize remuneration in this sector in order to retrain these very important skills within our borders? A: Harmonization of remuneration is only the solution when it comes to the public sector professional vis-a-vis the private sector. This will ensure that the public sector does not lose skills and competent aviation personnel to the private sector. When we look at Turn to P34 March 2012

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Kenya Civil Aviation Authority

Photography | jonathan kalan

From P33

the aviation industry in general, in my view the solution lies in managing the demand and supply of personnel. Q: There was a time when it was quite common to find Ugandan pilots flying for Kenya’s privatelyowned local airlines which serve the tourist circuit: Is that still the case? And what does the opening up of East Africa as a single market for trade, as well as for employment, mean for the aviation sector? A: Yes there are aviation personnel from various nationalities working in Kenya just as there are numerous Kenyans who work all over the world. With the coming of the East Africa Common Market I see good growth in the aviation industry. It means that operators will be able to fly to any destination within East Africa. This will open and expand the market for them and in turn increase competition, leading to reduced costs and increased quality of service. Q: How do you explain that, in a country such as Kenya that has a vibrant General Aviation sector, parents still find it cheaper to send a son or daughter for pilot training in South Africa?

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Mission Control: Above,the Tower at JKIA and facing page, Air Traffic Controllers at work. Aviation personnel trained in Kenya are in high demand worldwide.

A: First of all, I would like to make a clarification on General Aviation. General Aviation as defined by ICAO, and in terms of our regulations, is the segment of aviation that undertakes private and recreational aviation activities. So if a person holds an AOC that is not General Aviation but Commercial Aviation. To get back to your question, it must be noted that, as someone seeking a service, you have a right to decide where you wish to get your training from. Different people will make different decisions based on various factors. Aviation is no different from any other sector of training. We have people going to various countries for training. You can’t stop parents from sending their children out of the country, but what we can do is to ensure that the quality of the training given to those who train locally is world class. That’s what we at KCAA are doing. Q: Soroti is an institution in Uganda specifically designed to train senior crew. In your view, why is it that, even with such resources, regional airlines are still taking staff to South Africa for training? A: Just as I answered in the previous question, you can’t stop people, or, in this case, organizations, from taking their staff for training

anywhere in the world. All we can do is ensure the training capacity and facilities in the country match those offered outside Kenya. If the quality is good and there is capacity, then the students will come. Q: In your view, what can the Government do to address and correct this skills shortage? A: The Government has noted the shortage and we in KCAA, with the support of the Government, are working towards expanding the capacity of EASA to take up more students. This expansion of capacity includes improving and building training facilities and hire of competent personnel. We expect in the near future for EASA to offer more training courses, including flying. Q: KCAA is also in charge of inspection and licensing of aircraft for airworthiness. Can you comment on the state of aircraft under your jurisdiction? A: Kenya has a total of 1,050 registered aircraft. These vary from the Cessna Caravan to the Boeing 777. We have in the recent past seen a continued growth in the number of aircraft and we expect this growth to continue. Already, Kenya Airways are expecting about eight new aircraft this year alone.

source market. Many airlines in the developed world have been able to do this. Q: What does the aviation sector in the region need to do to bestposition itself to take advantage of the growth in the African aviation sector? A: It is my view that we have too many small operators chasing the same market. It would be good if some of the small operators joined hands to form bigger and stronger operations. This would reduce their overhead costs, offer a variety of services and they will be able to attract funding. Maybe with this kind of growth we will see more of our operators selling their shares to the public and listing on the Stock Exchange. Currently, only Kenya Airways is listed on the NSE. Q: Are you happy with the level of aircraft maintenance support offered in the country? If you could bring about any changes in this field, what would those be? A: Yes we are happy with the level of aircraft maintenance offered in the country. That is why operators in the region also come here for maintenance. If I would change anything it is that I would like to see more young people take up this as a career and also have more training available to those currently working in it. Q: You are also charged with providing air navigational services in Kenya. What is the state of these services and especially in regard to safety? A: Kenyaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ANS system is in very good shape. We have recently completed installation of new equipment which included seven new radars and we are currently working towards reorganizing the airspace. We have also managed to recruit, train and deploy more staff, especially Air Traffic Controllers. We are also contracting a consultant to undertake a study on the separation of ANS from the regulator. The study will be used to inform the intended separation process of the service providers from the regulator.

All is well with our air navigation system and we shall be implementing Performance Based Navigation (PBN). Q: We have recently seen the reinvigorated growth of several older airlines in the region and establishment of several new ones. In your view, is the growth of the aviation sector in East Africa satisfactory? Is it sustainable? A: Yes the growth rate is satisfactory because it is matching the economic growth in the region. When you look at the drivers of growth in aviation within the region, you will note that they are the ones with the biggest growth rate, i.e. tourism, horticulture and business travel. Thus, it is sustainable. Q: Is the local industry strong enough to withstand the challenge from the fast-growing Middle Eastern aviation sector? A: Yes. I think we must look at what those airlines can offer and what is needed locally. You will note that most of them will fly passengers and cargo into the big cities and our local airlines can then transport them to the other cities and towns. If our local airlines do this well, they will be able to have a sustainable business and even grow to the point where they can even fly to the March 2012

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East African School of Aviation

Ms Justina Nyaga, Acting Director of the East African School of Aviation was interviewed at EASA for this Special Report on aviation careers, training and capacity by Aviation East Africa, Business Writer Andrew Njuguna, who was accompanied by photojournalist Anthony Njoroge. Ms Nyaga was accompanied by members of her management team, Registrar of Academic Affairs Lukas Mak’omondi, Dean of Students Timothy Ngugi and Registrar Admissions Joseph Yator. Afterwards, the Director and her team took the AEA team on a guided tour of the region’s foremost school of aviation studies. Excerpts from the conversation: Flying Colours: Ms Justina Nyaga, Acting Director of the East African School of Aviation speaks to Aviation East Africa in her office at Embakasi, Nairobi, during the interview

AVIATION EAST AFRICA: Kindly give us a brief history of the East African School of Aviation . . . DIRECTOR NYAGA: Started in 1954, the EASA is the training directorate of the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA), although we are semi-autonomous, meaning we are an organization within an organization managing our affairs with a mission and a vision. EASA is ISO 9001:2008 Certified, just like KCAA, although with a different mandate. Our mandate is to build capacity for the aviation industry not only in Kenya but also in the region, more so because, besides being located in Kenya, we train professionals for the regional countries such as Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. We also cater for special training courses for students from Nigeria, Ghana, Sudan and Chad, because 36 |

EASA Does It Bringing the World to Kenya for Quality Aviation Studies and Certifications we have the capacity and the facilities required for those trainings in Air Traffic Control, Aviation Security (AVSEC), Navigation Aids training and Telecommunications Engineering (Communication Engineering and Surveillance Training). EASA is also accredited by IATA – meaning we also conduct IATA training for cabin crew.

Q: Good. Now since EASA targets students from many African countries, who is your major competitor? A: For professional training, we do not have a competitor. However, we do have competition coming from as far away as Cairo in Egypt and South African schools. The other

Photography | andrew njoroge

competition comes from West African schools, which teach in French. Q: Citing South Africa and Egypt as your major competitors, what are the main areas that bring about competition – is it the courses offered, is it the opportunities available after training, is it the element of cost of training? A: Most of our competition comes from the regional market. Initially, we trained students from Angola, Botswana, and Namibia for quite a number of years, but, for some reason, students from those countries opted to revert to training in South Africa. However, of late, we are seeing a new trend where the same students are coming back to train in Kenya, so, in my view, the issue of competition is all about one’s options, not because of cost, opportunity and so forth. Recently, we admitted students from Cameroon and Nigeria who had also trained in both South Africa and Egypt and their main response to our marketing team was that they preferred Kenya because we are

Management Team: EASA Director Nyaga is flanked by, from left, Registrar of Academic Affairs Lukas Mak’omondi, Dean of Students Timothy Ngugi and Registrar Admissions Joseph Yator

cheaper. Cairo’s main challenge is language and South Africa may have a cost issue, but I believe we are leading in terms of quality of training, especially with the current facilities we have. In Kenya, for instance, there are some private schools that offer some courses, but the issue of certification of such institutions is a challenge for them and their students. However, the issue of cost comes in because most of these private schools charge high fees for their courses. Most of the old pilots of Kenya Airways are graduates of the Soroti School of Aviation in Uganda. Q: Has EASA established training institutions in other countries? A: Our main courses are taught right here in Kenya, but we know some courses like Air Traffic Control and Communication Aviation Surveillance are offered in Tanzania, our closest neighbor. But we encourage Englishspeaking students to take their courses from here because of the advantages of the facilities around here. In the

first East African Community arrangement, Uganda was to train pilots and aeronautical engineers, Kenya was to teach the air traffic controllers and telecommunications maintenance engineers and Tanzania was to train staff for administration in Arusha. However, after the split, Tanzania established the training of controllers and navigational aids maintenance engineers, Uganda retained their old role of training pilots and Kenya went full swing into training for all areas. Q: Does the College intend to venture into training of pilots? A: Well, our main focus is on training ground and cabin crew, but, in our Strategic Plan, we have in place plans to establish a pilot training school. Q: Training comes at a cost, kindly comment on this. A: [Chuckling] . . . well, just like the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority services, ours are more of a cost recovery than a Turn to P38 March 2012

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East African School of Aviation

From P37

profit-motivated business. This means that most of our courses are affordable, except for Air Traffic Control courses – like piloting, they are very expensive. The solution for that in Kenya, for instance, is that most of the staff training in expensive courses is sponsored directly by the KCAA, because they are the ones who finally employ them locally. Most of the foreign students here pursuing Air Traffic Control certification are sponsored by their respective civil aviation authorities. One of the disadvantages of selfsponsorship in such courses is that the question of “where are you going to work?” arises, because the services of air traffic control are invariably provided by the State under the civil aviation authorities. Q: What opportunities are available for your students once they graduate, are they readily absorbed into the job market? A: It all depends on the categories of students upon successful completion of courses and exams. Just like 38 |

the air traffic controllers who are absorbed by the respective states, we need to acknowledge that students studying the other courses graduate to fill in a shortage of staff in their fields. For instance, currently, Kenya has a shortage of ground operation crew in charge of various airport processes such as maintenance and navigation. In fact, most of the Kenyan students training with us are sponsored by the KCAA, thus opportunities are available for them before and after training because a large number of them are already on the KCAA payroll. We have not trained privatelysponsored telecommunications engineers, for example. But for those students who are fresh from high school and are self-sponsored, taking ab initio training, they start by following a more academic line than a professional line. They study aeronautical engineering and sit the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) examinations just like students who train at the polytechnics. These are the ones who jobseek for themselves, but a few exceptional ones are readily absorbed by the industry

Air Traffic Controllers: Above, ATCs communicate with international flights at the JKIA Tower and,facing page,an EASA student uses a simulator with images of the Wilson Airport runway

because there is a shortage which needs to be filled, as a requirement, by experienced and qualified persons. The jobseekers will usually end up in the airlines, especially in the Middle East, as maintenance engineers. Q: What is the fate of selfsponsored students who study academic courses and later pursue aviation courses? A: Those who sit are certified by KNEC and are absorbed into the industry have to sit a mandatory exam set by the KCAA so that they can be licensed to practice their trade using our standards. Others will opt to practice as independent technicians – that is Okay – but they have to have a KCAA license to allow them to work in Kenya. Q: Does the School offer other courses that are not directly related to aviation? A: Apart from the many aviation courses which I have highlighted, we also have business courses offered in the institution. We have a partnership with Moi

University, who offer a Business Management/ Aviation option and the certifications offered are at a diploma, under-graduate degree and Master’s degree level. Q: Does that provide an opportunity for offering scholarships to qualified students in that area of study? A: Well, the civil aviation authorities may choose to sponsor students pursuing either the undergraduate degree or Master’s degree, or students may be sponsored by their respective employers, but, currently, we have not started a scholarship programme for this course. Q: Would you say that the College has fully explored the training needs of the region or are there challenges in meeting that end? A: Most of the recommendations for training locations come from ICAO, therefore we are just one of the many global institutions certified by ICAO to teach students from many countries. Specifically, in Africa, we

train in about 20 countries in various fields. In areas such as aviation security, we even go beyond training African students because we conform to the training standards set by the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO). We have trained students from Europe and Asia, specifically Switzerland, Afghanistan and Malaysia, meaning we are global. In the case of Africa, we have a firm grip on the training opportunities. We have departed from going to showcase in both local and international shows and exhibitions and will now start going to schools so as to promote ab initio/aviation academic training for cabin crew and aeronautical engineering. We are currently working with Alliance Boys’ High School and there is an association that schools interested in aviation training have formed which works closely with KCAA to make learning easy and practical. Q: Touching on technology, how does the College tailor its courses to meet current global standards of technology?

A: Since we are certified to teach ICAO-recommended courses such as security, all our training, including the equipment and content, is passed by ICAO. Right now there is security training going on here with a British aviation company and, about two weeks ago, we trained with the US who give us latest technology via collaboration with the Federation Aviation Authority (FAA), so we are always on top of things global. That is why we are ISO-accredited and all our certificates bear the ICAO logo for AVSEC. We are introducing a new course to facilitate training of aircraft technicians who are already in the field but are not licensed. The curriculum and syllabus are ready for rollout and we are launching soon so as to fast-track the licensing of aircraft maintenance crew. In the next five years, we shall be establishing e-learning for most of our courses, especially for courses where practical learning is not really that mandatory. From April this year, we shall launch an association Turn to P40

Photography | andrew njoroge

March 2012

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East African School of Aviation Photography | andrew njoroge

Back: Stephen Gachuki,Timothy Ngugi,Evans to cater for our trainees as well as an Aviation Curriculum Omondi, John Kituku Development Center which Front: O. shall be coordinated by ICAO. Kwanga, We already have students J. Nzyoka,M. undergoing the process of Sindiga,Joseph developing a standardized training package that should be Yator, ready by the start of April. This J. Nyaga,Mak shall be certified and presented Omondi,S. Lubaga. by the Secretary General of ICAO during that launch. From P39

Q: Does EASA conduct joint training with the Kenya Air Force? A:We train the military air traffic controllers. Currently we have a class going on with Rwandese students and among them are four Kenya Air Force students. They are here because four students cannot form a quorum enough for a training session. When we have searchand-rescue training, we invite the officers to join us. Q: Does the College have a course on training of trainers, where your professional lecturers can train trainers who can then offer their services beyond our borders, perhaps?

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A: Yes we do. For instance, for the Flight Safety Inspectors, we collaborate with the FAA or with ICAO so that we can have the training-of-trainer’s right here. We also train regional field trainers here. Q: In the past five years, there has been a rise in the number of aviation accidents in Africa. Could they be related to training lapses that perhaps fail to prepare ground crew on how to overcome actual accident scenarios? A: Well, I don’t think so. Our procedures are defined very well, but someone could cause a non-training-related lapse when on the job. Usually, the person may have rarely used a technique, thus the possibility of forgetting it is possible. However, if it is identified that there is a lapse in school courses or training methods, we recommend refresher courses for students or fix the lapse in the course content, which is very rare. This also takes care of new technologies which hit the industry. All our refresher courses incorporate new technologies and strategies, especially in safety management systems.

Currently, there is a new safety management system which aims to prevent accidents by a larger scale than before, thus the African skies should be safer today. We will always try as much as possible to mitigate a problem rather than rendering punitive action on the defaulters. Q: Kenya, the region and the rest of the world want to know more about you. Besides having outreach to schools, what more are you doing to ensure that EASA becomes a household name? A: Incidentally, our college has not focused only on Kenya but on the region as a whole. Well, not many Kenyans would tell you about EASA, say, school-leavers telling you that this is their choice for aviation education. This is because the main aim of forming the school was to deal with the CAA’s and larger aviation entities in need of professional training. But, right now, apart from encouraging young students from high school, we are attending educational fairs, exhibitions and the annual Agricultural Society of Kenya shows across the country,

where we have a stand and we are developing plans to reach out to the counties, especially now that the national high school results have just been released and students who want to do aviation courses will have a chance of knowing who we are and not opting to go to South Africa or Egypt. However, we also have limitations in terms of infrastructure, like the size of classes, the laboratories, the library and the equipment. Some courses are very intensive, thus we cannot have a class of 50 students yet, as their level of concentration will be impaired. The equipment is also very expensive and only a limited number of students can use it at any one time. Therefore, we are trying as much to build on capacity within the institution, so that as much as we are telling the world to come and study aviation at EASA, let the students come and find it convenient to study here too.

that means they were here with us and appreciate our training.

Deviceto-device, system-tosystem: EASA Instructor Joe Okinda eplains the functions of the Instrument Landing System (ILS)

Q: What procedures must one undergo to secure a licence from the School? A: Good question. We have two groups of persons that we award an Aircraft Maintenance Licence (AML) to. The first group consists of aviation diploma holders who do not have the required experience to qualify them to sit our exams. For these ones, we arrange a

monthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s training and six-month attachment in the local industry after which they qualify to sit license exams. For the second group, they are already working and have certification but lack a practice licence. Here, we approach the respective employers and request them to release the person from duty four hours a day for eight months, during which we prepare these busy students for the intensive course. Both groups will finally sit the exams together.

Q: Since most of your courses are very marketable in the region, have you considered network marketing as a mouthpiece for the college? A: We already know that our students are very marketable out there, thus, beyond working with our systems for marketing, we shall also use network marketing to drive our outreach agenda. For instance, many people in the industry know EASA for producing competent graduates who never lack jobs out there and that alone is a good platform for marketing the School. The fact that this is a government institution that is stable and offers quality training makes networking easy, because people want to associate themselves with quality service. It is always fulfilling to walk around Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and other airports in the world and hear the voice of a senior ground crew or cabin crew officer calling out your name,

March 2012

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The Soroti Flying School, Uganda

Photography | courtesy

The Soroti Flying School, Uganda East Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first aeronautical institute is 41 years old this year and still offering topflight quality courses to both the regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s citizens and others, reports ERIC MWITI

ver wanted a career in aviation, or are you just fascinated by flying? Whether your interest is in becoming a pilot or an aircraft engineer, you will want to read more about The Soroti Flying School. Located in Soroti, Soroti District, Teso Sub-region, in Eastern Uganda, the Soroti Flying School was established in 1971 with the aim of training pilots and aircraft engineers for the East African market. Appraisals for training programmes were done and

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equipment provided through the assistance of the UNDP International Civil Aviation Organization (UNDPICAO). This saw the institution get linked to others outside East Africa, developing into a center of excellence recognized by education regulators all over the world, and has since graduated over 600 pilots and engineers, among other aviation professional personnel. The academy is based in Soroti airport, which was built as a training school for the British Overseas

Airways Corporation (BOAC, the precursor of British Airways)to train their pilots in tropical flying techniques. The airport has the third longest tarmac runways in Uganda, at 6,100ft (1,900m) and the longest paved runway in the country, measuring 12,000ft (3,700m). It is capable of handling jets the size of Boeing 737s. It is in this airport that the Soroti Flying School provides training through instrument and multiengine ratings.

Popular

Training aircraft for the school are available up to a Cessana 310, which, even though is no longer in production, remains one of the most popular twin-engine aircraft in the world. The school sits on over 500 acres of land. Built within Soroti town, the

academy presents an atmosphere of serenity that is enhanced by the flatness of the terrain, this being one of the major reasons why Soroti was selected to act as the home to the first East African aeronautical institute. The region’s topography offers an abundance of possibilities for forced landings, of which there has been only one in the academy’s fourdecade-long lifetime. The weather here varies between extreme heat (temperature readings of up to 40ºC) and mild thunderstorms and these offer ideal conditions to get cadet pilots used to operating from hot airfields to judging adverse weather conditions. The Ugandan Government’s Department of Meteorology also maintains a fully-equipped weather station at Soroti airport. When it comes to accommodation, the school is equipped with 108 fully-furnished rooms which accommodate a cadet each.

These are arranged under two dormitory blocks that include screened shower booths, making the rooms suitable for both male and female cadets, two rest lounges, each fitted with a digital satellite TV and a video deck. A fully-equipped kitchen is also maintained to provide modern catering services, offering a fully

The School offers the following courses: • Private pilot license • Commercial pilot license • Instrument rating • Airline transport pilot license • Flight operations • Airport operations • Mechanical aircraft maintenance • Electrical and Avionics maintenance • Flight instructors’ course

Soroti airport was built as a training school for the British Overseas Airways Corporation

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balanced diet of five meals a day. To meet international aviation training requirements, the diet is high on animal protein, which makes up close to 80% of the weekly diet! Recreation is also provided for as a student may select from a variety of sporting activities such as basketball, football, lawn and table tennis, volleyball and swimming, among others. A recreation hall is also available, with a seating capacity of 500 people. When it comes to the learning facilities, the School has access to a 1860m hard-surface runway, a 900m murram runway, a fullyequipped control tower, a full fireand-rescue service, Doppler D VO R, D ME and ND B navigation aids, a 125kw standby generator to ensure steady power supply, a service single-engine Cessna C172 aircraft, one twin-engine Cessna C310 aircraft, two simulators or flighttraining devices to supplement flight training, and, for engineering three non-flyable aircraft, three workshops and two hangars for engineering training and aircraft maintenance, seven classrooms, a cinema room and library for theoretical studies.

Variety

Soroti

With the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority as the licensing authority, the School offers a variety of courses to both citizens and international students. Kampala has been urged to renovate the School by a variety of stakeholders and complete its plan to rehabilitate and upgrade four airfields into airports. These are Soroti, Gulu, Kasese and Arua. Considering how much the region has grown from the time this institution was born, it is clear that more attention ought to be paid to it and more resources directed towards its growth and maintenance. The government recently had renovation plans that would see $900,000 spent on repairs, acquisition of new computers and software and the purchase of up to six training aircraft. This will be a much-needed lifeline for a flying school whose name has traveled far beyond eastern Africa’s borders for reasons both good and otherwise.

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CoverStory |

School Leavers & Aviation Careers

Aviation is About More than Flying What Every School-Leaver Should Know about Opportunities in the Sector, by ERIC MWITI

ducation is the key to success. True, but in our modern-day world, many people have come to question the degree of truth in this statement. University degrees have lost the romance that they once held, with a good percentage of undergraduate degree holders going further for Master’s degrees and others even beyond. Almost everybody has a friend, relative, or knows a degree holder who has had to settle for a blue collar job or just what came by just to make ends meet due to the unemployment levels in this country and, increasingly, the world at large. It is no longer just about having that education, now it’s much more about taking the time to strategize on the path you want to follow, analyze the opportunities that you expect, and also consider the number of people going for the same piece of cake and action in a world with seven billion souls, a billion of them right here in Africa. How much of a relief would it be to sit in class, studying, while, at the back of your mind, all the time knowing that there is a position that is already waiting for you, a gap that desperately needs you?

Options

The aviation sector presents a massive area of opportunity, if only one understands the expansiveness of the industry and the options that are there to choose from. For most people, being a pilot is the only career that comes to mind when they think about aviation. This is a wrong conception that has led people to shy away from this veritable career Canaan, especially due to the high cost of training pilots. On the contrary, this industry has much more to offer than just flying. There are numerous non-flying courses on offer for which demand in Kenya and the rest of East Africa alone cannot be overemphasized due to a

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shortage in the region, occasioned by brain-drain “fishing” of the already trained professionals by other regions, especially in Africa. Kenya has the privilege of having one of only 16 International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) -recognized aviation training institutions in the world, the East African School of Aviation (EASA), which has been accredited by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) since 2006. Other than a course in flying, this school offers many more technical courses for which demand in the job market is far from being gratified. Other than piloting, the aviation sector needs engineers/aircraft technicians, air traffic controllers and safety inspectors, among many other roles. Below are a few of the areas one can choose from, broken down into specific courses.

• Air Traffic Control This includes Basic Aerodrome, Aerodrome Control, Approach (Non-Radar Control), Approach Radar Control, Area/Airways Control (Non-Radar), Area Control (Radar), Search and Rescue, Area Radar Conversion, Reduced Vertical

tested, but not tried: High school students sit a final exam.

Separation Minima, ACAS II/TCAS II and Area Airways Course (NonRadar).

Refresher • AIS/Map Courses The courses included are; Aeronautical Information Services (AIS) ICAO 021, AIS Supervisory Management, AIS Cartography (Conventional), AIP/MAP Management, FLT PLN for Genera Aviation, AIS Refresher, Advanced AIS Automated AIS system and AIS Cartography (Digital).

• Aviation Security Courses (ICAO) Aviation security is broken down into the following courses; ASTP 123/AVSEC – Basic, Supervisors, Instructors, Instructor Certification, Crisis Management, AVSEC Management, Security Exercises, National Inspectors Course, Cargo & Mail Security.

• Radio Maintenance For Radio maintenance courses, we have Maintenance Certification, Equipment Maintenance Management and ILS maintenance.

• Radar Maintenance Course Introduction to Radar systems and safety, Primary Radar operation, Transmitter Preventive and Corrective Maintenance, Receiver Preventive and Corrective Maintenance, Signal Encoding and Distribution Corrective Maintenance, Video Extractor Preventive and Corrective Maintenance, Display Unit Corrective Maintenance and Remote Control Corrective Maintenance.

• Microprocessors and Microcomputers Course content includes Flow Charts, Review of Number Systems, Binary, Octal, Hexade, Cimal and BCD and Base Conversations, Arithmetic in Binary Numbers, One’s and Two’s Compliment, Character Encoding and The ASCII Code Computer Layout.

• CNS/ATM Workshop The courses here are Current System Overview, History of CNS/ATM Development, Future Communication, Navigation and Surveillance Systems, Strategy and Rationale for Implementing CNS/ ATM Systems. This targets the personnel at the middle and senior level of management, working with an air navigation service providers, airlines, airport services providers, etc., who formulate and/or influence policy in civil aviation system development.

Requirements

These are just a few of the options available for anyone interested in this lucrative industry. Admission requirements will largely depend on the course of choice, but a good grade in Physics and Mathematics is required. For some courses, Geography is a requirement or an added advantage. Courses are available at Certificate, Diploma and Degree levels. The aviation sector, according to ICAO, has grown tremendously over the years, and continues to show a lot of potential. Projections show that during the next 20-year period, the growth of the industry is going to be robust. This translates into manpower needs, and considering the gap that currently exists in demand versus the supply of professionals, then this is

they also serve: There is a multiplicity of ground-based aviation services.

an investment that any school-leaver should consider. The industry in eastern Africa has been losing its highly skilled manpower since its inception. Its highly-trained professionals and skilled employees have been migrating to greener pastures in other regions, but this does not make the pastures here any less green. This presents a significant shortage of labor in the aviation sector. Colonel (Rtd) Hilary K. Kioko, Director-General of the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA), says that this is not only an East African issue, but there’s generally a shortage worldwide. This translates into opportunities for those with the right training far beyond our borders. Ms. Justina Nyaga, the acting Director of EASA, says that, due to the shortage in skills in the aviation sector, most students studying in the School are sponsored by the KCAA, and are absorbed by the body once they complete their courses, thus, opportunities are available for them before and after training. In the last five-to-six years, there has been a significant increase in the loss of professional and skilled manpower. The scope has also expanded to include professionals employed in almost all other major areas in civil aviation and airlines, such as management, marketing and finance. Furthermore, the frequency and the numbers being taken without adequate notice have dramatically increased. All indications are that the current trend will continue and get even worse as demand for these professional staff increases with the anticipated growth in the sector. This will leave a big gap in the region, and, according to simple economics, when the supply is lower than the demand, the price will change upwards, in this case, the remuneration of those who choose to remain behind or come back home.

Significant growth in air traffic in the last decade or so in certain markets such as the Asia Pacific and the Middle East regions fuelled the current spate of exodus of professional and skilled employees from Africa. This trend will continue into the foreseeable future as forecasts by Boeing (current market outlook 2011-2030) indicate that, globally, traffic will grow in RPK/RTK terms by 5.1% for passenger and 5.6% for cargo, per annum, and passenger numbers will grow by an average of 4.2% per year. By region, Africa will be the second highest growing region following the Middle East. 33,500 new airplanes will be added over the next 20 years. Africa’s fleet is expected to grow by 800 aircraft. Due to this spike in growth, the world’s airlines will need to add 460,000 pilots and 650,000 maintenance technicians; both to fly and maintain the new airplanes and to replace current personnel. The Middle East alone will need 36,600 pilots and 53,000 technicians, while Africa will require 14,300 pilots and 19,200 technicians.

Manpower

The demand from the Middle East will have greater effect on the African aviation manpower situation due to the regions’ geographic proximity, cultural and historical ties and the influence of African employees already working in the region. This only means that the trained professionals who are already here in the region may migrate to these other regions, and even if they do not, the opportunities out there are more than enough to make one want to venture into this ever-growing industry. With all these facts revealed, the next question that comes up is the issue of finances. How affordable are these courses? Just how much does one have to pay to obtain the required skills to become one of these much-soughtafter professionals? A lot of people have avoided the aviation industry for the fact that the courses are expensive. Again, most people use flying courses as the benchmark for rating the cost of taking up a course/career in aviation. This has kept many at bay, owing to ignorance of the fact that there are non-flying courses which are relatively cheaper than becoming a pilot, but offer the same level of marketability in the jobs field. For most aviation schools today, the fees are paid in installments, making it all the more affordable and accessible to even those who never dreamed of a career in the sector. March 2012

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CoverStory |

Aviation Careers

‘For Me, Flying is Fate’ By ANDREW NJUGUNA

aptain Caroline Wanjiku has always been a brilliant girl. Born in a middle class Nairobi-based family, she sailed through primary and secondary schools with exemplary grades. At 11, she was already decided about her future career, which was to become a pilot. When she attained the years of discretion and the time finally came to make the choice, becoming a pilot was “fate”. “When my mum hid my brother’s national ID because she didn’t want him to join the Air Force, where all he wanted to do was to fly, I asked myself why she wouldn’t want this to happen. And that was the turning point when I decided that I would study hard and I finally make it to be a pilot. My brother is doing business today, but I am glad to have accomplished what he was never able to do. He still remains one of my greatest inspirations,” she says. Then came her search for admission to the Kenya School of Flying based at Wilson Airport, Nairobi. All went smoothly, but, after crossing the hurdle of gaining admission for the course, Caroline was

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faced with another challenge – raising the money to pay for the course. At that time, she had no clue about how she could finance her studies, but she decided to liquidate a treasured asset.

Challenge

“My mum helped me a lot. During that time, she was going through a very challenging time in her business. But some time before that, when I had cleared high school, she bought me a car, which I thought, hey, why don’t I sell it and raise some money to start my training? Thereafter, she would work hard and provide for my shortfalls outside what I was able to raise. I was lucky and it was just fate for me to become a pilot,” she says. In 1999 she started her ab initio training and by December 2000 she had received her Private Pilot License (PPL). In 2001 she proceeded to the United States of America to pursue

After doing some flying in Texas, she returned home to work

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a Commercial Pilots License (CPL), which she attained in 2003. After doing some flying in Texas, she returned home to work. “This was quite a frustrating period for me, since I had come back to a country where opportunities for pilots then were more insufficient than today”, she recalls. “I believe in being assertive. It is not just about dropping off a CV and waiting for the employer to call you. Getting a job after undergoing pilot training has never been automatic. Do a follow-up, even if the person on the other end thinks that you are bugging them. Remember, this is all for your own sake, even a regret as a response would be enough to get you thinking again of Plan B”. She needed cash badly. She had debts to pay and a lifestyle to match. Having grown up around a neighbor next door who used to fly and transport miraa (khat) across borders, she was enticed into the career by the lavish lifestyle he led, a far cry from her family’s economic status. Today, years later the job of pilot is lucrative for Carol too: “I don’t earn that much chumz,” she is quick to add. “But I don’t think I could ask for more. I basically have everything I could ask for and I am very grateful to God”.

This outspoken pilot was first employed by Ross Air, a South African airline which has since closed its activities in East Africa. Back then, she believed that she drew a huge salary, but this was just a fresh graduate’s perspective. Since then, Caroline has flown hundreds of times to various parts of the country and beyond its shores. She has both local and international exposure. Carol chose to train abroad due to the limited facilities available back in Kenya in the 1990s. Today, she says, this country has some greatly improved facilities that aid night flying, for example. “Today I can say that these training standards have greatly improved here. For example, we have students doing night flying over the Maasai Mara and we have more facilities in Kisumu, Eldoret, Malindi, among many others which can support this”, she says. A typical day for Carol takes up to eight hours of flying. The rest of the time she is on standby and barely has any “off assignment” downtime. Carol, who works at Safari Link, is usually out of the house quite early, often before 7am. Normally by 7:30am, she embarks on her routine shifts of flying over the mountainous regions surrounding the Amboseli.

Assignment

She then crosses over to the Amboseli and then returns to Wilson for yet another assignment. “I am back to Wilson Airport by mid-morning, which means I experience low-level clouds and lots of traffic leading into Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and most of the time we have to get permission to transit through JKIA, although during some days we get cleared to land at low level. The challenge is with low-level flying – thus, for any pilot, knowledge of the area is very important.” By 10am, she then takes off towards Samburu, Nanyuki and Lewa before crossing into the Masai Mara. She informs us that there are many flights from different companies coming in and out of these areas therefore they have to be extra careful and watch out for traffic information coming in from the ground crew. Thereafter, she returns again to Wilson Airport, upon which, depending on the day’s schedule, the management can decide to assign her a trip to Diani. Carol is a Captain on the Cessna Caravan where she flies alone but when flying the Dash 8, one of the largest

There was a time I was flying from Juba carrying three members of a powerful but infamous Kenyan family

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aircraft at Wilson Airport, she is a First Officer. She has accumulated a total of 3,600 flying hours. She is looking forward to flying a commercial airliner once she acquires the mandatory 500 hours jet time. Carol works well under pressure. At times she is forced to perform complex maneuvers, most of which she learnt during her training in the US. “These maneuvers were really not interesting to me then, but, today, they come in handy, especially when flying over complex terrain. Basically, here you have to do a maneuver at some point, especially when flying away from birds, particularly in the Masai Mara,” she says. The mother of one says that many of her classmates threw in the towel during training. She emphasizes the need for focus and seriousness for any up-and-coming pilot. “One thing, for sure, is that I took my studies and lessons very seriously because I know of people today whom I met at flying school, left them there and to date they are not about to come back to flying for lack of licenses,” she says. Unable to hide her huge affection for children, she asserts these important values to her four-year-old son and her seven-year-old daughter, whom she adopted as an infant. One of the most trying moments in her career came when she became pregnant. “I had to keep earning and I knew the threats posed, but as far as I flew alone in the Caravan, I was safe. However, after much consideration, I undertook a few tests with the company doctor and I was cleared to fly,” she says. Carol wishes to do a local Aviation Management course at degree level. Having worked outside the country, she has had her share of experience Photography | anthony njoroge

and is now looking for additional knowledge. She has worked in both southern Sudan and Somalia, where there were all sorts of threatening situations. “I know the al- Shabaab threat is real and these guys walk their talk,” she says gravely. When asked about the most terrifying moment of her career in the skies, she had this to say: “There was a time I was flying from Juba carrying three members of a powerful but infamous Kenyan family, where I was to take them to Lokichoggio for them to connect to the city. So one of them asked me if he could join me at the front, which I refused and explained that he should sit at the back with the other passengers. Now, for some unknown reason, I started getting some warning lights indicating that my generator was off, which meant that my battery was draining fast.

Assignment

“So I performed a memory check on the items, but the warning lights were still not going off. I didn’t panic. I then decided to call other pilots around me, where I found one with very chilling advice. He suggested that I switch off the engine and glide to a halt, but I figured that if I followed his advice, I should in turn switch off all electronics apart from the radio. At some point, I saw that the starter light was on but I could not see the caution light coming on too, so, when I switched off the starter, everything resumed to normal. “That was a full 15 minutes of an ordeal and it left me asking myself, what if the passenger who wanted to join me actually did so and he saw what was going on with all the warning lights, that would have led to unnecessary panic.” However, she has no regrets. For someone who learnt how to fly a plane before learning how to drive a car, Caroline is “one hundred per cent sure that it is still the safest way to travel”. She loves flying, but perhaps thinks she could be a lawyer if she had never made it to being a pilot. A key ingredient for success, she says, is doing what you are good at. “Know your strengths, I aim for the best. Anything I find myself doing, I put in my best. I am not bothered when challenged by men, even in the cockpit, but we are women and we are doing it. It’s not like it is impossible. If you have the determination, there is nothing you can’t do.” March 2012

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Aviation Careers

For this Pilot Flying is both Vocation and Passion

‘I always had a fascination with fixing things and it worked out well for me. I work best with my hands, which is why I settled for flying.’ By Rahel Mukami

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t 28, Arnold Rotich is a pilot with one of the largest and most prestigious private airlines in the region, Safari Link. His dream of and passion for becoming a pilot started when he was at the Makini School. “I always had a fascination with fixing things and it worked out well for me. I work best with my hands, which is why I settled for flying. When I was younger, I used to keep our family car mechanic company when he was out trying to fix the brakes, engine, etc., then I would go back into the house all messy, but I felt some sense of satisfaction. This actually helped me a lot and at some point I could fix the car by myself,” says Rotich.

Hurdles

Rotich was born and raised in Nairobi. His father passed on when he was very young and his mother had to take charge and raise them alone. A relentless Arnold went through many hurdles. At one point he had to drop out of Rusinga School (where he did his O- and A-levels) to pave way for his younger sister, who was studying aviation at the time and now works as a Kenya Airways pilot. It took him six-to-seven years to finish his training. We met Rotich at a social venue in Nairobi’s Hurlingham suburb. His simplicity and humility belie his high-flying career. You would not give him a second glance in the street, but within minutes of meeting and chatting you realize that this young flier loves his

Photography | anthony njoroge

job and has a very positive attitude towards life and people. Initially, Arnold wanted to pursue a career in automotive engineering and also had a special interest in the ground-based transportation business. In those formative years, he did not envisage himself spending a lifetime in aviation. The idea of flying was conceived only while at Makini, where he attended primary school. The effects of the 2008 postelection violence were felt by all Kenyans, regardless of their age, ethnic group or sex, and Arnold was no exemption. Like every young fresh college graduate with any ambition, he hoped to get a posting not long after getting into the job market.

Freelancing

Most companies were already feeling the effects of the PEV, which saw the economy lose KSh100 billion in just four weeks, hitting both the national and regional importexport markets and tourism hardest. A number of firms even laid-off employees and cut the pay of the ones who were lucky to remain and there was no substantive hiring for months on end. In the face of the then prevailing crisis, Arnold knew that he had to start out as a part-time pilot. He started freelancing with Z. Boskovic Air Charters, flying a cargo plane. On and off, he stayed with them for about two years as he explored other openings, trying to see if they could give him experience as well as a job. He was soon flying with DHL cargo from Nairobi to Entebbe and Dar es Salaam. And then he joined Safari Link on a freelance basis, flying to the Mara, Lamu and Diani, then went to Sudan for a month to fly with Lady Lori Helicopters. He then came back and that’s when an opportunity at Safari Link came up. He was on freelance for three years before was hired as a permanent staffer six months ago. Arnold does not work only as a source of livelihood; he derives great pleasure from his job. In his own words, piloting is “a very interesting career and rewarding as well”. When we asked how it feels to be a pilot he gushed: “It feels great! No complaints. Flying is a great experience. I am in Nairobi now

and in an hour’s time I will be in Mombasa, which, I am sure, would take around eight hours by road. I love it.” But this young pilot is quick to point out that piloting, though highly enjoyable in and of itself, is no bed of roses, particularly given the cost of training, which is very high. Says he: “Most people come to flying with the idea that flying is expensive even after training, and there is a certain lifestyle one has to maintain, that’s not true. There is this assumption that pilots do lots of crazy things, excessive drinking, we don’t do that. If we are not working, then we are doing business on the side, furthering our studies; others are busy with families, etc., we also tend to spend more time at work so they

don’t get enough time to spend with their family and loved ones.”

High-risk

Despite the fact that piloting is rewarding and much-esteemed, Rotich says that it is a high-risk industry because you can lose your career right here on the ground by suffering a car or other accident, or by sustaining simple injuries in the eyes and arms: “You therefore have to take very good care of yourself”. Rotich advises patience for fresh graduates searching for a job as pilots, since every employer needs to hire a candidate who has experience, which is built up over time: “Before, you could get a job simply by getting Turn to P52

March 2012

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Aviation Careers

Photography | courtesy

From P51

out of school and going out there and hustling, but now, you have to pay for rating”. Is he a great success then, given his tender age? He says he is not really successful, because he has not realized his full potential yet. “Till I become successful, I am still going to keep going at it and keep pushing harder and harder. My ambition is to become a captain, either of the aircraft I am flying right now, or, better still, flying bigger aircraft. In flying, you never stop learning, never stop reading.

Advancing

I would like to do my ATLP (airline transport pilot license), which will obviously enable me to fly bigger aircraft as a captain. I want to advance myself. And just try to make my family proud; my late father, my Mum – the entire family”. Rotich advises young people who aspire to be pilots to work hard and make sure they pass in all the relevant subjects, especially in mathematics, physics, chemistry and geography. “Nothing should ever stop anyone from being a pilot, it is a career for everyone, so just work hard and when you are ready, go for it. Go to school, follow the instructors and be willing to learn.”

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My greatest satisfaction comes in when he looks at his passengers’ faces when they get to their destination

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He says a degree is to be recommended, because it puts you in a better position, as the company looks at you as more responsible. You can only better yourself by having an extra academic paper. He points out that if your attitude towards life and everyone you meet is good, your reputation will precede you. On top of patience, he recommends hard work, saying “nothing comes easy”. Rotich says that he is glad the Kenyan aviation industry is growing. “Kenya is buzzing with better and bigger aircraft and we are trying to go green. In East Africa, we have the highest number of international aircraft and highest number of training schools. There are very many pilots in the industry”. He says that Kenya has the largest number of contracts with the United Nations and the aviation sector is improving in terms of safety records, and going through all the requisite checks daily to ensure passengers are safe. Rotich says Kenya is “doing okay so far in East Africa” and he is confident that, soon, “it will be the leading aviation industry within all of Africa”. The industry is striking a gender balance. Arnold says that Safari Link has two female captains and one other pilot on a freelance basis. Besides Safari Link, Air Kenya has two female captains and two female

pilots. Rotich loves traveling – another reason why he cherishes this career so much. He loves socializing; after work, he meets with friends and colleague for banter about life and how the day was in general. He occasionally enjoys relaxing at home watching a movie or a documentary.

Satisfaction

Rotich is not fascinated by the huge salaries pilots earn. He says that his greatest satisfaction comes in when he looks at his passengers’ faces when they get to their destination. “It’s delightful to see them wearing beautiful smiles on their faces, some clapping in excitement and thanking me for the flight.” He flies a Cessna Caravan 208, which carries a maximum of 14 people – 12 passengers and two pilots, if need be, but sometimes works with one pilot and 13 passengers. Safari Link flies within Kenya and cross-border into Tanzania. In Kenya, Safari Link flies to the Masai Mara, Kiwayu, Samburu, Lamu, Diani, Naivasha, Nanyuki, Tsavo West, Amboseli, and Lewa Downs, among other destinations. Safari Link also flies to Kilimanjaro in northern Tanzania. In addition, Safari Link offers charter services.

CoverStory |

The Soroti Flying School, Uganda

KAMPALA AERO CLUB AND FLIGHT TRAINING CENTRE 15th ANNIVERSARY

Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines A Day to Celebrate a Ugandan Airfield. By Amy Fallon

the club’s pool and stared out at the runway, after arriving at the airfield. The KAFTC was the tourism sector’s “number one choice for charters flying tourists across the Pearl of Africa,” my unofficial tour guide, German expat in Uganda Dr Wolfgang H. Thome informed me, adding “safe, reliable and with facilities on the ground to match their 15-year incident-free record in the air”. Thome, an aviation-obsessed, selfconfessed “eccentric”, couldn’t resist inhaling some JetA1 or AVGAS fumes as we inspected the 12 aircraft that call the Central Ugandan township of Kajjansi home. “Jet fuel is like perfume to me,” he said as we got up close and personal with the club’s Bell 206 Jetranger. The chopper, KAFTC co-owner and director Captain Russel Barne’s pride and joy, can travel at up to 100 knots, carrying up to four passengers. At the birthday bash Barnes performed a medivac demonstration, executed with ultimate precision, in the flying machine. A crowd of about 150 guests, including the Director Air Transport and Economic Regulations and many of his colleagues, watched and gasped.

Experience

n my first Saturday in Uganda, in early February, I was lucky enough to be invited to celebrations toasting the 15th anniversary of the Kampala Aero Club and Flight Training Centre (KAFTC), about 20 minutes north of Entebbe, in Wakiso District. I jumped, nearly as high as a Cessna 172 can fly, at the chance. I’d just moved to Kampala four days earlier from the UK and had never been to an airfield before, let alone to a birthday party for a Ugandan airfield. It sounded exciting, slightly romantic and a bit Meryl Streep in

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manner of Out of Africa. Would I meet with a young-looking Robert Redford type and be flown to Mombasa in his bi-plane? (Although we all know how things wound up after that). I’m partly embarrassed to say that when I woke up that morning I jumped out of bed and desperately searched my travel wardrobe for an ivory number, a scarf featuring a tribal motif and a woodenbeaded necklace. I wasn’t the only one entertaining thoughts relating to Karen Blixen. “Oh, remember the part where he [Redford] takes her [Streep] up in the plane?” a British expat sighed as she sat down on a banana lounge next to me around

Barnes and his co-owner Jeremy McKelvie have over three decades of experience flying around Uganda and in the region combined. They are supported by 25 club staff, from pilots to engineers and kitchen workers. Barnes has experience flying cropdusters and has also done African bush flying but has recently returned to helis, his number one love. Before founding Kampala Aeroclub in 1997 with Barnes, with just one Cessna 172, McKelvie was a training captain for Mission Aviation Fellowship, helping improve the bush flying skills of pilots in Uganda. The Jetranger, along with Kajjansi’s Cessna Caravans (there’s two 208 Caravans, seating up to 13 passengers), are specially equipped for medivacs. Air patients can be transported directly to connecting flights at Entebbe International Airport. Using these aircraft victims can be airlifted within minutes of an accident, compared to over an hour by conventional ambulance transfers, in the event of an emergency. KAFTC works with The Surgery, a 24-hour international medical and travel

FACT Some of Kajjansi’s aircraft: clinic in Kampala. The club’s fleet of aircraft has grown along with Uganda’s tourism industry and the demand for air charter. Among their impressive collection are a Britten-Norman Islander (nine passenger seats); four Cessna 206/ Cessna 210 (five passenger seats) and three Cessna 172 (three passenger seats), the latest DHC Twin Otter 600 and a Great Lakes bi-plane. They serve Uganda as well as South Sudan, eastern Congo, western Kenya, northern Tanzania, and Rwanda. Taking to the skies at the anniversary event was Captain Howard Davenport in his personal Buecker Jungmeister bi-plane, too. The American has over 38 years’ experience and over 18,000 hours on both fixed-wing and rotary aircraft under his belt. The first pilot in Uganda licensed to fly acrobatics from the surface up, he served the FAA for 14 years as a pilot examiner, and 21 years in aerial law enforcement in Texas. Davenport’s currently the Aero Clubs Safety and Quality Manager, one of the accountable appointments under their UCAA AOC license. He credits the Cole Brothers Air Show for his courage to fly acrobatics, notably his instructor Duane Cole, twice US Champion.   In 1973 Davenport won the US Acrobatics Championship in the Buecker Jungmeister. At the Kampala Aeroclub’s birthday party he performed a series of aerial acrobatics, including loops, rolls, Cuban 8s, hammerheads and downward spins, ending in an inverted flight over the

2 Cessna 208 Caravans, 13 passenger seats; 1 Britten-Norman Islander, 9 passenger seats; 4 Cessna 206/ Cessna 210, 5 passenger seats;  1 Bell 206 Jetranger Helicopter, 4 passenger seats, 3 Cessna 172, 3 passenger seats. NB: Aircraft are limited in the total weight they can carry and seating capacity shown here is only given for general information. The limiting factor is the combined weight of passengers, baggage, and fuel required for the trip plus reserves. Please inquire for details concerning weight limits.

For more information see www.flyuganda.com runway. Also performing his signature ‘Ribbon Cut’ move, he tore across the runway at 30 feet inverted, cutting the tape and shredding the streamers to mark KAFTC’s decade-and-a- half. “Flying is what Africa is about,” said Thome, who’s had the honour of flying over Lake Victoria with Davenport, as we watched him and held our breath. “You have to fly in Africa.” He had a point. There was no Tube in Uganda. With aeroclubs such as Kajjansi, a two-day drive can become a two-hour flight. KAFTC flies to over 40 airstrips in Uganda. Kidepo, Murchison, Queen Elizabeth, Semliki, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and Masai Mara are some of the most popular locations Kajjansi’s planes go to. They also travel to Arua, Gulu, Kitgum, Moroto, Lira, Kasesse, Mbarara, Bundybugio and Kisoro. While tourism is a main source of business for the club, the oil industry has had a major impact on local aviation. This will continue to strengthen, with the recent

announcement of the $2.9 billion deal with Anglo-Irish firm Tullow Oil. KAFTC already provides air charter to the Lake Albert region for several oil companies, primarily Tullow. “We look forward to providing them with aviation services in the coming years as they develop Uganda’s oil industry,” the club says on its website. Business, government, NGO and healthcare figures are just some who have graced the skies in Kajjansi’s aircraft. Their planes have taken off to embassies, government agencies, aid and health organizations, tea, coffee, cocoa, and timber plantations in East Africa over the past 15 years. All aircraft are equipped with GPS navigation and enhancements to make them ideal for African bush flying, such as cargo pods and short takeoff and landing kits. The Civil Aviation Authority oversees regular maintenance inspections at Kajjansi.

Budding

For budding pilots, the Kampala Aeroclub offers flight training for the private pilot certificate. They can help those who have already qualified obtain a validation on their foreign license, which will allow them to fly in Uganda. Their 172s are available to rent. “We give instruction in African bush flying, so that you will know how to clear the warthogs off the runway at your destination,” Kajjansi boasts. In the Clem Cadiddlehopper at the birthday event a pilot performed his first solo flight. After the gutsy displaythere may be some kids begging their parents for flying lessons. “That is one way to create the next generation of aviators by showing the kids the proverbial ropes and fueling their interest to the point of taking flying lessons themselves,” Thome remarked. The day wouldn’t have been complete without some ‘flour bombing’ to raise funds for a school that KAFTC supports. My personal highlight however was watching a flypast as Amazing Grace was played on bagpipes, to honour late Kampala Aeroclub pilot Steve Considine, who clocked up over 8,000 hours of flying experience during his life. I didn’t meet with a young-looking Robert Redford type, and much to Thome’s disappointment my feet remained firmly on the ground. But it’s not every day you go to a birthday party for an African airfield. March 2012

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New York

Letter from

New York By lARS DABNEY

Everything to declare: Passports are returned as though you probably don’t deserve this kindness, and the next victim shuffles into place.

Violation of the Nasal Cavities, or Customs’ Curious Customs

onsider the Customs agent. He is mono-browed, sweatypalmed, jowlish, and short. He wears his uniform as if it were made of seaweed, and when he accepts your passport he glares as though you have just handed him a freshly pooped diaper. His conversation eliminates all unnecessary politeness, not only words like “Hello” and “Thank you” but also

56 |

cumbersome grammar like subjects and prepositions. “Passport?” “Going?” “Reason?” (a rather existential question that I have often been tempted to extemporize on, until I see their expression). This spectacular routine is finalized by

the ceremonial stamping of the passport, accomplished with as much vehement disdain as possible. The documents are returned as though you probably don’t deserve this kindness, and the next victim shuffles into place. I describe, of course, the happy experience of arriving in New York’s premier aeronautic megalopolis, John F. Kennedy Airport. I have long suspected that the recruitment

Photography | THINKSTOCK

process for their Customs enforcement officers involves being shown videos of kittens, then told to demonstrate one’s emotional response with a 12-gauge shotgun. Interrogation On one particular occasion I observed an entire family of five middle easterners being carted off to the interrogation room for some unspecified cause, most likely failing to speak enough English. The US may be one of the only countries in the world with enough arrogance to arrest foreigners for having only a mediocre grasp of the national tongue (though these days Spanish probably counts as a second national tongue, and of course France has been doing this infinitely longer, though with much subtler means of recrimination). The language bias extends to accents. When I first returned to my homeland after 11 years abroad, I had to suppress my semi-Australian accent, lest I be branded suspicious for traveling on a US passport and not pronouncing ‘water’ as if it were a part of a cow. In more interactions with US Customs agents than I can possibly count—almost universally at JFK, though there was one very memorable experience with a planeload of Chinese citizens passing through Anchorage, Alaska, not helped by the fact that the Chinese have always had a very haphazard understanding of ‘waiting in line’, and Alaskans have always struggled with the difference between ‘language barrier’ and ‘intentional stupidity’—I have been repeatedly amazed by the disgust, callousness, and fury with which they carry out their government-given duty. That is not to say there aren’t exceptions. Once, a jovial pot-bellied agent who resembled Paul Giamatti actually joked with me about riding kangaroos on my recent trip to Australia. A joke! I thought I might keel over from shock. I nervously risked a joke back— actually they are deadly, can kick your stomach through your spine, haha—and he laughed! I never saw him again. Other nations have their own traditions with Customs enforcement, though they are rarely good. Australia isn’t too bad, unless you have the misfortune of being a New Zealander during rugby season in which case the rubber gloves are always close to hand.

Shuffling into place: ‘I have been repeatedly amazed by the disgust, callousness, and fury with which they carry out their governmentgiven duty’

Argentina operates at the pace of a snail with chronic arthritis but features some of the happiest bureaucratic employees I have seen, perhaps because they spend 60% of their time chatting or on coffee breaks. Kenya’s Customs agents occupy an interesting position. The Kenyan police are renowned for their corruption and hostility, a reputation that blackens the names of even those security forces not directly associated with them (Customs falls under the Kenya Revenue Authority’s portfolio).

The Kenya Airport Authority has meanwhile displayed all the savvy and ruthlessness of a true business venture— plowing millions of dollars into expansion projects, closely coordinated with their symbiotic partner, Kenya Airways. Between them they have done everything in their power to cultivate an image of Nairobi as the pre-eminent hub for travel throughout Africa. As a result, Customs agents are Turn to P58

March 2012

| 57

Dispatch |

New York

From P57

expected to actually facilitate passengers getting into the country, despite their uniformed brethren’s tendency to commit highway robbery. Yet Customs officers are confronted with a set of circumstances that ought to make the Kenyan border one of the hardest to cross in the world. Kenya sits at a position of economic and political preeminence in the region, the recent unrest notwithstanding. It was for this reason that Nairobi’s US embassy was the one targeted in the 1998 bombings, and it is also for this reason that Kenya is now at war with Al Shabaab. The possibility of terrorists, weaponry, or illegal funds flowing across Kenya’s borders is a very real and pressing concern. Kenya also contains some of the world’s most well-protected and heavilypopulated wildlife reserves. Smuggling of rare animal products remains an extremely lucrative industry, and Kenya is one of the prime destinations for source material. Just this past July the Kenyan Government burned a seized ivory stockpile, estimated to be worth over US$16 million. Paperwork Despite all this, my several experiences with Customs in Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta Airport have been singularly ordinary. A cursory glance at the paperwork, a question about origin or destination, a stamp and I’m through. What they lack in the American way of hostility they make up for in brevity. Perhaps I simply lack the roguish air of an ivory smuggler. Which is a shame; I understand some women find that quite appealing. I did have the singular misfortune, however, of first arriving in Kenya during the worldwide outbreak of H1N1 influenza. The dreaded swine flu had already descended upon my hometown of New York with a vengeance. Over 200 cases reported, many from high schools where the disease had rocketed through student populations like a rumour that Jenny had totally made out with Derek behind the bleachers on

I recovered from my infection, and had my first real runin with Kenya’s Customs agents several weeks later.”

Sunday, can you believe it, and he’s been going out with Katie for like three whole days already, oh my gawd. To my surprise, I received no special attention on my arrival in Nairobi, despite Kenya’s having thus far kept itself aloof from the virus’s global spread. Two weeks later I came down quite suddenly with a crippling fever, headache, and congestion, and, fearing the worst (malaria, actually) reported immediately to Nairobi Hospital. The doctors handily diagnosed me with a sinus infection, to my great relief, and I clambered back into a taxi clutching my bag of painkillers and antibiotics. On the way back to the hotel the radio announced that the country’s first case of swine flu had just been diagnosed: a British university student, interning in Kenya for the summer. There but for the grace. I recovered from my infection, and had my first real run-in with Kenya’s Customs agents several weeks later. My coworkers and I would be running a week-long conference on the shores of Lake Victoria. We flew into Kisumu airport—really an airstrip—in fact really a very short road next to a renovated hut—in the heart of tea and hippopotamus country. Prior to departure I’d heard rumours in Nairobi of strange happenings at the airport. Local Customs officials had apparently decided that any white persons flying in were probable swine flu carriers, and were dragging them out of arriving flights for brusquely invasive medical examinations. Notwithstanding that I myself actually had been a possible carrier (I wasn’t by this point—incubation period had passed), the policy was ludicrous. Kenya had already been infiltrated by swine flu, with a string of new cases popping up since the British student was diagnosed, almost universally non-foreign and non-white. Swine flu diagnosis also requires several weeks, full bloodwork, and the use of a specialized laboratory. The idea of roadside swab-down seemed so absurd that I assumed it must be wild rumour, or, at worst, gross exaggeration.

So it was with a certain disillusioned dismay that I noticed airport employees in bright yellow vests dragging white passengers away from our throng as we crossed the airstrip’s skirting. Kisumu airport boasts a redoubtable chainlink fence for its border control needs, and the gate in it stood a tantalizingly close 50 metres away. Those seized by the yellow vests were brought to an impromptu tent set up to one side. Q-tips and tongue depressors were being employed by untrained staff within, to the evident disgruntlement of the captured passengers and their violated nasal cavities. My coworkers, all Kenyans, took pity on my plight and clustered around me. I was instructed to crouch low and walk as close as possible behind our over-piled baggage cart. A few chickens regarded the spectacle with curiosity. The Customs agents, fortunately, were much too preoccupied with their amateur science experiment to investigate our shuffling mob. We slipped through the gate, found our charter buses, and fled the scene. Fear It is inherent in the nature of Customs to be a gross inconvenience to the ordinary decent traveler. It takes time, one is violated at least psychologically if not also physically, and there is the lingering fear that the packet of dried apricots you forgot to declare will lead to arrest and a smoking hole in your bank account. Yet its imperatives are equally compelling: pandemics, terrorism, wildlife protection, and money laundering are all issues that could wreak havoc if left unchecked. What both Kenya and the United States have yet to discover is how to serve those imperatives without inspiring a healthy loathing in the process. At the moment this doesn’t seem to be a priority for either country. But we can hope. Who knows, perhaps one day our children’s children will be able to travel the globe, crack a joke with the Customs guy, and not have their sinuses invaded as a result.

Lawrence Dabney is a war correspondent and humanitarian lawyer based out of Washington, DC. He grew up in Perth, Western Australia, and has since lived in over half a dozen countries around the world. He is a politics editor for The Faster Times, and the founder and lead correspondent of AK Diplomacy. His writing has appeared in Kenya’s The Star, Eclectica Esoterica magazine, and The Blue & White, among others. He is currently embedded as a reporter with US Marine forces in Afghanistan.

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Dispatch |

Letter from

London By AMY FALLON

once sat next to a guy on a plane and ended up going out on a date with him. It was on an easyJet flight from Budapest to London. I regret to inform you that we’re not getting married. In fact, I only saw him once. I don’t think you’d be reading this story if I’d been sitting in Emirates business class. Hopefully, for those soon flying with Royal Dutch Airlines KLM, a new service where they can choose their own inflight neighbor via social networking sites Facebook and LinkedIn will be more successful. The “meet and seat” service is currently in the “developing phase” the carrier says, but will be launched at the beginning of 2012. Flyers must give permission for their details to be published on Facebook and LinkedIn before they take off. Taiwanese news outlet Next Media Animation, in a video that they produced showing how the service might work, claimed the scheme intends to match passengers who “share similar interests” or for “networking” purposes. “But speculation is rife that programme could be exploited by those seeking to join the Mile High Club,” said Next Media Animation, who showed a shaking toilet door in their footage. Tech, finance and consumer news website Bitter Wallet

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The Meet and Seat Service branded the new scheme a “virtual seat dating nonsense”, while the BBC called it a potential “flightmare” and warned flyers of getting stuck with a “crashing snore”. Those travelling with KLM, who carried 23.1 million passengers in the 2010-11 financial year,may indeed take advantage of the service to indulge in some in-flight flirting while cruising at a 35,000ft altitude. Friendly banter But it’s nothing that isn’t already happening, if the results of a recent poll are anything to go by. Nearly half (45%) of flyers have admitted to some more than friendly banter, with one-third meeting up with a fellow traveller after the plane landed, according to a recent poll by UK flight search company Skyscanner earlier this year. Eight per cent said the encounters even led to a relationship, according to the survey that was published in the Times newspaper.

In a separate poll conducted by Australian online travel company ZUJI. com.auback in 2006 (pre-Ralph Fiennes in toilet bathroom incident), over 20% more men than women admitted to fantasising about joining the ‘mile high club’. Seven per cent of males boasted that they already belonged to it. But flying can apparently also lead to long-lasting relationships, I surprisingly discovered after doing my own snap Twitter poll. Two female friends reported that their girlfriends had met the love of their lives in the skies, going on to marry both of them (although, according to my mates, it seemed easier to forge meaningful partnerships, even the platonic type, on trains). We’ve all heard the cliché story about the air hostess (sorry, flight attendant) who met her husband on a long-haul flight 25 years ago. However, a quick Google search for “met on a plane” brings up at least five

Fairytale “It’s not every day that a beautiful girl stops you and has a conversation with you,” Shandiz later told ABC news. It was a “fairytale” from then on, Williams says. In October 2011 Shandiz proposed – very aptly over the PA of a Delta flight, at 32,000 feet. Virgin Australia’s international flights and Virgin America, who boasts it has a touch-screen monitor 25% bigger than the average domestic one, already offer a seat-to-seat text chat service through the inflight entertainment system. Using a handheld keyboard and touchscreen on the seat back in front of them, passengers can choose a screen name and invite fellow jetsetters into their chatroom. If they like what they see they can then meet up with them – somewhere on the plane (NB: probably not the cockpit). After trying out the service on a flight from Los Angeles to New York, US author and TV psychological expert Dr. Wendy Walsh received a “real-world email address” and a film executive’s business card, proving that fliers don’t just have one thing on their mind. According to a conversation she had with a flight attendant, which she details on www.drwendywalsh.com/blog, the service is becoming “wildy popular” and “on every flight, some chatting duo eventually meets at the back of the plane to get a visual and exchange the digits”. www.triplife.com brings people on the same flights or staying in the same hotels together during “pockets of downtime”.

Photography | courtesy

results for passengers desperately searching for the “soulmate” they met on a flight but have lost. Johanna met husband Richard on a flight to Antigua, she explains on www.confetti.co.uk, “While balancing precariously on the arm of a seat in order to rummage in the overhead bin, I spotted a girl who I had been at school with but had lost touch with,” she recalls. “She was on holiday with her flatmate…Richard”. She pursued him for six months. The rest is history. Arvin Shandiz, 27, and Alexandra Williams, 28, met on a Delta Airlines flight from New York to Chicago in 2009. Forget bonding over travel sickness or boredom. While it’s not clear if they were seated next to each other, they were close enough for Williams to tease the trader about his over-stuffed carry-on luggage. “Maybe you shouldn’t have brought such a big bag,” she told him, according to the Chicago-Sun Times newspaper.

Users create a public profile consisting of their photo, job title and favorite airline. They can enter their itineraries and see who else is heading their way and, even better, who’s already reached their destination.The idea is that passengers will personally meet before their flight and make plans at the airport to sit next to that exact person.

Aren’t the best first dates ones where you have an easy escape? ”

Networking TripLife stresses that it’s a powerful networking tool that makes business trips more productive and enjoyable, but says that users can find someone they can dine with, play a round of golf with or “share theories with”. There have been 2,467 member trips to date, says TripLife on their website. The “success stories” section doesn’t give too many details about how the actual meetings between the travellers went, but one user, New York psychologist Dr. Jennifer Hartstein, claims the website has helped her with using her spare time to network. Of course there will always be those passengers that just want to check-in, board the plane and sleep from safety demonstration to landing. “This is one of the really obvious challenges with this [KLM’s service]. Actually, a lot of the people who travel a lot don’t want to have contact with other people,” human behaviour expert Mark Earls told the BBC. “You live in a little zone when you travel a lot and the last thing you want is someone talking to you.” He may be right. In a Sydney Morning Herald poll conducted on the “meet and seat” scheme, 63% of respondents said they

would prefer to be left alone, with only 37% agreeing it would make the flight “more pleasant”. Bitter Wallet very strategically pointed out that perhaps the best option would be to sign up for the programme, but upload a fake social networking profile to make you appear like “one of the most heinous individuals alive”. “It’ll guarantee you plenty of elbow space when no one opts to sit next to you,” they said. Annoyance, of course, may be the least of your worries. Anyone seen the 2005 movie Red Eye, where Rachel McAdams’ character is kidnapped by a terrorist associate on a flight who threatens to kill her father? As blogger Jennifer Wright points out on www.thegloss.com, “aren’t the best first dates ones where you have an easy escape?” “The best you can do if the conversation isn’t going well on a plane is pretend to be asleep for the next hourand-a- half,” she says. Let’s hope KLM’s new “meet and seat” service doesn’t lead to a new movie based on a real-life story: Snakes on a Plane II.

Amy Fallon is a freelance journalist. Originally Australian, she has been based in the UK for the past five years, where she’s worked for most of the national papers and consumer titles. Before this she worked for the Australian national newswire, AAP. She loves Africa and has seven trips to the continent under her belt. She has written for African Woman as well as Marie Claire South Africa, among other African titles.

March 2012

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Dispatch |

Uganda

Letter from

Kampala By ANGELA KINTU

The Space Pioneer under a Jackfruit Tree in One-way Country

eaving Entebbe Airport, there is only one road into Uganda: that is the road to and through Entebbe town, which connects to a highway to Kampala, the capital city. A traveller to Uganda will soon discover that we use the word highway quite loosely – but that is a story for another day. Entebbe Airport lies on a beach; again, we use the word beach loosely to refer to the lakeside. On the one end of it is Lake Victoria, and on the other, the lone road leading away from the airport. I have often wondered if it is the same in other places – how can there be just one 62 |

How can there be just one way to enter our country?”

way to enter our country? Perhaps weary travellers are grateful that there is no way to get lost when you leave Entebbe Airport; at least not between Entebbe and Kampala. Perhaps it is excellent for security; should the Martians ever land and attack through Entebbe, we will have a way to keep them out of the capital. Perhaps I should be content to celebrate our uniqueness, and accept that this is just the way things are in Uganda. There is only one single-carriage road from Entebbe Airport, and one way to it. You don’t have to stretch your imagination too far to envisage the traffic situations

that one way will often cause. Sometimes, when the leader of the main opposition party wishes to make a trip, you will be well advised to set off to the airport by 5am – even if your flight is set to take off at midnight. Between the rowdy opposition supporters, the Police and the occasional rabble –rouser, traffic on the road to Entebbe can be at a standstill for hours on end. When international summits take place, prepare to use the edge of the road and a bit of the drainage to get to and from Entebbe Airport. The armed escorts and loud sirens will have you constantly pulling

over to let the big brass pass. There is only one road into Uganda from Entebbe, therefore I can safely guess the name of the first hotel you will see as you enter Entebbe town, about 5 minutes away from the airport. To the right, a bleak white wall will catch your eye, followed by the name Libya Hotel. It is a testament to Uganda’s love affair with departed Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. It is still strange to imagine that he is gone – whatever his ills, the mode of his dispatch left a bad taste in the mouth. If you take the one road into Kampala and discover the many roads that lead out of it and elsewhere, you will see more signs that our dear departed pan-African brother Gaddafi was here a lot. From a grand mosque whose lighting can be seen from all the hills of Kampala, to roads named after him to a palace for one of Uganda’s cultural kings, we carry evidence that Gaddafi was a friend to Uganda. I don’t know if we turned out to be a good friend in need. The seven-billionth child, supposedly born in the weeks after the eccentric Colonel’s death, will probably never even know he even existed. Ridicule There is only one road from the airport into Uganda, but somewhere in Kampala there is a young man building a spaceship under a jackfruit tree in his bewildered mother’s backyard; Martians beware! Chris Nsamba has featured widely in the local and international press, with the latter ridiculing him as a kook and the former praising his ‘initiative to take Africa into the space age’. Nsamba, the founder of the African Space Research Programme, is proud to be called a madman; apparently it is the hallmark of every successful scientist. His aircraft, the African Skyhawk, is expected to reach the earth’s outer atmosphere in an ambitious five years’ time. But before that Nsamba, an amateur aeronautical engineer, will have to train and certify whichever brave Ugandan astronaut will venture on the trip. He will also have to find an engine for the hulking blue shell, which is already showing a bit of wear from the just-concluded rainy season. So far almost $80,000, 22 months, a presidential phone call and the tinkering of 600 volunteers have gone into the Skyhawk. If nothing else, it appears to be a true labour of love. Speaking of which, December is a very busy month for lovers, and that one road down to Entebbe carries many a honeymooning couple on to exotic destinations near and far.

Every weekend in December is flush with weddings, family activity and Christmas holiday travellers. I only mention this because by the time you read this offering, I myself will have changed my surname and gone down that one road to Entebbe. Except my new husband and I will have taken one little turn off it – just about a kilometre away from the airport. That one turn will take us to a ferry on the lake, from which we can watch other people take off and land at the airport on our way to our own version of ‘overseas’ on a beautiful little

There is only one road from the airport into Uganda, but somewhere in Kampala there is a young man building a spaceship under a jackfruit tree”

island on Lake Victoria. Expect a letter from there soon. Angela Kintu is a freelance writer and columnist for The Sunday Vision. She has worked as a radio producer and been a writer, editor and copy editor for an array of publications in Uganda including The New Vision, Sunday Magazine and Flair magazine. She is a regular contributor to African Woman magazine and a media consultant at the African Centre for Media Excellence.

Delivering World Class Training

March 2012

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Dispatch |

South Africa

Letter from

Jo’burg

By Mwangi Githahu

hen I was starting out in journalism as a young reporter, I was, for some reason I could never quite fathom, assigned to cover numerous beauty pageants and fashion shows over a two-year period. At the beginning it was fun and added immeasurably to the glamour of the life of a journalist, but after a very short while the novelty faded and reporting on who was the fairest maiden or the most muscled fellow of them all became very boring. Eventually at some point there seemed to be just too many pageants and each claiming to be better than the other, though, to me, they seemed to be all the same. For instance, there was Miss World, Miss Universe and Miss International, and I wondered how anyone could spot the 64 |

Of Airport Awards, Beauty Pageants and Objectivity Beauty parade: Spot the difference

difference. The same thing seems to have happened in the world of airports. Below I’ll just mention a couple of examples. For instance, at the end of 2011 I noticed that Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport received at least two awards: The first for being one of the world’s

most hated airports and the second for being one of the world’s best airports. Go figure.The first award was bestowed on the airport by a division of the CNN cable news channel CNNGo in an online article written by reporter Jordan Rane, which appeared on the CNN website.

Photography | emergingairports.com

At least Rane, a Los Angeles-based journalist, author and copywriter and former senior editor of Escape and West Coast editor of Travelocity magazines, admitted that he and his collaborators had come up with an “unscientific list by canvassing travel websites, blogs and message boards while calling on memories of their own travel nightmares”. Before they listed the airports in descending order from ten to 1, with JKIA coming sixth, Rane and company also added that their list was made up of “Majorly despised international hubs (or hopefuls) that, while they may have a few staunch fans, and some have even won awards, have all inspired enough fury, flak and ‘never again’ air-rage to merit a place on this list”. International hub Of Kenya’s main international airport CNNGo said: “As African airports go, it’s not that bad – but, as an international hub, it may be one of the worst out there”. This was clearly not a ringing endorsement by any standards. The second award was from the third annual edition of United Arab Emirates-based Emerging Markets Airport Award (Emaa). Organised by Arabian Reach, a Dubaibased marketing company specialising in aviation, airports, logistics, international events, exhibitions, conferences and event management, the Emaas (as I will call them here) are picked by what Peter Ng’etich, writing in Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper, said were “a diverse and discerning group of professionals involved in airports, aviation, aerospace, cargo and logistics across the emerging markets”. According to the Emaas, JKIA beat, amongst others, South Africa’s Cape Town International. Cape Town International

Eye of the beholder: Delegates at the Third United Arab Emirates-based Emerging Markets Airport Award (Emaa) in November 2011 voted JKIA one of the world’s best airports,while CNNGo opted to disagree.

is one of this country’s three major international airports and was named winner of the Best Airport in Africa award at the Skytrax 2010 World Airport Awards (Swaa). In 2011, the Swaas, who on their website claim that their World Airport Survey and World Airport Awards are “totally free of commercial influence and bias” and suggest that “some airport awards” are less than aboveboard in this aspect, voted Cape Town International second-best airport in Africa. It was pipped to the post by Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport and all this in a survey that involved “11.38 million questionnaires covering more than 240 airports worldwide”. On the Swaas website, which logs customer reviews and customer opinions,

I picked at random a comment about JKIA made in 2011 by a UK traveller, one J. Tydeman, who said: “This airport is far too small for the number of passengers, there is very little air conditioning, the shops all sell the same stuff, so really there is only one shop in effect, and it is impossible to buy hot food anywhere. The staff are mostly fairly unhelpful and the toilets are a disgrace. We had a long wait here on our way back from Tanzania and I would recommend avoiding it at all costs”. Meanwhile, a random comment, admittedly by a South African traveller, V. Abraham, said the following about Cape Town International: “CPT made my trip a complete pleasure! Getting to the airport was fast, The CTB was clean, modern, had a very calm environment with lots of natural light. Check-in was fast. The lounges were relaxing, the Nintendo wii facility was really fun. Boarding was fast. Lots of Duty Free, restaurants and bars. All were priced well. Friendly and efficient staff. A real experience”. Impressive On a personal level I have been several time to both JKIA and CPT, and, much as it pains me to say it as a Kenyan, in my opinion JKIA comes nowhere near CPT. However, I am sure that there is a traveller out there who would beg to differ with me and who might say I have got it all backwards and JKIA is indeed the most impressive African airport ever. In so doing such a passenger, however sorely misguided I thought him, would be proving the point that all these awards and beauty pageants for airports are all very well as far as they go, but which is to be trusted over all the rest? And can the comments by those surveyed ever provide more than a subjective snapshot opinion? PS. The South African taxi industrycontrolled airline I mentioned here in the last edition and which was supposed to have reached for the skies in December 2011 – after a maiden flight – has still not taken off because, the owners claim, they have yet to be issued with an operating license. They hope to be airborne by February.

Mwangi Githahu is a Kenyan journalist who now lives in South Africa. He contributes a weekly column to The Weekend Star and was for three years until April 2011 the Features editor at The Star. He has written for a number newspapers and magazines for the past two decades, including, the Sunday Nation, The East African, Eve Magazine and the defunct Weekly Review. March 2012

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Opinion |

Legal

Opinion

By Lawrence Madialo

Issued Capital vs Authorized Capital

Why $232m BOT contract for Ras Sudr International Airport was terminated

he airline industry is one of the most international of industries and has facilitated the growth of trade in goods and services for many years. Therefore airports are part of the wider infrastructure development that plays a vital role in improving the social and economic development of nations. But developing an infrastructural facility like an airport is no mean undertaking, even for wealthy economies. There is a requirement of large sums of money to undertake airport construction and maintenance and related 66 |

services. Due to the scarcity of resources, many governments in countries faced with infrastructure deficits are being forced to think strategically and creatively in order to improve infrastructure networks and enhance service delivery to their people. In this respect, the concept of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) receives serious consideration. PPPs for airports were brilliantly discussed in the inaugural issue of this magazine. In a nutshell, PPPs describe a spectrum of possible relationships between the public and private sectors for the

cooperative provision of services, including infrastructure, with the essential ingredient being some degree of private participation in the delivery of traditionally public services. PPP arrangements for airport construction can be based on various models, including Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT), which means, in practical terms, that the developer in a concession contract (Concessionaire) undertakes to construct and operate the airport for a specific contract term, after which the airport is transferred to the State.

Photography | THINKSTOCK

Undertaking a PPP under BOT is capital intensive and can only be undertaken by companies that have the financial capacity to mobilize sufficient funds. It follows therefore that governments and state agencies granting PPP concessions for such undertakings will be interested in establishing that companies awarded such concessions are not mere shells but are sound companies capable of mobilizing such funds as are required for the projects. An interesting scenario ensues where a company holds itself out at the bidding stage as having the financial muscle required only for it to be discovered later that such a company lacked such capacity. There are many instances, especially in Africa, when governments have been duped into executing multimillion dollar contracts with entities that later turn out to be nonexistent. In some instances, such companies secure contracts but fail to inject the requisite capital to undertake their contractual obligations. Such incidents have raised a host of concerns, including issues relating to governance of PPP procurement, including process adaptation as well as contract management and contract enforcement. An interesting discussion of some of these issues is found in an award made by a Tribunal of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSD) in Malicorp Limited v The Arab Republic of Egypt (ICSID Case No. ARB/08/18, Award of February 7, 2011, published on www.icisd. worldbank.org). The dispute arose from a contract for construction and operation of a proposed airport on a PPP basis. Tender and Contract Award Following an earlier announcement by the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Egyptian Directorate of Civil Aviation (EDGCA), acting on behalf of the Republic, launched a call for tenders for the building of the Ras Sudr International Airport on the basis of the PPP model known as BOT in August 1999. This tender was finally awarded on February 9, 2000, to Malicorp Limited, a company incorporated on August 6, 1997, and registered in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Its share capital, according to its Memorandum and Articles of Association of July 30, 1997, was UK£1,000 divided into 1,000 shares of one pound sterling each. Malicorp’s bid in reply to the call for tenders stated the intention to enlist the

The fact that the contract was based on the BOT model means, in practical terms, that Malicorp was to undertake to construct and operate the airport for a specific contract term, after which the airport was to be transferred to the State. The contract allocated a site to Malicorp for the construction and management of the Ras Sudr International Airport, as well as an annexed site consisting of land with full proprietary rights on which Malicorp would have acquired the right to develop other projects under its sole management. Exclusive Right for a Term of 41 years Malicorp was granted the exclusive right to operate the Concession with an obligation to carry out the project at its own cost and risk for a term of 41 years from Contract signature, subject to early termination or extension.

The contract allocated a site to Malicorp for the construction and management of the Ras Sudr International Airport, as well as an annexed site consisting of land with full proprietary rights ”

technical and financial support of Nordic Engineering Resources Group A.S. (NERG), a Norwegian company active in the civil aviation sector and a specialist in equipping and managing airports and a subsidiary of the Nordic Aviation Resources Group (NAR), Joannou & Paraskevaid, (Overseas) (J&P), a company active in airport construction, incorporated in Guernsey in the United Kingdom, and General Mediterranean Holding (GMH), the holding company of an international investment group based in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. ASMA Company for Trade and General Contracting, of Egypt, as well as Digitel Telecom Company for Contracting and Technical and Electronic Establishment, also of Egypt, were mentioned too. The contract for the Ras Sudr airport project was subsequently executed. The objectives sought primarily the construction of an airport as part of the general policy of developing and extending airports, with a view to developing the neighboring tourist region. The Concessionaire was called upon to contribute thereto and to receive additional land so as to enhance the attractiveness of the region and therefore of the airport.

Concessionaire Specific payments to be made by the corporation were provided as well as the undertakings of the Concessionaire, which included, primarily, the obligation to maintain an office in Egypt with a representative throughout the entire lifetime of the Contract, to set up a company whose sole purpose was to be the performance of the Contract, and, on the financial level, to prevent any situation of indebtedness arising without the consent of the Grantor. The Grantor undertook to transfer the land for the airport within two months following the date of signature of the Contract and following delivery of the Performance Bond with special measures provided in the event of delay in the handing over of the land. It was provided that Malicorp must carry out the construction work or have it performed, and do so within a time limit set out in a schedule. For that purpose, it had to enter into associated agreements for all the services that included the loan agreements necessary for the performance of the work. There was also an obligation to set up an Egyptian company. Prior to the submission of its bid, on September 15, 1999, Malicorp had amended its Memorandum and Articles of Association, which amendments were registered. The share capital of Malicorp was increased to £100 million, divided into one million shares of £100 pounds. After winning the award and signing the contract, on February 18, 2000, Malicorp Turn to P68

March 2012

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Opinion |

From P67

received a letter from a company expressing interest in a possible collaboration between the two companies for the purpose of financing the airport. On March 22, 2000, Malicorp’s Board decided to cancel the resolution to increase the share capital to £100 million and to replace it by a value of £1,000. Contract Termination Fast forward and this deal was cancelled on August 12, 2001. The first reason given for termination was that there was submission of inaccurate documents concerning Malicorp’s financial capacities that was misleading. The argument advanced was that Malicorp held itself out as a company with capital of £100 million on that occasion it allegedly furnished a certificate mentioning that figure. But according to Malicorp (the claimant in that case), it submitted the extract from the Companies Register one time only; it was provided to the General Authority for Investment. It maintained that, on that occasion, the extract, which was authenticated by the British and Egyptian authorities, showed a capital of £1,000 sterling. As to the amount of the company’s capital, Malicorp asserted that there was a major difference between issued or subscribed capital, which constitutes the actual capital, and the authorized capital, which is the amount up to which the Board of directors may increase the capital without having to call an extraordinary general meeting. Financial Capacity The call for tender documents had clearly indicated the importance attached to the financial capacities of the company to be selected. The requirement was that, under a BOT contract, the company had to bear all the costs of studies, design, construction and preparation of all the constituent-to-operation services, security requirements and others under supervision. Consequently, each bidder was obliged to clarify, in its bid, the legal form of the company that would be responsible for performing the Contract, and in particular “its own and its company’s financial capability and the sources of financing . For that reason, there was the specific requirement that documents be included stating the qualitative of finance and the issued capital. According to the tribunal, that requirement was easy to understand, because this was not a straightforward construction contract, financed by the 68 |

Inscrutable: There are many instances in Africa when governments have been duped into executing multimillion dollar contracts with entities that later turn out to be nonexistent. In some instances, such companies secure contracts but fail to inject the requisite capital.

project owner, but a BOT contract in which it was the contracting partner who, initially, bore the entire burden of financing. Authorized Capital and Subscribed (Issued) Capital The tribunal analyzed the implications of authorized capital and subscribed capital on the financial outlook of a company. In its bid, Malicorp submitted its Memorandum of Association, which showed that it had a capital of £1,000 divided into £1,000 shares of one pound sterling each. Malicorp then decided on September 15, 1999, to increase its capital to £100 million. But the same was not subscribed capital, merely authorized capital. As the tribunal found, there is a substantial difference between the two. In the first case there are shareholders who have made a firm commitment to pay it, while, in the second, there is only a power given to the company’s organs to decide when they would look for shareholders willing to commit. The bid apparently contained agreements entered into with three companies which had expressed an interest, in principle, in being part of the project, but none of them clearly stated that they agreed to be responsible for all or part of the financing. The estimated cost of the construction was $232,000,000. This meant that Malicorp had to be in a position to finance at least that amount itself, or to secure financing. That sum covered only the construction, but not

the first years of operation, which no one could sensibly expect to be profitable from the start. According to the award, none of the founding members of Malicorp could produce such large sums of money, either from their own resources or from partners prepared to take a risk of that magnitude as per the evidence that was on record. The tribunal held that the nature and content of the information supplied by Malicorp’s representatives (at the bidding stage) was such as to give rise to an essential mistake. For a project as monumental as that of the Ras Sudr airport, knowing whether the company awarded the project is an empty shell or a company with exceptional resources was obviously fundamental, and any error on that point justified calling the Contract into question, said the judges. It then followed that the rescission of the contract was well founded, and could not be considered a form of expropriation under international law. The Legal Angle: Principle of Good Faith and Jurisdiction One of the arguments raised in this case was whether Malicorp could invoke investment protection laws to be compensated for the termination. In light of the understanding by Egypt that Malicorp’s conduct was fraudulent, Egypt argued that the tribunal lacked jurisdiction to determine a matter which concerned an investment vitiated with fraud. The tribunal had to

Photography | THINKSTOCK

examine the principle of good faith. In the emerging jurisprudence, the rule that investments marked by fraud are not entitled to protection has given way to the development of international principles of judicial common sense that tribunals are increasingly applying to deal with issues of jurisdiction at the outset of investment arbitrations. In this case, for instance, the tribunal examined the issue of whether it would still have jurisdiction in the event the investor (Malicorp) was seeking protection in a manner that was contrary to the principle of good faith. Egypt argued that compliance with good faith is an essential principle of international law, which principle extends to the investment protection regime. It infers from this that such protection excludes the protection of investments made in violation of this principle. In the present case, it argued that Malicorp entered into the Contract on the basis of a forgery. Violation of the principle of good faith arises in cases when the ‘investment’ is the result of corruption, or has been obtained by deception or fraud. In such cases, the defect undermines not only the right to invoke the protection of an agreement, but also the investment alleged to have been made by the party seeking protection. As the tribunal argues, the issue can be addressed at the outset of the case from the standpoint of jurisdiction. On this the tribunal argues that, in order for the jurisdiction of an ICSID arbitral tribunal

to be established, the State against which proceedings are brought must have validly given its consent. In such proceedings this presupposes that the party bringing the claim has made an investment that meets the requirements the State may have laid down, as well as the general conditions of validity. That is why questions of the possible application of the principle of good faith are approached from the standpoint of Article 25 of the ICSID Convention, as part of the examination of jurisdiction. (Article 25 requires four elements in order to have ICSID jurisdiction over a case. The first element is a written consent of the parties to the jurisdiction of the Centre. The second and third elements come under the rubric of Jurisdiction Ratione Materiae, where the dispute must arise out of an investment and the dispute in question needs to be a legal dispute. The fourth element is related to the parties. One party must be a Contracting State or one of its constituent subdivisions or agencies. The other party must be a foreign national of another Contracting State. ICSID does not have jurisdiction over disputes between states. One of the parties must be a natural or juridical person of another Contracting state). The tribunal further argues that this issue can also be examined at the second stage, from the standpoint of the merits, in relation to the validity of the investment. In order for an ICSID arbitral tribunal to be able to render an award against a State for breach of obligations concerning the protection of an investment, such investment must be valid. That is why the issue of the possible application of the principle of good faith is then considered as part of the issues on the merits. The distinction between the two approaches is justified by the tribunal. There are reasons for choosing one or the other approach, and it is possible that the circumstances in which the issue arises can justify different solutions. In this case, there were strong arguments in favour of the second solution, which consisted in examining the issue of the validity of the investment at the merits stage. Autonomy of the Arbitration Agreement The solution was derived, first, from the principle of autonomy of the arbitration agreement, a principle so fundamental that it also has its place in investment arbitration. According to that principle, defects undermining the validity of the substantive legal relationship, which is the subject of the dispute on the merits, do not automatically

undermine the validity of the arbitration agreement. Thus, an arbitral tribunal is competent to decide on the merits even if the main contract was entered into as a result of misrepresentation or corruption. Only defects that go to the consent to arbitrate itself can deprive the tribunal of jurisdiction. According to the tribunal, even if the contract is entered into fraudulently, it is not the Contract that provides the basis for the right to arbitrate, but the State’s offer to arbitrate contained in the Agreement and the investor’s acceptance of that offer. The offer to arbitrate thereby covers all disputes that might arise in relation to that investment, including its validity. The hypotheses described above relate, in a general sense, to the possible grounds for invalidity of an investment. But, as the tribunal argues, such grounds are extremely numerous and so varied that it would be hard to find a basis for drawing distinctions between them in order to determine how and at what point they must be examined. All of them could be encompassed, per se, by the notion that the consent of the State applies only to valid investments. Undoubtedly certain grounds, in particular those that might be inferred from breach of the principle of good faith with regard to the investment, have a particular value. However, the tribunal held the view that this does not justify creating a special category calling for priority treatment. There is even less justification in that, in the jurisdictional phase, it is often difficult to determine whether the ground derives from an act contrary to good faith, in relation to the conclusion of a contract, for example, from a threat or misrepresentation, or another related cause not involving bad faith, for example a mistake. In the present case, the Parties’ opinions differed on whether or not the Contract was entered into as the result of fraud, misrepresentation or mistake. In those circumstances, it was deemed more appropriate to defer the examination until the merits phase as was done. Lawrence Madialo is an Advocate and the Consulting Manager of Legal Affairs at Kenya Airports Parking Services (KAPS) Ltd., with experience in corporate management; international trade and investment practice; Public Private Partneships (PPPs) and commercial dispute resolution. He is in the final stages of obtaining a Master’s Degree in Law (LLM) from the University of Nairobi and holds a Bachelor’s Law Degree (LLB) from the same University and a Diploma in Law from the Kenya School of Law.

March 2012

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Special Feature |

Flying with the Military

A Bizarre Whirlwind of Events in Afghanistan Our sudden corkscrew seemed less an evasive maneuver than the aerial equivalent of a dog chasing its own tail. And even the Marines seated across from me looked mildly discomfited by the way their stomach was cuddling up to their sinuses . . .By EAFlyer New York Correspondent LARS DARBNEY

e have shuffled into the echoing steel gut of the plane, humping our Kevlar shells on our shoulders, and strapped into seats that seem to be fashioned of plywood and discomfort. Even with earplugs the roar of the engines is deafening.

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I imagine I am hearing it through my teeth. I look around. Everyone else has a gun. I clutch my camera, a desperately needed and insufficiently comforting teddy bear. The thing about all the people on the plane with me carrying guns is that all the people on the plane with me are carrying guns. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not particularly used to this

Open-ended: The entry ramp at the back of a Sikorsky CH-53 helicopter is never closed, even in flight, and it houses the primary 50-calibre gun. The view through the open ramp almost inspired the author to write poetry, but he settled for lyrical prose

state of affairs. It’s not that I don’t trust these gun-wielding fellow passengers—they obviously know what they’re doing, judging by the intimate way their fingers snuggle up to the trigger guards—or that I’m especially worried about one going off by accident. They’ve been very thorough about checking their magazines and chambers are empty before boarding. It’s just that, for most people, weaponry and air travel are not only separate circles on the Venn Diagram of Life, but practically define each other by just how separate they are.

Confrontational

Then again, this is Afghanistan. You never know when your C-130 will crash-land in the middle of the desert. You may need to get confrontational with anything nearby that talks, moves, or bleats in an overly-aggressive manner. Paranoia, I have been advised by many wise individuals, keeps people alive. I’m not about to complain about the guns, though. It’s a minor blip in the whirlwind of bizarre events that have surrounded me since I arrived. And besides, everything has been so remarkably efficient. Why would I throw a spanner in the works? There is a refreshing high-speed lunacy to flying with the military, after a lifetime of civilian air travel. Everything that makes commercial flying a pain—Customs, security checks, spending as much time/ money/effort getting to and from the airport as you do actually flying—has been done away with, or altered to the point of unrecognizability. Want to make a reservation on a flight a few

hours before it leaves? No problem. You’ll be flying Space-A, meaning that if the flight ends up full you’ll have to wait for the next one, but odds of boarding are in your favor. (I have no idea what the A stands for, perhaps ‘available’. Acronym usage is so deeply ingrained in military communication, and so rarely deviated from, that the original meaning is often lost. Service members I asked for acronym meanings would struggle through the first couple letters, then give up entirely, glaring at me as if I’d raised a taboo subject.) The military operates an absurd number of flights inside Afghanistan every day (the exact count, like much trivial data about this war, is classified). Regularly scheduled transportation makes up much of it, but medical evacuations, air support, deployment flights, and aerial assaults each contribute significantly.

Haphazardness

Daily air traffic in Afghanistan easily outweighs that of Africa’s largest travel hubs, from Nairobi to Cairo to Johannesburg. And yet, despite a cheery haphazardness and a constant stream of catastrophic interruptions, military air travel runs more smoothly—and more on time— than there is any reason to expect. For security and logistical reasons, flight details (things like time, destination, aircraft—all those little things that actually make it a ‘flight’) aren’t settled until the day before departure. They’re beamed out from regional headquarters in the evening, and anyone expecting Turn to P72

March 2012

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Special Feature |

Afghan Experience

From P71

to fly the next day has to go down to their local command tent and bug the flight guy to find out when they’re leaving. It might be that very night: any flight departing after midnight is considered the ‘next day’, so getting a few hours warning for your 1am departure is far from unheard-of. Passengers hustle over to muster points an hour or two before departure, schlepping armor, helmets, packs and weapons. Depending on the base size, muster varies: if you’re on a big base and flying space-A, you may have to be there four hours before departure, to sit around an enormous tent watching obscure British television and drinking bad coffee until they let you go.

Perfunctory

On a smaller base, you might meet near the motor pool an hour before your flight time, pile into a truck, drive out to a landing pad in the middle of the desert, and hustle into a swiftly descending helicopter (which never turns off its rotor) as soon as you arrive. Security checks are perfunctory affairs, mostly to ensure that you haven’t put something stupid in your pack by accident —hand grenades, say, or a claymore mine. Everyone has a gun anyways, so vetting for those is not a pressing concern. The

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No-frills flying: The thing about all the people on the plane with the author carrying guns was that they were carrying guns

pilots do, too, for whatever comfort that provides. Tickets don’t exist, though reservations do. What passes for a boarding pass is a battered piece of laminated construction paper you’re given when you check in for your flight, which you return to be re-used the moment you get up from the waiting bench. In the field even that is too much effort: your boarding pass is the guy in the helmet waving frantically for you to haul your rear end through the rotor wash and climb up the ramp. There’s no such thing as a gate. You hoof it over the landing strip/zone/pad, throw your luggage into a pile in the middle, and strap in. From there on things vary pretty wildly, depending what you’re flying. My first flight, from Kabul to Camp Leatherneck, had me inside the enormous belly of a Lockheed C-130 at night, with no book to read and no music to listen to, counting the number of rivets in the flooring. Military aircraft aren’t big on passenger windows. Not that I would have seen anything, as very few parts of Afghanistan have the kind of electricity supply that would give you something to look at. My next flight was in a helicopter—a Sikorsky CH-53—and literally inspired me to poetry. I don’t write poetry, so I went instead for some very lyrical prose. But had

I written poetry, I surely would have done so. What made it so remarkable, and what had not occurred to me, even as we boarded the bird, was that the primary 50-caliber gun on a helicopter is mounted on the rear of the hull. Meaning the entry ramp. Meaning, naturally, that the ramp is never closed. It is one thing to have a window seat, and another thing entirely to occupy a pilot’s seat. It is a whole different experience to fly with the

Photography | LARS DARBNEY

back end of your aircraft as wide open as a half-eaten candy bar wrapper. Or—madder still—to be the gunner, attached by a loose, two-inch-wide strip of fabric, to the aircraft’s hull, legs dangling over several thousand feet of nothing, and a gun the size of a Rottweiler between your knees. I consider myself good with heights. I was actually delighted by the revelation that we would fly with the hatch open. You could not pay me enough to do that guy’s job. But from the safety of a seat a

half-dozen meters away, the view was incredible. The landscape swung back and forth at impossible angles, a full moon barely illuminating just-seeded plots of wheat and poppy far below. Even the service members around me seemed not to tire of this view: every head was craned forward and sideways to watch the continent veer back and forth drunkenly, twirling in pursuit of the latest zigzag in our flight path. I was almost sad when it came to an end. Almost, because by then my neck hurt like crazy, and because landing was unlike anything I’ve experienced.

Potshots

The best and worst part of military air travel is take-off and landing. Considering the enemy’s proclivity for taking potshots at anything that moves (including each other, in what they consider a hilarious equivalent to rough-housing), pilots take off and land at the steepest possible angles, via approach and departure paths that have more than a little of the Escher print about them. Though landing in the CH-53 was a rush, it paled in comparison to a later experience on a Boeing V-22 Osprey. The Osprey, as a dual tiltrotor aircraft, is one of the lightestarmored (and -armed) vehicles in the US military’s air transportation fleet. It is also one of the fastest, most nimble, and most preferable for pilots

who want to try to make all their passengers throw up on one another before landing. Picture a roller-coaster. Now picture yourself seated sideways, but in a sealed metal box that only allows you to see what’s behind you. Then remove the tracks. Add several thousand feet of elevation. And, of course, the crippling humiliation that would accompany displaying anything remotely like fear or weakness in front of the two-dozen US Marines crammed in there with you. I am almost certain that our pilot did this just to mess with us. We were already over an enormous coalition base, and unlikely to be pot-shot by anyone, rough housing or otherwise. Our sudden corkscrew seemed less an evasive maneuver than the aerial equivalent of a dog chasing its own tail. And even the Marines seated across from me looked mildly discomfited by the way their stomach was cuddling up to their sinuses. But then we landed, and all was well. Yet another piece of fat trimmed from air travel by the military: no waiting for luggage, as it’s all lying heaped on a pallet in front of you. We grabbed our packs and stumbled a little unsteadily down the Osprey’s ramp. Nodded thanks to the crew as we passed. That was normal. That was good. If I could fly like that all the time, I absolutely would. March 2012

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travellerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tales: Epic Eruptions - P90 ISSUE No. 0002 March 2012

people

places

id e a s

Three cups with babu - P114

The Italy for Turkana Concert P106 Open Letter to the Next Green Minister P82

Global Ecosphere Retreat Certifications P98

Mrs. Pauline Kalonzo Musyokaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and Italian Ambassador Paola March 2012Imperiale. | 75

Contents March 2012

TRAVELLER’S TALES: Epic Eruptions - P90

PEOPLE

East African Flyer |

Cover Story |

Editorial: ................................................................. 79

ISSUE No. 0002 March 2012

PLACES

IDEAS

THREE CUPS WITH BABU - P114

Cover Story | Events Italian Opera................................................................106

Features |

The Italy for Turkana Concert P106 Open Letter to the Next Green Minister P82

Global Ecosphere Retreat Certifications P98

Mrs. Pauline Kalonzo Musyoka’s and Italian Ambassador MarchPaola 2012 Imperiale. | 75

Environmental Notebook: Letter to Minister..........82 Traveller’s Tales: Epic Eruptions............................... 90 Foreigners: The ‘Monk of Sigor’............................... 95 Big Idea Forum: Global Ecosphere.......................... 98

Conversation | Proffessor Craig Cohen.............................................. 86

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Essay | Three Cups with Babu................................................ 114

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Welcome March 2012

THE REGION’S AVIATION LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE

A Supplement of Aviation East Africa

Editorial

By Aviation East Africa Board Member Samuel Kahiga

From a Live Volcano to an Evening of Classical Music . . . For frequent-flyer lifestyle, interests and themes, step right this way . . .

aribu to Issue No. 2 of EAFlyer magazine. As we said in our inaugural editorial, this is a lifestyle magazine with a difference, and with good reason. The region’s airports are nothing without tourism, international NGOs, the UN headquarters in Nairobi and the diplomatic missions. These categories of frequent flyers do not themselves pilot the aircraft they use nor do they manage the airports at their disposal. This magazine caters to the flying lifestyle in our region, which has its own peculiar preferences, heritage and traditions. EA Flyer is dedicated to highlighting the issues and

interests of these categories of the people who use airports most, who also happen to be a high-spending but tiny segment of the people who at any one time reside in the region. Potential key advertisers in elite or specialized categories affiliated to aviation, people and places – please take note. EAFlyer is unique in being a product of our region and bringing Kenyan, Ugandan, Tanzanian, Rwandese, Burundian, South Sudanese and Horn of Africa perspectives and Coverstory |

Events

‘Italy for Turkana’ Charity Concert Enthralled Music Lovers

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Rapt audience: A view of the packed Visa Oshwal Centre’s Chandaria auditorium at the height of an evening of great music.

Editorial

From a Live Volcano to an Evening of Classical Music . . . priorities to bear on the subject, sector, industry and market of aviation. Our features and departments include personalities, destinations, achievements, innovations, quality aviation merchandise, services and products. Itineraries, both ordinary and extraordinary as well as elite, will be covered and showcased in some detail. In Issue 2 of this one-of-a-kind magazine, we offer you a diverse menu – ranging from photojournalist Jonathan Kalan’s ‘Traveler’s Tales’ eyewitness narrative and superlative photo feature about a live volcano and its vast fireworks display deep in the DRC to the Italy-for-Turkana concert, held late last year and captured in a photo essay by Duncan Ndotono in the ‘Events’ section that conveys the texture of that fine and philanthropic evening of great music. These live events stand in the greatest contradistinction and were veritable feasts for the senses, particularly aural and visual, as the great photography accompanying the narratives attests. The Charity Concert for the children

of the Turkana region featured a thrilling performance by three great Italian soloists – Francesco di Rosa (Oboe), Roberto Prosseda (Piano), Paolo Beltramini (Clarinet). The Ambassador of Italy, Paola Imperiale, and the Kenyan Vice President’s wife, Mrs Pauline Kalonzo Musyoka, joined a distinguished list of invited guests at this event. Our first book serialization features excerpts from Dappled Sunlight, subtitled Memoirs of a Safari Life, the late Pat Cottar’s memoirs. Mrs. Cottar, of Cottars 1920s Safari Camp fame, is synonymous with the longest serving name in the safari business in Kenya, a brand that is world-famous for providing the adventure, comfort, security and variety that clients expect from a quality safari experience. Dappled Sunlight is the story of her life. The Environment and Conservation departments, which include the Flying Green feature, focus on all things environmental, including as they impact on the aviation sector, business and

industry. In this issue, in the ‘Big Ideas’ segment, Commissioning Editor Wycliffe Muga’s article, “Global Ecosphere Retreat Certifications Challenge to Kenyan Tourism”, looks at a unique endorsement and certification scheme in the field of sustainable tourism. In a companion piece, Liz Rihoy of the Zeitz Foundation showcases the Long Run Initiative flagship programme under the GER® system. In ‘Open Letter to the Next Green Minister’, EAFlyer Special Correspondent Sarah Edwards sounds a timely warning about the truly herculean task in cleaning up our environment that awaits the two ‘custodians’ of the next administration. And there is much more such fare where this came from. As we indicated in our inaugural issue, all those who have long wished to advertise their products, services and equipment where there is a readymade and affluent audience, here’s a hearty Karibu aboard EAFlyer, the lifestyle and general interest magazine for those who have made it.

Environmental Notebook |

Open Letter

Open Letter to the Next Green Minister A truly herculean task in cleaning up the two ‘custodians’ of our environment awaits the next Government of Kenya, EAFlyer Special Correspondent SARAH EDWARDS warns . . . .

ow would seem as good a time as any to address some of the most pressing issues that affect our environment and our wildlife. It is the beginning of a new year and it is a year that will see you appointed to what we hope will be designated as the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Wildlife within our new Government. You will need to be good! As you know, the two organisations that bear most of the responsibility for protecting our environment are the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), neither of which have stepped up to the plate for far too long.

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Fire-fighting would seem to be their preferred system of management. Wait until there is a crisis and then attack the problem with vigour and a fanfare of publicity. A case in point is the KWS’s sudden new Beach Management Programme; our beautiful once-pristine coastal beaches over the years that have turned into a haven for bullying beach boys and a depository for assorted plastic, human waste and general filth. Any attempt to improve the situation by appointing tourist guides to monitor the beaches has died a natural death and they have faded into oblivion like so many new projects. But now the Director, having been apprised of the 16% decline in tourist numbers at the Coast, has decided to do

something that should have been tackled years ago. In tandem with the tourist sector and local communities they aim to clean up and maintain the degraded beaches in order to attract visitors back. There are plenty of equally beautiful beaches in the rest of the world where security and cleanliness standards are high and of course we do have to compete with these, but our truly unique heritage is not beaches but wildlife and that, as I have said so many times, is in dire straits. You don’t get to see the poaching figures but, believe me, they are horrific and you would be even more horrified if you knew how frequently KWS officials are involved in the poaching of elephant and rhino. Both singly and in numbers, rangers have been caught red-

Photography | Courtesy

handed with automatic rifles and rounds of ammunition in areas where they are seconded to private wildlife conservancies supposedly assisting to protect the wildlife. Within Protected Areas such as the Aberdare National Park and Mount Kenya National Park, poaching is rampant. I find it somewhat ironic that the fence surrounding the Aberdares is doing such an excellent job in protecting the people from the animals but has fallen far short in protecting the animals from the people! Combating poaching was the aim in July 2011 when President Kibaki set fire to nearly five tonnes of ivory seized in Singapore some 10 years ago and valued at US$16 million. I am afraid the logic of this exercise has always escaped me . . . I believe the ivory originated from Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia and represented only 10% of Kenya’s stockpile of ivory. More than 200 elephants were killed

here in 2010. So, Mr. Minister, please ask Mr.Kipng’etich to address his priorities in the correct order. First, save the elephants and then the beaches. The next matter for your attention, Mr. Minister, but on the same subject, is the vast amounts of ivory that are transiting through Kenya and Jomo Kenyatta International Airport or the port of Mombasa from the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and other countries to Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Far East in general. Most recently, last December, 727 elephant tusks were discovered in Mombasa, having been railed from Nairobi, and bound for Dubai. That is believed to be ivory from close on two hundred elephants . . . Three weeks before that, some 465 tusks were impounded at the port. It is reported that since January 2010 there have been

more than 10 incidents of recovered ivory on its way out of the country illegally. These consignments, representing millions of dollars, are packed in containers and concealed among more mundane items such as handicrafts or plastic goods. Who is to blame for this? Who is turning a blind eye to what is going on? The airlines; shipping agencies; the Kenya Airports Authority; or KWS? Someone has to take responsibility. Fortunately Kenya Revenue Authority detectives appear to be more alert than the others in the aforementioned cases and have acted relatively swiftly. But however swift the action is on illegal consignments of ivory, it is not going to save more and more African elephants going down the same route unless, Mr. Minister, the loophole at the end is sealed. According to TRAFFIC – the organisation that monitors the illegal trafficking of animals and plants – 2011 saw a record number of large ivory seizures globally, reflecting a sharp increase in the illegal ivory trade. Over the past 12 months most large consignments have originated from either Kenyan or Tanzanian ports. This was a horrible year for African elephants as regards poaching, and is it not shameful that, through negligence at best and corruption at worst, Kenya is aiding and abetting this crime? NEMA is a far cry from the all-doing, all-seeing and crusading outfit that we would like to see. Its reputation as a venal and inefficient organisation is well known. There was a protracted search for a new Director General in 2011 and I do wonder how transparent that process was. We never saw newspaper advertisements for applications for the job – it was all very secretive and therefore appeared to be an in-house selection. That is a pity. There has been no public announcement yet as to whom the new Director General might be; the acting DG who has been holding Turn to P84

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Environmental Notebook |

Open Letter

From P83

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rotten apples in the barrel which infect others and make it impossible for the good people to perform. On KWS Conservation Heroes’ Day which was commemorated on December 16, 2011, a statue was unveiled in honour of “. . . both the serving and fallen heroes in their commitment to the protection of Kenya’s Wildlife”. Some of those were truly brave and dedicated men and women, I acknowledge, but the heroism they have displayed is in stark contrast to those still out in the field who allow themselves to be persuaded either for financial or other gain to become involved in the cancer of destruction that is fast destroying our heritage and denying our children theirs. I wish you all success in your endeavours, Mr. Minister, and remain a faithful and loyal supporter of your Office, Sarah Edwards

Photography | Courtesy

the fort for months and months might not be an appropriate choice. There must be someone out there with integrity who has a passion for conservation and surely it should not be, as it currently is, a presidential appointment? NEMA has allowed far too many ill-thought-out developments to slip through its fingers; real estate, car parks and roads built on wetlands and river courses, indigenous trees and bush hacked out in the interests of providing housing projects. Yet for the honest citizen who follows every letter of the law, an Environmental Audit is mandatory for an application to NEMA to erect a water tank on his own property! It is obviously the money that talks. This needs your urgent attention before our wetlands and grasslands and forests are all further degraded. So, Mr. Minister, you have a truly herculean task in cleaning up the two “custodians” of our environment. There are many good people there but also many

Feature |

Flying Green

New airports are being designed â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;greenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; from the ground up. By SAMuel KAHIGA

The Impact of ICTs on Climate Change

oday, air travel has become so much a part of our lives that it is generally unremarkable, except for the fact that people cover longer distances by air in shorter spurts of time than they can ever hope to do on the ground. In aviation as in all other sectors, the imperative of being environment friendly, with the aim of finding sustainable ways of carrying out our activities while putting the least amount of strain on the planet, is becoming increasingly important and desirable. With specific focus on the aviation sector, we briefly examine ICT operations and the contributions of these technological advances to climate change. The impact of ICT development on the environment is a mixed one, with positive and negative impacts. Let us pay more attention to the latter. These are the direct environmental effects of the production and use of ICTs (resource use and pollution related to the production of ICT infrastructure and devices, electricity consumption of ICT hardware, electronic waste disposal, etc). For most people, air travel is all about takeoff, the actual flight and finally the

landing. This is actually not the case. Each airline operator maintains a data center that is charged with ensuring the necessary co-ordination of airport functions to allow for smooth operations 24/7. This is done through automated management systems which provide electrical, mechanical, baggage carousel maintenance (millwright), heating and air conditioning (HVAC), and structural maintenance. A powerhouse is also maintained to provide power to the air terminal and administration building and operates boilers, chillers, cooling towers and pumps. In the airports, there are also the Air Terminal Building (ATB) services, which provide services to tenants and the general public, coordinate the barrier-free program, the Goldwing Ambassador volunteer program and airport tours.

Furthermore, there is the Field Electrical Center; this is the department that maintains transformers, the switch gear and breakers that power the airfield lighting system (guidance signs, runway and apron lighting) and maintains the power system for aircraft instrument landing. While some of the above services and facilities are shared by the airlines operating in an airport, every operator maintains their own data center with people, computers and other equipment that translate to energy consumption. The physical environment of a data center is rigorously controlled. The temperature will naturally rise because the electrical power used heats the air. Unless the heat is removed, the ambient temperature will rise, resulting in electronic equipment malfunction. This calls for round-the-clock power use and backup power, which consist of one or more uninterruptible power supplies, battery banks, and/or diesel generators. It is difficult to state the average amount of power required to maintain a data center as this will depend on numerous factors, but it is evident that it is a lot, and this leads to a strain in the environment that we are all keen to avoid. Considering all this, one would then wonder if there are other ways that would help minimize energy usage through duplication of efforts and having numerous units under the same airport carrying out the same roles. Have we explored all the options? Samuel Kahiga is a Board Member of Aviation East Africa.

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Conversations |

Professor Craig Cohen

How US Researchers found AIDS in Kenya in the 1990s The greatest public health crisis in Kenyan history was the advent of HIV/AIDS, particularly the initial stigma, ignorance and extremely high cost of would-be treatment. Dr Craig Cohen has been here right from the start and explains to Wycliff Muga what is was like to be a pioneer in the war on AIDS WYCLIFFE MUGA: I will start by asking how you first got involved in HIV research. I’m taking the point of view of you as a researcher, primarily. I know you also have administrative duties. DR. CRAIG COHEN: So, I’m an obstetrician-gynecologist. And while I was in residency at Northwestern, actually I 86 |

was exposed to what I call reproductive infectious diseases, which includes HIV, from a woman’s perspective at least. And, then when I was in Northwestern, I set up an… A: That was in 1990. Q: Over twenty years ago. A: Yeah, exactly. So, when I started residency (it’s four years in the US) and I got exposed not to HIV so much, but at least to the concepts of what I call reproductive infectious diseases. I then went off to Northwestern and at that time I decided, well, I either wanted to do academic medicine and potentially with some international focus but I was uncertain at that time ‘cause I didn’t really have role models in Ob/Gyn.. Or there’s something else I wanted to do. So I set up an opportunity for myself. This was the early days of e-mail. Early nineties. Now it’s so easy to send people messages but back then it was very difficult.

But I sent messages out to people – that I looked at the literature around HIV and women. So I sent it out to maybe, maybe 15, 20 people. And either people didn’t respond – maybe their e-mail wasn’t working or they just didn’t respond. Even the person who became my first main mentor at the University of Washington where I did my fellowship, said there’s no there’s no way I only had a six week-elective in my residency - there’s no way you can get anything done. But then Anne Duerr, at CDC said, “We’re starting a new project in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand, with some researchers from Thailand, the Ministry of Health and with Kenrad Nelson who is now Professor Emeritus at Johns Hopkins University. “Might you want to come with us, and we’ll set something up?” I said, “Sure.” So, I then took some time, I went to Atlanta, met with her, we talked about some ideas. I went to Baltimore, I met with Kenrad Nelson, we

worked with young sex workers in Chiang Mai and just essentially correlated back to vaginosis with HIV among 144 young sex workers in Thailand. And, lo and behold, I was right. The hunch was right. There was an association. We couldn’t prove cause and effect. We didn’t know if BV was more common because the women were HIV positive or BV was present and the women that were more likely to get HIV positive. We didn’t know. But at least it was the first paper that came out, the first study completed that demonstrated this association. I should say also when I was in Chiang Mai, I mean these, as you can imagine what sex work at least at that time in 1993…

talked about other ideas. And then, lo and behold, I found myself in Chiang Mai for six weeks. We designed the protocol. This was a different regulatory time. We designed the protocol then we got IRB approval within like a week. Obviously nowadays it doesn’t work that way. Q: IRB is? A: Institutional Review Board or Ethical Review Committee. We got it within a week, but nowadays it obviously takes months and months. But, the hunch that I was working on was that women who, are, I thought…there is a condition called bacterial vaginosis (BV) which is, simply… so the normal vaginal flora is predominantly lactobacillus, acertain species of lactobacillus. Some women though have abnormal vaginal flora predominantly anaerobic bacteria, bacteria that don’t need oxygen. Causes discharge. And I had this hunch that maybe either BV would be more common in women living with HIV or BV because it could affect the female genital tract, could make one more susceptible to HIV. So we ended up doing the first crosssectional study so we looked at…we

Below: Dr Cohen and Prime Minister Raila Odinga on a tour of FACES Lumumba clinic in Kisumu.

Q: Thailand is notorious. A: ...what sex work was like in that period of time. That these were girls. I mean, they had to be 18 to be in the study, but I actually went with a public health officer to visit some of the brothels. It’s mainly brothel-based. Or at least most of the sex workers that we studied were in brothels. Some were indentured servants literally… So we visited them and there’s this plate… and you’ve probably read or seen… The

Photography | Courtesy RCTP

plate-glass windows. There are these little numbers, you know, you pick numbers, if you’re the man and you pick number 121…. And I was just, I was really just so sad, I was just like, something has to be done. And this was a time, this was the peak of the HIV infection time. Since that time, the infection rates have gone way, have just plummeted. It’s really fantastic what the country has been able to do. But I would come back from work and I would just lay on my bed every evening for like an hour. You were mentioning Bach being very emotive. I mean, for me I don’t cry like that per se, but I just was like, just in shock. Q: At what you had seen the whole day? A: At what I had seen. And just that 40 per cent of these young women were HIV positive. Were living with HIV. Q: 40 per cent? A: 40per cent. These were sex workers. I mean, there’s been a high per cent… they, you know, sex workers, young girls that are mostly… 40 per cent were positive. So I, I came back from Thailand and I said, “This is what I want to do.” I mean, that’s the way I’ve made decisions in my life usually. My big decisions. Is I don’t just read a book or think or talk to people. I mean, that’s all part of it as well, but I really want to experience it. See what, see something that grabs me that I feel like I’m good at. And I decided then when I was in Thailand that I wanted to do what at the time was called infectious disease, but now I call reproductive infectious diseases. I applied to the only fellowship programme I knew which was back at the University of Washington. I had made good contacts there with people because I had spent one year there and I knew some of the researchers there. Anne Duerr helped as well. And, I told them about my experiences, applied, and, lo and behold, they accepted me into the programme and Joan Kreiss, who was my first mentor, was also the person who I think is credited with identifying that HIV was a problem in Kenya. Was that in 1993 or 4?I think it was about 1993 that she did her sero-prevalence study at Buffalo Bill’s in Nairobi. Q: Oh, I’ve heard of that . . . A: Yes. So she did the first study. Also on a hunch that there was HIV in Kenya. Most people were saying that there’s no HIV… Q: But there was already HIV in Uganda by that time? A: There was a lot of denial and nobody looked. And the research community was Turn to P88

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Conversations |

Professor Craig Cohen

From P87

focused on STIs. Mainly those that cause ulcers like chancroid and syphilis and so forth. People were not looking at HIV. But, lo and behold, she found maybe it was earlier than that, actually, maybe 1991…but she found, in her study, that she just, she rented a hotel room at the hotel there…she found HIV. So she became my first mentor and she had a study that was already funded to look at the effects of HIV infection on women who suffer from something called pelvic inflammatory disease, also known as PID, which essentially is an infection, mostly a sexually transmitted infection, that infects a woman’s uterus, her tubes, fallopian tubes and her ovaries and also can cause something called peritonitis. They can get quite ugly, abscesses and so forth. So that, so she said, “We have a study in Kenya, would you want to do this?” And I said, “Sure.” So, when she accepted me, it was under the pretext that I would be coming to Kenya, originally for fifteen months. One study I started was at Kenyatta... actually, when I moved here in 1994 July, the doctors, you might remember this, the doctors at Kenyatta National Hospital were on strike. Q: Oh! A: So the hospital was essentially… Q: Closed? A: Closed. So I started the study at Kikuyu Missionary Hospital because I thought maybe I could recruit patients there. But it ended up, I mean, I ended up doing some good work there, getting started but there weren’t, they didn’t have the patient volume that KNH hadso I moved to Kenyatta once they re-opened in about October, soI got a little slow start. But, umm, the work was…we had a small team, me, a nurse, a clinic assistant who still works for us, and a driver, who does not work for us …And, I guess that’s it. And I did everything. I was the doctor, I was the researcher, I was, we did – it was an inpatient study - so, I was the obstetrician and gynecologist, we did something called laparoscopy, a minimally invasive surgery to actually confirm the diagnosis and then to drain the abscesses and things and so forth. I came in every day and every weekend if I there was a patient from the hospital, because I was their doctor as well. I did all the data entry, I did the analysis, I did the budgeting, I ran the money, I ran, I mean I was the jack of all trades, but I loved it and it was extremely important, because, and I really encourage my fellows, now my trainees to do, to do everything, not to get spoiled, because having done everything, I now can work with my administrator, I can work with my data manager, my statistician, and I 88 |

Above: Dedicating the Steinberg Comprehensive Care Center in Suba,with Dr. Elizabeth Bukusi.

understand the challenges, I understand what we are looking at. I think it’s really actually helped the research that our group has been doing, significantly, because I’ve had that hands-on experience. And so I moved here for fifteen months after and I started…I should also say that it was three weeks after the residency. In residency, in my programme, we were working 80 to 110 hours a week. When I was in Kenya, I also thoroughly enjoyed my time living here. I lived here from 1994 to 2002, pretty much consecutively, although I spent summers back in Seattle during that time. But thoroughly enjoyed and made lots and lots of friends. The country is spectacular, the people. I would get out for the weekends. So I actually was able to kind of live here more broadly than I did as resident. So after about three months I called up my mentor, Joan Kreiss, and I said, “You know, I think I want to stay for a full two years.” She said, “No problem.” So, and then about that time… a little bit later, then I had to leave to, umm, my brother was getting married and so I had to leave for the US but I had this ongoing study so I needed some help. So, there’s a professor from the University of Manitoba who started the collaboration with the the STD research programme that started here between the University of Nairobi and Manitoba. I said, “You know, I need to find a good Ob/Gyn who’s interested in research, do you know anyone?” So he said, “Well, I met this, I met this doctor who’s just finished residency. Her name’s Elizabeth Bukusi and she’s at KEMRI and I think she’s looking for something to do right now.” So, somehow I found out where she was. So I walked over there, I am shy, but

not in that sort of sense. So, I walked over there, knocked on her door and she opened up the door. And of course she opened up the door to what most likely will end up being a lifelong friendship and partnership in our work. She ended up working those three weeks while I was away, for which I was very grateful, and then getting incorporated into the research. The study was among women hospitalized with Pelvic Inflammatory Disease. We soon started an outpatient, a similar study, a parallel study looking at outpatients, or patients going to the health facility who didn’t require hospitalization, with PID, that Elizabeth ran. And then we started a third study, the, the Principal of the College of Health Sciences, Professor Sinei, had written a project proposal and had gotten some money, but didn’t have the time to implement it, which was looking at the causes or the etiology of women who had tubal factor infertility, which is very common in many parts of southern Africa, including Kenya. So, one study mushroomed to three studies. My life blossomed as well. Just friendships and relationships. And, then after two years, I also got very interested … at that time, this is 1995… early 96, or so. I came… something that just started to really grab me is that in my, in both PID studies, about 40 per cent of the women were living with HIV. I could cure them of PID. We had strong antibiotics, everybody got well. But I couldn’t do anything about their HIV infection. And this is the pre-HAART era, pre-HAART, way pre-PEPFAR [President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief]. This is pre-HAART.

Photography | Courtesy RCTP

Q: What was HAART? A: Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy Q: Oh, so the medicine wasn’t even there? A: That didn’t happen till 1996. Vancouver the AIDS meeting was like, hey, triple drug therapy works and there was a scale-up in the wealthy countries and of course…. it took longer to get into developing countries. So this is pre-HAART in the world. So I started thinking about this. What could we do to improve these people’s lives? There were certain things we knew we could do. We could give prophylaxis with bactrim, antibiotic prophylaxis. Potentially give prophylaxis against TB and so offset second opportunistic infections,we could help to look at that. So, my first grant actually got funded, with a really good colleague, Christina Mwachari, who is also at KEMRI. She had done research on the interface of tuberculosis and HIV at KEMRI. Anyway, so we wrote this grant and submitted it to the Rockefeller Foundation and I gained the ear of the head of what was that other foundation… I think he was…. what was his name? He is now head of IAVI…….Seth Berkley, yes. So I met him at a meeting and of course I had made a budget of 200,000. Then he says, “Well, you cut it down”. Then he gives us a two-year grant for 110,000 dollars and we started doing this study looking at use… WHO had published algorithms to treat adults with opportunistic infections but had never tested them. So, we had this study. We created this cohort of HIV positive women and men in Nairobi at KEMRI. We started to evaluate these algorithms. And there were several publications that came out from it. I think that there was some really good work that came out of that project. That kind of was the first project…I had this interest now in caring not just for the other infections like Pelvic Inflammatory Disease but actually trying to improve the

Above: Cohen addressing the Remba community. Below: Preparing to cross Lake Victoria in ferry to reach Mbita, Suba.

lives of people living with HIV. This is the pre-HAART era. Q: You could only improve their lives but you couldn’t cure them or treat them. A: We could not treat, we could not treat the HIV, but we could improve, decrease the amount of disease that they had and maybe cause them, well, hopefully cause them, help them to live longer. Not like the current day that we have the triple dose. So, that was really my start in HIV care and treatment combined with the Sexually Transmitted Disease research. I then left Kenya for a year to do my course work for my Masters in Public Health at the University of Washington but during that year I did everything I could to come back home, which home was Nairobi. So I wrote grants and grants. I wrote that one grant for the Rockefeller Foundation but that wasn’t enough to sustain me so I wrote other grants with other investigators and we got funded and I came back… then this would be, so a year later essentially I came

back. Then for the next five years, essentially what I did is I would spend about 9 months of the year living in Nairobi, working here and then I’d go back to Seattle, to the University of Washington where I transitioned from being a fellow to faculty to do my clinical work. And also just re-connect with my mentors on that side. And the programme in the meantime was growing here. Elizabeth was taking more and more of a leadership role. During that time, of course, part of that time she was back in Seattle doing her own course work and then there were other people that got involved, interested. Nelly Mugo, who now works at the University, and also at the University of Washington, Videlis Nduba, Christina Mwachari, so a group of trainees, if you will, but Elizabeth really stands out because obviously we’ve grown together and we support each other in many ways. So, anyway I did everything…we got the grants and I moved back home. And then I, for the next five years, the programme really branched, had two branches and still kind of those branches continue to this day as far as the research agenda. One of them is the prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted infections. So we started a study like looking at a contraceptive diaphragm, for example, back in those days. And then the other element was looking at improving the lives of people living with HIV and that was work that was initially funded by Rockefeller. We then got a grant from the World Health Organization to continue that and so forth. And really, if you take a look at the programme today, you will see that the roots, the trunk, or the two branches of the majority of the research. A longer version of this conversation would be available online.

March 2012

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Travellers Tales |

Epic Eruptions

Epic Eru The sound was mammoth – it was as if we were standing next to the world’s largest natural boiler room, witnessing the earth’s crust split open to unleash the ferocity lying just beneath the surface. By JONATHAN KALAN

t was exactly 40 years ago, in 1971, that my parents first set foot in Zaire. Armed with nothing but oversized rucksacks and a little orange tent, they decided to spend their holidays hitchhiking across East Africa, riding atop Land Cruisers and trucks piled sky-high with cargo, sleeping anywhere they could afford, or were allowed, to pitch a tent. After bumming a ride out of Uganda just days after Idi Amin began to unleash his violent wave of terror that devastated the country, they were dropped in 90 |

Goma, not knowing that eastern Congo wasn’t much safer. After just two weeks of misadventures – stories which should be reserved for a book – they wound up traveling with an armed UN escort back to the Ugandan border, eventually finding their way to Kenya. It was under slightly different circumstances that I arrived in Goma 40 years later. The country was no longer called Zaire, but the Democratic Republic of Congo, and sadly it was perhaps one of the only places I’ve ventured in my parents’ footsteps many

uptions 2002 neighboring Mt. Nyiragongo also erupted, unleashing a vicious stream of lava that destroyed nearly a sixth of Goma and forced 400,000 people to evacuate the city. Natural primal instinct – my guess is some deep-rooted and fundamental desire to not die – would guide most people away from such natural catastrophes. Certainly the famous mountain gorillas were keeping their distance from the thing – and they share 98% of our genetic makeup. Yet natural curiosity tugged me, along with a handful of other travelers, to capitalize on a gracious offer from “Visit Virunga”, the eastern Congo’s premier

Photography | jonathan kalan

years later that has remained virtually unchanged. New bullet holes replaced the old on the buildings and signs, the same makeshift structures held the city together, and trucks packed with troops donning blue UN helmets were still the most active cars on the ramshackle roads. With Congo’s second democratic elections in history just days away, it wasn’t the most advisable time for a foreigner to be venturing into Congo. Yet a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity had drawn me, and hundreds of other tourists, to disobey the warnings and take my chances. On November 6th, Mt. Nyamuragira, Africa’s most active volcano, tucked away in Congo’s Virunga National Park just north of Goma, launched into its largest eruption of the century. Images of molten lava spewing 400 meters high hit the international headlines, conjuring up memories of the last epic eruption in the area, when in

Turn to P92

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Travellers Tales |

Epic Eruptions

Above: When the Earth belches Volcanic clouds from Mt. Nyamuragira, a rolling mass of water vapour and ash, billow into the early morning sky.

From P91

tourism website. For $300, not only could we see the volcano and all its fury, but we could also spend a night sleeping hardly a kilometer from the frothing giant. As conflict in and around Goma has quieted in recent years, Virunga National Park has seen a surprising and drastic increase in tourists, showing promising signs for tourism in the region. Between 2008 and 2009, tourism in the park increased from zero to 550 visitors. Last year, park visits climbed to 1,800, and this year the number is expected to reach over 3,800. Cai Tjeenk Willink, the park’s business development officer, told me that the park has much to offer beyond just volcanoes. “We have high-quality attractions here: the mountain gorillas, the active volcanoes, safaris with elephants, lions and leopards, the lake, a lowland forest and one of the highest mountain ranges in Africa.” Yet he also wasn’t hesitant to acknowledge the risks of the relatively new surge in tourism in eastern Congo. “It’s a very crucial time in tourism for the Congo”, Willink said. “If there is [election] violence it will bash our operations. We have hope this time the elections will pass without serious incidents.” On a bright and warm Monday afternoon, I walked across the thin border into Goma from the Rwandan city of Gisenyi with nothing but the bare

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Above: Burning bush: Layers of moss and shrubs cover decades of volcanic rock near the base of Mt. Nyamuragira. Closer to the volcano, land is completely charred from November’s eruption.

essentials; a small bundle of US cash (dollar is king in Congo), and a backpack with extra clothes, toiletries, and a day’s supply of food for the climb. Guesthouse After scouting out the town a bit, I settled into the sparsely furnished Tony’s Guesthouse right near the heart of downtown – if you could call it that. With a platoon of UN peacekeeping troops stationed a block down from me throughout the night, I felt relatively safe. The next morning, I awoke to a thunder of noise. The bed, walls, windows – everything – was shaking furiously. We must have been within meters of the Goma International Airport, and an early morning cargo flight takeoff nearly gave me a heart attack – not to mention a lasting ringing in my ears. I arrived at the Visit Virunga office promptly at 8am to meet my fellow intrepid adrenaline junkies – a Dutch development worker from Rwanda, an American photographer, and a British tourist. After a

few hours of mulling around, we hopped into a behemoth park truck, and set off eager with anticipation. It was a bone-jarring hour-and-a-half ride to the trailhead, through gorgeous forests spotted with thatched-roof villages, and as we arrived no less than four smiling men in military camouflage were there to cheerfully greet us, well-worn AK47s dangling from their shoulders. Better to have the guns on our side, I thought. While there haven’t been any reported incidents of tourists being attacked inside the park since tourism picked up in 2008, several park rangers have been killed by rebels and poachers. Yet officials say this has been in the central and northern parts of the vast 8,000 square-kilometer park. At the moment, because of these safety concerns, tourists are only allowed in the southern parts, which is where both Mt. Nyamuragira and Mt. Nyiragongo are located. For the next three hours, we rhythmically trekked to a procession of sounds as we clawed and crawled our way

Photography | jonathan kalan

Above: Hot dawn! Dutch tourist observes Mt. Nyamuragira as dawn breaks. Below: Towering inferno: Lava shoots into the sky from one of several vents on Mt. Nyamuragira. Early in the eruption, lava fountains reached over 400 meters high.meters high.

through the thick jungle; the squeaking of my porter’s bath sandals as he miraculously hauled himself up the wet volcanic rock, smoothed over by decades of rainfall; the tap-tap of AK47s bumping up against the canteens of our four armed rangers; the ebb and flow of rain pattering down on the lush rainforest that engulfed and entangled us. Each step was an intensely focused manoeuvre over unsteady earth, jagged rocks, and low vines that on more than a few occasions caught my boots – forcing me to have a not-so-fun encounter with the cold muddy earth. Then there was the rain. Oh, god, the rain. Somehow, I managed to completely forget it was rainy season – in the Congolese jungle nonetheless. From the moment we set off, the skies closed in and a steady stream of water pounded us as we ascended the trail. With no rain gear, or even a plastic garbage bag, everything was soaked. I was drenched to the bone, swimming in my boots and worried about the fate of the contents in my bags – only one of which

Then there was the rain. Oh, god, the rain.” was waterproof. It was going to be a long, cold night. Hours of mountain sloshing later, I pried and pulled my way out of the thick vegetation, and stumbled out into a charred landscape of volcanic rock. Billowing mushroom clouds of grey smoke percolated into the sky. I wouldn’t consider myself a J.R.R Tolkien nerd, but the ‘depths

of Mordor’ was the first thing that came to mind. We arrived at the pre-pitched camp, hardly a kilometer from the volcano, and could feel the explosive booms, cracks, pops and hisses as the volcano churned the molten lava and thrust enormous chunks Turn to P94

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Travellers Tales |

Epic Eruptions Photography | jonathan kalan

From P93

of rocks over the brim of the crater. The sound was mammoth – it was as if we were standing next to the world’s largest natural boiler room, witnessing the earth’s crust split open to unleash the ferocity lying just beneath the surface. We set off to once again to get even closer, as the thoughts running through my mind flickered between ‘this would NEVER be allowed in America’ and ‘this is the most awesome/dangerous/powerful thing I have ever seen’. Falling ash Minutes later, we perched ourselves atop the last ridge of volcanic rock in front of Mt. Nyamuragira, literally no more than a football pitch away. I could feel the heat, the mixing of melted earth, and the falling ash when the wind blew our way. We sat for an hour in near-silence, listening to the cracking explosions as lava projected from the crater in all directions. Before packing up the next morning, we hiked back to the ridge by the volcano two more times. None of us could resist. It was as if some primal urge guided us to sit and stare, googly-eyed, jaws wide open, marveling at this truly epic fiery natural phenomenon occurring directly in front of our eyes.

Above: Nature’s fireworks display: Mt. Nyamuragira’s eruption looks far more spectacular at night, and the red glow can even be seen from Goma, hours away. In the front, park rangers survey the route back to camp.

There was nowhere else in the world, I was sure, that you could get this close to an erupting volcano. The sun set and the sun rose, illuminating the volcano with a rainbow’s spectrum of colors across the sky. At night, there was not even the slightest need for a torch. Mt. Nyamuragira cast a bright red glow across the entire eerie landscape. We set off after dawn the next morning and slid our way back down the trail to the truck waiting below. The hike was a

Left: Front-row seats: Three park rangers, armed with AK47s for protection against forces other than volcanic activity, enjoy the “best seats in the house” as they watch Mt. Nyamuragira in the background.

blur – more of a zombie-like procession of people, aside from the rangers, who were too stunned, too hypnotized, attempting to savor the sights of the past 12 hours, to even speak. The cost of the overnight trek, $300, was worth every dime. Fifty per cent of the $200 park fee went to the ICCN (Congolese Wildlife Authority), and thirty per cent went to Virunga National Park for infrastructure, roads, schools, and other projects which are direct investments in the community. There is no doubt in my mind the money went to two good causes – first my own reckless desire to experience the most wild, adventurous, and extraordinary things our beautiful planet has to offer. Second, the growth and development of tourism in eastern Congo, an area desperate for additional economic drivers that don’t rely on minerals. Volcanic eruptions are entirely unpredictable, and Mt. Nyamuragira’s epic eruption could continue for months, or die down tomorrow. If eastern Congo remains stable after the recent elections, the eruption could earmark the beginning of a new era for tourism in the region. Yet given the historically unpredictable pattern of events and the continued conflict in areas surrounding Goma, it may take many years before eastern Congo appears on the itineraries of anyone but the most adventurous of travelers.

Jonathan Kalan is an internationally published photojournalist, journalist and blogger specializing in the intersections of business, innovation and social development in emerging markets. In just 24 years he has traveled to over 35 countries, worked in South Asia and Africa, and collaborated with NGOs, social enterprises, technology start ups, and media companies. His work has appeared in The Guardian, Financial Times, Boston Globe, GlobalPost, The Huffington Post, The Star (Kenya), Stanford Social Innovation Review, Destination Magazine EA, How We Made It In Africa, The Christian Science Monitor, On The Ground (New York Times blog), and many others. He was a Finalist for the 2011 Diageo Africa Business Reporting Awards. Jonathan is currently based in Nairobi, Kenya, freelancing and documenting stories of social enterprises, entrepreneurs, and innovations for The (BoP) Project.

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The Monk of Sigor

Photography | Courtesy

The ‘Monk of Sigor’ and an Oasis of Plenty The impact of the project in the community was so remarkable it won a UNEP award as a success story in desertification control. By ISAIAH LAGAT

hen the name Pokot is mentioned, many of us simply think of hunger. This is what residents of Pokotland go through on a daily basis. But one village in the hunger-stricken area has, against all odds, beaten that reputation. Welcome to the Sigor trading centre, some 510km north-west of Nairobi, a veritable green belt in the dry expanse. This was, however, not possible without the help of the Italian Cooperation project along the Wei Wei Malinalte river belt, which began in 1984, following a devastating drought.

The scheme, which was started in 1986 by the Italian Government in partnership with the Kerio Valley Development Authority (KVDA), initially named the Sigor Project, supplies irrigation water 24 hours a day for land serving 225 families who live on the scheme. Wei Wei Location is now among the few areas in Pokot where families go to bed with full bellies. “We are proud to say that we are satisfying the needs of thousands of people around this area,” says Mr. Martino Melli, who works for the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the Director of the Regional Office for East Africa.

The project began with the signing of the Kenya-Italian Protocol of Bilateral Co-operation of 1986, which agreed that the aim of the project was to facilitate food security, income generation and relieve pressure on the slopes and hence contribute to environment conservation. This project evidently has been successful and farmers now not only grow crops for their own consumption but also grow seed for sale. It is almost Noon at the Sigor trading centre and, already, it is full of activities at the Wei Wei Farmers’ Association depot. Lorries are loading maize into trucks for transportation to Sigor’s Kenya Seed Company depot. This year the produce has surpassed last season’s by almost double and this is taken positively by the farmers of Wei Wei. Store “This year we have witnessed a very huge growth in the kilos of maize being brought in. The store is almost full and not all the farmers have brought in their produce,” said Evelyn Cheruto, the storekeeper of the Wei Wei Farmers’ Association. A few metres away, Peter Amechang, the Wei Wei Association Manager, helps Turn to P96

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The Monk of Sigor Photography | Courtesy

From P95

the farmers weigh their maize before it is stored. He looks happy and tells the farmers that things are not looking bad this season. A few kilometres away from the Sigor trading centre is a remote place called Masol. All that can be seen around the area are shrubs and grazing goats. The community here depends on their livestock for survival. As you come closer old men can be seen sitting outside their homesteads while children run around playing. The development here is nowhere near Sigor’s, which is commonly referred to as Wei Wei Location. Health had been a problem here until the Italian Cooperation came in and built one dispensary in the village. Before this, people used to walk 40 kilometres in search of treatment. A soft-spoken Samuel Nakori, the Assistant Chief of Masol, says they have had been a lot of problems in the health sector and this was a big challenge to the community. He says the dispensary has been of enormous benefit to the community. “The community in this area can now boast having a well-equipped dispensary which caters for the sick,” Nakori said. He says the Government is doing everything to ensure people live a better life. He thanks the Italian Cooperation for the good work they are doing. Kenya has an irrigable land potential of 540,000 hectares of which only 105,000 have been developed. In particular, some semiarid areas could be irrigated using streams flowing from nearby mountainous ranges. For instance, in 1995 the Italian Cooperation supported the Kerio Valley Development

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The greening of Sigor: Sprinkle irrigation system going at the Wei Wei Irrigation Project in West Pokot run by KVDA.

Authority in creating a 275-hectare irrigated scheme in the semi-arid area of Sigor, taking water from the Wei Wei perennial river, flowing down from the overlooking Korellach range.

Below Left: Truck picks maize from Sigor scheme in West Pokot. Below Right: Locals loading the harvested maize in the truck.

Beneficiary The beneficiary farmers thereafter formed an association for the management of the irrigated scheme and the agricultural machinery was also provided by the project, as well as for the marketing of produce. The impact of the project in the community was so remarkable in 1999 it won a United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) award as a success story in desertification control. The project also had a positive impact on the stability of the area in terms of peace

building between different ethnic groups living in Pokot District. “The Government is trying to enlighten the community to own the project so that when the Italians leave all will not decline,” the Sangat furrow chairman, Simon Kanyoku, said. Kanyoku emphasizes that the project has helped eradicate poverty within the community and ensured the people get enough food to sustain them. He points out that there was a time when the road was swept by floods and the Government was reluctant to assist and so Mr. Oscar Ricci, the project coordinator of the Italian project in Sigor, commonly known as “The Monk of Sigor”, came in to assist in building the road. So far, all the schools and health centres in the area have been rehabilitated and

Left: Wei Weri river which feeds the Sigor Scheme in West Pokot. Right: A local colecting vegetables from Siigor Scheme

equipped, and a further 300 hectares of land are now irrigated. The Italian Cooperation also began the last phase in 2010, which is meant to provide the anti-erosive protection of the Korellach catchment and will expand the irrigation scheme by further 352 hectares, thus bringing the total irrigated surface up to 900 hectares. Thanks to the project, the agricultural income of the people of this community has increased 15 times, boosting development and trade, and occasioning a big increase in school enrollment and demand for health services, besides having a positive impact on the peace building between different communities. One resident said he has lived in the area for 24 years and seen a huge difference

At present, an average 2,000 tons of various seeds are marketed annually, earning the farmers a gross income of more than Sh50 million, with a net income of about Sh35 million.”

compared to when he first came to Sigor. “When I came to this area 24 years ago, there was no sign of development and all people used to do is practice pastoralism, but, as time went by, they embraced different development,” Peter Mayodi said. Mayodi works with the Italian Cooperation as a Monitoring Officer. The Wei Wei project is basically a farmer’s project, because on the completion of implementation, individual farmers have been able to run 90% of the project on a one-hectare units basis. At present, an average 2,000 tons of various seeds are marketed annually, earning the farmers a gross income of more than Sh50 million, with a net income of about Sh35 million. With 225 farms families settled

so far, the project has created a wide range of economic and social benefits for the local population and beyond the locality. The lives of the Pokot in the project area have been completely transformed through the increased employment opportunities, improved incomes, food security, development of commerce and increase in education and healthcare services. A soft loan for the development of the Phase III Agreement has been signed by the Italian and Kenyan governments. Having been nominated by UNEP as a success-story project in combating and alleviating environmental degradation in the dry lands in 1999, the Wei Wei Integrated Development Project has never looked back.

Martino Melli (R) with Oscar Ricci, the project coordinator (‘the Monk of Sigor’).

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Innovations for a Changing World

Global Ecosphere Retreat Certifications Challenge to Kenyan Tourism Kenya has spent 40 years trying to encourage ever more tourists with the result that our tourism is heading to the point where there will be too many visitors in the prime areas. How to create more revenues out of tourism in light of the threat to animal populations? A rare certification system sets parameters for developing sustainable worldwide standards 98 |

n what amounted to a direct challenge thrown at Kenyan tourism, on Thursday 10th February, 2011, the Nairobi-based Zeitz Foundation announced that resorts Monte Azul in Costa Rica and Chumbe Island Coral Park in Tanzania have made it through a rigorous process and become the first two locations in the world to receive the Global Ecosphere Retreat (GER) certification, a Zeitz Foundation award for the highest level of sustainability. According to Jochen Zeitz, Founder of the Zeitz Foundation,

Photography | Courtesy

Chairman and CEO of PUMA, “The GER stamp of approval means that these two amazing places tick all the right boxes in the areas of Conservation, Community, Culture and Commerce. This endorsement is unique in that it prizes the resorts’ efforts across the board, thereby establishing them as leaders in the field of sustainable tourism”. Mr. Zeitz is best known in Kenya as the man who brought two of the world’s most celebrated sportsmen to this country. First there was Samuel Eto, the Cameroonian football star who turns out for Italian club Internazionale but is most remembered for his many years at the leading Spanish club FC Barcelona. And then there was the fastest man in the world, Usain Bolt of Jamaica, who came to Kenya for the official launch of the Zeitz Foundation.

Mr. Zeitz is best known in Kenya as the man who brought two of the world’s most celebrated sportsmen to this country”

This announcement comes at a time when there is debate about the future of the jewel in the crown of Kenya’s tourism – the Maasai Mara Game Reserve. The Maasai Mara has the odd distinction of being at once a resource of the Narok and Transmara county councils (which share the revenues from the gate collections for this world-famous game park) and also being a national asset because the animals within the park do not belong to these county councils. They are under the guardianship of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) on behalf of all Kenyans. Equally unusual is that whereas the Transmara portion of the reserve is managed through a public-privatepartnership (PPP) between the Transmara Council and the Mara Conservancy, the Narok portion is still managed directly by the Narok County Council. Because of its global reputation, the Maasai Mara has been subjected to the most intense ‘development pressure’ of all the Kenyan game parks, with tour operators lining up in wait for any new investment opportunities that might arise. But environmental scientists have long argued that the Mara is already ‘overdeveloped’ and that any new lodges or camps should properly be located in conservancies well outside the park’s official boundaries and in the ‘wildlife dispersal areas’ which are mostly group ranches owned by the local Maasai communities. Debate has centered on whether the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem – of which the Maasai Mara is a part – can possibly survive the impact of having so many lodges and camps established within it, and so many tour vans racing through it. Benefited And doubts have also been expressed about whether the local Maasai, whose group ranches make up the crucial dispersal areas around the game reserve, have really benefited adequately from the presence of so many wild animals on what is, after all, privately-owned land. For while some of the Maasai clans have entered into lucrative long-term lease arrangements with tour operators to create private conservancies on their group ranches, there are still many who have yet to organize their groups for this purpose, and so effectively gain nothing from the presence of these wild animals on their land. So here is a situation in which the economic interests of the Maasai clans; the Maasai culture; the need for more investment in Kenya’s vital tourism industry;

Main: Monte Azul Vista. Right: Chumbe Island Zanzibar. Inset: Usain Bolt.

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From P99

and the need to preserve the Maasai Mara for posterity all have to be reconciled. Further complicating the picture is that Kenya and Tanzania have for some years now had markedly different policies when it comes to the development of tourism facilities in this jointly-owned environmental asset. The Serengeti – along with the Maasai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya – forms part of a continuing grasslands ecosystem that has been made famous by the annual wildebeest migrations that involve about a million- and-a-half animals crossing the Mara River from the Serengeti plains to enter into the Maasai Mara. But a look at the comparative revenues from this great wildlife spectacle tells a strange story: The Maasai Mara is only about onesixth the size of the Serengeti, and the vast wildebeest herds only spend two months of the year there, before returning to the Serengeti plains. Yet Kenya collects 20 times as much as Tanzania does, from this jointlyowned tourist attraction. And the reason for this is that the Kenyan side has superior infrastructure – a better network of roads, airstrips, and so on – that supports far more hotels and lodges than are to be found in the Serengeti. But Kenya’s much greater revenues have come at a steep price: in early 2010, there was much controversy over a proposed new luxury camp, which was being built on a forested section of the banks of the Mara River. Breeding ground The environmentalists who opposed this new development argued that this riverine habitat was a breeding ground for the black rhino. And as rhino populations in Kenya had fallen drastically due to poaching, the black rhinos in the Maasai Mara were among the few free-ranging rhino populations to be found in Kenya. However, in the end the developers had their way; the beautiful new camp was built and – as the environmentalists had predicted – the black rhinos all crossed the invisible line known as the ‘national boundary’ that separates Kenya and Tanzania, and are now to be found in the Serengeti. As rhinos are by far the rarest of the ‘Big Five’ (the others are lion, elephant, buffalo, and leopard) of the ‘charismatic megafauna’ which the African safari experience is built around, this was a great loss indeed. By voting with their feet, the rhinos demonstrated that although Kenya may for the time being reap far greater revenues 100 |

from its tourism, its environmental policies are in the long run inimical to the survival of the very wildlife which is the key to Kenya’s tourism sector. And that whereas Tanzania may not get as much money as Kenya does, in most respects its conservation policies guarantee greater sustainability. It is in this context that the Zeitz Foundation’s innovative certification programme has enormous significance, as it offers clear guidelines on how globally recognized standards in ‘sustainability’ may

be attained. Dr. Liz Rihoy, the Director of the Zeitz Foundation, explained: “The ZF approach to sustainability is encapsulated in our ‘4 Cs’ philosophy. We believe that in order to achieve sustainability, a careful balance needs to be struck between activities encompassing conservation, community development, culture and commerce. Eco-tourism, which is popular in Kenya, would be a stronger tool for promoting sustainable approaches if it provided

Photography | thinkstock.com

equal emphasis to promoting community development, commercial viability and provision of platforms to promote positive cultural exchanges and cultural understanding, along with its current emphasis on conservation.” Dr. Rihoy further elaborated, “Our certification process provides a rigorous framework that enables external assessment to be made regarding activities within these four areas. These assessments are undertaken and evaluated by a team of experts, the Foundations specialists,

who are leading global experts in their respective fields.” The Foundation relies on this rigorous process involving a team of internationallyacknowledged experts to undertake audits and review recommendations prior to awarding certification. This GER Certification is setting a new standard in sustainability and is a driving force in promoting and developing sustainable thinking around the globe. It ensures that best practices in sustainability are adhered to and innovative approaches

By voting with their feet, the rhinos demonstrated that although Kenya may reap far greater revenues from its tourism, its environmental policies are in the long run inimical to the survival of the very wildlife which is the key to Kenya’s tourism sector”

experimented with and researched to develop sustainable solutions. “During the certification process, the assessors met with various members of the community to evaluate our relationship with them,” notes Carlos Rojas Jara, Co-Founder of Monte Azul. “This was unexpected and highlights the commitment to quality, integrity and the thoroughness of the Zeitz Foundation’s certification programme, of which we are honoured to be the first to receive the GER certificate.” Monte Azul is a Centre for Contemporary Art & Conservation & Hotel Project located in the rainforest-covered mountains of southern Costa Rica. It is the product of the founders’ passion for art and design, and their commitment to social and environmental awareness. Protected area Chumbe Island Coral Park is the first privately-managed marine protected area in the world. “In working towards this certification, we have shared and discussed achievements and lessons learned in the long Chumbe history, and our efforts to promote marine conservation in Tanzania, and to set an example for genuine ecotourism and environmental education, all this in a challenging environment,” says Sibylle Riedmiller, Founder of Chumbe. Although Kenyan camps and lodges – including those aggressively advertised as ‘eco-camps’ or ‘eco-lodges’ – seem not to have featured in this first round of judging, Kenya may soon have its own GER certified destinations. “Segera Ranch in Laikipia is a founding member of the Long Run Alliance”, explains Dr. Rihoy, “and the Zeitz Foundation is currently engaged with two other destinations in Kenya who are undergoing the initial assessment process to enable them to become Long Run Alliance members. Long Run Alliance membership is the first step in the process of becoming a certified Global Ecosphere Retreat Long Run Destination. Segera has not yet undergone the certification process but we anticipate it will do so later in the year.”

In addition to being Aviation East Africa’s Commissioning Editor, Wycliffe Muga is the Weekend Editor as well as a columnist for The Star. He also contributes a weekly “Letter from Africa” to the BBC World Service (Business Daily). He is a former columnist for the Kenyan Daily Nation newspaper, and the monthly magazines, Nairobi-based Diplomat East Africa, and the London-based African Business. In 2006, he was listed by the Financial Times as Kenya’s most influential print commentator. And in 2011, he won the Diageo Africa Business Reporting Award prize for ‘Best Tourism Feature’. He is also a previous winner (2004/5) of the Peter Jenkins Awards for East African Conservation Journalism. Mr. Muga is a Fellow of the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and of the Property and Environment Research Centre (PERC) in Bozeman, Montana.

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Innovations for a Changing World

>Toka Leya Camp

So says the Danish Proverb. And the Zeitz Foundation’s Long Run Initiative’s world class certifications are a rigorous best practice process that encourages and salutes bestpractice sustainability By LIZ RIHOY

‘He Who Would Leap High must take a Long Run’

he Long Run Initiative, the Zeitz Foundation’s flagship programme, has been abuzz with activity recently, with five new Long Run Alliance Members and six new Long Run Supporters, being welcomed into the initiative, and three 102 |

of the existing Long Run Destinations completing the rigorous GER® certification process to become fully fledged Long Run Destinations – Global Ecosphere Retreat® (GER) certified. Those Long Run Destinations which have been newly-certified include

Caiman Ecological Reserve in Brazil, Lapa RiosEcolodge in Costa Rica and Wolwedans in Namibia. GER® certification is setting a new standard in sustainability and is a driving force in promoting and developing sustainable thinking around the globe. It ensures that best practices are adhered to and innovative approaches experimented with and researched to develop sustainable solutions at LRDs. “It is more than just filling out a questionnaire and offering proof”, points out Carlos Rojas, Co-founder of Monte Azul, one of the pioneer GER®-certified LRDs. It is an all-embracing process that scrutinises an LRD’s activities across all 4Cs (conservation, community, culture and commerce). Going through the rigors of GER® certification is a true demonstration of the genuine commitment of LRDs to becoming centres of best practice with regards to sustainability.

>Mombo Camp

Photography | Courtesy

In completing the GER® certification process, these three LRDs join the ranks of only three others around the world – Monte Azul in Costa Rica, Tahi Beach Resort in New Zealand and Chumbe Island Coral Park in Tanzanzia – who have received certification. In addition to LRDs, the Long Run Initiative also includes Long Run Alliance Members (LRAMs) and Long Run Supporters (LRSs). Five new LRAMs – the DumaTau and Mombo Camps in Botswana, Huaorani Ecolodge in Ecuador, Nkwichi Lodge in Mozambique and Toka Leya Camp in Zambia – and six new LRSs , UniquEco, Atopia Research, Green Destinations, Earthmind, Waponi and Six Senses, have recently joined the Initiative. Conservation LRAMs are mostly sustainable tourism businesses that directly manage or significantly influence the management of a natural area of conservation value with defined geographical boundaries; whilst LRSs are institutions that share the Zeitz Foundation’s drive to support sustainable, ecologically and socially responsible projects around the world. As part of the Long Run Initiative these new members will not only contribute their expertise and add to the knowledgebase of The Long Run Initiative, but will also tap into unmatched opportunities to pioneer and set new standards in the areas

>Nkwichi Camp

of environmental, community and cultural stewardship. The Long Run Initiative continues to build global synergies creating trustworthy locations around theworld that have demonstrated that they are truly committed to sustainability. The coming together of these model organisations

under one umbrella serves to pool the positive effects of innovate projects and activities, creating synergies between them and contributing to the collective knowledge base that will lead to sustainable business practises globally. Turn to P104 March 2012

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Innovations for a Changing World

From P103

More about the new LRAMs: DumaTau Camp DumaTau Camp is a 10-roomed luxury tented camp located in the private 125,000-hectare Linyanti Wildlife Reserve, which borders the western boundary of Chobe National Park in northern Botswana. It is situated close to the source of the Savute Channel on one of the many lagoons within the Linyanti Swamp system. Wildlife viewing is the primary activity at DumaTau Camp, which hosts a plethora of wildlife – particularly in the dry winter months. The Camp pays special attention to the conservation of wildlife on the IUCN Red List in the area, such as the Wild Dog, Lion and Roan Antelope. Huaorani Ecolodge Huaorani Ecolodge in an eco-lodge situated at the headwaters of the Amazon and run by the Huaorani, one of the most isolated ethnic groups on earth, which was first contacted by the outside world only 55 years ago.The primary function of the lodge is to provide visitors with an opportunity to get to know this ancient Amazonianpeople. The lodge provides access to the rich natural surroundings of the Amazon while ensuring a minimal impact to the environment. It provides accommodation for a maximum of 10 people housed in five comfortable, traditionally built, palmthatched cabins.

>Mombo Camp

>DumaTau Camp

Mombo Camp Mombo Camp is located in the Mombo Concession on the northern tip of Chief’s Island within the Moremi Game Reserve in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. This area boasts enormous concentrations of plains game and predators – providing arguably the best big game viewing in all of Africa. Mombo Camp is integrally involved in the Botswana Rhino Reintroduction Project, which has contributed to the restoration of healthy populations of the white rhino in the Okavango Delta. Nkwichi Lodge Nkwichi Lodge lies on the Mozambique shoreline at one of the most beautiful points on the lake. It has been carefully designed to provide comfort and privacy for guests. With a maximum of only 14 people staying at Nkwichi, the lodge can offer guests the highest levels of service in a relaxed and peaceful atmosphere. Through initiatives such as the Manda Wilderness Project, Nkwichi has encouraged and worked with the local communities to set aside some of their land for conservation purposes through the establishment of a wildlife reserve and to use their natural resources in a sustainable manner. Toka Leya Camp Overlooking the mighty Zambezi River and some of its islands is Toka Leya Camp, consisting of 12 spacious en-suite safari-style tents. Wooden walkways snake between the units and main area, limiting its footprint on this pristine area.

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Photography | Courtesy

Toka Leya Camp has a number of systems in place that aim to rehabilitate indigenous flora in the area. The systems include a greenhouse and nursery project to grow seedlings, an environmentally friendly waste-water treatment plant, and a worm farm. More about the new LRSs: UniquEco The UniquEco brand emerged in 2005 as Kenyans Julie Church and Tahreni Bwaanali sought to extend the success of a social and environmental initiative known as The FlipFlop Project. UniquEco’s mission is, “to work with craftsmen and women from disadvantaged areas to produce and market products made from recycled rubbers, plastics and metals thus improving their well-being, while ensuring that the biological, social and cultural richness of the local people and environment is maintained or bettered”. Atopia Research Atopia Research is a research and design organization that works globally to bring innovation, strategic thinking and design expertise to bear on some of the most intractable complex environmental and social issues that we encounter

>Toka Leya Camp

today, engaging in humanitarian relief projects and conducting research into the interdependence of informatics, economics and ecology. The organization’s mission is both charitable and educational. Green Destinations Green Destinations LLC is a Swiss company based in Dubai and Johannesburg and the first green property developer in the Middle East. Green Destinations specialises on planning, designing and developing resource-efficient buildings and property master plans, recognising that today’s design limitations in the building and construction sector are set by ecological aspects. Earthmind Earthmind is a not-for-profit network of professional associates promoting synergies for sustainability. They work with partners in the private, public and non-profit sectors, particularly on the themes of business and

biodiversity, sustainable finance, monitoring and evaluation, and capacity building. Waponi WAPONI is a business incubator aimed at providing small community-based tourism initiatives in Ecuador and Peru with the market access and skills to compete and thrive. These businesses have sustainability at their core, adhere to high standards of environmental and socio-cultural respect, and have tourist and local population involvement/engagement. Six Senses SIX SENSES is a resort and spa management and development company, established in 1995, which manages resorts under the brand names Soneva, Six Senses and Evason; plus Six Senses Spas and Six Senses Sanctuary. They are a significant incubator for and promoter of innovative approaches to sustainable tourism throughout the world. March 2012

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Events

‘Italy for Turkana’ Charity Concert Enthralled Music Lovers

Rapt audience: A view of the packed Visa Oshwal Centre’s Chandaria auditorium at the height of an evening of great music.

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Photography | duncan ndotono

“I

taly for Turkana”, a charity concert, was performed by top musicians from La Scala Theatre in Milan and Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome in November at the Visa Oshwal Centre in Westlands, Nairobi. The Ambassador of Italy, H.E. Paola Imperiale and the Kenyan Vice President’s wife, Mrs Pauline Kalonzo Musyoka, joined a distinguished list of invited guests at this event. The Charity Concert for the children of the Turkana region featured a thrilling

Earth-moving Performance: Left to Right: Paolo Beltramini (clarinet), Francesco di Rosa (oboe), and Roberto Prosseda (piano) revisit the classics of Italian opera. Instrumental inspiration: Papal Pro-Nuncio Alain Lebaupin, the Vatican’s Ambassador to Kenya, and a section of the audience are clearly transported by the music.

Encore! Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka’s wife Pauline joins Italian Ambassador Paola Imperiale in applauding a sterling performance.

performance by three great Italian soloists: Francesco di Rosa (Oboe), Roberto Prosseda (Piano), Paolo Beltramini (Clarinet). Proceeds from the collection of donations went to the joint initiative of the Kenya Red Cross Society and Embassy of Italy. The programme was a sumptuous feat of music, featuring a powerful revisiting and rendition of some of the most famous melodies from Italian opera. The three soloists are among the best Italian performers of their respective instruments. Francesco di Rosa is currently the Lead Oboe of the Santa Cecilia Orchestra of Rome, after having been Lead Oboe for the Teatro alla Turn to P108 March 2012

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Events

Left: Welcome to a virtuoso good cause: Italian Ambassador Paola Imperiale welcomes three of Italyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s greatest soloists and their Nairobi audience to the Italy-for-Turkana evening of music. Above: Enraptured: Danish Ambassador Geert Andersen (centre, front row) takes in the shimmering performance with other members of the audience. From P107

Scala of Milan. Roberto Prosseda records numerous CDs for Decca and Deutsche Grammophone, and plays regularly as a soloist in the most prestigious theatres such as Teatro alla Scala, Philharmonie of Berlin, the Royal Festival Hall of London, the Gewandhaus of Leipzig and Suntory Hall

of Tokyo. Paolo Beltramini, formerly Lead Clarinet of the RAI Orchestra of Turin, is the Lead Clarinet of the Radio Svizzera Orchestra. Their shimmering performance provided an evening of virtuosity that was a testament to the universally communicative power of the greatest music.

Left: Concertgoers: Angie Hallard with world-famous I Dreamt of Africa author Kuki Gallmann, of the Kuki Gallmann Foundation, at the concert. Right: A thrilled Lisa Amenya and Lisa Anyango emerge from the feast of great music.

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Concord of sweet sounds: From top, Francesco de Rosa and his oboe, Paola Beltramini his clarinet and Roberto Prosseda his piano, make music.

Photography | duncan ndotono

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Books |

Serialization

The Adventurous Life and Death of Charles Cottar EA Flyer’s first book serialization features excerpts from Dappled Sunlight, subtitled “Memoirs of a Safari Life”, the late Patricia Mary Cottar’s memoirs. Mrs. Cottar, better known as Pat Cottar, of Cottars 1920s Camp in the Mara fame, is synonymous with the longest serving name in the safari business in Kenya, a brand that is world-famous for providing the adventure, comfort, security and variety that clients expect from a quality safari experience. Pat and her husband Glen, who predeceased her, formed Glen Cottars Safaris, a hunting company where Pat would run, at times, six camps in a number of African countries. Pat and Glen were the first to set up a permanent tourist tented camp in Africa, in the Tsavo East National Park. The camp was sold in the 1970s and Pat and Glen began Cottars Mara Camp, which they ran successfully for 15 years. Bushtops, a small family home in the Mara, was where Pat and Glen spent many years enjoying the Mara. Pat continued to be involved in the next generation in the family safari business with the Cottars 1920s Camp in the Mara and spent many years collecting and sorting through safari history pertaining to the family and to East Africa. Pat finished writing her life story in 2010. She died on December 9 that year. Dappled Sunlight is the story of her life.

len] and I would go for walks in the lovely warm night air along the road past the Nakuru Athletic Club, talking of anything and everything… On these walks I first heard about Glen’s American family who had been hunters. I had to ask him what that meant, as I had never even heard of people who made their living out in the bush hunting animals! This must seem strange coming from someone who was born and brought up in the country of ‘safaris’, where farmers were always having to shoot a lion or leopard which was killing their livestock, or a buffalo or elephant eating their crop, but all this had no importance in our quiet lives. Glen explained that sportsmen would come to Africa from all over the world to

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hunt for the best trophy they could get of any specific animal, or collect specimens for museums, but in doing this they needed the expertise of people who live in the country and understand the animals and how to hunt them as some of these animals can be dangerous. Glen’s grandfather, Charles, who was born in Iowa and to whom the west of America was already becoming tame, read Roosevelt’s book about his safari in East Africa in 1909 and decided to see for himself if it really was that wild. Safari guide He arrived in Kenya in 1910 for the first visit then came and went each year until he brought his whole family here in 1914, his wife Annette and nine children – three boys and six girls: the eldest, a girl born in 1898 and the youngest, a boy born in 1911. Charles registered a company to guide safaris called Cottar’s Safari Service in 1919. He had already had articles published in the “American Field” newspaper between 1914 and 1918, and had been very involved with making movies of his adventures since his early safaris to Kenya. These movies were shown in the States through Chester Outing Films and there is a letter in the family archives written in 1920 from Mr. Chester to Charles saying how sorry he was that Charles would not be able to send any more films for a while

Charles had been wounded by leopard twice before this illness” But Charles was not going to be kept down by any illness, so called his sons Bud and Mike to help him get up and get his legs working again, which he did, and although he was slightly handicapped he was soon guiding safaris again. Today one of Charles’ grandsons who is a doctor, David Stuart, sees the symptoms of Lyme’s Disease, which Charles could have contracted from a tick in Uganda. His grandson Glen remembers him as being a rather cranky person, but one can only think he must have been so frustrated with one blind eye and a leg and arm which would not work properly; of course he was cranky! Charles had been wounded by leopard twice before this illness, and another time in the late 1920s a leopard attacked him and was shot off his back by [his son] Mike.

due to his illness… The illness which Mr. Chester refers to was always thought to be a stroke, but in fact Charles had not been feeling well for some time beforehand, and it was while he was guiding a safari that the paralysis began, so he rushed home to Nairobi and a couple of days later could not get out of bed.

He also had a tussle with an elephant but managed to wedge himself between two rocks so the elephant could not get at him…But Charles would not give in to his handicaps.” Photography | thinkstock.com

Tussle He also had a tussle with an elephant but managed to wedge himself between two rocks so the elephant could not get at him…But Charles would not give in to his handicaps, and insisted on accompanying safaris and still taking movie pictures, which he continued to show in the States. He would carry his favourite Winchester rifle while taking movies, presumably leaving it in the hands of an African assistant. So it was that in September 1940, he was with Bud at Migwarrur, in the Siana hills area of what is now known as the Masai Mara, not far from Barkitabu, when they spotted a rhino in the bush. Bud was sent by Charles to scout for the rhino which they had briefly seen, and was behind other bush cover some distance away when the rhino charged out of the bush quite close to Charles, but he was not able to get the gun quickly enough, and as the shot went home the rhino gored his thigh and fell on him. Bud heard the shot and his father’s yell, so rushed to him, finishing the rhino, and tried to make some shade from the hot sun, but Charles refused this, saying he wanted to see the African sky. The main artery was severed and Charles died from loss of blood an hour later. March 2012

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Serialization

‘Sitting Ducks’ and the ‘King of Beasts’: A Serengeti Safari I was fascinated, staring at the beast like a hypnotized snake as it was absolutely furious by now, lashing its tail and growling at us. I was still sitting in a state of shock when I heard Glen yell at me: “Start the bloody car!” By PAT COTTAR

n December 1954 this is what I wrote about a safari to the Serengeti: “Would you believe that anyone could be so naïve as to think that taking pictures of wild animals would be anything but thrilling and even a little bit dangerous? Well, I must confess that I was that naïve! But I must hasten to explain that, in spite of having lived in East Africa for 23 years, I had never really had anything to do with its wild life, or safaris and such. In fact I had never even seen a fullgrown, thick-maned lion until I went to the Nairobi National Park three years ago with Glen and in the comfort and safety of our saloon car we sat and gazed at these beautiful beasts that seemed so tame and calm. Now I know better, and I am going to tell you why. “Glen is very keen on photographing wild animals, so of course an outing of a few days was arranged to the Serengeti Plains, where Glen was hoping to get some good shots of leopard in particular, and anything else if it was doing something really interesting and unusual. We duly checked in with the Game Warden at the boundary of the Park; any guns we had were sealed, we collected the Guide, paid our dues and pressed on to see what we could find. “I was in the driver’s seat, the guide in the middle and Glen in the passenger seat. When filming from the car he had fitted a bracket on to the passenger side door on to

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which he could fit a camera at a moment’s notice, the canvas hood of the Land Rover was wound back and the windscreen laid flat. The first animals we saw were two cheetahs, which Glen filmed. We wanted to keep them out of the bush but the cheetahs had already started to run for cover, and they really move quickly. What a beautiful sight they were as they streaked past us, and I began to enjoy myself immensely! “Then the guide mentioned that he had seen a large lion over to the left of us, by himself, and this could be worth investigating. Sure enough, there was this massive looking lion with a very presentable mane, sitting all alone and obviously enjoying his solitude. He resented our intrusion and showed us so as soon as we drove up. Relaxed All three cars stopped about 70 yards from him, forming a semi-circle, Jack’s car was facing his right side, Vaas took his car round to face the lion on the left side, and we were in front of him, so that he was at right angles to our car, so to speak, with Glen nearest the lion. We were hoping he would get fed up with all these vehicles, and do something worth filming, but apart from growling at us again and continually twitching his tail, all he did was sit there and seem to relax. So we relaxed too. “After a while Vaas decided to come back to us to see if we considered it worthwhile wasting any more time with this particular lion, and he parked his car alongside ours, on my side. We exchanged comments and then Glen asked for a cigarette. He was leaning across the guide, speaking to Anne and Vaas, the guide was also looking their way at that moment, and I was just putting out my hand to take the cigarette from Anne when it happened. “Njau was the only one who had been watching the lion, and whether he whispered it or shouted, I shall never know, but he

suddenly warned us, “Simba nakuja!” (The lion’s coming!) And so it was, straight for us. Like a flash Glen stood up, flung out his arm as if to halt it, and yelled “Look out!” We all turned to look, and just saw the lion break his charge about twenty yards from us. The guide was leveling his gun, and the thought skipped through my mind: “I wonder how near it will have to get before he shoots it,” then it occurred to me that while Glen was trying to keep an eye on the lion he was also trying to lean across and press the starter. “I was fascinated, staring at the beast like a hypnotized snake as it was absolutely furious by now, lashing its tail and growling at us. I was still sitting in a state of shock when I heard Glen yell at me: “Start the bloody car!” This jolted me to action. I pressed the starter and put my foot on the accelerator, with the result that the petrol flooded and the car would not move. It seemed to take ages while the ‘nyng, nyng, nyng’ of the starter would not catch on and the lion really looked as if he would charge us again. Njau, bless him, had armed himself with a flimsy piece of one inch piping he found in the back of the Land Rover and was prepared to fight off the lion, but thankfully the engine suddenly caught and we were able to move slowly away. The lion was still crouched as if to pounce, and we were thankful to be moving, but Jack’s car would not start so Vaas went to try and push them with his car but when his car also started to object to this extra work, they decided to move away before it also packed up altogether. That left us in the open Land Rover to manoeuvre round to the back of Jack’s car, so now the angry lion was directly behind us and then Glen and I had to change places so that he could drive, by squeezing past the guide in the middle as nobody was going to get out of the car to nip round! “It seemed like an eternity before we finally started pushing Jack away, but when

we had gone about 400 yards it was deemed safe enough to stop and poor Jack had to get out so that he could blow the petrol through the tank, while we were all having some form of refreshment to settle our nerves. But we kept an eye on the lion, which had started slowly coming towards us, and as soon as the petrol flowed again in Jack’s car we were all highly relieved to leave the angry beast, and as we slowly pulled away he continued to stalk us for quite a while.” Thank goodness my introduction to the ‘king of beasts’ had not been any worse, as Glen was a ‘sitting duck!’

Simba nakuja!” (The lion’s coming!) And so it was, straight for us. Like a flash Glen stood up, flung out his arm as if to halt it, and yelled “Look out!”

Photography | thinkstock.com

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Pilgrimage to Loliondo

Three Cups with Babu So, since I havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t come across too many, in fact any, miracle healers in my lifetime, and I have quite the appetite for uncomfortable adventures, I simply couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t resist the chance to go. By JONATHAN KALAN 114 |

Photography | jonathan kalan

o, since I haven’t come across too many, in fact any, miracle healers in my lifetime, and I have quite the appetite for uncomfortable adventures, I simply couldn’t resist the chance to go As the last scrap of sunlight dipped beyond the horizon, we finally managed to wedge ourselves like a human jigsaw puzzle into the khaki-colored Land Cruiser . . . Our departure point was Arusha, the bustling wildlife safari Mecca of Tanzania, yet a luxurious five-star safari to the Serengeti was perhaps the farthest possible experience from what we were in for. I could best describe the impending adventure as a “safari”, in the true Swahili sense of the word – a very long journey. There were 16 of us in all – three crammed in the front row, four in the second, and about nine in the back. A few mother-and-daughter pairs, a single businessman, a government economist, a woman who held a prayer session every time we started the car, an old man who never uttered a word, and a handful small children – I still don’t exactly know whose they were. “Tumebanana!” Maria, a pleasant lady in her mid-40’s, decorated in a beautiful green headdress and whom I was fortunate enough to share half-a-seat with, chuckled. “We are stuffed!” in English. Three of us – photographer, journalist, and Max the translator – were headed to

A ‘secret’ potion, derived from the Carissa edulis plant”

the tiny village of Samunge, in Loliondo, which lies deep in Northern Tanzania, skirting the border with Kenya. A rough five-hour drive from even the most faintly paved roads, it’s a place far beyond the beaten path of any foreign travelers, where brilliantly adorned Maasai warriors and their children chase down passing vehicles, hawking enormous bricks of salt hauled from Lake Natron. Ol Doinyo L’engai, (literally ‘Mountain of God’ in the Maasai language) a highly active volcano, hangs ominously in the distance, parading its destructive power through long, deep scars burned into the barren landscapes. Cellphones struggle to grasp even a single bar of reception. Before 2011, Loliondo was nothing more than an unremarkable dot on some remarkably detailed map. Yet, since last February, Loliondo, and the man it possesses, retired Evangelical Lutheran pastor and ‘miracle healer’ Rev. Ambilikile Mwasupile (known to most as simply ‘Babu’, a title showing respect), has captivated Tanzania’s attention and led to a massive migration of people flocking by bus, car, motorcycle, Land Cruiser and, for the fortunate few, by helicopter, to this tiny rural village. At one point in March, it was reported that over 20,000 people per day were arriving at Loliondo, in search of the cure. The ‘Cup of Miracles’, ‘Kikombe cha

Dawa’ (‘Cup of Medicine’), or simply the ‘Cup of Babu’, is the only attraction here, but a powerful one it is indeed. A ‘secret’ potion, derived from the Carissa edulis plant (known locally by many names, including the Mtandamboo plant and Mugariga tree) is said to cure those who imbibe it of everything from common headaches to diabetes, asthma, epilepsy, cancer and HIV/ AIDS. Brewed Yet one must not be deceived by this modern medical breakthrough – it’s not the plant itself which contains the cure. It’s the distilled drink, according to Babu, which bears the ‘power of Jesus’, brewed solely by Rev. Mwasupile himself, drunk only within the gates of his compound, and by those who truly believe, which holds the cure. It’s kind of like an energy drink from god, which is to be administered only under specific FDA guidelines . . . In May, after probably months of internal debate, the Government of Tanzania finally took a loose stance, declaring that the concoction was ‘not toxic and safe for use’, a vague statement at best neither denying nor endorsing its ‘healing’ capabilities. The fact that dozens of ministers, the Prime Minister, and even the President of Tanzania himself, Jakaya Kikwete, have visited Babu of Loliondo, and drunk from Turn to P114

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Pilgrimage to Loliondo

From P115

the cup, only serves to subtly reinforce its power to the public. As chronically sick people from across the country, and even from around the world, flocked to Loliondo in hope of a miracle cure for their ailments, they often were reported to have abandoned previous treatments, doctors’ instructions, and their anti-retroviral medications (treatment for HIV/AIDS). A close friend who works at a private hospital in Dar es Salaam has seen dozens of individuals coming back from Loliondo to be re-tested for their illnesses. She has seen no change in results. So, since I haven’t come across too many, in fact any, miracle healers in my lifetime, and I have quite the appetite for uncomfortable adventures, I simply couldn’t resist the chance to go. Just after 8:30pm on a Friday night, Raphael, our fearless MacGyver-like driver whose number I managed to obtain a day earlier through no less than four degrees of separation, turned the key. Rreeww REEWW rrreeww, no start. He turned it again. Nothing. Again. Nothing. Territories Finally, on the fourth try, the starter kicked over and the engine picked up with a moan. “Baridi,” Raphael smiled. “Cold”. Not a reassuring start to a seven-hour ride into remote territories, I thought. After a quick stop at a gas station to pick up some essentials – Red Bull, biscuits, water, and some Konyagi (a gin-like substance) in case of dire emergency – we headed north. A feeling of excitement and uncertainty filled the stuffy air inside the vehicle, as food was passed around and shared among the 16 of us. Two-and-a-half hours later, our Land Cruiser took a turn off the smooth pavement, and began hobbling down a dirt road towards the deep, mystic unknown – to Loliondo. As we cleared the immediate brush and trees off the main highway, the landscape suddenly transformed, teleporting us into what seemed to be another world. We quickly descended down a ridge into complete, flat blackness. The moon was nearly full, but not a single dot of light could be seen on the horizon, just an eerie black ocean of terrain surrounded by sharp mountains. Our high beams penetrating the cloud of dust kicked up by a constant rhythm of gas, break, gas, break as we meticulously navigated through the ravines and boulders, we raced through the landscape like a

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The stories of ‘miracles’ that Babu and his secret potion was responsible for spread like a wildfire across East Africa – of people who were cured, healed and set free from cursed spells”

midnight rally cross. We stopped only occasionally – to go to the bathroom, and marvel at herd of zebras illuminated in our path. Sleep was hopeless, resulting in nothing but painful whiplash the moment the neck fell limp, so our minds drifted into the sea of darkness outside. At 3:15am, after multiple random checkpoints, we arrived at the main impromptu gate to Loliondo. Like a teenager waiting to enter a punk rock music festival, a sense of giddiness and electrified curiosity

came over me. I’d read the reports in the local papers from weeks earlier: Thousands of sick people waiting for Babu. No water, no sanitation, no accommodations. A humanitarian crisis looming, it seemed. Bodies of those who couldn’t make it occasionally littering the path, they said. Yet despite stories of the decrepit conditions of the area itself, the stories of ‘miracles’ that Babu and his secret potion was responsible for spread like a wildfire across East Africa – of people who were

Photography | jonathan kalan

cured, healed and set free from cursed spells. The idea of a medicine man is not uncommon in this part of Africa. These traditional healers can be found in nearly every village, and in many cases they are the first medical line of defence in rural areas. Most people will see their local healer with an ailment long before they make a one-, two-, or even five-hour trek to a medical professional. ‘Miracle healers’ like Babu, however, are a little less frequently spotted. As we arrived at the main gate, it only took a small bribe, the result of a passport mistakenly left at a guesthouse in Arusha (who knew you needed a passport when you weren’t crossing borders?), and we were in. Our Land Cruiser crept up the hill, and we could see the line of cars snaking down the path. There were pop-up tents everywhere. An entire town, it seemed, built from nothing more than blue tarps and sticks. Not until much later, walking up the path towards Babu’s compound, did we see any permanent structures. While most of our fellow passengers passed out on an open a blue tarp Turn to P118

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Pilgrimage to Loliondo

From P117

immediately after our arrival, the three of us set off to explore the area in the wee hours before dawn, talking to locals of the new pop-up tent city that resembles what I pictured parts of Haiti seem like – complete with mangy street dogs and all. It cost 500 shillings to go to the bathroom (a hole in the ground with a tarp around it). If you chose the seemingly more sanitary option, a bush, a Maasai tribesman would kindly round you up and point you the other way: To pay, of course. We met Alfons, a village council member with good English who now runs one of the most high-tech tents in the town – it has a generator, multiple phone chargers and a TV that blares Bongo-flava DVDs from 6:00 in the morning onward. Rehema, a woman who was at least a few sheets to the wind from Konyagi, Tanzania’s finest (and cheapest) gin mixture, served in double-shot plastic packets, came all the way from Dar es Salaam to see Babu because of a headache she had for two weeks. Her mother-in-law came with her son from Germany, and her grandma came with heart trouble (and a massive obesity problem, Rehema joked). Transient As dawn approached, small fires began stirring in the lanes between the cars and tents, filling the air with an aroma of milk tea and greasy chapati bread. Wake-up time was the moment Alfons cranked on the television – sleep was again futile in the midst of the blaring music videos.

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We had already been up for 24 hours, and had spent the last two days on buses to get to Arusha, but the Red Bull was doing its best. If the Cup of Babu could do anything close, I would be quite impressed. The transient city awoke slowly, and people began trickling out of buses, Land Cruisers, tents and bushes and into the small food stalls. As the light dawned on Loliondo, the situation was much better than I had imagined. Trash littered the dirt road, haphazardly constructed tents precariously balanced on one another, but there were

no dead bodies, no open defecation, and plenty of food and water for an entire army. The line of cars, trucks, and buses stretched perhaps only 300-400 deep, carrying no more than 3,500 people. At 8:00am, Babu himself was scheduled to speak to the crowd in front of his compound. We anxiously made our way up the hill, as he began preaching the powers of his medicine, and the restrictions of its use – most importantly don’t take it off the compound, because it won’t work, and if

Photography | jonathan kalan

you’re a witchdoctor, it won’t do anything for you. It might even kill you, actually, if you are a witchdoctor . . . Halfway through his quite un-compelling speech, I found myself pulled out of the crowd and hassled by yet another Immigration offer. This time, I got away without a bribe, after I assured him I was simply, cough, a “Christian from America seeking to drink from Babu’s cup of miracles”. I was, absolutely, not a journalist. Wink . . . After his rather unmoving speech, we were ready for our holy grail – our cup of miracles, our magic cure, our . . . whatever you wish to call it. I was stunned, in fact, completely shocked, when we were all instructed back

More than anything, however, I just couldn’t get my head around the whole endeavour”

to our cars, and told that we would simply drive through the compound and receive our drink by Babu’s servants, in the uncomfort of our vehicles. Wait, seriously?!? Not even McDonalds’ playbook could hold something so brilliant and divine. A drive-through-cure of all your ailments, served in red, green, blue and yellow plastic cups . . . In less than an hour, our Land Cruiser rolled into the compound. Multi-colored cups of an opaque greenish liquid were thrust into our windows, and we were ordered to drink. I waited patiently as we passed the cups to the families in the back seat, until I received mine. Without hesitation, I downed the sucker, which left an earthy, almost minty aftertaste in my mouth. And then it was all over. We returned the cups, and drove off, back another seven grueling hours to Arusha. I felt kind of used. Did it do anything? Well, I felt a little

light-headed. But my guess is that this was from the lack of sleep. More than anything, however, I just couldn’t get my head around the whole endeavour. I understand the power of faith, I do have a belief in traditional medicine, and can see why, when faced with little alternatives in a failed health system, that people would seek this miracle cure from all over East Africa. But, I mean, a drive-thru? I didn’t expect anything glamorous, and didn’t expect the concoction to work (although, as everyone pointed out, of course it didn’t work because I didn’t have ‘faith’ in it), but I expected something a little more . . . inspiring? Oh well. It was certainly worth the adventure. And if the Government of Tanzania declared it ‘non-toxic and safe for use’, well, what did I have to lose? Aside from, perhaps, my already dwindling faith in certain governments.

Jonathan Kalan is an internationally published photojournalist, journalist and blogger specializing in the intersections of business, innovation and social development in emerging markets. In just 24 years he has traveled to over 35 countries, worked in South Asia and Africa, and collaborated with NGO’s, social enterprises, technology start ups, and media companies. His work has appeared in The Guardian, Financial Times, Boston Globe, GlobalPost, The Huffington Post, The Star (Kenya), Stanford Social Innovation Review, Destination Magazine EA, How We Made It In Africa, The Christian Science Monitor, On The Ground (New York Times blog), and many others. He was a Finalist for the 2011 Diageo Africa Business Reporting Awards. Jonathan is currently based in Nairobi, Kenya, freelancing and documenting stories of social enterprises, entrepreneurs, and innovations for The (BoP) Project.

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