Reject Online Issue 71

ISSUE 071 October 16-31, 2012

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

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October 16-31, 2012

ISSUE 071

A bimonthly newspaper by the Media Diversity Centre, a project of African Woman and Child Feature Service

Burden of hopelessness

The International Day of the Rural Woman is marked every October 15.

While the rural women form the backbone of the Kenyan economy, they face challenges and their contribution to the economy are not enumerated. Joyce Chimbi gives an analysis of why we need to celebrate the rural woman As the world marks another calendar year in honour of the rural woman, for most women in Kenya, life has not gotten any easier.

Even as we marked the International Day of Rural Woman on October 15, rural women still have access to limited or no access to life’s opportunities for better health, economic autonomy and even leadership.

Choices

Even the ability to exercise the right to decide the number of children they want to have and or space births remains beyond their reach.

“Rural women face the same limited choices as most women but their situation is aggravated by the fact that they lack of entry into economic and social opportunities. A rural woman is likely to marry early, have limited or no access to any form of education and so likely to have a lot of pregnancies - planned and unplanned,” explains Funmi BalogunAlexander, Director External Relations and Advocacy, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), Africa

Regional office, Nairobi.

Balogun observes: “While traditionally high numbers of children have been desired to drive rural agriculture, it From top: An aged rural woman inside her hut in is no longer a motivation.

North Eastern. A woman draws water from the river What we have is limited with her baby clutched on her back. An IDP woman land or unproductive land because of the pres- carries firewood to the camps. All these three women sure of population, lack depict the challenges being faced by women in the of skills to improve and rural areas. Pictures: Reject Correspondent generate enough produce to transform rural ity such as Nairobi and Central ary and higher edueconomies, and increasProvince regions have the low- cation, the unmet ing poverty.” need drops to 17 per Married women in Kenyan est needs for contraceptive.

“Among those women who cent. continue to experience a signifiWhere a woman is cantly high unmet need for con- are both married and illiterate, traceptive, with more women in the unmet need for contracep- married, uneducated rural than urban areas being af- tive remains higher,” explains and poor, her ability Tabitha Njoroge, a nurse in to access contraceptives is sigfected. nificantly restricted, a trend that Nakuru.

According to the KDHS can be attributed to a number of The most recent Kenya report “married women with reasons.

Health and Demography Sur- incomplete primary educavey (KDHS), a largely com- tion have the highest unmet Unlike women in urban prehensive survey in relation need for family planning at 33 to the population and health per cent, compared with those areas, a good number of rural of Kenyan households, shows with completed primary edu- women do not demand for family planning. It is in rural areas that women in Nyanza and cation at 27 per cent”. the Rift Valley region have the As the level of education where myths and misconcephighest unmet needs for con- increases, unmet need for con- tions around family planning traceptive. traceptive decreases. Among are most rampant.

Urban areas and its vicin- married women with secondContinued on page 5

Statistics

Needs

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ISSUE 071, October 16-31, 2012

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Cow dung to the rescue as a mosquito repellant

By ARAKA MATARA Necessity is the mother of invention, goes the saying as the so-called green revolution in Small Dairy Commercialization Programme in Kisii county can attest to.

In the programme, farmers have coined the phrase “Green Revolution” from the dairy cows’ by-products, urine and dung used as manure for the ever green fodder growing.

However, more striking is the appropriate technology in the industry that is harnessed to generate bio-gas for domestic cooking and lighting.

To produce the relatively heavy but inflammable bio-gas, dung and urine from the diary animals are the core raw materials whose other uses in the gas manufacturing chain produce other by-products.

Sludge

Slurry is one of the main by-products that are in fact being used as a mosquito repellant.

The slurry or sludge is solid cow dung after treatment works during the production of the bio-gas that ends up in the expansion chamber of the plant. It is later released for use as farm manure.

What is intriguing is that the sludge repels mosquitoes instead together with any other flying insects trying to settle on it.

If used as manure at the nearby kitchen garden, its effects are equally the same especially when local chicken help in spreading it through regular overturning as they search for maggots and other insects to feed on.

Officials of Nyabondo / Bogeka Women’s Group in Mosocho division, Kisii Central District, who are keeping dairy animals, confirmed that if the bio-gas expansion chamber is located near the house, nights are free of mosquito bites, perhaps due to the repellant mechanism of the sludge.

Grace Kwamboka, chairlady of the group suggested that further research should be conducted on the sludge with a view to developing a mosquito repellant for local use.

“Anything that keeps away mosquitoes will be embraced by the local community,” she said adding that “available conventional repellants were beyond their reach besides being irregular in supply in the area”.

According Mzee Oroo Nyakora, traditionally during funeral vigils in the boma, dry cow dung was used as fuel to keep mourners warm and keep

off mosquitoes which could be a nuisance.

“Unfortunately, the idea seems to have become moribund for decades if not generations as more effective methods of malaria interventions were being put in place,” notes Nyakora. Development partners including Merlin, ministries of Health organizations engaged in the fight against malaria working in the Gusii region will be keen on giving assistance as one way of fighting fatal disease.

Currently, ongoing malaria prevention and control interventions include use of long lasting Insecticide Treated Nets to protect the residents at night from malaria causing mosquitoes.

Intervention

An outlet on the expansion chamber built to release the slurry (sludge) after treatment. Below: Expansion chamber for cow dung and urine in Zero grazing dairy farming. The sludge is being used as mosquito repellent.

Pictures: Araka Matara

According to health experts, expectant women and children below the age of five years are more vulnerable to malaria and it is highly recommended that they sleep under nets.

Another intervention adopted at the community level is destruction of containers around residential houses collecting stagnant rain water, drain-

age pools and open drains which harbour mosquitoes.

Spreading recommended insecticides or oil on pounds and swampy areas was initially encouraged to eradicate mosquito larvae although envi-

ronmentalists cautioned that it could interfere with the ecosystem.

Trained community health workers with protective gear visit homes and carry out Indoor Residual Spraying geared towards killing mosquitoes.

Suspicion rife ahead of the elections

By FAITH MUIRURI The date March 4, 2013 offers another exciting opportunity for Kenyans to exercise their democratic rights by casting their votes.

However, for Pastor Sammy Mbugua, it is a cause for worry since most political contests in the country have culminated in violence, leaving behind a trail of deaths and destruction of property.

Most notably, the disputed 2007 presidential elections led to two months of widespread violence during which about 1,200 Kenyans died and 350,000 were internally displaced.

These two months also dispelled the longstanding image of Kenya as a bastion of stability in a regional sea of volatility.

Pastor Mbugua who is currently engaged in peace initiatives under the Shalom Relief Organisation in Uasin Gishu County says that suspicion still remains rife in hotspot areas as communities rush to lay their stake ahead of the elections.

The cleric cites unresolved historical injustices among factors that are likely to revolt into conflict ahead of the elections. He says that the warring communities have continued to grapple with the question of land injustices, inequitable distribution of resources and devolution.

Gaps

“At the moment, devolution presents a major challenge with dominant communities insisting that they will not allow minorities to vie for leadership positions,” he explained during a National Conference on peaceful elections held at the Bomas of Kenya recently.

He said that although leaders in Nakuru County have agreed to share positions amongst all ethnic communities represented in the area, their counterparts in Uasin Gishu County are still engrained in political posturing with clear indications to lock out minority tribes.

He further says that the Government has not been very keen on peace initiatives at the grassroots level and has concentrated mainly

on conflict management and failed to incorporate a scenario where they ensure people live harmoniously.

“People have not integrated well,” he says adding that perpetrators of many crimes committed during the 2007 Post Election Violence (PEV) have not been brought to account.

Indeed, a recent Human Rights Watch report indicated that only two convictions have resulted from the more than 1,000 killings committed during the PEV. He says the resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) has been characterised by corruption and a general lack of transparency.

He says the Kalenjin community feels that the exercise only favoured their rivals while they were left out in compensation packages because they had been integrated in the community.

Conflict triggers

“There is feeling that the government has imported IDPs from outside the County to come and occupy their farms,” he reveals adding that much more work and support for victims is needed as many of the IDPs remain in temporary camps.

The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) interventions are also bound to trigger conflict in the area. Two of the four Kenyans charged

with responsibility for the PEV are presidential aspirants and come from ethnic groups that have dominated this highest office — Uhuru Kenyatta, Deputy Prime Minister and son of Kenya’s first President, and a former Cabinet minister, William Ruto.

Pastor Mbugua says that the ICC’s intervention has become highly politicised, with some local leaders terming the prosecutions as attacks on their own communities, and attempts to eliminate specific candidates from the presidential election.

“These seeds of discontent, if not carefully managed, could erupt into violence,” he explains.

Insecurity, he notes, also presents a challenge. “Some prominent people in the County have been victims of criminal attacks with some being killed in what police have termed as acts of thuggery but which in some quotas have taken an ethnic inclination.”

Mbugua has weathered many storms that have inspired his zeal for peace. He recounts that in 1992 he was uprooted from his farm just two months before the elections. “I lost everything during the 1992 land clashes in Rift Valley. Our houses were burnt and property destroyed,” he says.

During the 2007, Mbugua was lucky that he had relocated to Huruma Estate in Eldoret

“Some prominent people in the County have been victims of criminal attacks with some being killed in what police have termed as acts of thuggery but which in some quotas have taken an ethnic inclination.”

— Pastor Sammy Mbugua, Shalom Relief Organisation

East Constituency when the violence erupted.

“I was, however, forced to seek refuge at the nearby police station until calm was restored in the area.”

The peace crusader says that all his relatives who were residing in Ng’arua Forest lost everything during the violence.

“They were rendered homeless after their houses were flattened at the height of skirmishes,” he adds.

Moved by their plight, he started mobilising resources from well wishers to help people who had been ejected from their farms.

Breakthrough

“I found myself offering psychosocial support to people who had lost their relatives and children missing as they fled from the volatile area.

This served as a platform to hone my skills as a peace crusader, which culminated in the formation of peace committees.

“The counselling sessions served as my stepping stone and I played a critical role in the formation of peace committees which helped to end hostilities in the area,” he explains.

Under the peace committees, the affected people were urged to forget the past, forgive their neighbours and soldier on.

He was also instrumental to the formation of Kalenjin Council of Elders chaired by Major John Seii and the Kikuyu Elders for Peace Initiative led by Albert Githuka which helped to reconcile the warring communities.

Mbugua also played a pertinent role in prevailing upon the residents to go back to their farms during the government sponsored “Operation Rudi Nyumbani” in 2008.

“With support from IOM, USAid and Red Cross we encouraged people to go back to their farms. This led to secession of hostilities and people eventually started interacting and agreed to go back to their farms despite earlier resistant.

He currently seats as a member of the County Peace Committee.

ISSUE 071 October 16-31, 2012

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Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Levi Lumumba: Kiswahili teacher behind the success in Nyanza schools

By RICKY OKWAYO When Levi Lumumba Amwai was forced to drop mathematics for Kiswahili in 1981, little did he know that the language would turn him into an icon.

It was a painful decision when he was prevailed upon by his teacher during his ‘A’ levels to abandon Mathematics and take up Kiswahili at Uasin Gishu High School in Eldoret.

In his ‘A’ levels, Amwai was to do Mathematics, Geography and Economics, but his deputy principal, a Mr. Wanyonyi, upon looking at his results, refused and decided that he must change to Kiswahili, Geography and Economics.

From high school, Amwai then joined Kagumo Teachers’ Training College. After graduating in 1988, Amwai emerged tops leading his colleagues by being the best Kiswahili student before he was posted to teach in rural Nyanza.

Twenty-three years down the line, Amwai has remained one of the main pillars behind improvement of Kiswahili in schools in Nyanza Province.

As one of the leading Kiswahili teachers in the region, Amwai has been criss-crossing the province to give lectures and set internal mock examinations for top secondary schools ahead of national examinations.

Maranda

Among the top schools he frequents to give lectures include Maranda which emerged the best nationally in Kiswahili language 2010, St Mary’s Yala and Ngiy’a Girls’.

Principals of top schools in the province have been engaging his services every year owing to the positive results posted by their schools in Kiswahili annually in KCSE. In 2010, KCSE examination results finally crowned it all with Maranda High School in Bondo emerging the top in the Kiswahili subject in the country.

“My happiness is that Maranda has really improved to emerge the best in Kiswahili countrywide,” says Amwai. He says the Kiswahili results posted by Maranda were just the beginning and a sign of better things to come.

“Now that Maranda has put us on the map, we are going to surge forward in Kiswahili in Nyanza Province,” he says.

In 2010, Amwai popularly known as “Muswahili” among friends was in Maranda towards the third term where he set internal Kiswahili exams for the students in Form Four.

He was later to carry out the marking and follow it up with a six-hour talk to the students and to the Kiswahili teachers in the school.

“After marking the mocks exams for the school then I return for lectures or motivation

talks on the same,” he says.

He has over the years been carrying out the same system in other schools in Siaya County and parts of South Nyanza upon request by the respective principals.

The other schools that have sought his services include Sawagongo, Mbaga Girls, Ran’gala Girls, Ambira High and Barding all from Siaya County.

Other institutions that he visits every year before national exams are Mirogi Girls, Ulanda Girls and Dede Girls all in South Nyanza.

Bridging the gap

Late last year, Amwai was in Homa-Bay and Kisii high schools courtesy of invitation by World Link, an organisation headed by Edward Okinda, where he gave a much talked about lecture to over 500 teachers on how to help students approach and pass Kiswahili exams.

In what Amwai says is trying to bridge the Kiswahili gap in primary and secondary schools, he also gave talks to more than 100 primary school teachers at Boro and Pap Boro primary schools in Siaya District, last year. ”Time is coming when we must have a link and continuity of Kiswahili from primary to secondary schools so that it does not look like a foreign language when one moves to secondary school,” he notes.

Amwai says all these are done during holidays or weekends because he is a teacher and must also attend to his students and other duties.

He says the secret behind the lectures and pre-mock settings is to help candidates know how to approach Kiswahili papers during national examinations.

“The lectures target Form Four students to prepare them on techniques to pass exams and that is why we do it in third term,” he says.

Though he concentrates on all the three Kiswahili papers, he puts more emphasis in paper one which is the Insha (composition).

“Insha (composition) is where many students blunder and fail yet it is the heart of the Kiswahili language and that is where I am an expert,” he

Levi Lumumba displays his trophy and certificates of achievement. He is one of the leading Kiswahili teachers in the region. Pictures: Ricky Okwayo observes.

Amwai remembers with nostalgia how at Kagumo Teachers’ Training College he had developed a “funny” liking for the Kiswahili language under the mentorship of his lecturer Gichohi Waihenya.

“Hapo ndio Kiswahili changu kilibobea” (This is where my Kiswahili skills developed,” he explains.

He says the lecturer was powerful in Isimu Ya Lugha (science of language) adding: “The Kiswahili language is very technical and it is those technicalities that he fed me with.”

Amwai says he must have inherited his Kiswahili prowess from the lecturer and he has been making serious follow-ups and carrying out his own analysis on the language on different sentence formation and structures.

In Kiswahili, he says, words are arranged systematically starting with the noun followed by an adverb.

Excelling

Amwai says there are eight parts of speech in Kiswahili which a student must master in order to excel in the language and pass examinations with the main parts being Nomino (Noun) and Kivumushi (Pro-noun).

Other parts of speech are the foundation of the Kiswahili language and all students must know how to place them in a statement. These include kiwakilishi, kitenzi, kielezi, kiunganishi, kihusishi and kihisishi.

He warns that any Kiswahili statement that does not follow that order is considered poetry and a student will always lose marks.

After graduation Amwai was posted directly to Mbaga Girl’ School in Siaya in 1988 where he taught for 22 years. While there, he started with students who were poor in Kiswahili, a majority

“My happiness is that Maranda has really improved to emerge the best in Kiswahili countrywide.”

— Levi Amwai

of who had a poor background of the language as if they were learning it the first time.

What amused Amwai was that the school had no official teacher for Kiswahili and that any teacher posted to the school and happened to have been brought up in Nairobi or Mombasa would be requested or prevailed upon by the principal to teach Kiswahili.

He found the mean score for Kiswahili for the school standing at slightly above 3.2 before he managed to develop a foundation where nearly all the students were endeared to the subject.

In 2000 Mbaga Girls’ School made history having turned into a Kiswahili power house recording a mean score of 9.22.

In the last decade, Mbaga Girls’ School became the best Kiswahili performing school in national exams and in last year’s KCSE it registered a mean score of 8.45.

Before Amwai was transferred from the school last year on promotion to become a deputy principal, Mbaga Girls had for the last decade ranked among Kiswahili giants in Nyanza with the main challengers being Maseno, Maranda, Sawagongo and Ng’iya.

Performance

It is because of the performance at Mbaga Girls’ School that other principals started identifying and approaching Amwai to help their students excel in the subject.

Amwai, who has since turned to be a consultant in Kiswahili, among leading schools and individual students during holidays. He has for the last 10 years been the evaluation committee chairman for Kiswahili in Siaya County that has been taking care of setting Kiswahili mock exams.

At Mbaga, he rose to become the Head of Department (HOD) for Kiswahili until last year when he was promoted to become the deputy principal of Nduru Mixed Secondary School, also in Siaya.

For the one year that he has taught Kiswahili at Nduru, a rural school in Alego, the mean score shot up from 2.875 and 3.5 in 2008 and 2009 respectively to a mean score of 5.00 in the last KCSE. Amwai has over the years won several trophies and awards for being among the best Kiswahili teacher both in Siaya County and Nyanza Province at large with most of the awards going to Mbaga Girls’ School where he taught for many years.

Teachers urged to take health matters seriously

By AGGREY BUCHUNJU A medical officer has urged teachers to take medical check-up as a matter of routine. Bungoma South District clinical officer, Dr Alex Masinde, who is a Tuberculosis (TB) as well as HIV and AIDs specialist said it was in the best interest of teachers to embrace the culture of going for regular and routine medical check-ups to avoid succumbing to preventable and treatable diseases.

Masinde was speaking at Kanduyi DEB Primary School in Bungoma during a workshop organised by Bungoma Teachers Burial and Benevolent Scheme to educate its members on the importance of medical

check-ups.

Masinde asked teachers not to fear but go for medical tests in order to detect diseases early enough so that they could be treated or be managed effectively. He named treatable and manageable diseases as HIV, TB, breast and prostate cancer, cardiac arrest and diabetes among others. He noted: “Such ailments can be managed and patients given a new lease of life if diagnosed early.”

At the same time, Masinde advised teachers to be wary of getting too close to strangers who could be carrying contagious diseases. ”I wish to also advise teachers to use gloves when

handling chemicals in the laboratories in their respective schools in order to avoid being harmed,” said Masinde.

The workshop was organised by Bungoma Teachers Burial and Benevolent Scheme to sensitise its members on the dangers of not knowing their health status.

The workshop was held shortly after four teachers had collapsed and died while on duty. “Recently four of our members collapsed and succumbed to diseases which, according to post-mortem reports, are preventable and treatable if diagnosed early,” said Oliver Sitati, the Scheme’s the chairman.

He noted that it was against this background that the

scheme found it necessary to conduct workshops for its 1,389 members and have them addressed by medical professionals as resource persons.

According to Rev Rodgers Wanyama, who is the Scheme’s treasurer, funerals had become very expensive and emphasised the need to reduce avoidable causes of deaths where possible.

Members who were present including Misiko Khaoya, a teacher at Nabichakha Primary School and Gellan Wavomba, KNUT Bungoma south branch deputy executive secretary lauded the initiative by the Benevolent Scheme saying it would enable teachers to live healthier and longer lives.

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ISSUE 071, October 16-31, 2012

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

A thankless agricultural sector that breaks the woman’s backbone

By JOYCE CHIMBI The life of a majority of rural women is marred by difficulties right from the beginning.

While statistics show that only five per cent of Kenyan household delegate water collection to children, unfortunately, a majority of these children are often young girls.

With at least 80 per cent of Kenyan rural women involved in farm labour, in both food and cash crop production, the contribution that they make to Kenya’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that is largely dependent on agriculture cannot be overemphasized.

In some African countries such as Tanzania, where according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) “98 per cent of the rural women defined as economically active are engaged in agriculture and produce a substantial share of the food crops for both household consumption and for export”.

Farming

In developing countries, at least half of all farmers are women. Yet, this critical role played by rural women is often unacknowledged, unpaid or poorly paid for.

This scenario is, however, not unique to Kenya, women across Africa heavily depend on agriculture and have made a tremendous contribution towards food security.

“But nobody really talks about women labourers, even when previously food insecure countries reduce the number of the hungry and starving, the role that rural women make is ignored,” explains Grace Gakii, a gender expert in Nairobi.

Indeed a significant number of African countries continue to make inroads in food production.

In Ghana for instance, the number of food insecure people has decreased from 34 per cent to eight per cent. Even in Ethiopia, the number of food insecure people has reduced from 5.2 to

3.2 million.

Rwanda’s agricultural sector has been growing at an average of 4.5 per cent, consequently contributing an estimated 36 per cent to the overall GDP. This means that Rwanda’s agricultural sector is ahead of its East African counterparts.

Trends

In Kenya, this sector contributes an estimated 24 per cent to the GDP, a trend that is replicated in Uganda A rural woman tills her maize farm. Below: A Pokot and Tanzania at 24 and 25 woman with one of her livestock. For these women per cent respectively. working in the farms is what they do every day with While countries rake billions of shillings in exlittle recognition. Pictures: Reject Correspondent port revenue from agricultural based products, a malitical seats, the rural woman’s hope of havjority of women account for the poorest of the poor in Africa, and especially ing a leadership that speaks to her needs is limited to the vote that she will hopefully in sub-Saharan Africa.

According to Rwanda’s Ministry of Agricul- cast.

Her counterpart who may have the ture and Animal Resources, the sector generates 45 per cent of export revenue. Two of Kenya’s academic qualifications may also have leading foreign currency earners are tea and cof- the dream of representing her community shattered due to the prohibitive fee fee.

In developing countries, at least half of all demanded by the Independent and Elecfarmers are women. However, the rural women toral Boundaries Commission (IEBC) who sustain the agricultural sector account for and the political parties.

Every woman interested in running more than half of the poor, a situation that imfor the women representative seat is repacts heavily on the choices they make in life.

“There is clearly need for African govern- quired to pay KSh250,000.

Still, bleak as the situation may apments to access the needs and challenges facing rural women, to ensure that they get a meaning- pear for the rural woman, perhaps this ful income from the agricultural sector,” Gakii year the Government will break from tradition and take this day as an opsays.

Even in the political arena, challenges abound. portunity to chart a way forward into With the Constitution demanding for a certain a better tomorrow, for millions of rural academic threshold for all those interested in po- women across Kenya’s 47 counties.

Only sustainable management can ease the burden of water

By Joyce Chimbi As the world marks the International Day for Rural Women on the 15th of October, it begs the question of just how far rural women have come in the long and winding journey to socio-economic empowerment.

According to the most recent Kenya Demographic and Health Survey, Kenyan women in rural areas, bear the burden of collecting drinking water. Adult women are six times more likely to fetch water than their male counterparts.

In nearly 49 per cent of Kenyan households, adult women are responsible for water collection.

These women rise at the crack of dawn, and spend the entire day on

their feet or bending to accomplish one chore or the other.

The challenges that they face are often insurmountable, but since a majority of women know nothing better, they take one day at a time. After all, their mothers led a similar lifestyle, and many others before them.

Economy

Yet, the contribution that these women make to the economy, not just in Kenya, but in rural areas across the world is significantly high.

According to Vision 2030, Kenya’s development blueprint, an estimated five million out of an estimated eight million households depend directly on agriculture and it these rural women, who

continue to make these statistics, a reality.

Unfortunately, despite the concerted efforts to improve the status of women across the country, there is yet to be seen a notable change.

A significant number of women and girls still spend their waking hours searching for water and firewood, particularly in the rural areas where a majority of Kenyans reside. According to USAID “women provide at least 80 per cent of farm labour and manage 40 per cent of smallholder farms in Kenya. However, they own only one per cent of agricultural land and receive only 10 per cent of credit”.

Besides water for household Continued on page 5

A rural woman balances a basin of water on her head in Benin. Women all over Africa continue to bear the burden of collecting water for domestic use from very far places. Picture: Reject Correspondent

ISSUE 071 October 16-31, 2012

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

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Rural woman challenged with lack of facilities Continued from page 1 “Some avoid family planning for fear of getting ‘cold’ or losing appetite for sexual intimacy,” says Joan Wasike, a nurse in Nairobi.

Gakii concurs with Wasike’s sentiments further adding that there is the ever powerful and all-knowing mother-in-law.

“In rural areas, mother-in-laws continue to influence the number of children to be born and even the spacing. They believe that a true African woman should keep bearing children until menopause,” Gakii expounds. Interestingly enough, unmarried women, even in rural areas enjoy higher percentages of met needs for contraceptives.

Commitment

KDHS reveals: “The overall percentage of demand that is satisfied is highest among unmarried women at 81 per cent, compared with married women at 64 per cent and all women at 66 per cent.”

With many African governments reflecting a lack of commitment to reproductive health, the state of most health facilities in rural areas is wanting.

“Rural women thus continue to have lots of pregnancies and children, putting themselves at risk of maternal mortality because of lack of access to health care as well as access to family planning and contraceptives,” says Balogun-Alexander.

Even beyond Kenya’s borders, this problem persists. Take Uganda for instance. “How can rural women in Uganda get access to reproductive health services if they do not have the basic medical facilities?” poses Dismas Nkunda, a member of the Reproductive Health Alliance Network of Africa (RHANA). He explains: “It is not of major importance to a government that considers security to be more important than anything else.”

Nkunda brings in a gender perspective to explain one of the root problems of poor health status of rural women in Uganda, Nkunda explains: “Graduated tax was levied on all males above 18 years to make them work hard. If you failed to pay it they would jail you but then the Government removed it and men no longer take ‘male’ responsibility of working hard, they just drink and while the day away.”

He adds: “This has seen women take more and more responsibilities as providers for the homes; they farm, cook, feed and even the little they earn is taken away by their drunken husbands.”

Indeed based on national budgetary allocations, security comes first in many African countries.

“Of course national security is key but so is the health of the people. Reproduction keeps a nation alive. So why revamp the security of a people whose health the government seems to care so little about?” Wasike poses.

In Kenya, the doctors’ strike, said to have been sparked by the poor state of public health that lasted a month is another indication of the status of health provision in public health facilities.

Public health facilities are often the only option for the vast and poor rural population. Consequently, although every woman has a right to decide the spacing of her children, this desire remains a dream for many rural women. Indeed many women, even those with limited or no education interviewed during the KDHS survey expressed a desire to exercise this right.

As levels of education remain intertwined with a woman’s ability to pursue options that are not only beneficial to her, but to her children, a significantly high number of women in rural areas are characterised by low and often incomplete education.

An estimated 45 per cent of women in urban areas have completed secondary education or higher, compared with only14 per cent of their counterparts in rural areas.

“Maternal mortality is high in rural areas because of a multiplicity of challenges and issues. For instance, girls have little education and that is the most single factor on maternal mortality and reproductive health,” observes Balogun-Alexander.

She expounds: “The more young women have education, the less likely they are to marry young, have too many pregnancies and improves their economic livelihoods.”

mother takes care of her child as is supported by government statistics.

An estimated 87 per cent of children whose mothers had at least some secondary education are fully vaccinated compared with 67 per cent of children whose mothers had no education. Mothers with no education are also more likely to have stunted children.

Although urban areas are experiencing an increment in male involvement in relation to the health, including reproductive health of women, the rural counterpart is still steeped in myths and misconceptions that consider such involvement unmanly. This is in spite of the fact that there are more educated men in rural areas, at least to certain levels, than there are women.

Further, more men than women in rural areas have access to information through both print and electronic media. According to KDHS: “Urban women have more access to all forms of mass media Education as the key to life is a motto that in compared with their rural counyears past was replicated in many public primary terparts; for example, only 16 per and secondary schools, underscoring the fact that cent of women in rural areas read the ability to read and write affords an individual a newspaper at least once a tremendous opportunities in life.

Week compared with 49 per With the proportion of illiterate women becent of women in urban areas. ing twice that of men, it is therefore to be ex“Although 69 per cent of women pected that mothers in rural areas are twice as in urban areas watch television at likely to deliver at home compared with those in least once a week, only 22 per cent urban areas. of those residing in rural areas do As the level of education increases, the proso.” portion of children born at home decreases.

Where both a man and woman Where both education and wealth increase, more are educated and have a steady inand more children are born in health facilities.

A rural woman carries firewood on her head as she come, the outcome is positive.

According to KDHS 84 per cent of children heads to look for water. Challenges continue to KDHS revealed that “education whose mothers have no education are born at strongly relates to desired family bedevil the rural woman. Picture: Reject Correspondent home, compared with 27 per cent of those whose size, with women and men with mothers have some secondary education. no education having the highest culture, she unfortunately gets very little in return.

The survey further shows that “similarly, chilmean ideal family size and those with secondary Often, this woman lives from hand to mouth, dren whose mothers had more antenatal care visor higher education having the lowest. Similarly, taking each day as it comes with little or no hope its during the pregnancy are less likely to deliver perceived ideal family size decreases steadily as for a brighter future. at home. The proportion of births that take place wealth of both women and men increases”.

According to Balogun-Alexander “economic at home is also substantially lower at 10 per cent It is clear that a myriad of challenges continue empowerment has to be complemented by social in Nairobi Province than in North Eastern Provto bedevil the rural woman. Though she continservices that are innovative and using rural womince at 81 per cent”. ues to give much to the economy in form of laen to distribute and provide reproductive health Education further factors, in how well a bour as is evident from the feminization of agriservices”.

She notes: “This can be achieved through using simple technology to reach women and girls in rural areas with information not just on their sexual and reproductive health but in improving their economic activities, provision of basic amenities, rural electrification, water and schools. This — Balogun-Alexander way rural economies will be transformed.”

Illiteracy

“The more young women have education, the less likely they are to marry young, have too many pregnancies and improves their economic livelihoods.”

Only sustainable management can ease the burden of water Continued from page 4 chores, women interact much more with water and the environment than their male counterpart. This was evident in a UN Habitat study that targeted both men and women that revealed that, unlike men, women identified water as a priority while men did not.

Knowledge

“Consequently, the contribution that rural women can make in the conservation of water and the environment is massive. Since they are the majority in farm labour, ignorance and lack of access to information has continually seen women farm as close to the river banks as is possible,” explains Mary Maritim, a farmer in Nakuru.

Still, men are often targeted for extensive services such as training workshops on proper farming, water and environment conservation techniques.

It is, therefore, a departure from this

norm at the Njoro River Water Association (NJOWRUA) about six kilometres away from Nakuru town, that both men and women are involved in a concerted effort to sustain water.

“The situation has greatly improved. When, we stand very close to Njoro River, you can hardly hear me speak due to the force of the water beating against the rocks, but it wasn’t always like this,” says Maritim, also a member of NJOWRUA. Maritim says that there are months when the river ran dry in the past.

Their coming together in 2009 has significantly improved the environment around the area.

The sub-chief of Ingobor sub-location, Asha Yegon, though not a member of the association attests to the benefits that have accrued in having women join hands with men in an effort to conserve the environment.

“In the past, if you had come here in January or September, you would have

been very surprised. It used to be very dry. But due to the efforts that this association has made, there are now more trees, and the river banks are well managed,” she says.

Both local and international water organizations have continued to affirm support for integrated water resource management.

Gender parity

“The Water Resource Management Authority (WRMA) has four guiding principles integrated in all their efforts to provide sustainable solutions to water resource management. One of them is the acknowledgement that women’s participation is critical to our objectives,” explains Engineer Wangai Ndirangu.

Wangai notes that since women interact more with water than men, it is important that they are not only involved in water management but informed on the principles of sustainable

water management.

“It is important to ensure that technology relating to water use, access and management be gender friendly.

Whether we are talking about water pumping or irrigation methods, they should be easy to handle for both men and women,” he adds.

However, Wangai is quick to point out that women’s involvement should not be limited to provision of labour but should extend to making executive decisions in boardrooms.

According to Alex Cheruyoit, chairman of NJWORUA, the association is constituted by 80 per cent of women.

Unlike many other such organisations where women labour while men make all the decision, at NJOWRUA, whether by intention or default, women too have penetrated managerial positions and the person in charge of finances is indeed a woman.

Both men and women interact with water at different levels and to meet

very distinct needs. This is keeping with culture, traditions and the subsequent gender roles.

Women’s role in relation to water is often linked to their reproductive roles, particularly in rural areas; here, they ensure there is enough water to cook, drink, bath as well as for the livestock.

Men are often concerned with water needs outside their homestead. They oversee irrigation and in most cases, watering large herds of cattle or other livestock.

Nonetheless, whatever distinct needs that may exist, the fact remains that both gender require water, and that water is finite, we cannot increase it but we can decrease it through poor management.

It is for this reason that both men and women should be involved, at all levels, from the grassroots to the boardrooms, in conserving the life sustaining resource.

6

ISSUE 071, October 16-31, 2012

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Shame that is Kipchoge Keino Stadium Kitui gears up for mineral exploitation

By WILSON ROTICH It was named after legendary four-time Olympic medallist who is now the executive official of the International Olympics Council (IOC). However, its shape is no longer simultaneous to the glory of the person it was named after.

Today the Kipchoge Keino Kapsabet Stadium which was built in 1958 by the colonial government is a shadow of itself. It has seen no renovation for decades and is now shabby and hazardous. Its perimeter wall has collapsed endangering all sporting activities of budding athletes.

The outside and inside of the stadium is littered with rubbish which has found its way into the gutters, leading to flooding when there is a heavy downpour.

As the curtains closed on the London Olympic Games in August, many Kenyans, especially residents of Uasin Gishu County, who for many years had come to assume that it is their birth right to win gold medals in Olympics track and field events, felt disappointed. Many pointed fingers on inadequate preparation among other reasons.

Ezekiel Kemboi who gave Kenya the first gold medal in the London Olympics surprised many by sneaking into the country a day after bagging the medal. When the press caught up with him while attending to his private businesses in the streets of Eldoret town, Kemboi said he was happy with his performance.

Repair

However, the 3,000 meters steeple chase Olympics champion said: “The Government should repair the fallen Kapsabet Stadium and put up more stadia to ensure that young and upcoming athletes get good fields to prepare for the next Olympic games.”

Others who have expressed disappointment include Charles Lagat, leader of the Kapsabet United soccer Team. He is disgusted to point out that the sports arena has become an unkempt picnic site of sorts.

“This field deserves to be reconstructed. In the evening you will find couples here and if you walk around field, you will most likely fund used condoms,” says Lagat. He notes: “We are appealing to our leaders to build the walls of this stadium.

Some 15 to 20 years ago we used to collect a fee from the fans when we had games. We no longer do that because the walls are have fallen down and fans follow the games freely.”

Others who expressed concern include Joseph Manjoy Lagat, a resident of Nandi County, who for many years was the Managing Director of the Eastern Produce Kenya Limited (EPK). Manjoy says that the stadium is an eyesore and needs to be rehabilitated urgently to avert the situation since it is a well known sports arena internationally.

Says Manjoy: “This field has been neglected.

The stadium is now crowded with cattle, practicing athletes, motorcyclists and even idlers. It is even a training field for those learning to drive motorbikes and motor vehicles.”

He reiterates: “Globally, people from Nandi County are famous in athletics and yet the Nandi athletes are now travelling to Iten in Elgeyo Marakwet County to look for good training fields.”

Fault

Manjoy who is eyeing the Nandi County governorship blames elected local leaders for the sorry state of the stadium. “I want to urge the people of Nandi County to help build this stadium because it will bring us visitors and our businesses will flourish,” Manjoy said. He urged: “I am appealing to the elected leaders to assist in managing the stadium well. We had raised a lot of funds for the construction of this stadium but it has not been used for the intended purpose.”

Recent attempts by local councillors to relocate it to the Nandi Agricultural Showground due to inadequate acreage has evoked nostalgic feelings of the local community.

Barnabus Korir, chairman of the Kolaso Sports

By BONIFACE MULU

Association and an athletics coach exonerated Athletics Kenya from blame.

“According to me Athletics Kenya has tried its best. It had offered to construct the stadium in Eldoret but the process was politicised by the local leaders and donors withdrew,” observes Korir.

He adds: “The president of Athletics Kenya has tried but bad politics is to blame. There is goodwill that comes from The dilapidated Kipchoge Keino Kapsabet Stadium VIP Dias that is the Government not living to the name of the great athlete it has been named after. through the Ministry Pictures: Wilson Rotich of Sports but there is poor management at famous athletes have gone through this training the grassroots.” field and they are also wondering why the field Some of the upcoming athletes who train in is in this pathetic state. Leaders of Nandi County the stadium have complained over lack of basic must construct this stadium because it is the pride amenities. Felix Kipkoech, 21, says the arena has of this county.” favourable climate but has poor sanitation. “We do The stadium that is closer to the hearts of not have washrooms and the sewer pipes are exmany international athletes has surprisingly beposed. We do not have changing rooms. We usucome a den of petty thieves. It has not an iota ally come with a person to guard our clothes,” says of security. The athletes train there at their own Kipkoech. risk.

He says: “The stadium has been used as a political pawn by politicians who make promises of constructing the stadium but have never honAugustine Lagat, 18, is a determined young oured their word.” athlete. He says: “We come with running kits to practice here. We do not have changing rooms. If you change and leave your clothes lying around The abandoned stadium has become a grazing they could be stolen because there is no designated field for cows and donkeys. Franklin Kemei says: entrance or exit.”

“The field is no longer safe for training because Lagat adds: “When we practice, we need water it lacks basic facilities. It lacks a parking space but the stadium lacks clean drinking water. There for the athletes. Many have suffered when their is also poor drainage system. During rainy seasons clothes and shoes are stolen. It is not proper for floods prevent us from training.” an athlete to be distracted by cows because they Voices of Kapsabet athletes are echoing apcan cause injuries.” pealing for the Kapsabet Municipal Council to Kemei says: “It has also become a social bush give the legendary Stadium the face it deserves. for lovers. This is because of poor leadership. Most Kapsabet mayor Michael Rono says they had plans to either expand the stadium or move it to the Nandi Agricultural Showground. The Kapsabet Municipal Council and Nandi County Council had earlier agreed to move the six-acre stadium as it does not meet the standard acreage requirement of eight acres.

Rono says if the later happens, the abandoned site will also be developed. But until that happens, the upcoming athletes will continue suffering and practicing without the required amenities.

This stadium has trained world class athletes including Kipchoge Keino, Emgwen MP Elijah Lagat, Sammy Kosgey, Ibrahim Hussein, Wilfred Bungei, Janet Jepkosgey and Pamela Jelimo among many others.

— Felix Kipkoech

Security

Grazing field

“The stadium has been used as a political pawn by politicians who make promises of constructing the stadium but have never honoured their word.”

Kitui County is billed as one of the richest counties in the country due to its unexploited mineral resources.

The County is said to have huge amounts of coal, iron ore and limestone which have not been exploited. According to Brain Mutie, Olive Leaf Foundation (OLF)-Kenya’s capacity building and advocacy officer in charge of the Kitui County, the region will be ranked somewhere between number one and four in wealth in Kenya when the mining starts.

“Mineral resources in Kitui are a forgotten myth,” Mutie said. He added: “OLF is consolidating its efforts towards better management of land and mineral resources in the County.”

He was speaking when he officially launched the OLFs Changia Rasli Mali Project in at a ceremony held in Mutomo town.

Intervention

The project’s goal is to educate, empower and intervene on behalf of the community on matters of coal, iron ore and limestone in Kitui County.

Mutie said that the mining projects will soon be started by various companies. The OLF was in the region to sensitise the people about the minerals.

“To conserve the mineral resources, let the community participate. We want people to get involved in the issues concerning these minerals,” said Mutie.

He added: “Every stakeholder’s view on the issue is very important because information is wealth and crucial,” Mutie, who was accompanied by the Olive Leaf Foundation-Kenya Programmes Manager Julie Thumbi said that mining in Kitui County was a multi-billion project.

According to Thumbi, the Changia Rasli Mali Project will be in Kitui County for 18 months. Olive Leaf Foundation is promoting the participation and building the capacity of the community based organizations in the County.

Utilization

“The Olive Leaf Foundation’s Changia Rasli Mali Project goal is to promote the participation of the CBOs to advocate for better management and sustainable utilization of mineral resources in the Kitui County,” said Thumbi.

The main actors are National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), Kitui Catholic Diocese, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Northern Kenya, media, donors, policy makers, GTZ and companies in the private sector that do mining among others.

Thumbi announced that the Foundation) will do workshops in various parts of Kitui County to educate the local people on minerals in the area.

According to Leonard J. Syengo, Mutomo District Cooperatives Officer residents of Mathima Location, Mutha Division in Mutomo District had started a SACCO known as the Mathima Natural Resources Savings and Credit Cooperative Society Limited because the location has plenty of limestone .

The function was addressed by Lunalo and the Akamba Council of Elders chairman David N. Mutisya among others.

ISSUE 071 October 16-31, 2012

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

7

Labelling of HIV positive children in Tanzania greeted with anger

By ROSE JAPHET Children who are HIV positive in Tanzania are finding it difficult to operate in the school system due to the stigma and discrimination levelled against them.

Recently, young children lamented at how they are being treated by fellow students and teachers in school.

“There are times especially during the extracurricular activities, when other pupils refuse to play with us. My friends usually refuse me to join their team because they will lose,” said one of the girls.

Teachers seem to be at a loss on what to do. “We don’t have a policy at school but parents demand we put a piece of red cloth on the shoulders and collar for their sick children,” said acting head teacher at Mwambisi Primary School in Coast region.

A couple of months ago, media carried stories of how in Kibaha District, pupils suspected to be living with HIV had marks on their schools uniforms for easy identification by their teachers and fellow pupils so that they could be excused from severe punishment and heavy duties.

Red tags

This involved labelling primary school pupils’ uniforms with a red tag on their shoulders. It said that the pupils subjected to this practice are those who have health problems caused by the virus or other conditions.

“It was alleged that the main reason for doing this was to protect them (pupils) from harm and in any case if they encountered problems it would

be easy to be identified for help or support,” said an official of National Council for People Living with HIV/AIDS (NACOPHA) which has condemned the practice.

Denial

But the teachers, while defending the practice, said that labelling was demanded by parents who wanted their children to be branded so that they can be identified by other students and their teachers as sick. This would ensure they received tender care.

“So far, there are no complaints from parents about labelling because they are the ones who wanted their children to be labelled. This labelling has been quite helpfully in identifying children with health problems,” said an Education Coordinator in Kongowe Ward, Coast region.

According to a 2011 assessment report HIV prevalence in Tanzania stands at 5.7 per cent among people aged 15-49 years. The prevalence rate is six per cent among men compared to 6.6 per cent in women of this age group.

The Government has come out to strongly deny sanctioning this practice. “We as a government in this region have not issued any directive to discriminate children with HIV or any other health problem in such a manner. I talked to teachers of the said schools and they told me that they are responding to parents demand,” says Mwantumu Mahiza, a Regional Commissioner for Coast region.

In an interview with NACOPHA officials during

Children used to pose as those living with HIV in Tanzania who are being marked with red to show that they are infected. Picture: Reject Correspondent their tour in the region, teachers admitted that the practice has been around for a long time but they have not been instructed by any higher authority to do it.

Revelation

According to Vitalis Makayula, NACOPHA Chairman, their findings revealed that the practice was prevalent in other parts of Tanzania as well.

The regions confirmed to have the same practice included Iringa, Tanga, Mara, Kigoma, Mwanza and Mtwara regions.

“The Council is deeply saddened by these practices which violate human rights for people living with HIV as stipulated in the Constitution, policies, laws, and international protocols on human rights and which Tanzania has ratified,’’ said Makayula.

Pupils interviewed showed sympathy to fel-

Jiggers make life unbearable in Meru

By MARTIN MURITHI

For 80-year old Joyce Riungu, jiggers are the worst things in the world. They first infested her 2005 and ever since life has never been the same again.

Riungu is among hundreds of victims of the menace which has left her suffering from elephantiasis.

A mother of six, Riungu laments that the menace has reduced her to be a mere beggar and rendered her helpless in attending to her daily chores.

Riungu is also superstitious and believes that her swollen legs were as a result of sorcery acts and explains that in 1948 when she was a young girl a big snake crossed over her legs and inflicted several cuts with its scales.

“I have lived with this condition, but by life changed for the worse when I was infested with the fleas,” says Riungu.

Statistics

Her nights have been an ordeal and she can barely walk without resting due to the weight and discomfort caused by the insects inside her legs.

Riungu is not the only one suffering from this problem. Two of her neighbours in the village died last year due to problems manifested by the jiggers but which can be eradicated.

During a recent anti-jiggers campaign in Meru by Ahadi Trust, Pauline Kinja, said more than 1,000 residents in the area are in need of assistance. “More than 1,000 people are infested with the jiggers and only few people show up to the curative functions due to stigma and shame,”

low students who had labels. One pupil said: “We don’t discriminate any pupil with labels, they play with us, but we don’t allow them stay long on the pitch.”

According to Pastor James Mlali labelling is a form of gender violence especially to mothers and their children adding that morally it is not good.

Commenting on the issue, a retired commissioner for Tanzania Commission of Aids, Joan Chamungu said labelling is not proper and fair.

“With almost 30 years of the HIV pandemic in Tanzania, why label our children in such a way?” posed Chamungu. She added: “We need to work hard to remove this stigma and discrimination.”

Joseph Kato, the first Tanzanian to go public about his HIV status in the early 1990s, says: “I don’t see the logic of labelling pupils in their different levels of education. This is retrogressive.”

Children risk dropping out of school due to jigger infestation

By FELIX WANDERI

Residents have their feet treated from jiggers. Poverty has been a contributing factor to the spread of poverty. Picture: Martin Murithi noted Kinja.

According to Dr Stanley Kamau, chief executive officer Ahadi Trust, political and other leaders in Eastern Province need to shun their pride and fear of shame and participate in Anti-Jigger campaigns to save the lives of more than 200,000 people who are infested with the fleas.

“The leaders are embarrassed and have got more stigma than the affected people. They feel shameful talking about the issue in the region,” noted Kamau.

He said no comprehensive study has been done to know how many people in Kenya are infested with jiggers but noted that they had registered more than 2.5 million people and require KSh3,000 to treat each person.

“The underlying factors to the

spread of jiggers are poverty and retrogressive social activities such as witchcraft and drunkardness,” observed Kamau. To eradicate the poverty they are partnering with several organisations to initiate agricultural activities and training for such families.

He added that they are devising a schools’ handbook for students to learn how they will treat and remove jiggers from infested people and type of hygiene they need to practice.

“It is very simple to treat but it is very difficult to eradicate until poverty is dealt with,” observed Kamau.

According to Jennifer Riria, the Chief executive officer Kenya Women Finance Trust, the extreme of jigger infestation shows how the residents are distant apart from their leaders who don’t know what is happening in the villages.

However a leader in South Imenti, Murithi Nkungi, criticised the act of curing jigger infested people saying such activities lack focus on things that have more immense results to greater populations.

Criticism

“Jiggers infestation has existed since the olden days and it is easily handled and removed at family level rather than making it a disaster and use it to seek attention,” said Nkungi.

He noted: “The moment we spend money in eradicating jiggers we lack the focus on the issues which should be addressed and the approach to eradicate them.”

He said the best approach to eradicating jiggers is by being creating awareness on public health issues and seeking ways of infestation prevention.

Parents whose children have been infested with jiggers have been urged to seek urgent medical attention and desist from confining the children at home.

Speaking at Muruka Dispensary in Kandara, Murang’a county during a free medical camp targeting victims of jigger infestation, the Ahadi Kenya Chief Executive Officer Stanley Kamau claimed that some 50,000 pupils were infested with jiggers countrywide jeopardising their education.

He noted: “Over 500 pupils in parts of Murang’a South have been having sleepless nights because of the jiggers in their feet putting their learning at risk.”

Kamau challenged the provincial administration in conjunction with the public health officials to work together and ensure that the stigma is dealt with by conducting home to home visits to treat those infested. During the medical camp, over 500 pupils and residents from the area were treated during the camp jointly organised by the Ahadi Kenya Trust and Steven Gikonyo Foundation.

Speaking during the camp, an official from Steven Gikonyo Foundation, Samwel Waweru, said poverty, ignorance, lack of habitable shelter and poor hygiene are some of the factors contributing to the pathetic jiggers’ infestation in Kandara District and the country in general.

Waweru commended leaders from Central Kenya for their cooperation and efforts in the fight against jigger infestation.

“Other leaders from Kandara should work together with the Foundation and move to the grassroots to witness how jiggers have become a menace for the purpose of helping Kandara people,” noted Waweru.

The Foundation in conjunction with community health workers have stepped up their campaign that has seen several cases of jigger infestations and other problems unearthed within the community and appropriate action taken. Patients who were treated received packets of maize flour, cooking fat and loaves of bread courtesy of the Foundation.

8

ISSUE 071, October 16-31, 2012

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Small arms threatening plans to make Isiolo a resort city

By HUSSEIN DIDO

On a recent trip to sand harvesting sites in Lagoman, Mlango area 20 kilometers from Isiolo county headquarters, as we went down the dry riverbed, five young armed men appeared from the bush as sand harvesting truck drivers stopped to pay their illegal sales.

As they approached closer to the vehicle we were driving in, the firearms were visible on their shoulder. A short young man was carrying a G3 rifle, two others an AK 47, fourth one had an M16 rifle while the fifth one had a short gun hidden in his jacket.

The young men, all in their twenties, were the group of bandits who were illegally collecting fees from the trucks harvesting sand in designated areas in Isiolo district.

The truck drivers were always harassed, robbed and their belongings taken away in the previous years by the same militia groups, but now business is back to normal as the militia take responsibility to protect them at a fee.

Young armed youths, some of whom are class eight and secondary school dropouts, were cashing in daily from where they had not sowed.

Security

The militias were hired to provide security to a section of the communities in Isiolo following the deadly clashes that left hundreds of people killed in the past year.

The bandits drawn from the larger communities in Isiolo including Borana, Somali and Turkana, were taking charge of the management of sand harvesting sites in the region.

A truck driver, George Muriungi, says the group was providing them with security anytime when they were scooping sand along the dry riverbed.

He says the militia were cashing in millions of shillings monthly through the fees collection where they share and meet all their expenses.

Muriungi says that the sand-loaders, drivers and truck owners have no option because failing to cooperate with them will lead to disruption of business and insecurity in the area.

“We are now doing well because they are part of the business and in return they provide us with 24 hour security,” the driver reveals.

He recalls that in the previous years some of his colleagues were either killed, robbed and sometime sodomised by the criminal gangs as the Government failed to contain the situation and provide protection.

He claims the group take home KSh1000 per lorry making trip to sand harvesting site out of 100 or 150 trucks making trips daily.

He laments that the council also collects KSh1,000 separately and was failing to provide security and essential services.

Collection

Meanwhile, the youths were spotted busy collecting their returns and sharing their daily allowances to help them secure more ammunition, buy new weapons and sustain their families A distance away from the place at livestock marketing division we could see small freshly dug graves, an shocking reminder of the effects of small arms and of the violence that is so endemic in the area.

As the country heads to the 2013 elections, the fear is that the usual round of cattle theft, scramble over land could escalate. Early warning and conflict management teams in the

region have been reporting significant increases in violence in the last few months.

Thousands of camels have been moved from Isiolo to other areas as the conflict escalates into residential areas in the town.

Arms-smuggling and cross-border conflict is vivid in Isiolo with communities trying to replenish the stocks by buying new ones.

Few of the arms and ammunitions, especially the old ones and the guns that were not functional were reported to have been surrendered to police in a voluntary disarmament exercise.

Claims

A few weeks back, Isiolo County Commissioner Wanyama Musiambo confirmed that the communities were trying to buy arms due to suspicions and rumors about the impending attacks.

The commissioner was reacting to claims by the district peace and conflict resolution secretary, Dabaso Boru, who claimed that the communities were busy acquiring arms, especially at night, which is evidenced by repeated gunfire in the air to test the guns.

Boru claims that the small-arms dealers were making booming business as suspicions and rumours go on with the demands of arms shooting up with prices doubling in the recent past.

According to a reliable source, prices of an AK47, G3 and M16 rifles have increased with the communities parting with 3 to 4 cows for a G3 while an Ak47 rifle goes for two cows and M16 slightly less, depending on individual bargain or whether its serviceable.

Though the Government was trying to control proliferation of small arms and light weapons little has been done in preventing weaponry from crossing the long and porous borders in the war-torn Somalia.

Trained youths

According to sources, some of the arms being smuggled into Kenya were the ones issued to anti-Alshabaab during their training in Kenya and later taken to Somalia but ended up joining the Al-Shabaab while others fled with their arms back.

Some of the trained youths who were taken to Somalia to help in flushing out the militia are already back in Isiolo and have apparently disposed their ammunitions to the locals.

One of the youth claimed that they were poorly paid, had proper medical attention and suffered leading to their backing out.

Despite recent increase in the budget to combat violence and arms proliferation in North Eastern region, the general response amongst NGOs and arms control experts is that action against proliferation by the Government has so far been largely unsuccessful.

One of the tricks used by dealers, especially along Isiolo-Nairobi route, which is also busy with police at road blocks, is the use of metallic containers to transport firearms especially pistols and small guns.

The dealers load the bottom of the container with the refined beef meat and pack the

A young man armed in G-3 rifle provides security to sand harvesters in Isiolo. Camels and cattle at strategic pasture grazing zones in Isiolo, presence of camels and cattle fuelled conflict with other communities trying to restock what was lost. Provincial administration at a meeting to discuss rising insecurity in the region. Insecurity due to flow of small arms is affecting Isiolo’s dream of being a resort city.

Pictures: Hussein Dido ammunitions in between the meat from the lid so that the metal detectors cannot sense the arms.

Speaking to participants in a daylong workshop for peace organised by Peace Net Kenya Upper Eastern region, he said the presence of the illicit arms were major causes of conflict and under-development in the region.

Musiambo predicts that Isiolo would soon be a haven to live in minus the arms and rumours which were a major cause of conflict in the area.

Kenya has a wide range of legislation with

relevance to Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW), but the country lacks clear policy on how to deal with the SALW problem in all its aspects, including national and regional dimensions. The existing legal regime does not adequately provide for comprehensive control and management of the SALW in all its aspects.

The existing institutions charged with the responsibility of controlling and managing SALW also have inadequate legal authority and limited institutional and administrative capacity to deal with SALW problem.

ISSUE 071 October 16-31, 2012

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

9

Where girls are trapped in domestic servitude October 11, marked the International Day of the Girl child. In this issue of the Reject, we have a stories of the state of the girl child from all over the country where challenges abound

By KEN NDAMBU For Christine Vethi, aged 40 years, memories of life as a domestic house-help are still fresh and vivid in her mind. She landed her first job soon after sitting for her Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) at Mutune Primary School when a distant uncle offered to get her a job in Nairobi because her parents could not afford to take her to secondary school.

She was then taken to a male employer from Central Province who mistreated and sexually abused her. She was forced to quit after working for the family for only two months.

Escapades

“The man was very hostile not only to me but to his wife as well. He would beat her if she complained of his unbecoming behaviour towards their 14-year old daughter, who was in Form Two in a day school,” recalls Vethi, who today is a paralegal activist who also runs a girl-child development project in Kitui County.

During the weekends when the girl was not in school, the father would return to the house and take her for an outing with instructions not to tell her mother of their whereabouts.

“One day, he took me out along with the daughter oblivious that he would make suggestions to me,” says Vethi. She recalls how one night the man came to the bedroom she was sharing with his daughter and raped them both repeatedly.

When Vethi later informed the wife of her ordeal, she was not only agitated, but blamed her for being the cause of their domestic quarrel.

“After that I was subjected to all sorts of mistreatment including sexual abuse, salary cuts, denial of food and most of the time being paid in kind,” says Vethi, who abandoned the job and registered for adult classes to advance the rights of domestic

workers.

Vethi is not a unique case to tribulations of female domestic workers. Koki Vwana dropped out of primary school at class five at Museve Primary School to work as a house-help. She also has a sad story to tell about her ordeal at the hands of her female employer.

“I was lured to domestic work by an aunt who introduced me to her friend in a Nairobi estate, under the understanding that that she would be receiving my salary on my behalf,” recalls Koki.

The arrangement was that she wakes up at 5 am and begin her day by fetching water from a nearby water kiosk; cook and serve breakfast before taking her boss’ son to school on foot. She would pick him up at midday.

When the family took lunch, Koki would be asked to go to the market to buy food and run other errands as she was supposed to have only one meal per day, supper. She also had to wash the female boss’ feet at least once a day.

“Most of the time I was given leftovers or just plain ugali to eat. I wore ragged clothes, had no shoes and slept on the floor. I was beaten with a leather strap whenever my boss thought I was slow in responding to her requests,” remembers Koki.

Risks

Moved by her plight and that of other domestic workers, Vethi went back to school and through adult education got the necessary skills that helped her land a job as a para-legal in Kitui town. Her agenda today is to advance the rights of the girlchild especially domestic workers. It was while with the Kitui Paralegal project when she formed the Girl Child Development Programme (GCDP) to counsel domestic workers traumatised at the workplace among other core values.

“We also psychologically prepare girls who fail to go to secondary school after class eight and are

A domestic worker draws water from a Jerri can with the young ones on sight.

Young girls are lured to domestic employment by close relatives with promises to better their lives. Picture: Reject Correspondent likely to join labour market as domestic workers,” explains Vethi.

“To achieve the goal, we have brought on board those who have worked as domestic workers to counsel the girls likely to join the domestic sector to give their life experiences. We also monitor our clients who eventually land the jobs with a view of seeking for intervention measures of reported mistreatment,” says Vethi.

A recent survey indicates that 78 per cent of child domestic workers report payment ‘in kind’ usually in the form of a dress or shoes.

“Only 17 per cent report payment in cash and in most cases paid to parents or guardians,” says Vethi, a para-legal activist who also runs a girlchild development project in Kitui County.

According to a Kitui Development Centre (KDC), local non-governmental organisation (NGO), that carries child labour programmes

in Kitui, the region is targeted by domestic work employers due to high levels of poverty in households. “It is unfortunate that this region is the major supplier of domestic workers in the country,” noted Janet Mumo, KDC Programme Manager.

She observed that the most powerful force driving children into hazardous and debilitating labour is the exploitation of poverty. According to Mumo, most of those employed in domestic work are girls and they do not have the power to choose between career options with varying advantages, drawbacks and levels of pay.

“Where a community is characterised by poverty and inequity, the incidences of child labour are likely to increase and in such a case the girl-child is sacrificed by the family to work as a domestic help while the boy continues with education,” observed Mumo.

Forced into labour to supplement family income

By MWERI MAYENGE Thanks to a joint programme by the International Labour Organisation and the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) over 2,500 children have been rescued in Kilifi County.

According to the Kilifi District International Labour Organisation coordinator, Mr Paul Mwandikwa, the problem is closely linked to the high poverty level in the county.

Mwandikwa said: “Kilifi District is one of the poorest in the country and that child labour had taken root especially in the towns that border the sea shore.” He cited the worst forms of the vice as child prostitution involving young girls below the age of 15.

Exploitation

“The other worst form is sex exploitation of children where young girls engage in commercial sex with older men. These forms are commonly found along the towns close to the beaches,” he said.

Women who act like brokers expose most of the young girls to prostitution. In most cases the women take the young girls to sleep with old men especially tourists. The women are paid and share whatever they receive with girls.

The introduction of the SNAP pro-

ject two years ago has seen a decline in the vice. The project, known as the ILO/IPEC-SNAP project has included other organisations and partners.

The organisations include Moving the Goalposts (MTG) that rescued 940 girls from early marriages, Solidarity with Women in Distress (SOLWODI) which rescued 900 girls from commercial sex exploitation and the Strengthening Community Partnership and Empowerment (SCOPE). “We normally rescue and take them back to school or training institutions to gain skills. We also train their parents on entrepreneurship and also ensure that they get funding so that the children do not find themselves in the same situation again when they get home,” said Mwandikwa.

Moving the Goalposts, an organisation that has been advocating for children’s rights through football has taken a lead role in rescue and advocacy especially of the girl-child.

According to the project coordinator, Cocky Van Dam, about a quarter of the children in the district are exposed to child labour either inside or outside the home.

“Some children in the remote areas work in shambas so that they can get money to buy foodstuff and books. Others are prompted to drop out of school either to get married at

a tender age or go to big towns to do casual jobs yet they are not orphans,” Van Dam said. The organisation has been able to send young girls back to school and make sure they are mentored to complete their education successful.

More than often, young girls below 15 years from poverty stricken homes in Kilifi are left with no option but to abandon their studies Children at a coral block quarry in Kilifi County. Most of the children drop to bridge the vacuum left by out of school to work in the quarries. Picture: Mweri Mayenge their fathers and help their mothers fend for the family. standards of the division. The chil- of every 10 children, two drop out of As the girls labour in various towns in the district, some fa- dren cannot loiter around town with school every year to look for casual jobs thers are to be found drinking local bunches of firewood and the father to help support the family.

“As the young girls move around brews in joints popularly known as is busy enjoying himself in a nearby looking for casual jobs as house-helps, Mangwe,” noted Sitawa.

Mangwe in the Mijikenda language.

The children are mostly escorted by their male counterparts normally run their mothers who sell one piece of fire- to the coral quarries where they cut blocks or are hired as loaders for the Speaking during a stakeholders wood at KSh2. meeting in Kilifi recently, Florence Sitawa noted with concern that the trucks that transport the blocks, Sitawa Sitawa, the District Officer Bahari, con- issue has gone out of hand and immedi- said. She added: “Others do sand hardemned the practice saying it must be ate measures must be taken to put a halt vesting.”

However, Mwandikwa noted that curbed at all costs. to the habit. “To end this habit we need “We need to come up with ways a collective responsibility and say no to the trend is slowly decreasing after as stakeholders to ensure that both cases of child labour. We cannot engage various players, especially community parents play a key role in providing our children in such activities at the based organisations and non-governfor the family and not vice versa. The expense of their education and future,” mental organisations came into the scene and are advocating for the rights change of role between parents and Sitawa observed children will lower the economic According to Mwandikwa, out of children.

Stakeholders

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ISSUE 071, October 16-31, 2012

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Why we should educate more girls

Lack of role models leaves girls without a support system

By CAROLYNE OYUGI Federation of Women Lawyers –kenya (FIDA) statistics tell that due to HIV/ AIDs, women today head one third of Kenya’s households. Women make up approximately 80 % of the agricultural workforce and they do 70 % of the work in the production of cash crops.

However, they only get 60 % of agricultural income. Women are not allowed to own livestock, yet they perform 50 to 90 % of the labour in livestock rearing.

These women who were once girls do not feel the impact of their hard work because most of them did not get quality education if any.

Tackling barriers to girls’ education is thus central to addressing the root causes of poverty. Educating the girl child has been identified as the key to breaking the cycle of poverty and improving their lives and that of the whole community.

Education is a basic right in many countries and yet in Africa millions of children, particularly girls, are still denied that important right .As a result ,most girls are unable to get the necessary knowledge, skills and capabilities to take an empowered and equal role in society.

Educating girls improves maternal health hence reduces child mortality.

African women are also known to be responsible for what their family eats and so educated girls raise levels of household nutrition and increase the potential workforce and opportunities for economic growth.

With all these factors in place, it is sad to note that across Africa, girls are still less likely than boys to enroll and remain in school.

In 47 out of 54 African countries, girls have less than a 50% chance of going to secondary school and whilst at school, girls continue to face discrimination and abuse which threatens to undermine the potentially transformative power of the education they receive.

The factors influencing whether a girl is able to go to school and stay there are complex and dynamic.

Research shows that constraints of poverty, location, gender stereotypes, social norms, customs and harmful practices all form a shifting and interconnected web through which girls, their families and their communities have to navigate on a daily basis.

The pressures of poverty mean that parents must constantly make decisions about how to utilise extremely limited resources and how best to provide a secure future for their family.

This has also led to girls lacking essential items like sanitary pads which results to absenteeism during their menstrual period.

Early pregnancy is common across sub-Saharan Africa with more than 50% of girls and young women giving birth by the age of 20.

For the vast majority of school girls, pregnancy means the end of their already slim chances of education.

By WAIKWA MAINA The sufferings of the girl child in Nyeri County will soon be a thing of the past. A club has been formed to address their issues in the short and long term.

Calling itself, Twin Sisters, it was formed to address the plight of the girl-child through motivational talks, counselling and financial support through small membership contributions.

The club also uses sporting activities to bring the young girls together.

“We want to have them positively occupied during their free time especially after school hours and over the weekend. We have 20 young mothers under our mentorship programme, the number is higher but we are looking for a way of reaching others to include them in our programme, says Agnes Kabuchi who is also the club’s football team captain.

“Currently, we are only operating in Nyaithee village, but we hope to reach other areas within Tetu either through our club or by encouraging young mothers in other villages to start similar initiatives,” she says.

Early pregnancy

At Nyaithee village, Aguthi location in Tetu district, at least four out of ten girls drop out of school each year due to either early pregnancies or marriage.

“We must understand that nowadays, girls mature very early, this is due to lifestyle and exposure. Unlike in the past where parents, especially grandmothers and aunties, played the role models, today, everyone is busy trying to earn a living and live their own life,” says Kabuchi. She notes: “Parents assume that a girl gets all the information she requires at school, but that is not the case, there are no counselling forums for the girl child.”

Many young girls have dropped out of school in Nyaithee village due

Members of the twin sisters club during one of their meetings. The club was formed to address issues affecting them as well as give them financial and motivational support. Picture: Waikwa Maina to early pregnancies or marriages and this is attributed to rising levels of poverty.

“This is a coffee growing area and the rate of poverty is very high partly because many parents are not employed and rely on meagre income from their small farms. Most parents cannot, therefore, afford the upkeep of the girls, who in turn get easily lured with cheap gifts by men.”

Area Chief Bernard Ndirangu, who says that the situation has been worsened by lack of role model forums.

Poverty

“Girls are dropping out of school, cases of early pregnancies and marriages are rampant in the area but unfortunately these early marriages do not last,” notes Ndirangu. He adds: “I would attribute the rising cases to poverty levels and lack of role models.”

Ndirangu reiterates: “We need more counsellors and people who can guide our girls to visit this place. I appreciate efforts made by Twin Sisters Club, but then, the club lacks resources to reach out to more

young girls.”

The administrator says the club members also need to be trained on counselling to enable them effectively play this noble role.

Twin Sisters has also started a revolving fund to assist the girls intending to venture into business, and plans to start a hatchery project to boost their income.

Cathy Irungu, the founder of Wanjiku Information Centre echoes similar sentiments but adds that cases of early pregnancy and marriages are widespread in the county.

“We conducted a survey and Mukuruwe-ini Constituency leads with such cases. Cases of defilement are also on the rise and the girl-child is not safe even with relatives,” noted Irungu.

Denial

She said low esteem is also a major challenge facing the girl-child and reiterated that domestic violence is a major contributor, especially husband battering.

“We have been to several places and girls from Nyeri do not want to be associated with their homes. This

“The girl-child is empowered in Nyeri County compared to the boy-child. We should have integrated programmes for both. The boy feels neglected and unsecure and therefore reacts negatively towards the girl. Again, even at family level, it does not go on well when the girl is doing very well financially but with a less empowered brother.”

— Cathy Irungu, the founder of Wanjiku Information Centre

issue will manifest very much in future if nothing is done,” noted Irungu.

“The girls confessed that some men shun them on learning that they come from Nyeri. Where will they get husbands while at home?” posed Irungu.

“The young men here are wasting their lives on drugs and this is a very serious issue,” she observed.

According to Irungu, the way forward is to strike a balance between the boy and the girl-child.

“The girl-child is empowered in Nyeri County compared to the boychild. We should have integrated programmes for both. The boy feels neglected and unsecure and therefore reacts negatively towards the girl,” notes Irungu. She adds: “Again, even at family level, it does not go on well when the girl is doing very well financially but with a less empowered brother.”

Due to lack of positive role models, young girls experiment on sex by what they see on television and social media.

Irungu says rising cases of early pregnancies, especially for girls aged between eight and 18 years is because of hopelessness for lack of role models, jobs and poverty.

Generational gap is also a major challenge and girls feel not appreciated by older women due to lifestyle.

Irungu gives the example of women who condemn the young girls due to their mode of dressing not putting into consideration the fact that times have changed.

“The girls lack someone who can listen to them and share their views as they are treated with contempt by the elderly women,” says Irungu.

She adds: “They feel intimidated and it is like there is a rebellion between women over 50 years of age and girls of a younger age.”

ISSUE 071 October 16-31, 2012

11

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Poverty and ignorance, pushing girls into illicit affairs

By OMONDI GWENGI Watching her peers play, a distraught Roselyn Atieno 19 years old, stares into the horizon with a heavy heart.

Judging from the look on her face, she is desperately trying to come to terms with the spine-chilling ordeal that she has to live with.

Atieno was a class seven pupil at Osieko Primary, Bondo District in Siaya County when she met an Administration Police Officer who promised her money if she agreed to have a relationship with him. Out of ignorance and due to poverty that was staring at her home Atieno Agreed.

After six months of the affair, Atieno realised that she was pregnant. By the time she was giving birth, the officer had already been transferred to another station. He had abandoned her with a burden that she would have to carry for a very long time.

Atieno is not alone. She is among a huge crop of young girls who are duped into relationships and then abandoned the minute they get pregnant.

Orphaned

Sixteen year old Lorna Akoth’s story is not any different. Orphaned at a tender age, Akoth lived with her elder sister.

However, her sister was not providing Akoth with the necessities that she needed as a girl. It was not long before Akoth met a fisherman who asked her into a relationship. Since he was making some money out of the fish, he could afford to give Akoth cash that would sort out her needs.

“He started buying me clothes and

giving me money which in turn I used to buy some things that I needed,” Akoth testifies.

The man is said to have sent his wife away so that he could instead co-habit with Akoth.

According to Rodgers Ochieng, a human rights activist operating in Usigu Division and who led the operation to rescue the girl from early marriage, the man’s family supported the marriage and even went as far as hiding Akoth.

“The girl went to stay at the man’s home and thereafter dropped out of school,” says Ochieng.

After many attempts to locate the girl’s whereabouts, she was finally rescued and brought back to school.

“We rescued her and she is currently a candidate at Majengo Primary School and stays with one of the female teachers within the school,” says Ochieng.

According to Ochieng, the plight of the girl-child living along the lake is compounded by poverty. He says many of these rural girls cannot afford sanitary pads among other necessities.

Even at home their parents and guardians are too poor to provide for them while others are simply irresponsible.

“Many people around the lake are poor and cannot afford to meet the personal needs of their children. As a result, the girls are lured into sex in exchange for gifts and money,” observes Ochieng.

Due to poverty in many of the households, many parents also depend on their children to provide for them.

These children are forced to become breadwinners at a tender age.

“Many parents are not able to ques-

tion where their children are getting money because they entirely depend on them to provide food,” says Ochieng.

He says that persistent school levies which many parents cannot afford is also another factor that drives girls out of school.

Challenges

“Even though the Government introduced free primary education, there are some teachers who are imposing extra levies which most parents cannot afford to pay,” Ochieng explains.

The HIV and Aids epidemic has also led to the death of many parents leaving most of the children with no one to guide them. This exposes them to early marriages and irresponsible sexual behaviours.

Another challenge that Ochieng cites is the manner in which some teachers handle issues affecting the girl child.

“When a girl becomes pregnant, instead of counselling and showing them the right direction, the teachers insult them instead. This demoralises most of the girls as they feel like they are outcasts,” he explains.

According to a report from the Children’s Department, there are increased cases of defilement of girls by boda boda riders and fishermen in Siaya County.

Bondo District’s Children Officer Humphrey Wandeo says the rampant cases of defilement of schoolgirls are a matter of concern. He singles Bondo District as leading among the six districts in the county in cases of defilement.

“It is very sad that the motor bike taxi riders and fishermen lure the girls

A young girl balances a jerri can with water on her head with a baby strapped on her back. Most girls are drawn into having affairs with older men due to poverty. Picture: Omondi Gwengi into illicit love affairs which often results in pregnancies and consequently their dropping out of school,” observes Wandeo.

He noted: “With the new county system in place we are going to flash out those responsible for the vice and ensure they are apprehended and arraigned in court.”

After all is said and done, Ochieng observes, that the future for these girls still rests on the hands of their parents.

“In the community, reproductive health issues have been left to women.

A time has come for men to also start taking part in educating their daughters on the risks that irresponsible sexual behaviour come with,” he advices.

It is by God’s grace that we are in school, say orphaned girls

By GILBERT OCHIENG Mediatrix and Pascalia Lutta are orphaned vulnerable children. Residents of Mung’inia Village, Rwambwa sub-location, Bunyala East Location, Bunyala District of Busia County they have lived under hardship following the death of their beloved parents a decade ago.

Pascalia who is 20 years old is the fifth born in a family of seven, says when she reached the school going age her parents enrolled her at St Peter’s Rwambwa Primary School in 2002.

In 2009 she sat for her Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination and scored 296 marks out of 500. “I passed and received a calling letter addressed to me from the principal of Lwanya Girls’ Secondary School, but my hopes of joining the school were curtailed as we were unable to raise the KSh30, 000 school fees that I had been asked to pay,” says Pascalia.

Loss

The demise of her father, Pascal Lutta, 60, a businessman, in 1991 plunged the entire family into a sea of abject poverty considering that the whole family depended on him.

“In a desperate effort to raise the sum, I was forced to venture into hawking assisted by my younger sister Mediatrix who was by then in class eight. She would join me after coming from school in the evening,” explains Pascalia.

She adds: “However, on realising the business was taking me nowhere, I finally gave up.”

Pascalia says their uncle assisted her to look for a local day secondary school known as Nyambare Mixed in Siaya County, at the border of Budalangi and Siaya, where she fi-

nally joined Form One after paying KSh8, 000 for first term. “My ailing mother had no option. She was forced to dispose off our only cow at a throw-away price of KSh10,000 so as to raise my school fees,” says the orphan.

A year later, another unavoidable burden cropped up in the child-headed home. Pascalia’s sister, Mediatrix Nakhendo, who had sat for her KCPE examination the following year, passed the exam scoring 258 marks out of 500. “I was called to join Iruswi Girls’ Secondary School at Serem, in Vihiga County, where I was required to pay KSh29,000 which we were not in a position to raise,” explains Mediatrix.

“Our mother who was suffering from acute breast cancer, advised me to repeat class eight at St Peter’s Rwambwa Primary.

In 2010, the family was plunged into yet another tragedy when their mother, Wilfridah Nakhendo aged 45, who had been caring for them and whose health had seriously deteriorated, passed away.

“The sudden demise of our mother who had been taking care of us despite the sickness after the death of our father left us in a very awkward and desperate situation,” says Pascalia and Mediatrix. They were now forced to seek for casual work in people’s farms during the weekends where they would be paid

KSh100 for a day’s work in order to feed their siblings who were now under their care.

“At times we would be forced to fetch water for people charging them KSh5 per 20 litre Jerri can,” says Pascalia, adding that often they slept hungry after failing to get money to buy food.

Luck

However, luck came knocking at their door-step. Their mother had been a staunch member of the Free Pentecostal Fellowship in Kenya based at Nyambare Mission managed by missionaries from Norway. One of the church pastors only identified as Pastor Karanja mapped the orphaned girls out and included their names in the list of needy cases.

“The mission identified orphaned vulnerable children and listed their names under the needy cases the church has been assisting in terms of school fees as well as uniforms,” says Pastor Karanja.

The mission also provides needy children with cereals such as beans, maize and soya beans as well as sanitary pads and soap for the girls-child every month. “The orphaned vulnerable children have also been getting assistance from the Budalangi Constituency Development Fund committee through the bursary proPascalia Lutta (left) and her sister Mediatrix Nakhendo gramme,” says Silas Akondo, a memoutside their house at Munginia village in Ruambwa, ber of the CDF committee and a close Bunyala. Picture: Gilbert Ochieng relative of the girls.

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ISSUE 071, October 16-31, 2012

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Never say die, Ugandan single mother vows to support girl-child education As the world celebrated the International Day of the Girl for the first time on October 11, 2012 world leaders and different organizations identified girls’ education as the best way to improve their lives

By CAROLYNE OYUGI Claire Namakula a 27-year old lady in Kampala has gone through tough times in life but she has sworn never to give up.

Claire grew up with her mother after being abandoned by the father at a tender age of four years. She claims that her father left them and married another woman.

Her mother being a Rwandese decided to take her to Rwanda where she went to school up to P3 .She had to stop going to school due to lack of fees and unfortunately her mother also died killing all her hopes of ever going back to school.

Being an orphan and in a strange land she came back to Jinja, Uganda to look for her father who is Ugandan.

That is when she was hit by the bitter truth that her father did not want her or anything to do with her.

“He chased me out of his house and wanted nothing to do with me.”

She said. She therefore stayed with her mum’s friend. During her stay she was diagnosed with abdominal hernia .Her host took care of her until she was operated on and completed her treatment then took her back to Rwanda.

Abuse

“At this point I had lost hope with life and though I was only 15 years old I decided to get married,” she said adding that she stayed with her boyfriend for two year but again she had to leave him.

“He abused me physically and also abused drugs like bhang and a chain smoker too,” narrated Claire.

During her stay with the boyfriend she got pregnant and the boy is now 10 years old and in P6. “I contemplated abortion during my pregnancy but I’m glad I did not do it,” she said.

“After giving birth I had no money and the father was also not responsible, so I had to be a single mother.”

Claire is just one of the many girls in Kewepe Division, Kampala who have had to struggle with life.

Kawempe despite being in Kampala town has one of the highest number of girls dropping out from school for one reason or another.

According to Rogers Ssemwanga, the chairperson of Uganda Youth Welfare Services most youths move to Kawempe in search of employment and that has made the crime rate go up and hence putting girls

and women at risk.

“Through the help of Plan Uganda we have been able to train many women and girls on skills that can help them to generate income because some of them are single mothers while others are taking care of their siblings.”

My life changed when I met Rogers who introduced me to his organization. Claire is just one of the 30 million school-aged children who still remain out of school in Africa.

Unfortunately majority of these children are girls.

Turmoil

Though she underwent catering course and has been able make money out of it she still wishes that she had the opportunity to go to school and have better education.

Claire underwent child marriage and early pregnancy. She was also forced to do things that risked both her security and health something that could have been avoided had she received proper care from childhood and better education.

In their report titled Because I Am a Girl Africa Report 2012-Progress and Obstacles to Girls’ Education in Africa, Plan International (Plan) has warned that if the situation remains unchecked this will put paid hopes to achieve universal primary education by 2015.

Plan says that although the abolition of school fees in most African countries has resulted in 52 million children enrolled in primary school over the past 10 years, 29 million of children remain out of school.

“Statistics show a huge national

variations; in Ethiopia, for instance, girls’ enrolment has leapt from 30% to 75% over a decade, whilst in other countries such as Niger and Eritrea, it remains well under 60%,” the report entitled ‘Progress and Obstacles to Girls education in Africa,’ says.

Back in Kenya the same situation is conspicuously displayed. According to the United Nations Girls Education Initiative, the introduction of free primary education has greatly increased girls’ enrolment.

Although Kenya has achieved gender parity nationally, there are still significant gender and geographic disparities, with nomadic districts recording very low girls’ participation in primary education.

Denied education

From top: Claire Namakula, 27 years old is one of the beneficiaries of “It is indefensible that so Plan International vocational skills training programme for Vulnera. many girls are still denied the Young girls at a catering class at Mirembe Community College right to education. This absence Kyebando, Uganda. Pictures: Courtesy Plan International from school is not only unjust but it has a tragic and longlasting impact upon the lives “In accordance with the Rome erty and that “better girls’ education of so many girls and should no lon- improves maternal health, reduces Statute of the International Crimiger be tolerated. Our work has shown child mortality, improves household nal Court, I shall continue to include that supporting girls’ education is one nutrition and increases the potential gender crimes and crimes against of the single best investments we can workforce and opportunities for eco- children in our charges and to bring make to help them break the cycle nomic growth.” the full force of the law to bear on of poverty,.” said Gezahegn Kebede, Martha Atuwaire (13), outgoing those most responsible for them. I Plan International Regional Director Speaker of Kamuli Girls Primary have recently announced my Office’s for Eastern and Southern Africa.

Children’s council in Uganda, says: work to adopt a policy paper on chilKebede added that: “In addition “It is fantastic that the word cel- dren, which would include this very to being an intrinsic human right, ebrates the 1st international girls’ important issue. Women have a role education is one of the most effec- day and this is going to make people to play at the heart of our societies, tive means of tackling global pov- change their attitude and start treat- our communities and our families.” ing girls as important and equal as she said.

Fatoum Bensouda also stressed boys.”

“I also urge girls out there to that the women of the future, the advocate for their rights and make young girls of the world, should not sure everything they need is said be deprived of their fundamental human right to play and learn and enout,” she said. joy being children.

“To stop these ongoing massive This initiative is also backed by crimes and bring justice for their the International Criminal Court victims, ICC fugitives such as Joseph (ICC) in her speech for this spe- Kony (Uganda), Bosco Ntaganda cial occasion the ICC prosecutor (DR Congo) and Omar el Bashir acknowledged that the suffering of (The Sudan) must be arrested and girls in armed conflicts all over the transferred to The Hague to face world is an urgent issue and her top justice. On this first International priority as ICC Prosecutor.

Day of the Girl, and for the sake of She added that girls are among all victims of international crimes, I the most vulnerable members of call again on the international comsociety: they should not be made to munity to execute these outstanding serve as sex slaves and soldiers. They arrest warrants to put an end to their — Gezahegn Kebede, Plan International Regional Director for Eastern should not be subjected to rape and victims’ plight.” She concluded. sexual violence, nor made to witness (More information from Plan Interand Southern Africa. brutal sexual attacks. national and ICC Public affairs Unit)

“It is indefensible that so many girls are still denied the right to education. This absence from school is not only unjust but it has a tragic and long-lasting impact upon the lives of so many girls and should no longer be tolerated. Our work has shown that supporting girls’ education is one of the single best investments we can make to help them break the cycle of poverty.”

Initiative

ISSUE 071 October 16-31, 2012

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

13

Farmers turn to bamboo growing

By MILLER OMEGA

A group of bamboo farmers in Kadika village of Migori County are smiling all the way to bank after opting out of the common tobacco and sugarcane farming in the area.

About 80 farmers who benefited from an initiative by Maseno University which gave them 30 seedlings each, a decade ago, now boast of a steady income and are safe from the health risk associated with tobacco-curing and smoking which also causes tuberculosis and encourages children to be smokers when they grow up.

In addition, the farmers are also avoiding the long queues and delays they had to endure before being paid by tobacco and sugarcane firms in the area.

Among the farmers who started off on a quarter acre is Millicent Atieno who has since then increased her acreage to cover five acres, thanks to the good prices.

“I started harvesting my bamboos after two years and have not stopped ever since because it gives me a steady income,” explains Atieno.

A shoot can give up to 200 suckers in one hole and can be used in different stages and function.

“When the shoots are young they only require minimal tendering as the leaves that fall at the base of the bamboo grooves act as a herbicide and mulch which goes on to retain moisture and preserve the soil,” explains Atieno.

Middlemen

The farmers are now turning the venture on a full scale basis as they benefit from making furniture, buildings, firewood as well as twigs and trunks used to make ornaments and sandals.

“Right now I am sitting on a chair and using a table made of bamboo with my house having structures from bamboo. Apart from making ornaments to sell in the market, I have a steady supply of firewood and charcoal in my homestead which I also sell to my neighbours,” says Atieno.

When the farmers started harvesting the bamboos they united and decided to do away with middle men who were exploiting them.

Under the Kadika Bamboo Sacco, the farmers have established a workshop at the village which is four kilometres from Migori town to make finished products, look for the market and offer advice to fellow farmers and members of the public.

The farmers are getting 90 per cent of the income with the balance being ploughed back into running the Sacco.

The Sacco staff make trays, office pen holders, mobile phone holders, toy yachts, tables and chairs among other products.

“From these proceeds we have managed to employ five artisans and sales people who are helping us make finished products and to get the bamboos directly from farmers,” says Ezekiel Onganjo, a farmer who is also the manager at the Sacco.

The Sacco also runs a tree nursery of the three species of bamboo with the giant specie mainly used for making building and chairs at KSh250 while bambusa and vulgaria costs KSh150.

“The sales from these seedling is high as it surpasses eucalyptus which seedlings which are sold at two shillings and grows three times with easy propagating as only a shoot can producer over 200 suckers,” he says.

“The roots of the giant and bambusa species are used as tubers, as food and as vegetables.

Most of our buyers are from Chinese and Korean construction firms in the county involved in water and infrastructure projects,” Onganjo explains.

Zabedeus Nyamari, Migori County forest of-

Millicent Atieno tills her bamboo plantation. A close-up of a bamboo shoot at the farm. Models of a yatch and chair made from bamboo.

Pictures: Miller Omega ficer, has lauded the group and calls on Kenyans to take bamboo farming seriously to help reach the 10 per cent forest cover in the country as envisioned in Vision 2030 and Millennium Development Goals.

“Bamboo has the ability to absorb up to 12 tonnes of carbon for every hectare which makes it ideal for reducing the effects of global warming in the world. Sadly for over 150,000 hectares of 22 species of bamboo in the country, 95 per cent are protected in government forests which

translate to the low number of farmers despite the huge benefits,” explains Nyamari.

In Africa, Ethiopia leads with over one million hectares of the plant while China is the biggest producer in the world at 80 per cent with 60 per cent consumed locally.

This shows how far Kenya is placed in the bamboo industry globally, which stands at $11 billion annually and sustains over 1.5 billion people according to figures obtained from the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR).

Forestry research institutions underfunded and need remodelling

By DUNCAN MBOYAH Africa lags behind other continents in science-driven forestry development because research institutions are running outdated programmes.

“The uptake of new knowledge and skills is very slow and unpredictable in African forestry training institutions,” says Prof Fredrick Owino, a forestry expert.

Addressing a forest policy day in Africa recently, Owino observed that while many African countries have forestry education and research institutions, they remain poorly resourced.

He reiterated that research has a key role to play, but needs remodelling and opportunities to engage better with policy and business to provide sustainable global solutions.

The last 20 years of Rio conference dialogue on environment and development has significantly influenced the direction of forest science with increasing attention to the services which forests and trees provide.

However, a shift in direction of forest science has introduced new challenges in forestry education and

research with new players joining the field.

“The necessary body of knowledge for a forestry practitioner has greatly expanded but funding for forestry education and research has steadily declined hence calling for new direction of the institutions programmes,” he observed.

However, Owino regretted valuable indigenous knowledge base on management of forests and tree resources in many African countries was not well documented and chances were that with the passing on of the older generation of experts with the knowledge, it was rapidly being lost.

Efficiency

He said that it was unfortunate that only a few academic institutions in the region had achieved continental and international repute as majority of universities lack practical education.

“It is unfortunate that employers have started questioning the capability and efficiency of current graduates since most of them are unable to express themselves on their line of professionalism,” noted Owino.

He maintained that in general research institutions in Africa have weak technical capacities and are underfunded. According to Prof Lidia Brito, Director, Division of Science Policy and Capacity Building at the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) rapid scientific and technological progress can provide potential solutions, but social transformation was required as well.

She noted that research was significant in monitoring change, determining thresholds, developing new technologies and processes, and providing solutions.

“Through research we must act now since we have new ideas and nature is no more in control. We must do research to inform decisions, for more wise and timely decisions and innovation that is informed by diverse local needs and conditions,” reiterated Brito.

At the same time, she called for the adoption of new approaches to research and to the interface between science and decision-makers in policy and business.

She challenged researchers to

include society in the networks between knowledge, technology and practical solutions to everyday problems and also to help bring potential partners together. ”Build ownership and commitment by engaging local stakeholders in the design, implementation and resources mobilization for sustainability of the programmes,” she advised.

Experts attending the forum blamed language barrier as the cause of duplication of research in Africa.

Worrying trend

They observed that the Anglophone and Francophone divide was a major stumbling block in research development because it led to repeated research that keeps on pulling the continent backwards.

Prof Victor Agyeman, the chairman of the Forestry Research Network of Sub Saharan Africa (FORNESSA) challenged forestry researchers in Africa to publish their works, adding that the current trend was worrying.

“Instead of publishing as per the Lagos plan of action that required that all countries publish at least one

per cent of their research work yearly, many countries still publish less than 0.3 per cent,” he noted.

Agyeman observed that two countries in Africa publish 40 per cent of the work from the continent and six countries producing 70 per cent yet the region has 55 countries with fully fledged science institutions.

“Research infrastructure in Africa is not evenly distributed and that is why we are calling for support from the private sector,” Agyeman said.

The new mechanism is to facilitate an interactive dialogue on global sustainability among the various stakeholders and policy makers.

Scientists must strategically curve the niche and come up with more research programmes, capacity-building and research infrastructure that have impact.

Each year about 13 million hectares of the world’s forests are lost through deforestation, hence affecting food production. Forests provide both timber and non-timber products, some of which can be a food source and more recently a source of renewal energy such as biofuels.

14

ISSUE 071, October 16-31, 2012

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Grand irrigation project planned for flood-prone Budalangi

By GILBERT OCHIENG A multi-million shillings irrigation scheme drawing water directly from Lake Victoria will soon be operational in Busia County.

The Sisenye Irrigation Scheme in Budalangi will be the first to use readily available natural resource in the envisaged project.

In the past, the region has suffered from floods once the Nzoia River bursts its bank. The other challenge has been the controversial precolonial era agreement — the Nile Treaty — signed with the Egyptian Government barring any mass use of water from Lake Victoria for irrigation purposes. So far, the National Irrigation Board has earmarked KSh80 million to facilitate the construction of the irrigation scheme in Bunyala that aims to harness the waters of Lake Victoria in order to promote food security and farming activities in the region.

Relief

Addressing the stakeholders at Sisenye Village after the official launch of the project recently, Daniel Atula a senior official from the National Irrigation Board, who represented General Manager Engineer, Daniel Baraza, said the project was a great relief to the people of Sisenye and Budalangi at large.

“The project when completed will go a long way in ensuring avai ability of adequate food for local co sumption and selling hence generating income to the local community,” noted Atula.

Bunyala is the first district nationally to draw water directly from Lake Victoria for irrigation.

The project components include installation of four water pumps with a capacity of 300 litres each, construction of a 1.2 kilometre main and branch pipeline, the construction and lining of a 4.75 kilometre main secondary canals as well as water control and distribution structures.

Food security

Budalangi MP Ababu Namwamba laying the foundation of Sisenye Irrigation Scheme. The project will go a The project will cover a polong way in alleviating food insecurity. Picture: Gilbert Ochieng tential irrigable area of 600 Hectares and will serve 100 Namwamba, who is the Minis- Agricultural Finance Corporation, said reminded them that all successful big households with a proposed farm area of 200 hectares and an aver- ter for Youth and Sports, observed they were ready to work closely with businesses benefitted from loan faciliage farm area of 2.5 Hectares expect- that the project will help transform rice farmers to address food insecurity ties. the livelihoods of the people of Bu- challenges.

He noted that Budalangi has the ed to serve 80 households.

Messo announced that the Cor- potential of feeding the entire Western Regional manager in charge of nyala who he noted have sufWestern Province, Laban Kiplagat said fered a lot due to perennial flood- poration will give rice farmers from Province due to its proximity to River Bunyala District KSh10 million loan Nzoia where water can be sourced for the board’s main objective was to en- ing of River Nzoia.

“The irrigation project will em- to facilitate the construction of a small irrigation. sure the region has adequate food suppower the people of Budalangi rice milling plant.

Messo disclosed that the Buply by 2030. dalangi Constituency Development “We want to ensure there is ad- to be self reliant in food producFund [CDF] committee had agreed equate food in the region by 2030 as tion and also save them from perenHe urged the residents of Bu- to provide them with an office at the envisioned in Kenya’s development nial flooding from River Nzoia,” said. blueprint,” said Kiplagat, adding that West- Namwamba adding that it would also dalangi, especially the farmers, to CDF offices where they would be able ern Province has a lot of potential for address the high levels of poverty wit- form and register their groups so to process loan applications forms for that they can apply for loan facilities rice farmers. nessed in the area. food production.

He said Agricultural Finance Cor- to promote farming activities in the Messo urged rice farmers and other Heassured the residents of Sisetraders to take advantage of the gesture nye that the project will not inter- poration will open an office in Port region.

“I am surprised to note that no and apply for credit.

Victoria with the aim of helping the fere with any human settlement.

Namwamba said: “I am appealArea Member of Parliament Ababu farmers get loans to assist them ac- farmer from the entire Bunyala DisNamwamba, who launched the proj- tively participate in farming activi- trict has taken loan from the Agricul- ing to you to create a bridge of trust tural Finance Corporation. There is between you and the Agricultural Fiectofficially,praisedtheinitiativesaying it ties.

Addressing stakeholders as well no need to fear taking a loan because nance Corporation so that the organwas mooted 31 years ago by the former area MP, the late Peter Haben- as local leaders at the same function, no development can take place with- isation can continue to provide you Lucas Messo, Managing Director of out credit facilities,” said Messo. He with loans.” ga Okondo, but stalled midway.

Loans

Tribulations of Busia cane farms far from over

By Leonard Acharry Frustrated cane farmers in Busia County will have to wait a little longer before they know the fate of the controversial Busia Sugar Company.

The firm has been in the news for the past decade for all the wrong reasons ending up in court and even being discussed in-depth in Parliament.

Even a tour by two parliamentary committees to the region has not borne fruit.

Indeed, during a recent tour, the two parliamentary committees of land and agriculture were met with shocking revelations by the irate farmers.

Keiyo North legislator Lucas Chepkitony led the committees which met sugarcane stakeholders at the Busia Municipal Hall where they were told that Busia Sugar Company, which later collapsed, was formed in 1990, one year earlier than the intended Government project, Busia Sugar Factory.

While giving his submissions to the six parliamentarians, human rights activist Okiyo Omutata alleged that Busia Sugar Factory was never registered while Busia

Sugar Company, which was registered as a private entity took over and, continued receiving Government support as a parastatal.

Omutata who tabled several booklets containing the history of controversy surrounding the sugar industry in Busia and the Nasewa land, also claimed that Mumias Sugar Company had already recovered its KSh56 million debt owed to it by Busia Sugar Company.

Audit report

“In a financial audited report released on June 30, 2011 by thethen Mumias Sugar Company Managing Director Dr. Evans Kidero, it indicated that the debt Busia Sugar Factory owed Mumias was nil after the latter recovered the money through cultivating Nasewa land for five years,” explained Omutata adding that eight days later, Kidero went to court claiming that Busia Sugar owed Mumias KSh119 million and thus intending to auction the 843 hectares of Nasewa-Bukhayo land to recover the money.

At one point during the three hours session, Kenya Sugar Board Chief Executive Officer.

Rosemary Mkok came under attack from Omutata who alleged that she locked up some vital files which bore crucial evidence about the Busia Sugar Company and Nasewa land controversy.

Mkok who hails from Busia County was put to task as to why she gave licence to three different companies to put up a sugar factory in Busia.

In defence, Mkok said that she operates under certain rules, adding that the three companies were given green light to operate in Busia County to avoid missing an investor in case a sole chosen company fails to put up a factory.

“We decided to give the license to three companies to avoid what happened in Tana Delta where Mumias, which was the only company given a license to put up a factory there, failed to do so nine years later,” explained Mkok.

She added that the three have a period of up to 24 months to build a factory in Busia or be disqualified. The committees which later met farmers at Nasewa, were told how the evictees were conned by the Government by being paid KSh34,000 per hectare instead of KSh100,000 as they had been promised.

They had promised us KSh100,000 then came down to KSh84,000 and finally paid us KSh34,000 and others KSh20,000 and KSh18,000 only,” said Rachael Amoit Opili, one of the evictees whose two hectares of land was taken away.

Opili said four families were never paid a single cent till today together with persons who were under age at the time and whose money was to be kept in a trustee till they turned 18 years.

Root cause

The two committees whose other members are an Assistant minister for Land Bifwoli Wakoli, Mumias legislator Ben Washiali, Evans Akula (Khwisero), Dr Victor Munyaka (Machakos town) and Peter Njuguna Gitau (Mwea) promised to use the views to get to the root cause of the matter and table a substantive report in Parliament for discussion and subsequent adoption.

Local Government minister Dr Paul Otuoma and Busia County Commissioner Joyce Isiaho, who accompanied the team urged area residents to be calm and give the committees time to execute their duties.

ISSUE 071 October 16-31, 2012

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

From orphan to mason, to being widowed and finally cobbler

15

Alfred Odhiambo looks at the bright side of life even when things are not so good

By HENRY OWINO There are many people who claim that men are never responsible in bringing up their children, leaving the burden to mothers and that is why many children appreciate them.

However, there are exceptional men who have brought up their children without their mother’s being present.

Alfred Odhiambo is a widower and a father of two children — a girl aged three years and a boy aged four and half years.

Orphaned

Odhiambo’s parents died while he was a young boy and he cannot remember the year nor their faces.

Odhiambo grew up in a small village in Nyakach, Nyando County and moved to Nairobi after completing his primary education in search of a. In Nairobi, he settled down in the sprawling Kibera slum.

Since Odhiambo was very green in the city and did not have any working experience, he did any work that came his way. This he did for close to two years and in the process making friends as well as gaining experience and knowing the city better. As time went by, he found himself in construction sites as a ‘spanner boy’ something he did passionately.

Most constructions in Nairobi that time were being carried out by Asians and based at Industrial Area therefore forcing him to trek most of the time to and from work. “The pay was miserable but there was nothing I could do as an individual since other colleagues accepted what we were being given,” he says.

Soon after Odhiambo got married and decided to look for a better paying job. He got a job as a stone-chopper where his responsibility entailed whittling building stones to house profile shape.

“The work paid a little bit more but demanded one to be cautious,” he says of the work that would sap up most of his energy.

Despair

At some point, Odhiambo thought of going back to his rural home but realizing how deserted it was, he forged ahead with the challenges in the city. He hoped that things would change for better. The work was designated on first come, first served, so nobody was favoured in terms of giving out duties.

“I was doing this work because I had no other alternative. Some days could be disappointing as I would trek all the way to Industrial Area only to be told there is no work and that I should try the next day,” says Odhiambo. Many times he thought of giving up and going back to the village, but sense would prevail on him and he but persevered the challenge as a man,” Odhiambo recalled.

When Odhiambo’s wife got pregnant for the second time, he knew God had started blessing him. The second born was a baby girl. As fate would have it, the mother died within five days after birth. This left Odhiambo with the burden of raising a five-day old baby together with the first-born son who by was only one year old.

Odhiambo had no alternative but to stop going for the Jua kali work to look after his two children and give them the best care a father would provide. Not going for work, meant that he had no money to feed the young children, pay house rent and fulfil the basic needs.

It was so challenging that he felt like committing suicide together with his two children to escape the hefty burden. He felt so frustrated that one evening he planned to commit suicide and poison his children.

But since his time had not reached, that same evening he had a visitor who came to his house to pay condolence. The prayers he offered turned things around. Odhiambo was touched and revealed his plans to kill the entire family.

“I could only think of the burden ahead of me. Taking care of a baby barely a month old and another one year old was a burden too heavy for me to bear,” he says. Odhiambo adds: “Life was unbearable and I knew death was beckoning at me. I was not working anymore, had borrowed food from neighbours and friends, I had debts, the landlord was on my back, surely I had every reason to commit suicide.

“Luckily enough, God sent a visitor to my house the very night I planned to kill myself and the two children and so it never happened.”

Faith

The visitor whom Odhiambo said was a God sent angel prayed with him and surely both admitted that God answers prayers and with Him nothing is impossible. The prayer’s message was the beginning of hope for the emaciated Odhiambo who jokingly stated, if God was for all and fair in provision, he would not die of hunger but live on.

“If the God that I serve is for the rich and the poor, I will face tomorrow because He lives. I have come from far with these two little children,” he says.

Although they still lack many things including food, Odhiambo has been taking care of children without any proper income generating activity.

He has withstood the test of harsh times.

Today the little girl is three years old. Though looking frail, she is gaining weight.

Odhiambo has become a practical testimony to people living in Kibera. Residents always joke that if God protected his family then one does not need any miracle to believe that God exists. He is proof enough that the hand of God Himself is working.

“The Bible says God is the father to orphans and husband to widows, so I believe in that verse,”

Alfred Odhiambo at his workstation at Otiende shopping centre in Langata where he works as a cobbler. At work with his two children. Alfred carrying his two children from his residential house to work which is a kilometre away. Pictures: Henry Owino he says paraphrasing the Bible.

Odhiambo says he is not ready to re-now but will wait until such a time that he is satisfied that the two children are able to be self sufficient.

He says most step-mothers mistreat children they find in a marriage and the far he has come with them, he is not ready to accept any form of them being mishandled. He goes with them everywhere because leaving them with neighbours is another chapter of a story.

“Some people around here talk negatively about me. They say I should get another woman and re-marry, they even sent away a househelp that I had brought telling her that I would rape her. Others come pretending to be sympathising with my situation but in reality want to know how I live,” he says.

Today Odhiambo has developed a cobbler’s

“I was doing this work because I had no other alternative.

Some days could be disappointing as I would trek all the way to Industrial Area only to be told there is no work and that I should try the next day.”

— Alfred Odhiambo

skills and he repairs shoes at Otiende Shopping Centre, Lang’ata in Nairobi. This is one way that enables him put food on the table.

The girl is named Marrion and the boy, Tony and he says they are very intelligent. He plans to take them to school in 2013.

“Nowadays I do not leave these two children behind. I go with them everywhere even to the market because some neighbours think I do so to escape my obligations as a parent. So they mistreat them and even deny them food e.”

Odhiambo is a man who has faced real life challenges yet he says one day God will send well-wishers to sponsor his children and give him some work to do for a living.

16

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

ISSUE 071, October 16-31, 2012

NEMA plans to make Nairobi and its environs cleaner

By HENRY KAHARA

“Garbage collectors will be providing the clients with four dustbins and or plastic paper National Environmental Management Authority bags, of different colours to empty their waste (NEMA) has revealed new mechanism of disposmaterials. The colour of the container will be ing waste materials. The mechanism which is in the determinant of where to put the waste,” he line with the Waste Management Regulations said.

2006, emphasises the need for proper waste manGreen container will take care of kitchen agement. wastes (organic matters), white will be for recyThe regulation classifies various types of waste cling materials such as polythene papers, blue and recommended appropriate disposal methods will be for industrial wastes such as computer for each waste type. Under the Waste Managewhile black is expected to carry the general ment Regulations, NEMA licenses transporters, waste. landfills, composers, recyclers and transfer staThe move is expected to influence a positions. tive change of attitude and behaviour towards Speaking at the launch of the new method, the environment. Waste Management RegulaProf Geoffrey Wahungu, NEMA Director Gentions 2006 emphasises on the need for proper eral said this will help to improve hygiene stanwaste management from generation, collection, dards for clean and healthy environment and at transport, storage treatment and final disposal. the same time it would also lessen recyclers’ job.

Currently, different types of waste are dumped haphazardly posing serious environmental and health concerns. The regulations place emphasis Department of Environment and the Clean Kenya Campaign during a clean-up “This programme will be carried out by on waste minimization, cleaner production and exercise at Laini Saba and Lindi in Kibera slum. Pictures: Courtesy Clean Kenya Campaign NEMA in collaboration with stakeholders and is segregation of waste at source. expected to improve hygiene in rapidly growing At the moment, NEMA is moving away from and every Kenyan to live in a clean environment Currently Olkejuado County Council has estates,” noted Wahungu. mere commemorations to practical application it is also an individual’s responsibility to maintain been granted KSh480 million by the World Bank Facilities to be licensed include local auof waste management technologies including it,” said Wahungu. towards replanning of Kitengela, Ongata Rongai thorities, transporters and handlers of various segregation and recycling.

Article 42 of the Kenyan Constitution states and Ngong towns. types of waste. The licensing team will use a The new mechanism is expected to enable the that every person has the right to a clean and risk-based approach by concentrating on faciliapplication of the principle of Reduce, Re-use and healthy environment. This is reaffirmed by arties considered to pose a high risk to the enviRecyle (3R). ticle 70 (1) which states that if a person alleges According to the council’s chairman, Josiah ronment. that a right to a clean and healthy environment Taraya ole Kores, each of the three towns will Currently, garbage collectors are required to recognised under Article 42 has been, is being or receive an equal share of KSh160 million which provide their clients with four disposing containWahungu, who was addressing guests at the likely to be denied, violated, infringed or threatwill be used to draw fresh plans for service lines ers of different colours.

World Clean Up Day 2012 celebration in Ngong, ened, the person may apply to court for redress such as electricity and sewer. The money will According to Wahungu, the different colours noted that it is every citizen’s responsibility to in addition to any other legal remedies that area be disbursed through the Nairobi Metropolitan on the containers are expected to guide users on maintain cleanliness. available in respect to the same matter.

Ministry. where to take their waste matters.

“Although it is a Constitutional right for each Wahungu announced that plans are underThe three towns have a population in excess of way to upgrade sewerage system in Nairobi as 80,000 people each, thanks to their proximity to many of them were in deplorable state.

Nairobi as well as affordable rents and land prices.

The event held in Ngong town under the “The council welcomes NEMA policy of solid theme, ‘our place, our planet, our responsibility’ waste management as it will ease garbage collecleft residents with a smile on their faces as NEMA, tion in the towns. The policy will ensure that all in collaboration with Ministry of Nairobi Metrohazardous waste undergo treatment before transpolitan Development promised to build a 20 acre portation to designated disposal or transfer sites,” — Prof Geoffrey Wahungu, NEMA Director General dumping site in the area.

Kores said.

Expectations

Funding

Responsibility

“Although it is a Constitutional right for each and every Kenyan to live in a clean environment it is also an individual’s responsibility to maintain it.”

Executive Director: Rosemary Okello Editor: Jane Godia

Write to:

info@mdcafrica.org

Sub-Editors: Joyce Chimbi, Mercy Mumo, Carolyne Oyugi and Faith Muiruri Designer: Noel Lumbama

www.mdcafrica.org

Contributors: Araka Matara, Ricky Okwayo, Aggrey Buchunju, Wilson Rotich, Boniface Mulu, Rose Japhet, Martin Murithi, Felix Wanderi, Hussein Dido, Ken Ndambu, Mweri Mayenge,Waikwa Maina, Omondi Gwengi, Gilbert Ochieng, Miller Omega, Duncan Mboyah, Leonard Acharry and Henry Owino

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