Reject Online Issue 36

March 16-31, 2011

ISSUE 036

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

Vulgar music and HIV infection Young people in direct correlation with entertainment that leaves them most vulnerable

By CHARLES NJERU HIV infection among youth who listen to sexually explicit and vulgar music is potentially high. Experts have warned youths who listen to such music are at a high risk of infection.

Recent studies conducted by an organisation known as Support for Addictions Prevention and Treatment in Africa (SAPTA), shows the magnitude of the problem.

“We have done the studies and found that there is a direct correlation between vulgar music, alcohol or drug addiction and HIV infection. Our studies based on interviews of young people as we counsel them prove otherwise,” says Mr William Sinkele, SAPTA’s Executive Director.

“We have as many as 300 people who come to us for help in any given week. They all want to get away from their problems. No one born in this world wishes to get infected with HIV or to be associated with alcoholism,” says Sinkele.

The organisation assists alcoholics and drug addicts overcome their problem. Sinkele, himself a recovered alcoholic, says that the National Aids Control Council should include alcohol abuse and social influences of HIV infection such as vulgar music in their research programmes.

“There is great importance for this to be included in the national study programmes as this will determine the way forward on how new infections can be curbed or reduced,” reiterated Sinkele.

The current HIV infection rates average about 150,000 monthly and the study shows there is a direct correlation between alcohol, music and HIV infection.

“As a parent, I always worry about what my teenage son listens to. He has in the recent past even become rebellious and does not want to take any instructions from me. He is 17 and does not want to be told how he to live his life,” says Ms Sunshine Mueni, a parent.

Different studies that have been conducted in the United States and United Kingdom show that negative or unproductive music has a negative influence towards the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases and several other health complications.

A Nairobi based psychologist, Dr Joseph Mukubwa, says that for instance when one mixes alcohol with music in a club full of prostitutes, the message that the music sends to the listener could be sexually bound.

“Part of my job is to counsel and guide people on the best ways to lead their lives. I occasionally have to ask them which music that they like listening to and the answers I receive are not surprising. Most listen to the Continued on page 2

From top: Revellers dancing at a nightclub. Police inspecting matatus for music systems. Loud and raunchy music played in matatus and nightclubs has been linked to HIV infections amongst the youth. They are known for playing provocative music and videos.

Pictures: Reject Correspondent

Read more Reject stories online at www.mediadiversityafrica.org

2

ISSUE 036, March 16-31, 2011

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Male circumcision taken to the altar

By BEN ONYANGO Fourteen years ago, Pastor Joel Odondi heard about male circumcision while at college. He shrugged off the idea of getting circumcised because it was unheard of in his Luo community then.

However, in 2005, Odondi was posted to work as a youth pastor at AIC Arina Church in Kisumu. It was while here that he learned about the benefits of voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) during the random controlled trial of male circumcision for HIV prevention.

“When I heard about male circumcision and its benefits, I made the decision to go for the ‘cut’ in 2008 at the University of Nairobi, Illinois and Manitoba (UNIM) Research and Training Centre,” says Odondi said.

More knowledge

Odondi learned much more about the procedure. The random controlled trial of male circumcision for HIV prevention was under way at the Universities of Nairobi, Illinois and Manitoba (UNIM) Research and Training Centre in Kisumu, and male circumcision had become a topic of discussion in Nyanza Province.

In September 2008, Odondi attended a public meeting where he heard Prime Minister Raila Odinga, recommend that his constituents consider male circumcision for HIV prevention.

The pastor was more convinced than ever

of the health and hygiene benefits of male circumcision. In addition to reducing men’s risk of HIV infection, the procedure also helps protect the female partners of circumcised men from human papilloma virus, which causes cervical cancer.

A few months later, he decided to go for the cut. Odondi says initially he made several bookings at the clinic but postponed them because he mistakenly thought the six-week healing period would keep him away from his work for too long. “As a man of God you must meet your people everyday for spiritual advice so I had to postpone my visit.”

However, he eventually went for it and after the circumcision, Odondi was surprised that he felt little pain and could go back to work. Three days later, he gave a sermon for the students and staff of two secondary schools in Kisumu.

“Ever since I got circumcised, I have been relaying information about the benefits of male circumcision to the congregants and fellow pastors, relatives and friends,” Odondi says.

He adds: “I advise men and women out there that male circumcision does not offer complete protection against HIV infection and that it reduces, but does not eliminate a man’s chances of becoming infected.”

Odondi’s message to both men and women is that unprotected sex with a circumcised man is not safe sex. He is committed to sustaining his fight against HIV, and his motto is: “It can be done, must be done. If it is not done, then we

are done. Fear fears itself.”

Ever since Odondi got circumcised, he has been talking to his congregants, fellow pastors, relatives, and friends about the benefits of the procedure. As a youth pastor, he believes it is his responsibility to help young people make informed choices about protecting their health.

“I relay the messages through sermons, youth seminars and young adults’ fellowship,” he says, adding that they have a membership of 600 people.

Arina AIC Church also has a HIV response task force which has helped the minister spread the message about male circumcision and HIV prevention.

Positive response

Speaking of the positive response by the Luo community on voluntary medical male circumcision, public health officer Dr Silas Achar says that the 2010 Rapid Results Initiative (RRI) has exceeded its target of reaching 41,000 men and boys in Nyanza Province with voluntary medical male circumcision services over 30 working days.

More than 16,000 men and boys have been circumcised since the launch of the second Rapid Results Initiative (RRI) on November18.

As of December 3, at least 16,121 men and boys had received free voluntary medical male circumcision services, which include the procedure and additional HIV prevention services: risk-reduction counselling, condoms, screen-

Pastor Joel Odondi, youth pastor at AIC Arina Church in Kisumu.

Picture: Ben Onyango ing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections and HIV counselling and testing.

The RRI is an intensive effort to meet the anticipated high demand for male circumcision during the school holidays. In December it was underway in more than 200 sites in 11 districts of Nyanza Province.

Achar says the Ministries of Medical Services and Public Health staff and partner organisations have been offering these services in more than 170 health facilities and outreach sites such as schools and social halls.

“All VMMC clients receive comprehensive HIV prevention services, which include the male circumcision procedure, risk-reduction counselling, condoms, screening and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, and they offer of HIV counselling and testing.”

HIV linked to raunchy music Men asked to come forward and face the knife

Continued from page 1

current local hip hop, and rap music that has hit the country in recent years,” says Mukubwa “Surprisingly, three quarters of the people who test positive after visiting my centre admitted to listening to the generational music which many times is rebellious,” said Mukubwa.

Lobbying

A group of independent lobbyists mostly from academia are also pushing the Kenya government to include the influence of music and how it impacts on HIV infections. Such studies have never been included in the Kenya Health Demographic Survey.

Prof Samson Munywoki, a sociology lecturer from the United States International University says the relationship between HIV infection and music is real.

“Music can be positive but it can also be negative, depending on the songs that one listens to and how they may impact their lives.

That is being realistic. We as academia need to focus more on this matter. I do believe that research is a good way of solving societal ills,” explains Munywoki.

He adds that most of the music that the youth listen to in Kenya is immoral and the people who sing the songs tend to send a sexual message to the listeners.

“Most of the genge singers for example are young and they have a message to send. Living in a society where one is macho by having many sexual partners, we need to focus more on music and how it impacts on HIV infection,” says Munywoki.

Mukubwa explains that youths aged between 13 to 27 years are the most vulnerable to HIV infection based on the music that they listen to.

“We as youth are at a high risk of HIV infection based on the music that we listen to, we may have a lost generation if this problem continues to go unabated,” says 25 year old engineer who requested anonymity.

Salome Wanjiru aged 72, who got infected with HIV three years ago, says the youth should concentrate on more creative activities such as career development.

Self expression

However, for youth who believe in and like this kind of music the thinking is different.

“I love having fun when I am out in with my friends. I do not see anything wrong with that. I do love drinking beer and listening to music. I also believe that it is a lifestyle and that is even how one meets a potential spouse. It is also a way of self expression,” says John Mwangi, 23, a security guard in Nairobi.

He says listening to vulgar music whether in a bar or matatu should be viewed as normal by society.

“Both men and women have different tastes in their music. It is true that music defines my personality and what I listen to really matters,” explains Mwangi.

A matatu conductor Mukindia Murungi says: “Music brings a message and the message has to be delivered. It makes one make a decision, it can be both bad and good.”

By GILBERT OCHIENG Busia residents have been urged to embrace voluntary male circumcision as a way of reducing the chances of contracting HIV/Aids and other sexually transmitted infections.

Speaking during the launch of the voluntary male circumcision project at the Busia Compassionate Children’s Home recently, Nambale Constituency Aids control coordinator, Mr Wilfred Magoba expressed concerns over the high HIV/Aids prevalence.

The prevalence currently stands at 7.4 percent but can be reduced if men of all ages come forward voluntarily and accept to face the knife.

“The project which targets at least 600 males from Busia Township, Bumala,

Matayos and Butula will take place within six months where individuals will receive free services during that period except for dressing where they will be referred to the nearest health institutions,” Magoba explained. After that period, individuals will have to pay for the same services.

The project, which was initiated by Mrs Stella Egesa, coordinator and Manager Busia Compassionate Children’s Home and is funded by the National Aids Control Council will be conducted by skilled personnel in a conducive environment approved by the Ministry of health.

Confidentiality will be exercised throughout the process. All those who want to go through the process will be required to seek consent from the concerned individual so as to avoid any chance of exposing them to stigma, especially among

the elderly male who feel embarrassed to come forward for circumcision more often when female medical officers conduct the exercise.

“Stakeholders are advised to give the right information that reflects on circumcision and this should be done in a culturally sensitive manner,” Magoba reiterated.

He said most people are not aware of the benefits of circumcision due to ignorance and cultural hindrance among communities.

Male circumcision is not only done in Kenya but also globally and for medical reasons since the foreskin is susceptible to HIV infection as well as genital ulcers and increases chances of cervical cancer among females whose partners are not circumcised.

Spouses remain at greatest risk of contracting virus

By MUSEMBI NZENGU While awareness about HIV/Aids has increased, behaviour change remains the greatest stumbling block to stopping infections.

Married couples face the greatest risk of contracting the HIV than the demonised commercial sex workers.

Mwingi Central District Officer, Ms Stella Gichamba pointed out that due to high infidelity among spouses, HIV/ Aids was spreading at an alarming rate among married partners more than among commercial sex workers.

“The much diabolised commercial sex workers are awake to the risk of infection due to their multiple partners and thus use protection. On the contrary, unfaithful spouses do not use any protection thus exposing themselves to HIV,” said Gichamba.

The DO was officiating a HIV/Aids awareness and communication workshop for the Mwingi GK Prison ward-

ers and their spouses at Waita trading centre.

She lamented that the rate of infection among married couples was worrying and needed to be addressed as a matter of priority.

She told the participants of the workshop, held under the aegis of AMREF Maanisha programme through the Kitui Living Water Family Church that “it was time spouses shunned infidelity to curb the spread of HIV/AIDs”.

The Mwingi GK Prison boss Benjamin Ngari, the officer in charge of HIV/Aids and Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Mwingi Richard Kisinzi and the host Pastor James Mwanzia, accompanied the DO. She lauded the church for being on the forefront in spreading the anti-HIV gospel.

“Curbing the spread of HIV is one of the key hallmarks in my performance contract and I am happy that the church is supplementing my work by

playing a leading role in encouraging behaviour change,” said Gichamba.

She reiterated that chiefs working under her were encouraging zero tolerance to infidelity among spouses in the area to curtail infection and disruption of family units.

“I have instructed chiefs to encourage spouses to constantly seek Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) services besides encouraging them to remain faithful to each other and fight stigma against the infected,” reiterated Gichamba.

She added: “There is need to target youth in the 14 to 24 years age bracket who run a high risk of contracting the HIV/Aids because they were sexually active and ignorant of protection use.”

Gichamba observed: “Youngsters are becoming sexually active early, in some cases nine year olds are becoming pregnant. We have to target them as a matter of priority in order to check the spread of HIV/Aids.”

ISSUE 036, March 16-31, 2011

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

3

Schooling comes to a standstill as wells run dry

By JOY MONDAY

It is 1.00pm and a group of pupils rush out of class obviously ready to be served lunch. However, their hopes are dimmed as the 400 children of Nasal Primary School in Pokot County will not have the meal. The food has not been cooked because there is no water. The only borehole dried up a few days ago.

“Today we are not going to have lunch as usual. There is no water for cooking the food,” announces Mr Elijah Loinit, head teacher to the hundreds of hungry faces staring at him.

Loinit confirms that the institution has been without water after a local borehole dried up a couple of days ago. They have been relying on water supplied by the Government.

The school shared the borehole with the neighboring community until the water dwindled. “We have enough food in the store supplied to us by World Food programme (WFP) and the Government but we cannot cook because there is no water,” Loinit said.

Feeding programme

The ravaging drought has hit the semi-arid county interrupting the feeding programme that is supposed to help retain children in school. The feeding programme in a way also helps mitigate against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and early marriages.

Mercy Ngikole is among pastoralist children whose dreams to excel in examination are being put into jeopardy by the devastating drought.

Ngikole dropped out of school last month and returned home only to find the homestead abandoned. The girl’s parents migrated to Kerita area in Nakapiripirit District, Eastern Uganda in the search for pasture and water.

“I left school after we ran out of water and retuned home hopefully to get help from my parents but they were not there. I was told they migrated to Uganda to graze the family’s herd,” said Ngikole at Alale Trading Centre where she has joined a relative.

Until March last year, the region had enough pasture and water. The children were also enrolled in local boarding schools. Even mobile schools established in the remote areas to help children who followed their families with cattle have not been spared the biting drought.

Teachers loaded their book bags and a small

blackboard onto motorcycles and would move with the families through the arid, dusty plains. These schools accommodated the tradition and cultures of the pastoralists while ensuring children did not grow up illiterate.

Since June last year, extended periods of drought in the northwest grazing areas, brought on by the effects of climate change, have forced many pastoralist children to miss school.

Lack of water

Until September, mobile schools operating in areas with shallow wells and dams had to close due to a lack of water and pasture. District Education Officer, Mr Ahmed Mohammed says that drought has disrupted learning for over 32,000 children in the area.

They have been forced some to drop out of school and join their parents who have moved to Uganda.

“Lack of water in school has disrupted the feeding programme which has helped in the retention of children in schools. We are worried Children at Kopulio Primary School in Pokot learning there will be more drop outs since under a tree as a boy who is supposed to be in school learning has been jeopardised by the walks with containers in the search of water. drought,” explains Mohammed.

Picture: Joy Monday Lessons in 89 primary schools have been paralysed as they lack water to livestock that we had taken to Uganda died,” prepare meals for the children. “The schools have said John Lokitiola, a community elder from enough food distributed by the Government but Kesei Village. there is no water to cook the food. The instituThe Pokot and Turkana are accustomed to tions are in a dilemma,” Mohammed reiterated. the regular droughts that occur in the region between August and December. The rains are unpredictable. The drought and extreme heat Regional District Commissioner Mr George being experienced has dried out vegetation as Onyango recently convened an urgent meeting well as water in the wells and pans. to try and mobilise resources towards drought Since the introduction of Free Primary Edumitigation. “We have stirred up efforts to mocation, the Government has been tough on the bilise resources and to ferry water from Suam pastoralists convincing the community that River which is miles away and deliver it to local secular education was vital for their children schools,” said Onyango. and a key to prosperity.

The official said over 10,000 herders in the Parents in the area were initially reluctant area have flocked Uganda in search of pasture to send their children to school, a situation that and water for their livestock. The drought has left majority of the young people to grow up ilintensified making local boreholes and dams to literate. Young girls are traditionally married off dry up forcing the community to move across to elders in exchange for bride price of several, the border to Uganda in search of pasture. cows, goats and sheep.

“We put on a brave face after some of our While this practice continues, education is

Mobilising resources

beginning to change the community’s attitude to women. Boarding schools have saved the girls from being sold off and many pastoralist children have completed primary education and joined secondary school.

Tension high as pasture and water gets scarce

By EKUWAM ADOU While upper Eastern and neighbouring Samburu East enjoyed relative peace, the drought ravaging the country threatens to reverse the gains.

Competition over fast diminishing pasture and shrinking levels of water by traditional feuding communities is likely to rekindle longheld deep-seated hostilities among the rival communities. This is because they are now forced to share vital resources by vagaries of adverse climatic conditions.

Already the ominous sign of looming imminent clash is on air, with Meru communities in neighbouring Igembe North now demanding expulsion of Somali herdsmen. They are accusing them of having let livestock stray into their farms and homes.

Cattle rustling

The penchant of communities from neighbouring Samburu East engaging in endless cattle rustling activities, stealing livestock from Host communities in Isiolo and Meru districts is complicating an already fragile security situation.

Over 100 heads of cattle livestock were recently stolen from Magado area in Isiolo by raiders suspected to have crossed over from neighbouring Samburu East District in an incident that left one person injured. Security officers pursued and recovered some of the stolen animals in Samburu East.

Tension is building in grazing fields along the

banks of Ewaso Ngiro, In Koom and Bisan Biliqo where thousands of livestock from as far as Moyale, Marsabit and Samburu East have migrated.

Hundreds of pastoral communities from rival Somali, Borana, Samburu, Rendille andTurkana communities have congregated at the makeshift settlements trying to fend for themselves and their animals.

Clouds of tensions, distrust and suspicions is on air, when perpetually warring communities are brought into unholy alliance by adversity of nature each trying to cling on to the hope of securing the now fast diminishing pasture and water.

Already signs of flare-ups have been reported after the killing of one person at Ilaat area in a botched abduction bid. The man was knifed by a youngster whom he had attempted to kidnap.

At the Shaba Hills range, Turkana, Borana, Somali and Merus herdsmen have congregated at Ndomoru, Sharp, and Ilaut grazing zones barely scrapping for depleted pasture and water from bore holes. Petty theft of goats and sheep by hunger-stricken herders has already been reported.

The simmering discontent and suspicion among these traditionally feuding communities currently now forced to share scarce resources is a time bomb. Preventive measures have to be put in place to avert the situation before it degenerates into a catastrophe.

It is against this background that civil society groups have joined hands and launched peace and reconciliation meetings to preach

Samburu Morans listen attentively to proceedings at a peace meeting organised by professionals from the area. Picture: Ekuwam Adou tolerance and need for co-existence devoid of disharmony and endless suspicion.

Friends of Nomads International (FONI), a regional NGO operating in Upper Eastern has rolled up communities peace initiatives targeting grassroots communities with the aim of averting a looming conflict as thousands of livestock

migrate to Isiolo Merti area along Ewaso Nyiro River banks.

FONI Programme coordinator, Mr Yusuf Dogo says they have conducted public barazas in Ndomuru and Eremet areas where thousands of livestock from different pastoral communities have congregated.

4

ISSUE 036, March 16-31, 2011

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

A curse or a disease? Demystifying tuberculosis Journalists take lead in creating awareness

By ABJATA KHALIF Asha Ali, is suffering from tuberculosis (TB).

A resident of Sankuri area, Garissa County, Ali’s community believes that TB afflicts one who has been cursed or born out of wedlock.

When Ali was diagnosed with the disease, her family disowned and chased her way from home. She did not know anything about TB and subscribed to the belief that the disease was bad and meant for those who have been cursed.

Isolation

“I only realised that I was suffering from the disease after I got uninterrupted coughs and my family suggested I was suffering from the disease. First I was isolated within the compound and as they observed to see if I was suffering from TB,” explains Ali. In isolation, her condition deteriorated and the family summoned a health worker from a village 100 kilometres away. The health worker confirmed to the family that she was indeed suffering from tuberculosis. It was then that she was ordered out of the home.

“I was shocked when my parents and brothers ordered me out of the compound because I was suffering from TB. I fainted because I could not believe my ears. I found myself outside our home with my luggage beside me. I went to some neighbours but they also chased me away.”

She was forced to sleep in the cold until she was saved by someone who transported her from the village to Garissa town where she was taken to the main hospital.

Ali is among thousands of Somali community members who suffer silently due to a cultural belief that is outdated and based on a wrong notion.

Survivors have been forced out of their family homes to TB villages that are managed by the Kenyan government with support from key donors like World Bank and International Development Association (IDA).

Somali communities in Wajir, Mandera and Garissa have over the years treated curable infections like tuberculosis as dangerous diseases that lack treatment and whose carriers are regarded as cursed people.

According to TB coordinator in northern Kenya, Mr Abdi Bashey, the disease has spread to every corner of the region and is causing misery.

Bashey attributes the wide spread of the disease to outdated cultures that regard TB as incurable and a curse.

“Right now we are grappling with how to address TB cases in the region. The prevalence rate is too high and we cannot cope with the numbers, though we are trying,” says Bashey.

He adds: “The TB problem in the north is fuelled by community attitude and cultural beliefs that has contributed to its massive spread.”

The pastoralist communities that inhabit northern Kenya have ignored the fact that the disease is curable and can be prevented. Majority of them believe that the disease is contracted by people born out of wedlock; those who have done some mistakes against the community or those who have been cursed by their parents, old people and other members of the community.

An elder from the community, Mr Abdi Ali says for many years they respected the version that the disease is a curse.

“We respect and follow to the letter our cultural beliefs. We don’t care if it is your son or daughter who gets infected. Once someone gets infected, she or he is chased away because we cannot stay with a cursed person and if we do

Members of the Somali community, including men and women as well as elders and religious leaders from Danyarey area in Garissa during a TB awareness sensitisation workshop.

Pictures: Abjata Khalif then the curse will affect other members of the community.”

Since TB is infectious, the community believes that by staying with one who is cursed, others also get infected. They have not understood the ways in which the disease is transmitted.

Abdi says the community believed that the only way of preventing TB infections was by chasing away the infected person. This, way, the curse would leave the families, community and the village. “We have used those methods of chasing away the infected person so that we can keep the respect of our families and community as well as ensure the curse is not passed on to any other family member.”

However, the situation is now changing with regards to the community’s belief after the Kenya Pastoralist Journalist Network took TB education and awareness campaigns to remote villages and grazing points in Wajir and Garissa.

The programme brought together various stakeholders under the Pastoralist TB Awareness Campaign funded by Stop TB Partnership.

The stakeholders were carefully selected from various groups within the community and brought together to brainstorm on the entry point of addressing the problem and changing the community’s perception on the disease.

They included women, youth, TB patients, religious leaders, community elders and medical personnel.

Forums

Communities in all remote villages listened to various speakers from the stakeholders group and they were taught on disease transmission, treatment and prevention. They were informed on the danger posed by stigma and ostracisation of TB patients.

“We respect and follow to the letter our cultural beliefs.

Once someone gets infected, she or he is chased away because we cannot stay with a cursed person — Abdi Ali, Community elder

In one of the forums, pastoralists were shocked to hear that the diseases is curable as they listened to religious and women leaders who are respected at grassroots level, and whose words were reinforced by medical personnel.

The campaign saw community members talking in low tones. They immediately flocked to health centres in places like Sankuri, Danyarey and Saqa areas of Garissa to seek for information and test for TB. A local nurse at Sankuri Health Centre, Bashir Hassan says that they could not cope

with number of people jamming the centre for testing and inquiring from them if TB drugs are available in the centre.

“The campaign came at a good time. Previously, I faced difficulties in educating the community as they could hear nothing about the diseases,” says Hassan. “It seems they are now understanding because the campaigns have included religious and women leaders.”

She adds: “I have received 300 people today for testing and I anticipate more will come as word goes around.”

Factfile • Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by bacteria whose scientific name is Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

• TB is contagious and spreads through the air.

• More than two billion people — one third of the world’s total population — are infected with TB bacilli, the microbes that cause TB. • One in every 10 of those people will become sick with active TB in his or her lifetime. People living with HIV are at a much greater risk due weakened immune systems.

• TB most commonly affects the lungs but can involve almost any organ of the body.

• Some of the symptoms include feeling weak or sick, rapid weight loss (over a few weeks or months), fever or night sweats.

• Symptoms of TB of the lungs may include cough, chest pain, or coughing up blood. Other symptoms depend on the particular part of the body that is affected.

• If not treated, each person with active TB can infect on average 10 to 15 people a year.

• Among the 15 countries with the highest estimated TB incidence rates, 13 are in Africa, while a third of all new cases are in India and China.

• Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) is a form of TB that does not respond to the standard treatments using first-line drugs. MDR-TB is present in virtually all countries surveyed by WHO and its partners.

• TB often requires long period of treatments which can last up to one year or more.

ISSUE 036, March 16-31, 2011

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

TB stigma fuels gender violence

By ABJATA KHALIF Communities in northern Kenya are guided by their cultural beliefs that are adhered to with strictness. Without a second thought as to the effects of the community’s ways to different situations, people suffering from certain diseases have found themselves in desperation after being stigmatised and ostracised.

Diseases such as HIV/Aids and tuberculosis have seen an increase in cases of violence directed at women survivors being chased away by their families for contracting tuberculosis.

World TB Day, falls on March 24 each year.

It is designed to build public awareness that tuberculosis today remains an epidemic, causing the deaths of several million people each year, mostly in developing countries. March 24th commemorates the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch astounded the scientific community by announcing that he had discovered the cause of tuberculosis, the TB bacillus. At the time of Koch’s announcement in Berlin, TB was raging through Europe and the Americas, causing the death of one out of every seven people. Koch’s discovery opened the way towards diagnosing and curing TB. However, in northern Kenya, there will be no marking of this day as cultural biases, stigma and ostracisation of tuberculosis patients is contributing to cases of gender violence targeting women diagnosed with the disease.

The people living in the remote villages in the north are ignorant about these diseases and

have instead stuck to their cultural beliefs where they view TB as a curse. For this reason hundreds of TB survivors have been thrown out of their homes so they do not infect the other family members with the curse.

The survivors have particularly had a rough time when their condition worsened and especially when they are experiencing continuous cough and weigh loss. TB survivors end up being thrown out of the community traditional homestead. They have to fend for themselves and get alternative shelter and medical care.

Help has come in the form of good samaritans who take them to the nearest health centres where they get support and protection while undergoing treatment.

However, the situation is not same for those who have been diagnosed with the disease. Majority have ended up being chased away from their family home.

The victims have had to suffer in the hands of young men who take advantage of their weakness, sickness and loneliness to wage attacks against them. They have been raped in some cases.

The women only get reprieve if they manage to get to a TB manyatta or health centres.

Despite suffering the trauma of being sick and facing ostracisation, the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases puts the women in a more precarious position.

The situation is made worse by the fact that community members do not bother to come to their rescue even when they raise alarm. They disregard the cries with simple notion that the woman is being haunted by the curse.

Nasra Odhwai, a TB patient was attacked by four young men in Dertu village, Garissa District after she was chased away by her family for showing symptoms of the disease.

Odhwai says: “I was chased in the evening and with no place to go. I decided to sleep outside our traditional house. In middle of the night, I was woken up by four young men and they tried to remove my clothes. I was helpless and I started shouting but nobody came to my rescue. I was gang raped by the four men. The incident still haunts me.”

The young men who attacked Odhwai are part of a gang that spend the whole day chewing miraa (khat), a mild stimulant that keeps then awake the whole night. It also increases their sexual libido.

One of the young men who participated in

The victims have had to suffer in the hands of young men who take advantage of their weakness, sickness and loneliness to wage attacks against them.

5

a rape orgy and later contracted TB claims the gang he belongs to has raped about 20 women who were thrown out of their homes.

“I raped TB survivors and now that I am infected I must get treatment before my family throws me out,” says Abdirahman Olow.

He says: “After chewing miraa and we would patrol the village where we normally came across women sleeping outside their huts. We knew that they had been thrown out and could have sex with them forcefully.”

Olow regrets the action because when he realised that he had contracted the disease, he fled the village to Garissa town where he hopes to get treatment. He now understands the amount of pain and suffering the women underwent as result of the attacks and rape in the remote villages.

However, it is clear that the attacks directed against women TB patients is due to ignorance that rides high on some outdated beliefs associated with disease.

The regional deputy TB coordinator, Mr Harun Hussein says such attacks have been reported in all villages by patients who have found to the health centre and that the situation is fuelled by community rejection of the TB patients.

“Almost all women brought to the health centre say they have been attacked, beaten and raped. Only few escaped the ordeal.”

However the situation is slowly changing now and the community has been getting TB education from various religious groups and women leaders in the region.

How Kenya has managed to deal with lung disease challenges

By MUSA RADOLI The most dreaded and highly stigmatized disease to which Tuberculosis (TB) was closely linked is the debilitating leprosy, believed to be extremely contagious. Ironically, TB is today is closely associated with HIV/Aids as one of its commonest opportunistic infection.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) report released last year, the early history of TB control in Kenya is closely linked to the history of leprosy control.

Leper settlements

“Before the Second World War, leprosy patients in Kenya were maintained in small ‘leper settlements’. These were in Kakamega, Lamu, Malindi and Tumbe. In 1948, the first attempts were made to treat leprosy systematically using dapsone monotherapy with little focus on TB,” says report.

Between 1951 and 1957, the Alupe Leprosarium was built in Busia District, Western Province to manage upto 300 patients mostly infected by leprosy and some with TB. In 1973, the Ministry of Health issued a circular that described TB diagnostic procedures, chemotherapy, case-holding, bacteriological monitoring as well as recording and reporting systems to be implemented in all districts.

By the end of the 1970s, the incidence of TB declined. Leprosy, on the other hand, was still prevalent in some areas and continued to receive attention.

The WHO reports that in early 1970s, the Government of Kenya with the assistance of the Netherlands Leprosy Relief Association (NLRA) initiated a number of separate leprosy control projects, including the West Kenya Lep-

rosy Control Scheme, the Meru and Kitui leprosy projects and the Coast Leprosy Control Scheme.

In 1976, these projects were brought together in the National Leprosy Control Programme (NLP). Interest in controlling TB was revived in the late The building which used to be Leprosy Training Centre at the Alupe District Hospital in 1970s with the recognition of the need South Teso District has now been abandoned. to strengthen control of the disease in Picture: Michael Oongo developing countries.

“In many countries, the control of TB was carried out by the NLP, which pliance with treatment was poor and up to 70 One Kenyan doctor who was closely inalready had strong organisational structures. In percent of patients defaulted. In order to convolved in the programme, Dr S. Adalla says: 1980, the Government of Kenya launched the trol the disease in these mobile populations, TB “Treatment in the manyattas was observed National Leprosy and TB Control Programme patients were admitted into newly constructed directly every day, with rifampicin included or NLTP (2) in which the existing TB control small villages, or manyattas, adjacent to healthduring the first four months of treatment; activities were combined with the activities of care facilities for four months. this was the start of directly-observed treatthe NLP (4),” says the report.

The concept of the ‘TB manyatta’ was startment using short-course chemotherapy in During the 1980s, further steps were taken ed by Dr Tonelli, a Catholic nun who in 1976 Kenya.” to improve the quality of TB control, initially persuaded nomads in Wajir District who were After four months of treatment, patients by getting provincial leprosy coordinators, infected with TB to construct their dwellings were given a three-month supply of Thiazina many of whom were expatriate staff from the next to her health centre to make it possible to (thioacetazone and isoniazid) for self-adminNetherlands, to take on some of the work of TB receive supervised drug administration. istration and discharged. Treatment complicontrol.

Patients were admitted for four months ance improved greatly and TB manyattas have Recognising the need for dedicated TB and a family member was allowed to stay since been established in most of the remote staff, the Government established a course on with the patient in order to provide support. and hard-to-reach nomadic districts in Kechest and skin diseases for clinical officers at The Wajir manyatta received drugs and mednya. the Medical Training College in Nairobi. This ical support from the NLTP between 1984 By the mid 1990s, when it was clear that course continues to provide training for clinical and 1986. the prevalence of HIV was high in Kenya, esofficers from Kenya and other countries in the The Government, in collaboration with the pecially in the western districts bordering Lake region on lung and skin diseases.

Royal Netherlands Tuberculosis Foundation, Victoria, it was also known that HIV infection Statistics at the time showed TB incithe Netherlands Development Organisation was an important risk factor for TB. dence of was particularly high in the pastoral(SNV) and the Foundation of Swiss Civil SerIn 1994, a survey of HIV infection in smearist districts of Garissa, Mandera and Wajir in vants, started TB manyattas at district hospitals positive TB patients was carried out in a sample North-Eastern Province; Isiolo and Marsabit in first in Lodwar and later in Garissa, Hola, Kaof 1,364 TB patients from 17 districts. The meEastern Province as well as Elgeyo Marakwet, jiado, Laisamis, Loitokitok, Marsabit, Moyale, dian prevalence of HIV was 36 percent (26−45 Samburu, Turkana and West Pokot in the Rift North Horr and Wajir. The manyattas became percent; interquartile range). However, in some Valley Province. very popular; only one (Laisamis) failed and districts in Western Kenya, up to 80 percent of In the remoter pastoralist districts, comwas abandoned.

TB patients were HIV-positive.

6

ISSUE 036, March 16-31, 2011

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Budalangi’s transformation

By MICHAEL OONGO

A few years back, it was just a wishful thought for Jackline Nekesa, that one day she would be able to cultivate her shamba and harvest her own food in the flood prone Budalangi area of Busia County.

At the time, her main concern, as well as that of hundred others was how to brace themselves for evacuation to higher grounds whenever menacing flood waters visited their village, wreaking havoc which resulted in untold suffering.

They would be forced to live in makeshift polythene tents under squalid conditions leaving them prone to cholera and other water-borne diseases.

By EKUWAM ADOU In a move towards seeking long-term solutions to perennial recurrent droughts in Northern Kenya, the Government and development partners have launched a pilot climate change adaptation study.

The Ministry of Northern Kenya and Development of other Arid Areas through Arid Lands Resource Management Project (ALRMP) in partnership with among others the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) will carry out the exercise in the larger Isiolo in the Upper Eastern region.

The programme which is financed by the British aid agency, Department for International Development (DFID) will be launched in Isiolo county for three years before being rolled out to the rest of arid and semi-arid areas.

Departmental heads from key ministries will work with partners like IIED, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Kenya Agriculture Research Institute (KARI), the Meteorological Department and a few herdsmen to come up with a document on how climate change had impacted on the pastoralist communities in northern Kenya and provide the way forward.

Commissioning of the pilot project was unveiled during a stakeholders workshop under the theme ‘mainstreaming climate change adaptation’.

The Minister for Development of Northern Kenya and other Arid Areas, Mr Mohammed Elmi said: “The gravity of the issue requires that we work in close partnership with those most affected by it, so that our response is as appropriate and effective as possible.”

The minister’s speech was read on his behalf by Prof Kassim Farah, Director of Natural Resources, Environment and Food Security. He said the ministry was created to among other things address the challenges of the region’s variable and unpredictable climate.

Changing scene

During those days, Budalangi was notoriously in the news in any given rainy season. Today, however, the scenario has changed. Nekesa’s long term dream has finally become a reality. She can now plant vegetables and maize in her shamba and is now able to feed her family of four children without relying on relief food. Thanks to the intervention of the Ministry of Special Programmes through the Western Kenya Community Driven development and Mitigation project.

The Reject bumped into Nekesa recently at Sibuka Village as she tended to the lush tomato plants.

“I thank God for answering my prayers,” she says while propping up a tomato plant which had sagged to the ground because of the weight of its maturing fruits. “We never thought of ever being able to live peacefully without the nightmare of floods haunting us out of our homes. But now things have improved and although we still fear the possibility of the floods recurring, at the moment, we feel safe because of the Government’s intervention.”

Mitigation project

Nekesa and hundreds of other Budalangi residents are beneficiaries of the KSh6 billion flood mitigation project which became operational in 2008. The project which is co-sponsored by the World Bank and the Government of Kenya was meant to tame floods in Budalangi and Nyando.

In Busia, the project is being implemented through the District Coordinating Unit (DCU) which is charged with among others other things developing work plans at the district level, conducting participatory planning and implementation of projects with target communities as well as overseeing data collection and analysis.

The single most important activity undertaken to save the people of Budalangi is the construction of spillways to redirect the raging River Nzoia waters back to the river to prevent it from overflowing the dykes.

According to project District Coordinator Mr Evans Aseno: “This is our most important undertaking so far because it has saved Budalangi from floods that ravaged most parts of the country early last year.”

Other measures

In an interview with the Reject, Aseno said building of dykes was done at notorious flood points at Sibuka and Siginga and this has drastically tamed the River Nzoia.

“Other measures were also put in place and these have helped to give the people of Budalangi a new lease of life,” explained Aseno.

He added: “Besides taming the river, the project has also undertaken community development activities aimed at uplifting and rehabilitating the lives of people who had been affected by the floods menace through initiating income generating activities like farming and cottage industries.”

However, some of these activities are not restricted to Budalangi alone but is spread across the larger Busia County which fall under the project. Other districts that have bene-

Government set to mitigate climate change

From top: Children playing by River Training site. The river that used to be frequently flooded has now been tamed.

Officials visit the automatic weather monitoring station. A farmer displays some of the tomatoes that are being grown in farms that were previously affected by floods.

Pictures: Michael Oongo fitted from this programme include Nambale, Butula, Busia, Bunyala and Samia where various projects have been funded.

So far, the programme has injected about KSh12,494,027 to some micro-projects which were identified and prioritised by some nine communities in Busia County. The microprojects include tsetse fly and tick control, fish farming, commercial tree seedling production, commercial and local poultry production as well as local pig up-grading.

Others include commercial horticultural farming, support to boda boda initiative, commercial bee-keeping, sweet potato and cassava bulking for widespread planting and the production of stabilized soil block among others.

In Budalangi, the project has also trained local community members on disaster management. Those who were trained on this line graduated as Disaster Risk Reduction Service providers whose responsibilities are to conduct vulnerability and capacity assessment for the area.

“In Subuka, the project has developed a demonstration farm between the dykes and the river where farmers who were involved in the project earned over KSh100,000 from early maturing horticultural crops,” Aseno explained.

In addition, the project has acquired some 800 oil palm seedlings which it distributed to farmers in flood epicentres of Siginga and Sibuka in a move aimed at uplifting their livelihoods.

To effectively put the locals on flood alerts, Aseno says the project has devised a computerised mechanism of monitoring the water volume of the River Nzoia on hourly basis and

Coping mechanisms

should there be need for alarm, the residents are notified through a local Radio Station started under the programme.

Radio alerts

Bulala FM 107.5 community radio is also used to educate the local community on other crucial issues besides floods and early warnings. The project has also installed various hydrometers which monitor the water level in the river catchment of Nzoia and the flood plain.

“No one has died of floods because from these hydrometers which are utilising the latest technology, we are able to automatically get data from which we produce flood bulletins on a daily basis,” Aseno noted.

The bulletin is distributed to all stakeholders for prompt information about the behaviours of the River Nzoia.

A resident of Budalangi, Mr. Lumumba Kechula lauded the project saying: “We have seen a marked improvement in Budalangi since the project was introduced because most people are now able to settle and farm their land.”

Indeed, Budalangi’s horrendous floods have dramatically disappeared from the news radar albeit for the time being, thanks to the flood mitigation project which is still in its first phase of implementation.

The project intended to be in three phases is programmed to last eight years and the remaining two phases will entail construction of dams upstream Nzoia River.

“Unfortunately, those of us in the Government sometimes fail to understand these mechanisms (of climate change in dry land) and therefore fail to support them (pastoralist communities) adequately,” said Elmi.

Farah who is a range management scientist said the study hopes to infuse traditional drought coping mechanisms in planning and strengthening drought contingency measures.

Chairman of Merti Water Resources Users Association, Mr Diba Golicha, said pastoralist communities had proper systems of managing use of the environment but noted that climate change had impacted negatively on them.

To address past poor policies for the Northern Kenya as well as arid and semi arid regions, Elmi said the ministry had submitted a Sessional Paper to the Cabinet titled “Releasing our full potential” that contradicts the Sessional Paper No. 10 of 1965 which perpetuated the biased distribution of public resources in Kenya established under the colonial rule.

To counter effects of drought on pastoralist communities, Elmi said the ministry was working with donors like the World Bank to set up a National Drought Management Authority and National Drought Contingency Fund. “The Authority will have the power and resources to ensure that the Government’s response to drought is faster, better coordinated and more in tune with the priorities of dry land communities,” he said.

He expressed optimism that the envisaged institutions will be anchored into Kenyan laws if Cabinet ratifies the proposals.

Farah also announced plans by the Government to resuscitate Arid Lands Resource Management Project which was phased out in December, last year.

He said the World Bank supported project which fizzled out after 16 years implementation will be relaunched mid this year with more donors coming on board.

ISSUE 036, March 16-31, 2011

7

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

No more bowls of relief food

By KIGONDU NDAVANO Shoeless and struggling through sun baked chunks of the earth on a recently ploughed plot about 100 metres away from the banks of the Sabaki River, Katsele Karisa is suddenly jolted into an anxious mood at the sound of the just ignited water pump engine.

The black 10 metre long pipes he has been connecting bit by bit to reach his maize plot can be seen stretching out of building pressure. As Katsele struggles to connect the final pipe to begin watering her crop, water is already gushing out at high pressure.

For a moment, she in unable to properly link the two pipes, the gushing water splashes on her face making her quickly drop the two pipes as she attempts to wipe the water from her eyes.

She has to use a leso (wrapper) to dry her eyes to enable her see the pipes clearly and connect them properly, a task she attempts for nearly a minute.

By the time she connects the pipes too much water has been wasted, her clothes and entire body are dripping wet, but unconcerned and in total concentration she immediately embarks on what brought her here —irrigating her crop of young maize.

Some 20 metres away, Mrs Margaret Kombe is harvesting a crop of tomatoes and brinjals which she carefully puts in a basket. With a smile, she lifts her basket and starts to walk towards the River, all in a bid to reach an access road recently graded through a Malindi Constituency Development Fund funded project.

On these flat banks of the Sabaki River, some 80 kilometres west of Malindi town, there are plenty of green vegetables among other crops. Despite the hot and dry weather, which had forced many plants away from the river to dry up, a visitor finds himself/herself buried in green and attractive vegetation of various horticultural plants including fruits such as mangoes and paw paws.

Busy farmers

While some harvest their produce in a hurry to catch the next matatu to Malindi town and the market, others are tending to young crops in the farms or still at seedling level in the nurseries.

A visitor here may walk under the cover of a maize plantation just to emerge on the other side in a tomato crop.

Eight years later, the dark and negative scenario painted by the results of studies done in 1997 showed that 79 per cent of the people in Lango Baya Division, in Malindi, Kilifi County were poor and lacking in economic opportunities has changed.

The show of commitment by a section of about 100 dedicated small-scale farmers, mainly women, coupled with an investment of about KSh15 million from Action Aid and KSh750, 000 from the Malindi Constituency Development Fund did the magic. First, it presented adequate food at the families’ tables and then it brought in income from the sale of horticultural products.

Today, the same people who for years and apparently driven by pangs of hunger easily accepted food handouts are rejecting relief food.

Welcome to the Lango Baya Irrigation Scheme, a project which is transforming acres of land along the banks of the River Sabaki into a commercial farming zone whose horticultural produce is not only reaching the Malindi tourist resort outlets but locally produced food crops have also brought satisfaction at domestic level and pride to the once poor families of the area.

“Last week, I refused to queue for relief food at the Lango Baya Trading Centre because I hate the shame of being handed over a two kilogramme packet of maize flour and three kilogrammes of beans which cannot be enough for a single meal for my family,” explains Jane Kadzo who has half an acre of sweet pepper at

the irrigation project.

She adds: “What I hate most is the way some arrogant government officials assigned the duty of distributing relief food treats us.”

Before Action Aid arrived at Lango Baya some eight years ago, food shortage had reduced the residents to beggars who depended on relief food from the government and nongovernmental organisations yet the Sabaki River daily drained its fresh waters into the Indian Ocean.

Today, more than 100 scheme members and their families under the Hongera Bwagalao Farmers Group are a proud people.

Apart from enjoying good food security A farmer from their own sweat in the irrigation farms, irrigates her the people who always depended on “Musofarm with lo” (Giriama for relief food handouts) today water from the earn attractive incomes from the sale of their harvests.

Sabaki River.

The only time the local farmers recall havBelow: River ing attained good harvests was after the El-nino Sabaki that rains but years later, persistent dry weather has provided a conditions appeared to have conspired to deny lifeline for the them any harvests. farmers who use it for irrigation.

“After many appeals during various forums, Pictures: Kigondu Ndavano Action Aid experts ventured into the area in 2002 and studies revealed that the soils on the banks of the Sabaki River were suitable for crop farming,” explains Kombe.

When the project was officially started in KSh7,000.

2004, more than 300 residents joined the proj“I am happy that in a year I am able to make ect keen to see successes in their individual at least KSh20,000 from my plot after three harplots. Action Aid first trained the farmers on vests,” observes Sophia Maua. skills to grow various crops and also to manage Since the irrigation project was initiated, the project. more than 20 peasant rural women who had for Cecilia Zawadi, whose present plot meayears always stretched their hands before their suring half an acre is flourishing with pepper husbands, today control operations at the fresh and tomatoes, joined the project with very little vegetable section at Malindi Kwa Jiwa fresh knowledge on how to grow pepper and tomato foods market. seedlings before transferring them to the farm.

“We deliver more than 20 percent of fresh “I am like an expert today and can even ofvegetables which are consumed by various outfer advice and guidance to new comers to the lets at the main market in Malindi town,” exproject, because as soon as the projects startplains Selina Hawe, who coordinates the mared, the NGO hired agricultural experts who keting of the produce in Malindi town. stayed with us, providing the required guid“We only sell our produce at wholesale pricance” says Zawadi. es and depart from the market loaded with cash It was only after the organisation was asand happy, leaving stall owners to distribute the sured that the farmers were well versed in produce on retail,” says Hawe. growing different types of crops that Action Aid went ahead and provided inputs such as seeds, fertilizer and pesticides.

Most of the female members confirm that The plot size for each farmer has been exthey have attained financial independence. This panding in accordance to the capability and is a welcome change for many especially those interest of the individual members. who are widows or single parents with large famThere has been a sense of financial indepenilies. There is marked self confidence among the dence especially among the women farmers womenfolk and the urge to work even harder in who are majority of the members. Men have growing of different cash and food crops. not taken the irrigation farming so positively.

After farming on a 50 by 50 feet plot since Lango Baya District Officer, Ms Selina Maitha 2006 Project secretary, Mrs Esther Baruk exraised the issue during a recent public forum at plains: “I used to till my farm in the high areas the Irrigation Project. but did not get much. If the rains failed (and it “Where are the men? How come they have often did), I was left empty handed. But now I left the women alone? I am challenging the men do not have to wait for the unreliable rains. My to join their wives and participate in this imlife has completely changed,” she said. portant undertaking to improve food security The head of her family, Baruk took the Reject at domestic level and help improve family inon a tour of her section in the irrigation scheme come,” urged Maitha. which was flourishing with tomatoes, green Earnings from the sale of produce from an vegetables, sweet pepper and maize. Her main ordinary plot which has to be leased from land source of income is yellow wander pepper from owners ranges from KSh15,000 to KSh20,000 which she earns up to KSh15,000. with each crop bringing in an estimated “Through the crop sales, I have been able to

Suitable soil

Female head

“I used to till my farm in the high areas but did not get much.

If the rains failed (and it often did), I was left empty handed.

But now I do not have to wait for the unreliable rains. My life has completely changed.”

— Esther Baruk, Project secretary

cater for my children’s food and secondary school fees. I am confident that my savings are adequate to even take them to college,” Baruk explains.

She is keen to expand her farm to achieve more financial independence mainly because the potential is high and the market for the produce is growing.

Interest in the project has been expanding especially among some women who had earlier been sceptical. It is men who have been pushing their wives to join as it happened to Lilian Karisa. Her husband Mr Thomas Karisa urged her to move to irrigation farming at the scheme having explained “it was there that many women are making their families rich by day”.

As Action Aid winds up its assistance to the farmers in the next few months, many farmers are confident that they have enough skills and will be able to sustain the project.

Majority of the farmers, especially those at the leadership level, say that their focus in future will be to expand irrigation projects to cover areas along the entire Sabaki River. They plan to visiting prospective farmers who are able to access irrigation water and impart the skills to grow cash and food crops.

Recognition

Leadership positions for women has not only made them recognise their potential but has brought the face of women to the forefront at a time when the Giriama community has in the past always viewed women as the people to occupy the back row seats and listen as men discuss important issues.

“We are no longer in the darkness. We can manage our families and finances better and complement the efforts of our husbands,” observes Kombe.

The slow but sure path to recognition of the women farmers as important contributors to social and financial family needs has not been smooth as most of the farmers confess.

“Some of our husbands wrongly assume that we are becoming too powerful, but those misconceptions have been clarified through social training programmes,” explains Kombe.

The women have continued to successfully undertake their domestic chores while managing the farming projects outside their homesteads.

Thomas says: “Sometimes you also find it difficult to balance between family chores and leadership, especially when your services are required on both sides at the same time.”

8

ISSUE 036, March 16-31, 2011

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Meat exports set to increase

By OMONDI GWENGI Kenya is expected to increase its export for meat prodution if the tsetse flies and trypanosomiasis eradication campaign succeeds.

The campaign which is on its first phase with funding from the African Development Bank and Government of Kenya is expected to spur economic growth across tourism, livestock and agriculture sectors.

According to a report by the UN, tsetse flies cost the agriculture sector in the continent more than $4 billion yearly through loss of about three million livestock and infections of up to 75,000 people with trypanosomiasis.

Speaking at a stakeholders workshop held in Kisumu, Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC) National Co-ordinator, Dr Pamela Olet said tsetse flies have become a threat to about 24 percent of livestock in this country.

“Tsetse flies are threatening this country in achieving its Vision 2030 in terms of economy as well as attaining Millennium Development Goals,” explained Olet. She cited wildlife as one of the sources of Kenya’s foreign exchange earner which often succumbs to trypanosomiasis.

Ruma National Park which was once known as a tsetse fly infested area is one among the projects that PATTEC has undertaken.

Olet said the Park is now a tsetse fly free zone.

“Ruma is now free from tsetse flies but this is not a solution since the tsetse flies might move to the areas surrounding the park, Olet said. She added: “We are therefore encouraging locals to perform crop rotation to destroy the tsetse flies habitat.”

Addressing the same meeting, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Livestock Development, Mr Kenneth Lusaka said that with the eradication of diseases, meat production is expected to not only create wealth but also to bring about job creation and improve the welfare of the communities.

PATTEC Kenya uses a multi-faceted approach in the eradication of tsetse flies by killing them through livestock spraying and target installation as well as mass treatment of livestock using trypanocidal drugs in collaboration with the Kenya Veterinary Association.

New rice growing method introduced

Indebted farmers to lose harvest

By JANE MUGAMBI The Government has be called upon to stop the importation of rice from outside the country as there is enough rice in the Mwea Irrigation Scheme to serve the country.

Chairman of the Mwea Rice Multipurpose Cooperative Society, Mr Pius Kathuri said they are expecting a bumper harvest of over one million bags of rice this season since it was not affected by the rice blast that destroys the crop causing heavy loses to the farmers.

“Farmers in the area will incur loses if the Government moves in to import more rice. It will cause them to lose value for their produce,” explained Kathuri.

However, he called on the farmers who still owe the cooperative society debts to take the initiative and pay up as the society has embarked on recovering debts through harvesting of the rice from the farmers who owes it money.

He said that the multipurpose society has obtained a court order that will enable it harvest the rice to recover more than KSh178 million from farmers. Mwea Rice Farmers Sacco is also in the process of recovering KSh58 million that the society had given to the farmers as loans.

However, farmers in the Mwea Rice Scheme are accusing the two societies of not following the law since they had obtained a court order barring the societies from harvesting their rice.

Buying centre boosts farmers

By Jane Wangeci Farmers in Embu East are set to benefit with better prices for their farm produce after a bulk centre was opened in their town.

Techno Serve opened a market service centre in Runyenjes town to act as a bulk point where farmers will bring their farm produce for onward transmission to various outlets in the country.

Speaking during the official opening of the centre, the Techno Serve Regional Manager Mr Henry Kinyua said the market has been set to assist the farmers work in groups to ensure better prices.

“Working as a group will give farmers more bargaining power and control of the market unlike when they worked individually before,” said Kinyua. He urged the Government to encourage the public to diversify on food consumption instead of depending on only one type of food like maize.

Kinyua said they built the centre to encourage farmers not to sell their produce to middlemen but to deal with buying outlets which are offering better prices. “You should avoid dealing with the brokers and instead come together in groups and target reliable buyers including supermarkets and honest individual traders who are ready to offer you reasonable prices,” reiterated Kinyua.

Techno-serve mission is to help small-scale farmers to improve their living standards and generate income for themselves and their families.

Runyenjes MP, Ms Cecily Mbarire who was the chief guest during the occasion said farmers’ organisations in the district have in the past disintegrated not for lack of market for their produce but due to poor governance.

By KARIUKI MWANGI Rice is currently the third most important cereal crop after maize and wheat with a national consumption of an estimated 300,000 metric tonnes as compared to the annual production range of 40,000 to 80,000 metric tonnes.

The rice deficit in the country is in most cases met by imported rice which in 2008 was valued at KSh7 billion.

Currently rice is the most expensive cereal in the country with a kilogramme retailing at between KSh150-200.

In Kenya, rice is grown under irrigation schemes which include the Mwea, Bura, Hola, Pekera, West Kano, Bunyala and Ahero. About 80 percent of the rice grown in these schemes is usually under continuous flooding particularly in the Mwea Irrigation Scheme.

This method of rice cultivation requires a continuous supply of water and soils with high water holding capacities.

However, the Mwea Irrigation Scheme is usually affected by water scarcity during drought, leading to water rationing which causes low yields.

Water supply

To solve the problem of water rationing at the Mwea Irrigation Scheme, a new rice growing system has been introduced that will see farmers improve their rice yields while at the same time saving on the water.

System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is a set of activities that if undertaken can change the way farmers manage the environment where rice is grown. It involves managing the soil, water and nutrients which in turn improve the yields.

Professor Bancy Mati from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology who are partnering with the National Irrigation Board to introduce the system to the rice farmers says the system offers farmers an opportunity to improve food security through increased rice productivity.

“The system will boost the farmers’ income, increase water saving as well as reduce the national rice import bill. It also

From top: A rice trader at her shop in Ngurubani town. Farmers at the Mwea rice irrigation scheme during the introduction of the new rice growing method. Pictures: Ryan Mathenge & Kariuki Mwangi makes use of assets that are already available to the farmers,” explains Mati.

SRI is innovative and farmers in countries already using the system have noticed their yields increase by 50 percent or even triple, while their water use for paddy rice has reduced by half.

For the SRI system to work effectively, farmers have to follow various agronomy practices like using young seedlings which are 8-12 days in order to preserve mature plants’ growth potential.

Transplanting

They are also required to transplant the seedling quickly with no inversion of seedlings’ root tips which are said to delay the plants resumption of growth after transplanting due to trauma.

Transplanting one plant per hill is also very essential, and also having a wider spacing of 25cm by 25cm during planting which gives the plants increased exposure to sunlight, air and nutrients leading to stronger stalks.

The farmers are cautioned not to continuously flood the soil but make sure the soil is sufficiently moist. The idea is to guarantee the soil is aerobic and not saturated. Experts say this allows plant roots to grow more profusely due to presence of more oxygen in the soil.

This leads to effective plant nutrient

intake which results into healthier plants that produce high yields.

Enhancing soil organic matter as much as possible by applying compost, mulch and manure is recommended as the best results for the system of rice intensification have been best achieved through organic soil amendments.

Healthier crop

Mati says: “The system helps save inputs, improve the yields while at the same time ensuring that more water is available to more farmers and for other purposes that are beneficial to the community.”

Mwea Irrigation Agricultural Development director, Ms Rachael Wanjogu says the system also helps in reducing reproduction of disease spreading mosquitoes by cutting short the development of the insects’ larvae during the dry periods.

Harvested rice fields produce a healthier ration crop which enhances farmers’ earnings.

“If the system is fully implemented in the Mwea Irrigation Scheme, the rationing of water at the scheme can be a thing of the past as the system cuts the usage of water by half,” explains Wanjogu.

Rice farmers at the scheme hope that the system can be fully adopted as it would reduce water distribution conflicts in the rice growing area.

ISSUE 036, March 16-31, 2011

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Death of firewood in Bomet

By KIMUTAI RONOH

The home of Erick Koech, a farmer from Singorwet Location, Bomet Central Division is a hive of activities as the construction of the bio gas digester is on.

Koech says many people think there is a ceremony in his home, but majority of the visitors are people who have come to admire his bio-gas digester.

As a dairy farmer, Koech was given the first priority since he was able to produce enough cow dung to supply the digester for gas production.

Water project brings hope to Kitale

By ABISAI AMUGUNE

Alternative fuel

The smallest unit costs KSh50,000 and requires up to 30kg of cow dung daily to enable it produce sufficient gas to cook for two and a half hours and light up one room.

The biggest unit goes for KSh90,000 and consumes up to 10kg of dung daily which can produce 12 hours of cooking gas and light up to five rooms. Farmers are given a subsidy of KSh25,000 while they meet the rest of the cost of setting up the whole unit.

The bio-gas digester is a project that will soon make use of firewood for cooking and lighting a thing of the past in the remote villages of Bomet District.

The project is being carried out by a local non-governmental organisation partnering with the Dutch Government to construct 8,000 bio-gas digesters worth over KSh200 million in rural settings.

Kenya National Federation of Agricultural Producers (Kenfap) was selected as a lead agency in implementing the construction of the bio-gas units countrywide which are being co-funded by the Dutch Government.

Under the partnership Kenfap pays KSh25,000 per bio-gas unit while an individual farmer meets the rest of the costs depending on the size of the system. The project runs in 28 selected districts among them Bomet, the larger Eldoret, Kisii, Nakuru, Meru, Kakamega, Kiambu and Nyandarua. These are districts with high potential in diary farming.

Kenfap national programme coordinator Mr. George Nyamu says the programme seeks to promote conservation of forests through the provision of an alternative source of domestic fuel.

9

Residents of Singorwet in Bomet stir dung and water to be used in a bio gas digester. With this new technology they will no longer be cutting down trees to get firewood. Picture: Kimutai Ronoh “Due to devastating effects of global warming, it is important to conserve the environment and use renewable sources of energy,” observed Nyamu during a stakeholders meeting in Bomet town recently. He said Bomet District was also selected due to its proximity to the endangered Mau Forest Complex which has been encroached for food and fuel.

Saving forests

“It is time that mankind seeks alternative sources of energy in order to save the forest,” explained Nyamu. The introduction of the bio-gas fuel in local homesteads will afford farmers cheap and effective sources of energy for domestic use.

The type of the bio-gas digester being promoted by the farmer’s organisation is commonly referred to as KENDBIP, an acronym for Kenya National Domestic Biogas Programme.

According to experts, the Kendbip model, which was developed by Jomo Kenyatta

University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) has zero maintenance costs and has a lifespan of over 30 years.

The project dubbed African Biogas Partnership Programme (ABPP) is a public partnership between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Netherlands, Hivos and SNV-Netherlands Development Organization, established to support the large scale dissemination of domestic biogas in six African countries.

It aims at putting up 70,000 digesters by 2013 in six African countries which include Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Uganda, Senegal and Kenya. Farmers in Kenya have been sensitised and are already embracing the energy source. In Bomet District, at least six farmers are on their way to enjoying the new alternative fuel source.

Kenfap Bomet branch coordinator, Ms Jacinta Mwikali says more than 12 farmers have already formed informal groups to assist one another in acquiring the digesters.

More than two billion people lack access to safe water and adequate sanitation, an issue that has hindered sustainable development.

According to Mr George Greene, founder and chairman of Water Mission International (WMI) development can only be achieved if there is clean water which is a pre-requisite to good health and better lives.

Greene’s sentiments were contained in a speech read on his behalf by the Kenyan WMI chapter board chairman Rev Dr Emmanuel Chemengich, when he inaugurated a KSh0.5 million water source at the Kipsongo slums, Kitale town.

Chemengich said WMI’s mission is to provide sustainable access to safe water and an opportunity to hear the ‘living water’ message of Jesus Christ.

“It is the vision of WMI’s activities to be concentrated in developing countries,” explained Chemengich.

Through the opening of the water systems in Kenya, many lives will change.

According to the WMI country director, Mr Moses Ngania, organisation’s goal is to help more than two million people in 500 villages around the world by 2015.

In Kenya, WMI has funded more than 10 community water projects including the one in Trans Nzoia.

Some of the districts earmarked for support include Laikipia, Samburu, Naivasha and Turkana which are associated with frequently water problems.

WMI is a Christian engineering organisation inviting communities committed to their faith and devotion as they believe such groups are organized in a way to provide basic materials and land on which to build the water sources. They also have to provide security for the facilities.

WMI partnered with Providence Foundation Bill and Suzanne Msiaveg of South Carolina and a group of four others to meet country director Ngania who was on an education mission in the US over a year ago.

After listening to Ngania’s stories about the problems of water supply, the group of four operating under a movement of six young American high school students readily pledged to raise funds through charity to support distribution of water in the country.

Residents plead Farmers encouraged to breed rabbits for a health facility

By JOSEPH MUKUBWA

By KEN NDAMBU Residents of Usiani Location in Kitui County have appealed to the Ministry of Medical Services to send medical personnel to Usiani Community Dispensary.

This will help reduce the long distance patients’ travel to seek medical attention.

They complained that although the facility was completed three years ago, it has not been utilised due to lack of medical staff yet the sick, especially expectant mothers travel over 12 kilometres to Muthale and Kasyala health centres for treatment. Speaking to the Press at Usiani trading centre, the residents led by Mr Boniface Ndenyo said it was a waste of resources to build a health facility that was not serving the interests of the community.

The residents also urged the Ministry of Water and Irrigation to intervene and revitalise the MutonguniUsiani Water Project which stalled due to wrangling between the project implementing agency and some of the stakeholders.

They said although half of KSh7 million allocated to the project was released to a local community based organization in March last year by the Water Services Trust Fund, the project has not kicked off.

The project would have involved tapping water from Kyulu Springs in Mutonguni Hills to serve the location.

The first phase was expected to be completed by September last year.

In a bid to promote rabbit breeding, the Government is establishing new procreation centres as well as revamping and expanding existing ones to ensure quality breeds for higher yields and optimum returns.

The government is encouraging farmers to invest in rabbit rearing projects as an economic enterprise.

Deputy Director of Livestock Production Mr Vincent Githinji said that the enterprise is catching up fast and farmers should take it seriously for their economic benefits and that of the country’s development.

The business will help boost food production as well as become an income generating project.

Speaking at Othaya Approved School grounds during the launch of the Nyeri South Rabbit Farmers Association, Githinji urged rabbit farmers to rear quality breeds to increase production and earn higher returns.

Githinji who represented Livestock Development Permanent Secretary Mr Kenneth Lusaka said rabbit farmers had local, regional and international markets that had not been exhausted.

“The Government has launched a national rabbit farmers’ forum to address

the farmer’s challenges, training needs and search for markets among others to better the enterprise,” said Githinji.

The Government is in the process of importing about 200,000 breeding stock to improve the quality of rabbits in the country.

Rabbit rearing would uplift farmers’ living standards as well as reduce poverty by generating employment especially among the youth.

During the function, a rabbit was slaughtered in front of dignitaries to educate the farmers on scientific methods of slaughtering the animals.

Speaking during the same occasion, Nyeri South deputy livestock production officer, Mr John Maina said about 300 rabbits and 1,700 farmers participated in the show.

The association chairman, Mr Joseph Kimondo who has been rearing rabbits for the last 15 years encouraged more farmers to start rearing rabbits to boost their economic base.

The Government has opened three butcheries for rabbit meat in Nyeri, Othaya and Kiria-ini towns.

A young boy holds a rabbit during the show. The government is encouraging farmers to invest in rabbit rearing projects Picture: Joseph Mukubwa

10

ISSUE 036, March 16-31, 2011

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Grandmothers on a mission of solidarity

By MACHARIA MWANGI

Since losing their children to HIV/Aids, a group of grandmothers have found strength in solidarity. The women who have been ridiculed and stigmatised came together as a group to comfort each other after losing their children to Aids. They also had a common burden of caring for the orphans.

The ride for the grandmothers has been bumpy. Initially things were difficult as they had been taken back to parenting but without the energy. Many had retreated to their cocoons due to the stigma and ridicule that they were facing.

“Conscious of the fact that we lost our children to Aids, we had become a subject to ridicule,” says Mary Wairimu, 60, chairlady of Shosho Group.

Without a stable source of income, it had become increasingly difficult to sustain the lives of the young ones under their care. “The cost of caring for the terminally ill drained our pockets, further compounding our problems,” says Veronica Wanjiru, a member of the Shosho Group.

Generating income

Going by the acronym “shosho”, Kikuyu for grandmothers, the aging women based in Maai Mahiu, in Naivasha have started an income generating project that is guaranteeing them an extra coin to help shoulder the burden of looking after Aids orphans.

They are currently engaged in farming activities in the sun-baked Maai Mahiu where they grow vegetables and other foodstuff for domestic and commercial purposes.

Thanks to support from a non-governmental organisation, Comfort the Children International, the women have been sponsored on a two year agricultural training programme.

“We realised the grandmothers were wallowing in abject poverty yet they had many dependants to feed after their children succumbed to the deadly disease,” says Mr Zane Wilemon, CTC’s executive director.

The entry of the non-government organisation was a welcome relief for the grandmothers who were running out of options especially on how to deal with the challenges. “Initially, we started off as five women but the number has increased to the current 20,” says Wairimu.

The NGO bought them a small parcel of land for demonstration purposes where they

have been applying their skills. They are carrying out farming using drip irrigation.

When The Reject visited the area recently the women, despite their advanced age, were going through their paces with clockwise precision.

They have proved to be good learners applying practically, the acquired knowledge.

Their efforts have not been in vain as they have been able to grow spinach in gunny bags with a measure of success.

“We have been taught how to grow spinach and other vegetables inside gunny bags,” says Wanjiru with confidence.

For a start, they stuff the bags with soil and a mixture of manure before placing a container with stones inside the bag to allow watering process. The system is best suited for those staying in residential houses and without large shambas for cultivation. “They can comfortably use the method to earn a living,” says Wilemon.

And their capability is admirable. Those lucky enough have started similar activities in their own backyards and are not complaining.

“I used to live a solitary life after losing one of my children to Aids,” said Wanjiru.

Due to alienation it was almost impossible for the five to fit into any of the groups.

The women now have a reason to smile as they strive to rebuild their shattered lives.

“We share experiences on how to overcome the trauma and encourage those afflicted,” explains Wairimu. Watching the women exchange good-natured banter as they work on the small farms, it is quite evident they are optimistic of a bright future.

Vetting process

Not just anyone is allowed into this group.

The age is restricted to above 40 years and they must have lost a child through Aids.

“We do thorough vetting to ensure that only elderly woman with dependants benefit from the programme,” explains Wairimu.

This curtails pretenders and opportunists eager to cash in on the misfortune of others. The strict selection has kept the number down. Since the start the Shosho Shamba Initiative, they have taken on board 15 more members who have found themselves in this unfortunate situation.

“It is always painful to lose our dears ones who are usually the breadwinners in the family.

However, when tragedy strikes, we are devoid of a choice,” says Wanjiru.

The NGO is also catering for another group

A member of the shosho shamba group proudly displays their crop at their communal plot in Maai Mahiu. Below: Mary Wairimu demonstrates how to plant spinach in a gunny bag.

Pictures: Macharia Mwangi of women. These are mothers with physically challenged children. This group is referred to as the Malaika mums. Their children undergo therapy and rehabilitation in the centre established by the organisation.

Keen on making the rescue centre self sustaining, Wilemon and his group have trained the affected mothers in dress making and bought them sewing machines.

“The proceeds from the sale of clothes and other garments made by the women goes towards buying rehabilitation tools for the affected children,” explains Wilemon.

All under one roof, the mothers are able to watch over their children while earning their daily bread. Two of the children have successfully undergone rehabilitation and have found a place in public schools.

The group members draw inspiration from a famous quote by Martin Luther King. “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in single garment of destiny. Whatever af-

Medical centre opened for vulnerable children

Wheelchair brings a smile to disabled girl

By KEN NDAMBU It was all smiles for the parents of Faith Mwanthi, a 15 year-old girl who is completely paralysed after she received a wheelchair for easy movement.

Mwanthi has lived with the paralysis following a forced birth in a Mombasa Hospital where a doctor allegedly forcefully pulled out the infant instead of operating on the mother.

Her grandmother Grace Mbuvi received the wheelchair donated by Mutito MP Kiema Kilonzo through the Advocacy and Training officer of National Council for People with Disabilities Kitui Region, Mr Francis Muthui.

“Mwanthi’s mother has never been able to conceive again due to complications that emerged as a result of the delivery and doctors have been unable to treat her,” Mbuvi explained.

Mwanthi suffers serious spinal cord complications and retarded growth.

Meanwhile over 20 orphaned children in Mwingi have benefited from food stuff and clothing donated

by Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) worth KSh100,000.

Led by KPLC customer relations officer for Mt Kenya South region, Ms Regina Thuku, the company donated 20 mattresses, 20 blankets, 19 bed sheets and foodstuff to St Luciana Children’s Home.

Thuku said that the donation was part of the com-

fects one directly affects all.”

The members also celebrate Ubuntu Day that is set aside for cleaning up the dusty town.

Ubuntu is a traditional African concept that describes the interconnectedness of all humanity, ‘I am because we are’.

By ERIC MUTAI

Faith Mwanthi tries out her new wheelchair as her grandmother Grace Mbuvi and Kitui Disabled Persons Chairman Francis Muthui looks on. Picture: Ken Ndambu pany’s corporate social responsibility aimed at alleviating suffering to the less fortunate in the society.

The Centre hosts orphaned children aged between three to 15 years who are integrated in several primary schools in Mwingi.

The Centre’s manager, Ms Brigitte Musyoka said more was needed to take care of the children. She appealed to other organisations to come on board and assist needy children.

Vulnerable and destitute children in Embu and Mbeere have a reason to smile after a children’s home opened a medical facility dedicated to their health at Gatondo in Embu West District recently.

The KSh8 million worth St Stephen’s Gatondo Medical Clinic opened its doors to the orphans and vulnerable children at St Stephen’s Children’s Home in Embu County.

According to the Home manager, Ms Jessie Nyaga, the health facility will also cater for any disadvantaged child and mother in the area.

“This clinic will allow us to continue with our ultimate goal of establishing a home to cater for the special needs of HIV positive children on residential basis,” explained Nyaga.

Speaking during the opening of the clinic, Bishop Henry Kathii of Embu Diocese called on the Government to help in equipping and staffing the facility which was constructed through donations from the United Kingdom

and Canada.

“We are currently in the process of equipping the clinic through funds donated by the Whitby Sunrise Rotary Club of Canada as we seek proper medical care which is essential if the home is to attain its objectives of providing an alternative to street life for needy and vulnerable children,” said Nyaga.

The bishop said the facility will help sustain the orphaned home through catering for other members of the public at a fee.

“This clinic will go a long way in ensuring that disadvantaged children remain in the home as it will be an income generating project,” explained Kathii.

He noted that the clinic will cater for the residents who travel long distances to receive medical care at the Embu Provincial General Hospital and the Siakago District Hospital.

The children’s home currently caters for 100 orphans and HIV positive children in one programme and other children who live with their guardians in another programme.

ISSUE 036, March 16-31, 2011

11

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Scientist spearheading sub surface flow innovation

By DUNCAN MBOYAH The theme for International Women’s day this year is equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women.

Sciences are subjects that have been treated as no go zone for girls. Many fear opting for sciences and instead go into what are termed soft zones that are the arts.

However, a few girls out here have decided that science will light the path of their success.

One such girl is Purity Muthoni who at only 21 years, has started realising the dreams she has nurtured since childhood.

Born in Katwekera village in the expansive slums of Kibera to a single mother, Muthoni’s ambition had always been to develop mechanisms that would help transform the lives of common people and by extension improve food production.

Community project

Today, barely two years after her graduation at Kenyatta University with a degree in Environmental Planning and Management, Muthoni has embarked on a community project that has so far led to the enhancement of water surface flow from a river that dried up many years ago.

“It was one of my college mates who invited me to go advise her villagers who had gone without water following the drying up of a river that a few years served as their source of livelihood,” explains Muthoni.

Armed with the knowledge she had acquired from university, Muthoni together with her friend walked through the dead bed of River Kariminu in Gatundu North, Muranga County as she diagnosed the cause of the problem.

She observed that the local community had planted eucalyptus trees next to the river bed and this was depriving other crops of water.

“I requested a meeting with the local people so that I could report to them and a meeting was fixed,” she narrates. At the meeting some

people were not keen to listen to her report as they doubted her knowledge considering that she was very young. Save for the few that paid attention to what she was saying, today, majority are realising good harvest.

Giant bamboo

Muthoni visited Kenya Forest Research Institute (KEFRI) and ordered for the giant bamboo, a native tree from the Asian continent. The tree has the potential of taking water from the ground to the surface.

Through the pilot project, many farmers have since realised the effectiveness of the giant bamboo and are currently replacing eucalyptus trees with the bamboo as they continue to get good harvest of vegetables and other food crops.

“The ability of this species to enhance subsurface and eventually surface flow of water is a unique phenomenon that can be used to restore streams or rivers that have dried up due to degradation,” says Muthoni.

She reveals that the rhizomes which colonise the riparian zone very fast are able to draw water from the sub-surface to the surface because of their adapted structure and function.

Muthoni notes that the tree can be of good use to the whole country in the fight against climate change that is fast causing untold suffering to farmers.

“It can be used to reverse livestock and wildlife deaths. Small scale farmers will benefit from it as it helps in sustaining water above surface,” she says.

Changed attitude

Muthoni was shocked at the way the locals changed their attitude and this has humbled and re-ignited her early childhood ambition of embarking on a project that could help mankind.

“My only regret is that the society is not encouraging the youth to take up serious initiatives like innovation,” she observes.

While growing up, Muthoni interacted with

the environment and loved conservation ventures.

However, she wanted to specialise on business like courses, perhaps to help her mother manage the small scale cereals shop after completing college. However, it was one of her friends who persuaded her to take environmental planning and management.

“I was torn between my only sibling brother who wanted me to take languages and my close friend. Luckily, my friend carried the day. I have not looked back in trying to contribute towards the conservation of environment,” she says.

Mentor

Purity Muthoni a graduate from Kenyatta university has Muthoni’s other enembarked on a community project that has so far led to gagement involves advisthe enhancement of water surface flow from a river that ing teenage girls from dried up many years ago. Pictures: Duncan Mboyah Kasarani Estate in the outskirts of Nairobi on how to become responsiAt one point she kept avoiding the parents ble citizens. Her mother moved from the slums because she did not know why they thought she two years ago. was the right person to advice their daughters.

“I have gathered 12 young school leav“I used to hide until I was tired of hiding and ers aged 17-18 where they contribute KSh200 decided to assemble the girls, who are indeed monthly towards starting a poultry project for turning out to be good role models,” says Mutheir upkeep,” she explains. thoni.

In her mentoring role, she has encouraged Even though Muthoni has physically moved the girls to enrol in tertiary colleges as they wait out of Kibera slums, her reflections have not for their national examination results as away of died away. She is currently working on her avoiding idleness.

Masters Degree programme in slum upgrading, “This idea came from neighbouring parents a project that often takes her to mix with her of these girls who continued to prod me whenformer peers in Katwekera Village. ever we met. They told me to assist their chilShe is currently unemployed and has been dren become useful,” Muthoni says of how she doing her internship at the Ministry of Housing got into mentoring. headquarters.

Cashless business takes foot in Mukurweini

By JOSEPH MUKUBWA In today’s world where one may think that money is the answer, Mukurwe-ini residents think otherwise. They have a different way of conducting business and this has kept them together like one family.

To them money is not always the answer.

A visit to the popular Gakindu market in Mukurwe-ini Constituency is true testimony to this. Here traders and customers have been practicing barter trade for over 100 years.

They are still living in the old ages and have refused to catch up with the modern world where only money plays the big part as an exchange earner.

“With your goats, you can go home with a calf or vice versa. You can take home sheep, cows or even chicken depending on what you came with for the exchange. Legal tender here is not the answer,” says Fredrick Gatanga, a trader

www.mediadiversityafrica.org

who has been in the market for over 30 years.

They say the market started around 1910 with barter trade being the order of the day and has continued to operate in the same way to date.

Barter trade

The traders say that this business has made it possible for them to own domestic animals since money is not a factor.

Traders have been traveling from as far as from Somalia and Sudan to come and exchange animals. Others come from Turkana and Kambaland.

“The barter depends on the quality and value of the animals. Once you agree with the owner, you get your favourite animal without exchanging money or filling any document as agreement,” says Gerald Wanyiri, chairman of the market.

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday —

which are the official market days — traders flock in this market which is one of the largest markets in the Mukurwe-ini District for exchange of animals.

“I am very happy that I will go home with two dairy goats after I exchanged it with my black calf. I want to start rearing goats as I hear the milk is more nutritious than that of the cows,” says Michael Wanjau.

However, others who want to use money are also allowed as there are butchers who purchase animals while others purchase animals for paying dowry.

Despite millions of shillings exchanging hands during the market days, many still prefer barter trader which they say is sweeter and better.

However, Nelson Wanjohi from Ichamara says that the brokers have been oppressing the customers who have made the animal prices go up and they are calling on the Government to

Executive Director: Rosemary Okello-Orlale Programme Coordinator: Wilson Ugangu

Editor: Jane Godia

Sub-Editors: Florence Sipalla and Mercy Mumo

Designer: Noel Lumbama

Contributors: Charles Njeru, Ben Onyango, Gilbert Ochieng, Musembi Nzengu, Joy Monday, Ekuwam Adou, Abjata Khalif, Musa Radoli, Michael Oongo, Kigondu Ndavano, Duncan Mboyah, Joseph Mukubwa, Jane Mugambi, Omondi Gwengi, Kariuki Mwangi, Kimutai Ronoh, Abisai Amugune, Ken Ndambu, Macharia Mwangi and Eric Mutai.

wipe them away.

The traders now want the Government to rehabilitate the market since it is muddy during the rainy season. They also need piped water in the market.

Other markets

They have called on the Nyeri County Council, which is the custodian of the market, to stop charging for the unsold animals.

The other market where barter is also being carried out is Gakindu goods market. Here traders exchange goods and cereals for other farm produce. With one crate of tomatoes, one can go home with two buckets of potatoes and vice versa.

The traders say they are not ready to quit the barter trade since even poor families have benefited much as no money is needed.

Other barter trade markets in the district include Kiahungu and Ichamara markets.

Write to:

info@mediadiversityafrica.org

The paper is produced with funds from