Reject Online Issue 110

Vulnerable Populations in Emergencies July 1- 31, 2015

ISSUE 110

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

Too soon to celebrate natural wealth, experts say

I

By Joyce Chimbi

t is estimated that the Kenyan population is growing at an estimated one million people per year.

As the number of people continues to grow, the government is now finding itself at a cross roads, unable to raise enough resources to cater for the needs of those newly born while also keeping the rest of the population healthy.

With social amenities already stretched thin, it was clear during the recent budget reading that the government is becoming aggressive in raising domestic revenue in order to attain sustainable human development.

The budget, the highest in the history of the country at 2.1 trillion, means that the government is looking for ways to raise the much needed revenue with experts now saying that the extractive industry presents one of the most promising sources of revenue.

Against that backdrop, recent discoveries of sizable natural gas reserves and barrels of oil in the country has economists hopeful that Kenya can now boost and diversify its economy that has largely been dependant on agriculture.

But environmentalists and climate change experts in favor of renewable energy say that exploration of oil and gas must stop and that newly found oil will remain underground dashing hopes that the extractive sector could become a leading source of revenue.

Cattle grazing freely in a rural set up. They are a major sour of wealth among the dairy farmers and According to Hadley Becha, pastoralists. Experts predict that Kenya’s economy, that has been dependent on agriculture and tourism, will director of local nongovernmensoon benefit from discovery of coal, oil and gas in parts of the country. Photo: AWC Correspondent. tal organization, Community Action for Nature Conservation says: Becha says that oil and gas in Kerican countries, an EIA for a petrol technology in clean energy. Solar “environmentalists must take into ac- station can also be used for oil explo- energy technology has remained too nya is controlled by the archaic Petrocount that economic policies are not ration,” he says. expensive for many African coun- leum Act of 1984, which was briefly driven by environmental concerns.” updated in 2012.

But executive director of Green tries.”

Danson Mwangangi, an Economist Africa Foundation, John Kioli, says And policy experts concur saying Kioli says that while Africa is comand market researcher in East Africa that Kenya is looking into technol- mitted to climate change mitigation that the old laws must be comprehentakes issue with the building momen- ogy with fewer emissions adding that: and adaptation efforts “the continent sively updated. “The Petroleum Act tum “to demonise fossil fuel at a time “coal will be mined underground as lacks the necessary resources. Africa 1984 is a weak law, especially in benwhen Africa is discovering billions of opposed to open mining.” cannot continue looking to the East or efits sharing and is also silent on the oil barrels and natural gas reserves.” management of gas,” he says.

Kioli says that the discussion goes West indefinitely for these resources.”

Mwangangi says: “global voices in beyond environmental concerns to But even as Africa is adamant that He also says that these resources favor of clean energy should not be global trade and particularly who has are given to Africa through double ac- oil and gas exploration will continue, seen to punish African countries such power over who. He says that while counting where Official Development Becha says the gains will be short-term as Kenya. These countries must be Africa continues to use clean energy, Assistance (ODA) is also reported as and unlikely to revive the economy. given a window within which they can they have not been sufficiently com- funding for climate change adapta“With oil and gas, it is not just exploit their natural wealth and engi- pensated for low emissions. about licensing, there are also issues of tion and mitigation projects. neer significant economic take off.”

The Kenyan government esti- taxation and a lot of revenue that goes “The debate must recognise the “Discussions should be around geopolitics of climate change. Where- mates that the 2013 -2017 National to the government,” he says. defining this window in terms of as we are keen on cutting emissions, Climate Change Action Plan for In the absence of capital gain tax as years and setting up checks and bal- we know that Africa is responsible for climate adaptation and mitigation is the case with Kenya and many othances to guide exploration at minimal about three percent of global emis- will require a substantial investment er African countries “the government risk to the environment,” he adds. of about US$ 12.76 Billion. This is will lose a lot of revenue to briefcase sions,” he says.

Now environmental experts are Other experts say that the Demo- equivalent to the country’s 2013- exploration companies who act as expressing concern that Kenya lacks cratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has 2014 national budget. middlemen robbing national governthe capacity to exploit oil and gas at the second largest forest cover in the As Kenya, like other African coun- ments off significant revenue.” minimal risk to the environment.

Capital gains are the profits that world but is yet to receive any com- tries, continues to face the crippling Unlike Egypt, which has specific pensation from Reducing Emissions effects of drastic climate changes to an investor realizes when he or she guidelines on Environmental Impact from Deforestation and Forest Deg- the economy and peoples livelihoods, sells the capital asset for a price that Assessment (EIA) for oil and gas, radation (REDD+). is higher than the purchase price.

Kioli says that nature has provided.

Kenya only has one classification of “We expect to use cheap petro- Ghana is one of the few countries that Nonetheless, REDD+ has commitEIAs, Becha says. leum to catalyse industries, mecha- imposes a capital gains tax. ted to give DRC its first $60 million.

He says that oil and gas is a much He also says African countries Others are concerned that the West nise agriculture, boost irrigation, and specialised sector which requires de- is shifting to the kind of energy whose even plant more trees,” he says. will have to establish a solvent fund tailed and specific environmental im- technology they are able to supply.

But Kioli, the brains behind the where revenue from oil and gas will pact guidelines.

Zillah Mwajuma of the Kenya Oil Climate Change Authority Bill 2012 be stored to stabilize the economy: “There are specific guidelines for and Gas Working Group, that works emphasizes the need to address the “oil can inflate the prices of certain upstream, mainstream and down- towards sustainable development, issue of governance and legislation in commodities hence the need to constream exploration. But in many Af- says: “Africa is yet to benefit from Africa. trol surges in inflation.

Read more Reject stories online at w w w. m d c a f r i c a . o rg

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ISSUE 110 July 1-31, 2015

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Vulnerable Populations in Emergencies

Why family planning has everything to do with women living with HIV

By Jane Godia

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Some of the participants who attended a conference dubbed ‘The Prevention Now - Innovating a Prevention Strategy for Women,’ in Nairobi, during tea break. Photo: AWC Correspondent

pacing and having children remains a challenge many years after contraceptives were invented.

And challenges are abound where unwanted and unplanned for pregnancies are still being experienced for the simple reason that women do not have access to contraceptives.

Globally over 225 million women in developing countries, Kenya included, who want to decide for themselves whether and when to have children do not have access to contraception. This is a saddening reality even as the World Population Day is marked in July.

In reality, this is a day that is marked to celebrate population achievements and development towards ensuring better lives for every man and woman, including access to family planning.

The family remains the cornerstone of existence and family planning is the foundation that should be used to make this possible.

Family planning is a major innovation that empowers women and enables them plan and have better lives. When women are able to space their child births they tend to have healthier lives and take care of their children better.

In developing countries, especially, when women engage in family planning, they are more likely to survive child birth and have healthier newborns.

Unwanted and unplanned for pregnancies has seen a huge rise in the level of unsafe abortion especially in countries where it is restricted. Women living with HIV have unwanted pregnancies for the same reason as women with unknown or HIV negative status.

They may have been raped or suffered incest, had unprotected sex, as well as lack knowledge or access to reliable contraceptive methods, were prevented from using contraception consistently or their contraception method failed.

Just like women without HIV or with unknown HIV status, women living with HIV will always, if not often, procure abortion whether safe or otherwise for unplanned and unintended pregnancies.

However, even with this challenge, a special

population of women who are living with HIV are not able to access family planning, as they would wish. Out of 40 million people living with HIV, over half are women, out of this population, 70 percent are women of Africa descent. HIV within marriage remains high, and one out of ten married couples in Kenya, at least one partner is living with HIV. In Africa, poor women bear the brunt of HIV pandemic to an extent that former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan sounded the alarm that AIDs bears the face of an African woman. While women remain the backbone of the continent’s economy, so many things are standing in their way to leading fulfilling lives.

There are special HIV related needs for women that are often ignored and this is not auguring well for them. One of this being access to contraceptives, despite it being their human right.

All women including those living with HIV have a right to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children. If these women do not want to get pregnant, efforts must be made to reduce the risk of HIV transmission to their child.

According to Word Health Organisation, voluntary contraceptive services, in particular, will benefit the health of a woman in a variety of ways by delaying first birth, lengthening birth intervals and reducing the total number of children born to one woman.

Family planning, therefore, is important because it will prevent high risk and unwanted pregnancies, reducing the need for unsafe abortion.

A meeting held in Nairobi organised by Centre for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) in collaboration with AVAC and Africa Women Development Fund among other partners noted the importance of integrating family planning and HIV prevention efforts.

The meeting noted that a proposed trial to answer questions of this relationship is currently being debated by scientists and funders, reiterating the importance for civil society organisations to engage in the process and decision making.

Echoing that a women-centred prevention agenda is driven by the needs, preferences and perspectives of individual women which should be rights based and integrates interventions to prevent HIV and STIs, unwanted pregnancy and reproductive cancers, it also stresses the importance that sub-Saharan African women and advocates should drive the prevention agenda.

The objective of the meeting was to identify regional advocacy priorities for advancing comprehensive health and prevention agenda for women and girls that make accessible existing HIV prevention and family planning options, and pave way for development and delivery of future technologies.

Noting that there continues to be uncertainty about the relationship between hormonal contraception and potential HIV risks, the meeting served to ensure that HIV and family planning advocacy strategies are integrated as the need for family planning and HIV prevention actually is in the lives of women.

Held under the theme Prevention Now: Innovating a Prevention Strategy for Women by Women, the meeting noted that so many regional and national campaigns have laid groundwork to increase and integrate family planning and HIV prevention efforts.

“Such integration is essential if we are to ensure that women and girls are able to avoid both unintended pregnancies and HIV with care that places their needs and agency at the centre.”

The meeting noted the importance of advocates working on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) to unite to create new strategies to maximise HIV and unplanned pregnancy prevention efforts.

In 1998, UNAIDS and the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights issued guidelines on HIV and Aids as well as human rights.

One of their key recommendations at that time was: “Laws should also be enacted to ensure women’s reproductive and sexual rights including the right to independent access to reproductive and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) health information and services and means of contracep-

“Laws should also be enacted to ensure women’s reproductive and sexual rights including the right to independent access to reproductive Sexually Transmitted Diseases health information and services and means of conception.” tion . . .”

The various strategies that have been put to respond to HIV such as Global Fund and PEPFAR need to integrate with other efforts such as Family Planning 2020 (FP2020). It’s important that priority is placed in advocating for a clear strategy and accountability regarding funding mechanism in HIV and policies that allow for purchase of reproductive health commodities.

It’s important that national budgets take into consideration of allocating budget lines for Sexual Reproductive Health including HIV and family planning. Yet most countries in Africa have not met what they agreed to in the Abuja Declaration of ensuring that 15 percent of their budgets is allocated to health.

According to Dr Kigen Bartilol, head of Reproductive and Maternal Health Services Unit, there are 10 million women of childbearing age out of the Kenyan population of 43 million. “Out of these women, there is a high unmet need for family planning with 52 percent of women living with HIV having an unmet need for family planning,” says Kigen.

Addressing the African Women Leaders Network (AWLN) meeting in Nairobi, Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, Secretary General World Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) questioned: “Why do we continue to have limited resources to health? How much is being committed to research and development of family planning commodities?”

She noted: “Social norms remain a barrier to accessing family planning within and outside of the health sector within communities.”

It’s important to note that majority of new HIV infections are sexually transmitted. The same people who are at risk of unintended pregnancy are also at risk of HIV infection. Voluntary family planning programmes give women, youth and men information and services they need to protect themselves and their partners from unintended pregnancies as well as HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Things will only work out better when a family planning strategy is integrated into HIV programmes for women to have informed and better choices.

Narok town to host this year’s World Population Day

By Wahinya Henry

T

he dusty town of Narok in Narok County will host this year’s World Population Day. Global theme of this year’s World Population Day is Vulnerable Populations in Emergencies.

According to National Council for Population and Development (NCPD) and United Nations Popu-

lation Fund (UNFPA), fights over water and pasture are more common in northern arid and semi arid of the country.

Narok is significant for the event that comes shortly after flash floods turned the dusty town in South Rift into a raging river which led to loss of 15 lives and destruction of property worth millions of shillings.

But despite that disaster, the 40,000-plus population stood firm

and have since soldiered on with their work and businesses.

One of them is Yussuf Ali who is a landlord turned tenant in Narok town.

Rent was not an issue until the heavy rains and flash floods damaged his property and turned his life upside down.

Ali had secured a loan from a local financial institution to build shops and a residential house for his family at the back of the building.

And as if that is not enough, Ali is still traumatised after he watched hopelessly how a woman and a teenager were swept away in broad daylight by the charging waters after River Narok burst its banks.

They were later identified as Eliza Wambui Njenga and George Kaitekei who were among the 15 people to be claimed by the disaster.

“It is said that I now have to rent a house for my family. Income from my

seven shops is no longer forthcoming. Then the loan from a local bank I took adds to my misery,” explains Ali. The heavy rains and floods in the country in March to June left a trail of destruction with the director of Kenya Meteorological department, James G. Kongoti, asking Kenyans to brace for more rains.

The official had said the outlook for June-July-August (JJA) 2015 seaContinued on page 11

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ISSUE 110 July 1-31, 2015

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Vulnerable Populations in Emergencies

Africa’s food security threatened by ‘strange’ maize disease

By Duncan Mboyah

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armers in sub-Sahara Africa are counting their losses following a maize disease that continues to destroy their

crops.

According to the Principal Secretary for Agriculture Sicily Kariuki, the Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN) disease has caused losses worth millions of dollars for farmers and seed companies in the affected regions in sub-Saharan Africa, where maize is both a food and cash crop.

The disease that was spotted in Kenya four years ago has been spreading in most countries in Sub Saharan Africa hence threatening the food security.

“The disease is widespread across most maize-growing areas in Kenya and is causing an estimated loss of 10 per cent of national maize production per year valued at $50 million,” says the Principal Secretary, while opening a Sub Saharan Africa conference on the disease.

She revealed that Kenya had made losses of 0.3 million tons valued at $110 million since the disease was reported in the country in 2011.

Kariuki said that the occurrence of MLN in Kenya was a new phenomenon that meant scientists had to initiate basic research to understand it and seek urgent measures to manage in the short and long term.

“Research will remain a pillar of MLN management, integrating various technologies that our farmers must adopt at their level to control the dis-

ease,” she observed.

It has since spread to Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Malawi causing the verge of serious food insecurity, unless urgent and intensive action is taken.

On his part, Dr. Prasanna Boddupalli, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Programme, the profound implication of MLN for Africa’s most important grain – maize – is a reality that cannot be ignored.

“We must work together and control its spread through the development of maize varieties that can effectively resist its viruses,” the director said.

He said that the development of a long-term resistant maize variety for all zones is the most economical solution to help stop the spread of the disease in regions that are yet to be affected.

“There is need to step up surveillance and awareness creation so that farmers and seed companies get to learn of the dangers,” Dr. Boddupall added.

He observed that the establishment of the MLN screening facility in 2013 at Naivasha, in Nakuru County,

by CIMMYT and Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) in response to the outbreak in East Africa, was timely and effective.

“This facility was a critical breakthrough in our efforts to manage MLN. So far, more than 40,000 maize accessions have been evaluated and promising lines with levels of resistance to MLN have been selected,” he said.

The Director of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)

A woman tends her horticultural farm in the village in Western Kenya. Below: A rural homestead in Homa Bay County where farmers still use traditional granaries to store their farm produce after a bumper harvest.

Photos: AWC Correspondent Dr. Joe DeVries said that the organization will ensure that Africa’s farmers continue to get MLN free quality seeds to safeguard their livelihoods and food security.

“We are involved in the MLN mitigation effort and hope to draw on that experience as we collaborate with all stakeholders,” Dr. DeVries said, and added that they have years of experience in working with seed companies to produce quality, certified seeds.

The director said that the outbreak would be contained like the Maize stock virus was managed in Africa before.

Dr. DeVries announced a plan whereby seed companies are being enlisted to become internal seed regulators as opposed to purely producing seeds alone.

Already a few MLN-tolerant maize varieties have been released in East Africa, and several more are in the pipeline, according to the director.

Other solutions include MLN-free seed production and safe exchange to non-endemic areas, which is a key step in controlling further spread and impact of MLN in sub-Saharan Africa.

More than 150 participants drawn from sub Saharan Africa, Europe, The United States of America (USA) and Asia attended the conference to share knowledge on the latest diagnostics

and screening methods for the MLN disease, and assess ways of curbing its spread across Africa to help mitigate its effects, particularly large-scale crop losses for smallholders and seed companies.

The recommendations from the conference are expected to be used by seed companies in Africa to produce and exchange MLN-free seed and also how best they can help smallholder farmers to effectively tackle MLN to safeguard their subsistence and livelihoods.

African women help put family planning on Nyeri County agenda

By Jane Godia

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yeri County has been on the news lately for the wrong reasons linked to Sexual and Gender Based Violence which remain synonymous with the County, just as much as tea, coffee and the majestic Mount Kenya.

However, despite all these, there are those who have noticed Nyeri County for positive reasons and one of them is the African Women Leadership Network.

AWLN is a network of women leaders from all over Africa who are committed to working on critical concerns of women’s rights, reproductive health, social development and justice and have been active critical change agents at national, regional and international levels.

The African Women Leadership Network’s goal is to strengthen global advocacy efforts for reproductive health and family planning by bringing to the foreground the voices and perspectives of African women.

AWLN believes that women are able to protect themselves against sexually transmitted illnesses and HIV, if they have access to family planning.

The network urges the public, all leaders, the governments and other institutions to prioritise Sexual and Reproductive Health including family planning as a key intervention for

achieving gender equality, women’s empowerment and reducing maternal mortality.

The African Women Leadership Network is also working with the Nyeri County government in developing a strategy that will help the county handle its reproductive health, population and family planning issues.

Issues of maternal health, morbidity and mortality as well as family and adolescent health remain at the heart of the strategy.

Among the key issues that the 10-year strategy seeks to address include family planning; maternal and new born health; gender, reproductive health and sexual rights; adolescent and youth reproductive health; HIV and AID; Cancers of the reproductive organs; reproductive tract infections; infertility; and reproductive health for special populations.

The strategy will borrow from the Nyeri County health vision which is to have an efficient end high quality health care system that is accessible, equitable and affordable for all.

It also borrows from the health mission which is to promote and provide quality integrated preventive, promotive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative services to Nyeri County residents.

The strategy will not only look at health issues, but social ones as well that have a direct impact on family

planning and reproductive health.

Among other things it will be based on the county’s health strategy pil-

“We must ensure that our women and girls get the right information regarding family planning and contraceptives so that whatever method they decide to use will be from an informed position.”

lars that include service delivery, information and technology, medical products, vaccines and technology, health financing, leadership and governance, infrastructure and advocacy.

There will be key health messages targeted at families and the youth to address issues that have seen the breakdown in the social fabric.

Addressing key health stakeholders from Nyeri in Nairobi at a recent meeting organised by AWLN, Nyeri County Health Executive, Dr Charles Githinji said that among the key issues the strategy must address is to ensure that every sub-county health facility has an ultra sound machine.

He noted that this will help address issues of maternal and new born mortality because problems will be identified early.

Said Githinji: “There will be an officer charged with doing ultra sound at each health centre on specific days of the week. The officer will be based at the sub-county level but will be visiting the various health facilities at least once a week to ensure that mother’s lives are saved.”

He said this should also get the support of the Members of the County Assembly to approve the budget because it will give them political mileage.

According to Githinji, it’s important that maternal health be given due consideration. He also reiterated

the need to provide proper information to eliminate misuse of the emergency pill which many women and girls are treating as a normal contraceptive.

“We must ensure that our women and girls get the right information regarding family planning and contraceptives so that whatever method they decide to use will be from an informed position,” the official said.

According to Joan Koomson, a programme manager at the African Women Development Fund (AWDF), family planning and maternal health remain key priority for AWLN. “AWLN would like to see parliamentarians and County Assemblies take a lead role in prioritising to place maternal health at the top of their agenda and campaign,” said the manager.

Koomson revealed that they are supporting programmes in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to ensure that women and girls have access to quality family planning information, services and supplies.

Said the manager: “They need to show us commitment, provide the needed support and sensitise the public on maternal health issues and family planning.”

The strategy will be officially launched on August 24, 2015, when the AWLN members will be holding their annual conference in Nairobi.

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ISSUE 110 July 1-31, 2015

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Vulnerable Populations in Emergencies

Kenya set to end cholera in the country

Narok women ‘abandon’ manyattas after seeing the light

By Duncan Mboyah

O

ver 100 medics drawn from the National and County Governments have resolved to lead the anti Cholera campaign from the

front.

Meeting in Nairobi recently, they agreed to intensify surveillance as well as engage communities where cases of cholera had been reported in the 13 of the 47 Counties in the country which claimed scores of lives since the beginning of this year.

“It is not acceptable to continue reporting new cases and deaths emanating from Cholera. The disease must be kicked out of the country as it is causing unnecessary deaths,” The Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Health Dr. Khadijah Kassachoon, said at a Nairobi hotel.

The principal called on stakeholders to engage in continuous public awareness during the period to create an informed public in dealing with the disease.

She disclosed that following the outbreak of Cholera in 11 counties, 3,234 cases were reported and over 70 people have died.

Dr. Kassachoon told the County health officials to be on alert always and to take practical measures to prevent the occurrence of the disease.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Kenya Representative Dr. Custodia Mandlhate, attributed the outbreak of cholera in Kenya and the neighbouring countries to changes in the environment and climate change.

She said that the disease was further confounded by late diagnosis and poor quality management of the epidemics in the countries.

Dr. Mandlhate observed that 20,136 cases and 302 deaths had been reported from 14 countries, including Kenya this year.

“Due to weak health systems and reporting challenges, many countries in Africa go with under reporting outbreaks of Cholera and other diseases,” she adds.

According to the Head of Preventive and Health Promoting Dr. Jackson Kioko, the government has entered into an agreement with private companies to help it fight the disease.

“We are talking to the private sector to help us manage the outbreaks that costs the country a lot of money yearly,” the official said.

Since the end of 2014, the country has been experiencing Cholera in various counties after a Cholera-free spell in the past three years.

Currently only eight (out of 30 counties where data was available) have a plan for sanitation which is coasted, and just over half have budget allocated for sanitation and only three counties have indicated they have sufficient budget for sanitation for the year 2016.

UNICEF estimate that Shs 1.5 billion (US$16.6 million) is required to achieve 100 percent Open Defecation Free (ODF) status in the country.

The Ministry of Health has developed a demand creation campaign for improved sanitation which Counties and partners can roll out.

Depending on the channels used it is approx. US$ 30,000 to US$ 60,000 to execute the campaign for 3 months in a given county.

The more expensive roll out of the campaign includes inter-personal communication in a sub-set of sub-county locations.

Given the cholera outbreak, counties will spend much more money controlling the outbreak than they will in putting those preventive measures in place.

By Clifford Akumu

A

s the sun rises on sleepy Suswa village in dry and vast Narok County, Joyce Murungaru is among the women whose day will be dominated by trekking in search of water and firewood for their families.

Murungaru, 28 years, has lived in a manyatta (traditional Maasai hut) for decades, and knows very well what it means when drought strikes in the arid village.

But that lifestyle is about to change thanks to a new technology called green building revolution or eco-manyatta.

This is providing sustainable livelihoods for the pastoralist communities and saving the likes of Murungaru the agony of trekking long distances to fetch firewood, building materials and water on a daily basis.

“The modern housing design utilises the locally available materials powered with readily available green energy supply from solar and biogas technology” says Lisa Phillips, Head of DFID Kenya.

In Maasai culture, women do not own anything, nor are they allowed to inherit anything. They live and serve under the authority of men.

According to Phillips, that economic empowerment and job creation initiative for the women and youth is a ‘recipe for a prosperous future among the pastoralist communities’.

“We have to support women to earn a living just like men by making such steps as the one we have started because they have not been earning anything” she notes Forest ecosystems play a critical role in stabilising the climate; providing food, water, wood products and vital medicines and supporting much of the world’s bio-diversity.

Building of climate smart communities is paramount in tackling

A woman sits outside a traditional Maasais manyatta (hut) with her children and dog. The hut is made of cow dung and twigs. Plans are underway to replace this style with a new technology called green-building revolution or eco-manyatta. Photo: AWC Correspondent. the runaway effects of green house gas emissions.

“Building sustainable villages will strengthen adaptation to climate change” says Alexio Musindo, a director of International Labour Organisation.

According to research by World Resource Institute, 30 per cent of global forest cover has been cleared, while another 20 per cent has been degraded.

De-forestation and land degradation is on the rise, and accounts for around 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the UN’s IPCC Climate science panel.

“Currently I have planted around seventy seedlings thanks to the initiators of this project. I now understand the role of trees in conserving the environment” says Murungaru.

Eco-manyatta has a biogas technology that has made cooking and heating easy through the use of feedstock from cow dung.

Improvement of agriculture through use of bio-slurry in the fields is another added benefit provided by the biogas technology.

With 20 cattles and around 300 goats, she will have an uninterrupted supply of clean energy.

“I don’t have to cut trees to get firewood again. I did not know that I could get gas from cow dung” says a confident Murungaru.

Solar installation in the ecomanyatta has saved on household costs incurred purchasing kerosene and allowed proper reading lighting especially for school-going children.

Inhalation of gases emitted from lighting firewood, that was experienced in the old manyatta, was linked to the high cases of respiratory and eye diseases amongst the pastoralist communities.

A report in 2014 by the World Health Organisation entitled ‘Household Energy and Health,’ said that household smoke was responsible for 1.6 million deaths and 2.7 per cent of the global burden of diseases.

“My children now have more time to study without problems, because they only have to patiently wait for the sun to shine” says Murungaru.

Another benefit is water harvesting technique that increases access to clean water, allowing women to redirect time and effort towards other socio-economic productive enterprises.

“I can now harvest clean water that I will use during the dry spell,” says Murungaru.

The eco-manyatta, compared to the traditional hut, is a permanent structure raising the question of how they will comprehend the culture shock.

Although famed for their nomadic Maasai life, the pastoralist communities are now changing since they have been allocated land.

“Every member of Suswa-Kitet group ranch has each been allocated 30acres of land so we don’t move as we used to.”

Janet Salash says that hailstorms have been a challenge to the old manyatta since the polythene paper used for roofing easily gets damaged.

‘One needs about ShsSh3, 000 to get material for this kind of manyatta which is always three roomed” says the 40-year-old mother of eight.

The old manyattas used to be dark, and therefore it was always hazardous ‘at night you might even touch snakes without your knowledge’ she says.

“We had bedbug infestations since the house was so dark. This new structure has solved that be-

cause it has proper ventilation,” says Salash.

After criss-crossing the vast Narok County conducting maternal health programmes in the community, Narok County first lady saw a problem and hence the idea was born.

She realised that the household who lived in the old manyatta had various diseases associated with smoke, and so she teamed up with other stakeholders to start the green building technology.

“If TV has gone from a simple box to flat screen, then why do we have to live with these manyattas which jeopardize the health of our children? We need to embrace technology and then change and improve” says. Sarah Tunai, ecomanyatta ambassador.

Although the innovation is a culture shock, for they have abandoned their nomadic Maasai life for a more green existence in their new permanent house-this revolution has demonstrated the potential of pastoralists.

“It is a unique idea that creates the interaction between culture and modernity for sustainable livelihoods of pastoralist communities” says the Narok County first lady.

The enhancement of the Maasai manyatta at Joyce compound does not interfere with the old design and lifestyle. For example it has maintained the ‘overlapping doors’ feature.

Eco manyatta cost sh350, 000 to construct, however, the county government is working with stakeholders and financial players to subsidize that price.

“I want other people from the larger Suswa-Kitet ranch to be empowered economically just like we have seen” says Murungaru.

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ISSUE 110 July 1-31, 2015

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Vulnerable Populations in Emergencies

Nairobi youth embrace bamboo farming to save forests

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By J.M. Kwanya

or decades, carpentry has led to the rise of demand for timber. The ever growing human population has also led to clearance of forests for settlement hence less space growing forests. With the soaring demands, the environment faces devastating threats thus the need for a more eco-friendly alternative to timber.

Environmentalists advise that bamboo is the best alternative to wood. This is not only because of the sleek appearance of its final products, but also because it is renewable. While carpenters rely on hardwood which once cut, takes at least 10 years to mature, bamboo on the other hand re-grows and matures much faster.

What’s more, the longer a bamboo tree stays on ground uncut, the more unfriendly it is to the environment. How is that? When bamboo poles (which do not live as long as hardwood) decays, it releases carbon into the atmosphere.

An average of 35 per cent of carbon in a bamboo trees is held by its roots, meaning keeping a bamboo forest uncut for years is a bigger threat to the environment than cutting it down.

What this means is that bamboo is a great green money-maker, it can be harvested for charcoal or for furniture.

Those living on steep slopes and are always faced with the problem of soil erosion have a solution in bamboo; its roots grab the soil and stabilize the steeps thereby cutting erosion.

But bamboo forestry is an idea that

has been difficult to sell especially in Kenya. The reluctance to replace the traditional hardwood forests with bamboo and the reliance on land for subsistence agriculture have been the major contributing factors.

Three youth in Nairobi are out to change Kenyans’ perception on bamboo forestry for the better. Felix Akoko, 26 year-old, and his colleagues, Bosco and Polycarp work as an entity called the Kenya Bamboo Centre.

When we walked into their workshop at the Agricultural Society of Kenya showground in Nairobi, the workshop was a beehive of activities.

As Akoko interrupted his working on a chair to welcome us to the workshop, Bosco was busy putting final touches to a client’s product.

Introduction

“I was introduced into bamboo carpentry by Mr. Luis Taylor, a family friend who had a Ghanaian friend in the bamboo business”, says Felix.

“I would have loved to be a professional footballer, I loved football but stopped playing after I got a knee injury while in High school”, Akoko reveals.

Apart from working on various clients’ orders and selling their crafts at exhibitions, the group conducts training on bamboo usage and tries to create awareness about its benefits.

With the help of Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI) who have been their partners long before their outfit was started, they have conducted trainings for youth groups in Nairobi and

Firewood is a major source of fuel in most homes and schools, especially in the rural areas. This is an open yard used to store firewood at Got Nelel Girls in Tinderet constituency in Nandi County.

Photo: George Ngesa Kisumu.

“I was picked by KEFRI to attend two-week training on basic skills of bamboo carpentry. We underwent another two weeks training where we were taught on bamboo product finishing”, says Akoko confidently.

From the training, the group set out to spread the bamboo gospel starting out at Huruma and Madhare slums before moving to the lakeside city of Kisumu and then back to Nairobi’s Baba Dogo neighbourhood. The group has never stopped in their resolve to create a bamboo culture in Kenya.

They move from town to town, slum to slum and village to village to conduct the trainings on bamboo plantation management and carpentry at a fee.

The group also sells bamboo seedlings which go for about Kshs. 500 each.

“By imparting knowledge to fellow

youth, our skills on bamboo have also grown immensely,” Akoko says.

Last year Akoko was honoured to be invited to attend two-month training in China under the invitation of the China Bamboo Centre, says his skills on bamboo carpentry are now advanced.

The Centre is arguably the most skilled on bamboo in Kenya and besides closely working with the Kenya Forestry Research Institute, also works with other Non-Governmental Organisations.

They are currently working with the Waterstone Resource Fiber Ltd, a Kenyan company working to initiate a bamboo industry in Kenya. Through its pool of experienced specialists, the company aims to bring knowledge of bamboo products and encourage more usage.

Anderson from the Waterstone Re-

source Fiber says that they are seeking to “build on skills and knowledge on bamboo which is lacking in Kenya”.

The bamboo industry in Kenya however still faces many other challenges. Ms Anderson says it is difficult to access the bamboo farms as they are far apart making it difficult for those with interest in bamboo business.

For Felix, a young entrepreneur from Nairobi’s Kibera slum, demand for bamboo products is beginning to rise but the cost remains high. This is occasioned by transportation costs from farms and the cost of bamboo poles. A bamboo pole goes for between 300 to 350 shillings.

The biggest challenge that Akoko and his colleagues are facing is to persuade Kenyans that bamboo has a great commercial value and is a more friendly fuel than wood and wood charcoal.

Vaccine preventable diseases are still a threat to children

By Patrick Mutisya

P

reventable diseases that can be done away with through immunisation of children under five years are still posing a challenge to Kenya, say experts.

According to the Head of Directorate of Preventive and Promotive Health, Dr. William Maina, lack of concerted effort by all stakeholders and the mothers who brings the children for the service has derailed the success.

Kenya’s supplementary immunisation campaign target for polio and other antigens is 95 percent and if the target is below 90 percent, the process of immunisation is repeated, while target for the sub-counties is 80 percent.

But according to Disease Surveillance and Response Unit Ministry of Health, only 80 percent of the children get full immunity after three doses of routine immunisation.

This means that many children fail to complete the full dosage, leaving them prone to diseases.

Dr. Maina says the proportion of fully immunised children against communicable diseases increased from 64 percent in 2005/06 to 82 percent 2012.

This led to the fastest rate of reduction of infant mortality in the region in the past decade, from 77 children from every 1,000 live births to 52 children per 1,000 live births.

“However there are discrepancies that hinder prosperity in immunisation and

that can’t be accepted as the children must be brought for immunization and everyone needs to be taught that immunisation saves life,” Dr. Maina says.

Dr. Maina notes that even though the national coverage appears high, there is a major variation in County and sub- County levels with Nairobi and Kirinyaga having the highest rate of 95 percent while Wajir and Mandera recording 50 percent.

“We have the services at no cost in all parts of the country. What we want is to ensure that every child born in this country survives. Immunisation is the beginning of life and unless children are vaccinated, they will not survive,” he adds.

Since 2010, proportion of fully immunised children against communicable diseases started showing trends of declining up to early 2014 when some increase have started to be recorded.

Dr. Ephantus Maree, the Head of Unit Vaccines and Immunisation attributed that decline to the 2010 Kenya’s new Constitution campaigns, 2013 Kenya’s General Elections campaign and devolution structural lay down, devolving of health services which led to the structural reorganisation of immunisation services.

Also the push and pull between national and county government on who is to head health departments saw the number of fully immunised children decline.

Measles, a major killer of children, still affects many while neonatal tetanus continues to kill an estimated two children in every hundred newborns as reported by

UNICEF. Polio has the risk for continuing to spread because of the low routine immunisation coverage. This is why polio immunisation campaigns are so important in protecting our children and our communities.

But the quality of polio immunisation campaigns has been variable and some children remain missed.

Unless we ensure that all children under five years of age are vaccinated against polio, the disease may continue to exist and might even reappear later in new areas. If a child misses to be vaccinated with the polio vaccine, results to infecting other 200 children.

According to the UNICEF Kenya Deputy County Representative Dr. Madhavi Ashok, even though compared to a year ago, more children and women are getting vaccinated, many still remain unvaccinated and thus vulnerable to diseases.

It is estimated that over a quarter million children aged below one-year-old have not received all the required routine doses of scheduled vaccine.

Ashok adds that majority of these unvaccinated children live in regions which are less developed and in poor households in the country where access to health services is a major challenge.

This explains why the country still experiences outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases.

However, Kenya performed adequate polio surveillance from January to May 2013 and 179 cases have been reported. At

least 38 Counties out of 47 have reported at least one case.

Twelve Counties which include Bungoma, Garissa, Kilifi, Kwale, Migori, Mombasa, Nairobi, Nakuru, Nyamira, Nyandarua, Siaya and Vihiga have achieved excellent performance in the detection rate of four cases in every fifteen old year’s 100, 000 children.

But the most disturbing is that there are 10 Counties which are still silent and defined as those that have never reported any suspected case of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) as required. Such Counties are Elgeyo Marakwet, Isiolo, Kirinyanga, Laikipia, Lamu, Mandera, Marsarbit, Samburu, Tharaka Nithi and Uasin Gishu.

By December 2013 Kenya had 14 cases of Wild Polio Virus (WPV) confirmed and the outbreak was linked to the ongoing outbreak in Somalia.

Routine immunisation is one of the effective public health interventions for some of the serious childhood illnesses. This entails vaccination of any child at birth and subsequently afterwards until the child grows and develops immunity against the deadly diseases that hinder their health.

However, accessibility to these immunization activities varies significantly across the country, and even within districts in a county. Some of the factors attributed to this include economic, cultural, and to some extent health delivery which has been influenced by geographical factors.

One significant factor is lack of com-

munity participation in immunisation programmes especially when vaccines are readily available. This can be attributed to cultural, religious and geographical factors that have resulted in the lack of immunity among children from these deadly diseases and therefore, resulting in frequent disease outbreaks causing high morbidity and mortality from immunisation against vaccine- preventable diseases.

Consequently to help achieve the universal polio vaccine campaign target the country launched a national immunisation policy in February 2014, and also declared polio, an issue of public health emergency.

Presently the country is focused on implementing the Global Vaccination Action Plan (2011/2020) which puts emphasis on demand for immunisation as a shared responsibility, increased accessibility to vaccines, ensuring equity in immunisation, integration of immunisation services to other health programmes, ensuring sustainability through broadening partnership and introduction of new vaccines and immunisation technologies.

Among the new vaccines to be introduced by the government this year is the one dose injectable polio vaccine which will help boost immunity.

Therefore everyone should ensure that every child is reached during routine immunizations and vaccination campaigns and completes all the doses while the national and county government must prioritize immunization.

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ISSUE 110 July 1-31, 2015

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Vulnerable Populations in Emergencies

Nairobians join charity walk to support the ‘forgotten’ boy-child

By Odhiambo Orlale

H

undreds of men, women and children braved the chilling Saturday morning weather to remember the boy-child.

The multitude was led by Nairobi County Deputy Mayor, Jonathan Mueke, and Redeemed Church of Kenya’s Bishop JB Masinde for the 11.4Km. charity walk and awareness campaign.

The theme of the walk was: March -4 -TheBoy, held on the eve of the Fathers Day, organized by Transform Kenya, a faith-based non-profit organisation, which seeks to start a movement that seeks to empower and equip future generations and leaders.

Bishop Masinde in his brief speech before praying for the participants, said that time had come to remember the boy-child, saying the emphasis on the girl child by the civil society and by the Government through the media was making some of the boys feel neglected and ignored.

The same views were shared by the Deputy Governor, who was the chief guest, who supported the March-4-the-Boy campaign saying as the Government and NGOs promote the girl-child education and programmes, they must also remember that the boys also need attention and have special needs.

It was a carnival mood at the venue where people of all ages, social backgrounds, who joined the organisers of the boy-child initiative to create awareness and also raise funds to support their programmes.

The historic walk started at the Uhuru Gardens along Langata Road at 7.30am. after a 30-minute warm up session backed by loud upbeat music from powerful stereo system.

There was a brief speech by the founder of the project, Pastor Samuel Mbevi of Mavuno Church, Nairobi, followed by prayers by Bishop Masinde and then the Deputy Governor flagged off the huge crowd of excited men, women, boys and girls as they crossed onto Langata Road led by about 20 outriders who included one uniformed police officer.

They walked in a procession along Langata Road past Dam Estate, Sunshine Secondary, Amref Headquarters, Wilson Airport, T-Mall shopping centre then to Nyayo National Stadium before turning back on Uhuru Highway at the Bunyala Road round-about to head back to Uhuru Gardens. Most of them took two hours to complete the walk.

The participants wore branded grey and black T-shirts, emblazoned with the “March-4The_Boy” message on it; each was bought for Shs1,000 each as part of the fundraising effort.

There was a giant size billboard at the Madaraka Estate round-about promoting the campaign, a number of participants posed there for some photographs before proceeding with the walk.

According to Pastor Mbevi: “The Prayer Movement Trust was started in 2010 from the desire to see Kenya embrace its full potential of prosperity by individuals, leaders initiating positive change in their spaces of influence.”

The outspoken pastor says he had realised that Kenya’s society suffers in many ways because of the absence of responsible leaders in the home, the church and in the market place.

The Boys to Men programme kick started Transform Kenya’s operations towards the achieving of its mission. Helping to fill the gap for the fatherless, ‘Boys-to-Men’ programme mentors boys to realising the meaning of true masculinity.

Two years later, in early 2012, Pastor Mbevi started a programme for men dubbed Man

African Development Bank launches youth agricultural project

By Duncan Mboyah

A

One of the fathers carrying his son on his shoulders during the historic boy-child charitable walk, in Nairobi, on the eve of Father’s Day to remember the ‘forgotten’ boy-child. Photos: Odhiambo Orlale.

“The Prayer Movement Trust was started in 2010 from the desire to see Kenya embrace its full potential of prosperity by individuals, leaders initiating positive change in their spaces of influence.”

Enough to cater to the older generation of men, 21 years of age and above. This program guides the men to know how to take charge of their lives as men living in the pressures of today’s society. It also equips them on how they should boldly face their responsibilities as fathers, sons, brothers and husbands. With the growth of the organisation and a clear shaping of the vision of Kenya’s transformation, other programs have also been birthed.

Lead to Serve, is a leadership programme that aims to equip teenagers (our leaders of tomorrow), church leaders and leaders in the corporate & political spaces on how to lead in service.

Says Pastor Mbevi: “We are devoted to the ministry of calling men into authentic masculinity, preparing boys to be real men, developing servant leaders and mobilizing the church for community transformation.We believe that with the family unit transformed, the whole society is changed. The family unit is the foundation of every society. With men understanding true masculinity and embracing their responsibility as leaders in the home, the family unit will be healthy and as a result, communities in the society will be transformed.”

They run Boys to Men, Man Enough, Lead to Serve and Konnect programmes which all fall under the critical components of society: the family, church and market place.

special project aimed at attracting young graduates to venture into agriculture and agribusiness in Kenya has been launched.

The project, named Makueni Youth Agriprenuers (MYA) is part of the continental program that targets over 780,000 university graduates that is initiated by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the African Development Bank (ADB).

IITA Director General Dr. Nteranya Sanginga says: “The project is to help young graduates start creating jobs through mechanisation of agriculture at early stage instead of relying on employment.” said at the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE).

The project is based at the Kibwezi, in Makueni County, and is expected to bring together young graduates from the region who will receive training on modern farming methods, processing of and value addition to agricultural produce, and entrepreneurship.

The project is part of a larger initiative initiated three years ago in Nigeria. It has so far been launched in Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zambia and Tanzania and is expected to spread to 20 countries by the end of this year.

The director also observed that the project will help solve the twin challenges of youth unemployment in Africa and the need to increase agricultural production to supply food for a rapidly increasing population in an environment of climate change and a reduction of available farmland.

Dr Sanginga said that the project started with 25 youths in Nigeria and has since then attracted over 500,000 university graduates from different disciplines.

“The distribution of food and products are today more suited for the youth than the elderly,” he added.

He revealed that ADB has already given a grant of USD 16 million to help transform agriculture on the continent.

IITA also plans to build a facility in Eastern Kenya to help manage aflatoxin in cereals.

Aflatoxin had killed many people in the past in the region.

“The youth’s mindset is already changing and they are networking with entrepreneurs in moving Africa away from perennial hunger,” says Dr Sanginga.

On his part, Prof. Geoffrey Kilonzi from the University of Nairobi hailed the project adding that it is an opportunity to help empower Africa’s young people into developing the continent through agriculture.

He asked the youth to take agriculture courses saying agricultural sector was capable of saving the continent from hunger and poverty.

“The idea is visionary as it stands to solve unemployment and food security in Africa,” agriculture and technology consultant Dr. Mpoko Bokanga said.

Bokanga urged African leaders to begin investing in young people to enable them take agriculture to the next level.

He noted that through mechanisation, the youth were capable of utilising Africa’s arable land that is the biggest in the world yet underutilised due to lack of inputs and financing.

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Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

ISSUE 110 July 1-31, 2015

Vulnerable Populations in Emergencies

Experts say rising population might affect economic forecast

E

By Joyce Chimbi

conomic experts are confident that it is only a matter of time before Kenya achieves a double digit economic growth rate up from the current 5.7 percent.

But experts on population now say that the country must look into new and more innovative ways to raise revenue in order to support the rising population.

This confidence - that the country is on the right track - stems from early October last year when Kenya jumped into the middle income bracketing after a re-basing of the economy which revealed that the country has a gross national income of $1,160.

Mark Kirimi, an economic analyst says that the World Bank classifies a country as middle income “if its gross national income per capital (a nation’s Gross Domestic Product plus net income received from overseas) surpasses $1,036.”

The re-basing revealed that Kenya is much wealthier than previously recorded and is now the ninth largest economy in Africa up from the 12th position, he says.

According to him, the country has been showing a strong economic performance and inflation has been within the Central Bank of Kenya’s target of between 2.5 percent to 7 percent.

However, the expert explains that to continue on that winning economic streak, there are many hurdles that must be overcome.

“Sectors that contributed to the economy achieving a remarkable economic growth are facing significant challenges,” says the economist.

He cites the agricultural sector, which is still the backbone of the economy, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics; saying its contribution to the GDP is now estimated at 25.4 percent up from 24.1 percent.

Yet many small-scale farmers who contribute at least 75 percent of the total agricultural output and 70 percent of the marketed agricultural produce continue to face a myriad of challenges.

Climate change, extensive sub-division of agricultural land as well as the conversion of agricultural land into residential areas is just a few of the threats facing the agricultural sector.

Similar concerns are raised by Isaac Maiyo, of Schemers, an agricultural community based organisation in Uasin Gishu County: “Most farmers are not coping well with climate change.”

Maiyo refers to a series of failed maize seasons in various parts of the Rift Valley, the country’s breadbasket in the recent past as an example.

And that is not all, says the official: “When land is sub-divided into very small units, it becomes very difficult to employ technology, for example if a farmer needs to use a tractor, how will it turn?”

Maiyo further says that with sub division comes extensive fencing, further eating into

the land.

Besides, the government is yet to raise an estimated one trillion Kenyan shillings-an equivalent of the 2013/2014 national budget-which is meant to finance a five-year climate change adaptation and mitigation plan.

But agriculture is not the only sector under siege. Javas Bigambo from Interthoughts Consulting, a think-tank, says that the current spate of insecurity “may puncture the otherwise steady economic growth.”

Bigambo says that while the re-basing that took the country to a higher economic bracket speaks to the solid growth of the country’s economy: “this growth is hinged on a number of key pillars and security is one of them.”

The consultant says that if the Government fails to step up counter terrorism responses as well as deterrence mechanisms and rebuild confidence among Kenyans and beyond, one of the casualties will be the tourism sector.

“When the tourism sector is hit, a major tributary of the country’s economy is significantly affected,” Bigambo says.

So far since some western powers issued travel advisories to their nationals to keep off Kenya on security grounds, millions of Kenyans who directly and indirectly draw their livelihoods from the tourism sector have been adversely affected through loss of jobs, business and other opportunities.

“We have seen hotels being closed, people in the industry losing jobs as well as a reduced foreign exchange earnings,” Bigambo recalls.

Government statistics are already showing that the sector has been hit hard.

Kirimi says that in the second quarter of the year, the tourism sector slowed down economic expansion to 5.8 percent down from 7.2 percent in a similar period last year.

While there were 1.09 million international visitors in the country, it was an 11.3 percent drop from those who visited the country in 2012.

Kirimi says that new comers into the economic growth may lose to insecurity.

“The manufacturing sector has performed very well in the year 2009 to 2013, with an 11.3 percent contribution to the GDP up from 9.5 percent,” he says.

As the country becomes more insecure, so does investor confidence.

Kirimi says that while the extractive industry is still young “it holds great promises especially with a series of new natural resources discoveries.”

Investor confidence is key towards its take off and also towards ensuring that it maintains a steady growth, the expert says.

He further explains that the financial services sector has been growing exponentially and Kenya has been targeted as the regional financial hub.

But even as challenges abound, Kirimi says that the country “will remain on the right economic track only if, the necessary interventions are put in place

Top: Kenyans march in a procession to mark one of the many causes championed by various organisations and activists. Experts on population now say that the country must look into new and more innovative ways to raise revenue in order to support the rising population of 40 million. Bottom: Men and women walking to work along Mbagathi Way to Industrial Area, in Nairobi. The Government is grappling with the high unemployment rate in the country that puts a strain on the economy and social services.

Photo: AWC Correspondent

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ISSUE 110 July 1-31, 2015

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Vulnerable Populations in Emergencies

Researchers happy with Kenya’s top ranking in access to justice

By Duncan Mboyah

A

new research tool to evaluate the progress of countries in giving their citizen’s rights to access information, access to justice and rights for public participation has ranked highly.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Institute for Law and Environmental Governance (ILEG), have ranked Kenya in position 36th globally and 4th in Africa.

The two organizations under the auspices of the Access Initiative launched the Environmental Democracy Index (EDI) assessment results for Kenya, in Nairobi, last month.

The data that was gathered showed that Kenya scored higher than the Africa regional average and ranked 36th globally and 4th in Africa, behind South Africa, Cameroon, and Zimbabwe “The EDI is a landmark achievement in the efforts to demonstrate the link between governance and sustainable development,” the Institute for Law and Environmental Governance (ILEG) Executive Director Benson Ochieng said at the launch.

He said that the research tool is set to be of importance to the Government and civil society in Kenya to understand gaps in the current laws and practice on environmental governance.

“It will help to address and push for reforms in relation to public participation in furthering environmental democracy, as envisaged under Kenya’s new Constitution,” the director says.

Ochieng noted that the EDI will become an important tool to measure progress that has been made in many countries in Africa as far as involving the citizenry in important policy decision-making for sustainable development.

According to Carole Excell, the Director of the Access Initiative, based at the World Resources Institute, EDI highlights the need to continue to be innovative in this region in developing strong rights to information, participation and justice.

She said that EDI is the first publicly available online platform to track countries’ progress in enacting national laws to promote transparency, accountability, and citizen engagement in environmental decision-making.

“The index evaluates environ-

Inside a court room in Kapsabet in Nandi County, where they have a court users’ committee to address all concerns and grievances raised by the public. Senior Kapsabet Resident magistrate, Gladys Odhiambo (seated), is the chairperson of the CUC. Photo: George Ngesa mental democracy in 70 countries, including 75 legal and 24 practice indicators, based on recognized international standards,” Excell added.

The EDI draws on national laws and practices that were assessed and scored by more than 140 lawyers and experts around the world.

The index was created for civil society, governments, academics, and the private sector to allow them

to assess how well their country protects access rights in matters related to the environment.

These rights have been recognised by the United Nations as fundamental to sustainable development.

Kenya also scored very well on access to justice and was the top scoring country in Africa, ranking fifth globally.

EDI gives citizens a credible, independent source to understand what

rights they have to participate in decisions about their environment.

Governments will be able to benchmark their progress against an international standard, while learning about model laws and practice from around the world.

Stakeholders have the opportunity to view and download data, make comparisons, and rank countries’ performance at any level of detail.

Major progress made in filing of patents

By Duncan Mboyah

K

enya has made tremendous progress in patent applications since the year 1994, the first time when a patent was granted in the country.

Previously, patent applications in Kenya have a negligible contribution to the growth of worldwide patent applications as it accounted for approximately 0.011 percent of the patent applications worldwide in 2012.

But a lot has changed especially during the period 1990 – 2013, where a total of 2,388 patents were filed in Kenya and 633 patents, representing 26.5 percent of the total applications were granted.

Intellectual property rights are seen as important in economic development because they provide a mechanism of turning knowledge from a public good to a private good that can be traded and subjected to

market forces and also help to make freely available technical information since full disclosure is a requirement for granting the protection.

However, the awareness about, application for and use of intellectual property is characteristically low in developing countries.

Kenya’s patents are handled by Kenya Industrial Property Office (KIPO), a body that was formed in 1994.

“The long-term trend shows that there has been a continuous growth in the number of patent applications filed in Kenya, with exception of 1994, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2006 and 2013 in which there were decline in patent applications from the previous years,” the Director of Scinnovent Centre, a policy and development think tank in Kenya, Dr. Maurice Bolo said during the launch of the study in Nairobi.

He said that even though there were indications of a decline of 6.9

percent from the number of patents applications filed in 2012, it shows that Kenya is on the right truck.

He observed that this low rate in terms of patents granted formed the basis for the determination of the duration taken for a patent to warrant grant.

In 2007, for the first time, the patent applications in Kenya exceeded the 100 mark, a trend which has been maintained since.

This trend is consistent with the worldwide patent applications trend, which also experienced a continuous growth between 1995 and 2012 with exception of a slight decrease in 2002 and a more pronounced decrease in 2009, which was associated with the global financial crisis.

“Our analysis reveal that majority of the patents (21.96 percent) took duration of between 25 months and 36 months (2 years to 3 years) to be granted, while the longest patent application took 183 months to be

granted, Dr. Bollo said.

By Kenyan law, patents filed through the national route take a minimum statutory period of 18 months. In cases where it has taken less time, these were applications filed before the Industrial Property Act (2001) came into force; hence the 18 months period was not applicable then.

During the period under review, companies filed 1,375 patents, out of which 496 were granted representing 78.4 percent of the total patents granted.

The government filed 8 applications and was granted 2 patents which is 0.3 percent of the total patents granted.

At the same time, public research institutes filed 69 applications and were granted 25 patents, which represent 3.9 percent of the total patents granted. Universities and other learning institutions filed 69 patents, and were granted 10 patents, which is 1.6 percent of the total

patents granted.

Individual inventors filed 581 applications and got 60 patents granted, representing 9.5 percent of the total patents granted in this period.

“A total of 278 patent applications were filed by various forms of partnerships, 40 of these were granted patents representing 6.3 percent of total patents,” Dr. Bollo said.

However, he noted that out of the 633 patents granted, 73.6 percent were Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) while only 26.4 percent were national patents.

Dr. Bollo revealed that from the study, only 42 of the 396 utility models filed were granted, while 714 of the 1,392 industrial designs filed were granted.

But some utility models were rejected due to failure to meet the protection set criteria for an invention, failure to submit the required fees and lack of response to the past correspondences.

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ISSUE 110 July 1-31, 2015

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Vulnerable Populations in Emergencies

Farming Technology gives hope of bumper yields in Western Kenya

By Fred Deya

W

estern Kenya based Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research organization (KALRO), Seed companies and Community Based Organizations are committed to improve and harness adoption of modern methods of crop production to raise crop yield for food security.

Seven Counties in the region have formed caucus of 27 farmer groups working on various field demonstration plots where smallholder farmers access, learn and hone crop production skills.

According to Mr. Wycliffe Waswa, Research Assistant at Western Region Agricultural Technology Evaluation (We RATE) confirmed that their organization is committed to bring other research organizations on board; both local and international in order to realize their research agenda in western Kenya.

Waswa was speaking to journalists and a number of local farmers during this year’s Agricultural Society of Kenya (ASK) western region agricultural show.

Over 250000 households in western in Kenya have adopted the modern crop production. Some of the crops doing well in the region include Soya beans and hybrid maize.

“There is a dwindling production of sugar in the region which has been overtaken by growing of hybrid Soya bean.” said Waswa.

The researcher added that western farmers show remarkable performance on the legume production whereby over 400m tones were harvested in the previous plantation cycle.

There is tremendous adoption of the technology with about 80 percent of households is active practitioners, according to Agriculture expert.

A number of programs are keys to influence farmers in order to adopt

new technology. Food Security and Poverty alleviation program is tossed to eliminate limited crop production in the region which could lead to food deficit, according to Waswa.

Other programs includes Stronger elimination program, market linkage program, and input distribution program.

Introducing new bean variety; climbing bean, will help farmers with small pieces of land harvest relatively higher, said Waswa. Climbing bean is mostly grown where land is scarce. It has the ability to climb on erected wood stick and produce numerous seeds.

Wycliffe Waswa, seed researcher According to Waswa, the holds some of the seed samples formed groups get their seed for exhibition during ASK from KALRO seed units and Western region agricultural seed companies in the region. show. Below: Mwanarabu Majoni There are trained masters examines her Drought Tego- 1101 within the formed groups maize plantation. She expects who help new farmers to exto harvest about three sacks of plore new methods of farmmaize grain. Photo: Fred Deya ing.

“We have trained farmers maturity stage. who are responsible to train Sipora Omwela, Rural small holder farmers. There are a number of crop demonstration plots Outreach Program (ROP) in order to adopt technology. About extension officer from Sabatia 80 percent of households in the region said that the program is doing have already adopted and honed crop well because many farmers growing techniques”, added Western have adopted growing of the hybrid maize. region Agricultural expert.

“Tego farmers hone their Drought Tego maize variety is one of the grain varieties which have taken growing skill which they a number of cycles on trial in western learnt from demonstration plots”, said Kenya. Drought Tego, type 1101 is ROP officer.

ROP is an agricultural extensive mostly adopted by farmers due to its drought tolerant and diseases resil- program initiated to improve crop production in the region through ience.

Violet Aluoch’s farm, one of the demonstration of new farming techdemonstration plots in Ekero village, nology.

Tego seed varieties are one of Sabatia Sub County was an evidence to prove how the crop is well adopted the Water Efficient Maize for Africa in the area. The owner of the farm, (10 (WEMA) product. WEMA is a projby 10 feet plot) is expecting about a ect which carries out research on sack of maize grain if well managed to hybrid maize that is drought tolerant

and diseases resistant. The project have different confined trial areas in Kenya; Kiboko, Machakos and Kakamega.

However, Sipora unveiled that though the adoption turns positive, a lot need to be done on seed supply which she said is a dwindling factor.

“No seeds from agrovet, and the ones which were found on the last plantstion cycle never performed”, claimed Siprosa.

Extension officer added that

Drought Tego-1101 is outstanding on demand according to resent severance that was done by ROP. For instant, ROP officer has urged experts to introduce informative platforms through addition of more demo plots to increase the number of farmers enhancing farming technology.

More farmers are expected to fully adopt modern farming technology and seize indigenous farming in order to improve crop productivity for a food- secured region.

Boost for Kitui hospital as County boss teams up with state university

By Boniface Mulu

M

edical services at the Kitui County Hospital are expected to go a notch higher with the support of a public university.

The Kitui County government and the South Eastern Kenya University have signed a memorandum of understanding in order to have the university’s medical sciences students an internship programme at the Kitui Hospital.

The collaboration was signed at the Kitui County Governor’s office by the County Health and Sanitation Minister, Ruth Koki Mwanzia, and the South Eastern Kenya University Vice-Chancellor, Prof Geoffrey Muluvi, and was witnessed

by Governor Julius Malombe, his government officials and the SEKU staff.

The VC said that they will start courses on nursing and clinical services at the university by end of this year.

“We will start the public health and nursing courses followed by pharmacy and medical laboratory sciences later. The Nursing Council of Kenya has been waiting for this MOU to allow us to proceed with the programme,” the don added and expressed confidence that the programme would upgrade health care services to the county.

Success

“Our cooperation will provide our people with quality health care,” Muluvi said as he thanked the Governor for the success of the programme’s success.

He disclosed that the World Bank had given the university a whopping Shs350 million shil-

lings for them to also establish the school of civil engineering at the university.

On his part, the Governor said that the cooperation will help his County Government to achieve its goals in the health sector.

“Kitui is a county with healthy residents that embrace preventive health and have access to affordable and equitable health care services,” the governor said.

Malombe said that the cooperation was also resonating well with their county vision of being a prosperous county with vibrant rural and urban economies whose people enjoy high quality of life.

“This collaboration on training health personnel and improving health is a fitting reminder of Mahatma Gandhi’s belief that health is wealth and not pieces of gold and silver,” the Governor said.

“It is for this reason that the county had prioritised health as one of the drivers of the County’s economic agenda,” Malombe said.

High number

The Governor disclosed that with 230 hospitals, the County has one of the highest number of hospitals in Kenya as indicated in the master list of the facilities in the District Health Information System (DHIS),” he said.

Malombe said that in order to promote equity in accessing health facilities for people in all areas of the county, the county government plans to operationalise additional 90 hospitals in the region at an average of 22 hospitals per year over the next four financial years.

He said that after operationalising the 90 health facilities across the county, the population living

within 5Km. radius of a health facility in the county will increase to 97 per cent in all the county’s 16 administrative districts and 40 wards.

The Governor said that the highest allocation, which is 25 per cent of the local budget, goes to the health and sanitation ministry as compared to the county’s other nine ministries.

“Consequently, the Kitui County government will in future focus more on promotive and preventive health care to confront the current challenge posed by communicable and non-communicable diseases resulting into double burden of diseases,” Malombe said.

“My government assures the SEKU leadership of our commitment to our obligations as stated in the MOU or additional obligations which might arise from time to time and agreed upon by both parties.

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Media initiative to strengthen voices of journalists launched

By Antonia Musunga and Odhiambo Orlale

O

ver 10 media organisations have come together to form a loose coalition in an initiative that seeks to strengthen the voices of journalists promote advocacy within the media industry.

These organisations which work within the media landscape in Kenya came together during the third media round table forum at Monarch Hotel, in Nairobi, to create a framework for coordination so as to formulate an advocacy strategy for the rights of journalists in the country.

The six who were represented were Kenya Correspondents Association (KCA), Development through Media (DTM), Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK)’ Media Policy Research Centre (MPRC), Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ) and Africa Woman and Child Features Service (AWC), and PANOS – EA. Other media organisations that were invited but wee unable but sent their apologies were: Media for Environment, Science and Agriculture (MESHA), Kenya Community Media Network (KCOMNET), Kenya News Agency (KNA), Kenya Parliamentary Journalists Association (KPJA) and Kenya Sports Journalists Association (KSJAP) In his address, KCA chairman, Oloo Janak, who organized the forum, stressed on the urgent need for various journalists’ associations to come together to advocate for the rights of journalists.

Said the KCA chairman: “We need to strengthen the media because it threatened by the social, political and economic interests of some of the stake holders. The current political landscape is also limiting the freedom of journalists to do their work freely.”

This comes at a time when the media industry faces several challenges that threaten to jeopardise the right to freedom of expression. The safety of

journalists when reporting stories encourages personal censorship which limits the quality of news.

Recently, journalists have been attacked, their families threatened and even murdered. This trend was linked to reporting on the ICC, graft and the Al Shabaab terrorist group among others.

Said Janak: “KCA has received over 20 cases of threats to journalists and John Kituyi the editor and publisher of the Mirror Weekly, a privately owned newspaper based in Eldoret with a regional focus, was murdered this year in Eldoret town by unknown assailant.“ These are only a tip of the ice berg, he said, adding that many more go similar cases go unreported to the relevant organizations due to fear, intimidation and corruption. “We need to create a safe space for our journalists”, Janak added.

Other challenges include the ownership and control of media houses by the political class who seek to advance their personal agenda; unhealthy competition between media institutions; and a lack of proper guidelines on how to cover conflict areas at the expense of quality of the news and consistency in reporting.

Additionally, media institutions are weak and need to be strengthened as well as reporting on terrorism and disaster incidences. The Media Council of a Kenya and academicians has taken over roles of journalists while digitisation of the media has presented challenges as well as opportunities.

The KCA chairman said the formation of this initiative was as a result of the fast changing media landscape.

The meeting at Monarch Hotel I Nairobi proposed that the initiative adopt a management structure of a loose coalition with the different organisation taking the secretariat roles on a rotational basis as well as taking up roles depending on the strengths of the individual organisations in terms of capacity and existing structures.

Representatives of the organisations present also set out the objectives that would guide the work of the engage-

Some of the participants from media organisations at the third media round table forum at Monarch Hotel, in Nairobi, where they came up with a framework for coordination and advocacy for the rights of journalists in the country. Photo: Kenya Correspondence Association. ment. While acknowledging the absence of institutional memory which reduces the value of debates on key national issues, the need to embrace veteran journalists as resource persons was set as a key objective.

“This will be through holding inspirational and mentoring forums which will bring together veteran and young journalists together in an interactive forum that will be a learning platform to ensure continuity in the industry,” Rose Lukalo-Owino, the Program Manager, Media Policy Research Centre, said.

This will also be accompanied by engaging training institutions in efforts to influence the curriculum and context of training modules. The aim of this is to accommodate the changes that the industry has undergone over time in order to increase the quality of coverage on issues such as devolution as well increase awareness on human rights of journalists as well as incorporate trauma management skills for

forums run by journalists and their organizations; Journalists and other organizations should rally around key issues and speak strongly; and finally they should be issuing press statements on key concerns such as security, safety and security of journalists and other media related issues.

Other proposals were to develop a comprehensive register of all correspondents in the country; launch an aggressive campaign/advocacy for journalists about rights especially for correspondents and involve the Ministry of Labour; engage media houses /FKE, Ministry of Labour on labour rights issues; mobilize resources and launch training courses for journalists to improve professional capacities /skills of journalists; and finally network/develop linkages with other institutions/professional organisations such as Law Society of Kenya, Public Relations Society of Kenya and Reuters among others.

aspiring journalists. It will also involve encouraging media houses to sponsor professional courses for journalists so that they can improve their skills.

The former news editor at KTN (Kenya Television network), also urged journalists embrace the opportunities that digitization of the media has presented such as online competition, trainings as well as exchange programmes as they present a great platform of improving a journalist’s work in terms of content and professionalism.

The third media roundtable reviewed the state of the media environment; and took stock of the challenges facing journalists and suggested possible interventions, especially within the context of the two media laws currently in court and the emerging threats of new legislation; The meeting also proposed several activities to be acted upon among them: organising monthly media debates/

Is Kenya ready for disasters? Experts ask

By Wahinya Henry

D

isasters come in many forms, man-made or natural.

The recent heavy rains resulted in fatalities and flooding over Nairobi and Mombasa, respectively, say a report by Climate Prediction Center’s Africa Hazards Outlook for June 4 – 10, 2015.

Kenya is prone to a range of natural disasters like drought, floods, landslides, mudslides, earthquakes, wildfires- epidemic or pandemic, according to the Kenya Population Situation Analysis report released by National Council for Population and Development (NCPD) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The country does not seem to have a coordinated framework for the management of emergency situations based on clear mandates and responsibilities.

Consequently, the country’s approach to managing situations such as disasters has been ad hoc, often char-

acterised by fire- fighting.

One of the critical concerns is Kenya’s lack of preparedness for emergency management.

According to a statement by NCPD and UNFPA, Kenya is prone to a range of natural disasters in the last decade; the scale, frequency, and severity of natural disasters in Kenya have affected larger numbers of people.

“Kenya remains vulnerable to high levels of poverty, a fragile and degraded environment, high prevalence of diseases, low access to social services, and prevalence of weak governance structures and of armed conflict events, and low access to disaster reduction technology,” says NCPD director general, Dr Josephine Kibaru.

Dr Kibaru notes floods and drought have resulted in deaths and homelessness in recent times. The long and short rains that farmers had been accustomed to in the country become increasingly unpredictable, leading to crop failures and chronic food insecurity.

Malaria is now endemic in areas where it was unknown.

Some proposals Dr Kibaru’s population agency puts across to mitigate against the impact of disaster at the county levels include setting aside the necessary resources, including finance and logistics for the development and the implementation of disaster risk reduction strategies, policies, plans, laws and regulations in all relevant sectors International Disaster Database shows that between 1993 and 2010, 73 natural disasters occurred in Kenya and affected a cumulative 48.46 million people, with 2.4 million people affected by floods.

UNFPA country representative, Siddharth Chatterjee is of the opinion, according to the statement, disaster management in the past have been handled on an ad hock basis in the abase of enactment of the National Disaster Manager Policy to provide the basis for the Institutional and legal framework for disaster management besides increasing public awareness of the risks that natural, technological

and environmental hazards pose.

This will entail engaging public participation at all levels of implementation to create disaster-resistant communities through increased partnership and expanded risk reduction networks at all levels.

He says there is need to engage more private sector players, it is necessary to link risk prevention and economic competitiveness issues to the agenda as well as ensure that disaster risk reduction is a national and a local priority with a strong institutional basis for implementation in line with international agenda.

Countries that develop policy, legislative and institutional frameworks for disaster risk reduction are able to develop and track progress through specific and measurable indicators have greater weather, water, climate variability and climate change, are addressed in sector development planning and programmes as well as in post disaster situations.

“We need to strengthen disaster preparedness for effective response at

all levels,” says Chatterjee noting: “At times of disaster, impacts and losses can be substantially reduced if authorities, individuals and communities in hazard-prone areas are well prepared and ready to act and are equipped with the knowledge and capacities for effective disaster management.”

Cabinet Secretary for environment Prof. Judi Wakhungu who was in Narok town to lead environmentalists in celebrations to mark World Environment Day accompanied by Wakhungu and National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), director general Prof. Geoffrey Wakhungu blamed failure to sustain ably manage the environment for the Narok disaster and elsewhere.

“Although the country is endowed with diverse ecosystems and rich in biodiversity, the entries population is threatened by a failure to sustainable use and exploit resources alongside poor environment management,” Prof. Wakhungu said at Maasai Girls High.

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A school that gives hope to the hopeless in Kenya’s ‘biggest slum’

S

By Enos Koko

ongs of praise are heard from a distance as we approached Drug Fighters and Counseling for Young Nation School.

These are children who are happy after being given a second chance in life. Their faces are full of hope just as their school’s theme which states that “let’s break our boundaries”.

Their happiness and moral is so persuasive such that any visitor will think that they are from a well off family.

Drug Fighters and Counseling for young generation (DFC) school is a unique primary school founded by Agnes Musau.

A woman of humble beginning, she didn’t have a chance to study well while she was a young girl. Her parents could not afford to pay her school fees. Hopeless and destitute, she engaged into a sexual relation that led to an early pregnancy at the age of 16 years.

Her parents neglected her completely leading to her becoming very lonely. At this age she looked for someone who could listen to her but all in vain. It is for this reason that she started her school in order to give the neglected, a second chance in life.

“I didn’t have a chance to be listened to, all people saw in me was an image of a bad girl, “explained Musau during the interview.

She therefore started a school in her rented single room that would give her an opportunity to listen to the neglected children. She started by only living with rape victims but later discovered that she was not being fair to others.

She therefore started admitting, orphans and drug addicts. Her school is segmented in such a way that it has both boarding and day scholars.

“I started taking in children who needed to be listened to like rape victims, drug addicts and orphans.” Musau Drug fighters and counseling for young generation school, started 12 years ago and currently has a population of 360 pupils with majority of them being rape victims.

It has 18 staff members who are determined to change lives of their pupils in different ways.

She has hired sign language teachers and also guiding and counseling teachers to offer guidance to the teachers.

Due to its segmented nature drug fighters and counseling for young generation school abbreviated as (DFC) offers boarding services to those pupils who are neglected by their parents and also those whose lives are in danger.

“We offer boarding services to those pupils who are insecure with their parents and those that are sexually molested by their closest family members,” says a jovial Musau.

Since Kibera slum is characterized by several immoral cases like rape, drugs and even crime most parents who are unable to control their children finds it important to take their children at DFC centre.

“I have several cases of children who were rescued from being robbers and thieves,” says Musau.

The shelter has been registering its pupils for standard eight national exams and most of them usually pass and are also sponsored to High Schools.

“We have been performing well considering the fact that these students are treated as special ones,” says Ken Wanjala, the schools Headmaster.

In the last year’s national examinations, the school managed to a mean score of 276 up from 274 points in 2014 national exams.

According to the details we gathered from the parents, we found out that the school sponsors every pupil in high school. This is of great importance especially to those parents who cannot afford to pay for their children’s school fees in high school as Awinja Olwenyi happily explains.

“Most of us don’t have a fixed job, it’s obvi-

Pupils in a private school in Kibera slums in Nairobi, during lunch break.

Photo: George Ngesa ous that we are unable to pay for school fees in secondary school,” says Olwenyi.

Musau admits that she is surrounded by a community which does not value education especially to those pupils who have been rescued from being criminals.

“Sometimes they think that I am hiding thieves in this school and they often knock at my gate saying that my children have stolen from the neighbourhood,” Musau says.

Due to the nature of hard life, especially in slums, most parents try so much to take their children to schools of such standards and moreover those schools which offer services for free like tuition and lunch.

According to Musau, she usually finds it heard trying to explain to some parents why she requires a certain number of children.

“When a parent misses a chance for her child to be admitted here, he sometimes abuses me saying that I am using this school to get rich,” says Musau.

Due to the growing demand of pupils who want to be admitted at that school, Musau has plans of partioning her school and builds more schools with their own specialization.

“I am building a children’s home in Meru which will be specializing in offering services to needy children as well as planning to enlarge the size of the school so that it can serve many pupils,” says Musau.

She has a target of helping more than 10,000 children before the year of 2030 and she therefore urges the governmental and wellwishers to come in plenty and help her achieve her target.

“If we support each other, many children will fulfill their dreams of getting an education and having a bright future and good have professions,” say Musau.

She advises parents to be close and open to their children since some children usually engage in immoral things because they lack parental guidance.

Narok town to host this year’s World Population Day Continued from page 2 son indicated that Western highlands, the Lake Victoria Basin, parts of central Rift Valley and the Coastal strip are likely to receive near-normal rainfall with a tendency towards above normal (enhanced rainfall).

The floods affected over 8,360 people in the country, causing hundreds of deaths. Roads and bridges were not spared and were washed away, temporarily cutting off transport routes.

Heavy rainfall at the onset of the Long Rains Season (March-June) caused flooding in several locations in Kenya, affecting an estimated 8,360 people, according to the UN’s humanitarian affairs agency OCHA. Flooding has been reported in at least nine districts in Northern, North-Eastern and Western parts of Kenya.

In Narok, Ali was in his room at 5pm. in April on the fateful day when the town came crumbling down and life came to a standstill as raging river of dirty water laden with waste swept along the town’s only bridge the connects the town.

Another victim was 35-year-old Joseph Kamau whose business of selling CDs and second hand clothes was destroyed making him a pauper overnight.

“My source of income was crippled by the floods. I had a loan from Equity Bank that I don’t know how I will service. My customers also fled without paying me,” Kamau said standing outside a new business premises where he is trying to come to terms Narok County authorities 15 lives were lost during the April 27 flash floods and loss of business was

devastating and estimated to be in the million shillings of shillings.

On his art, the chairman of Narok Central Business Association, Dr David Sankok, says the disaster, regardless of the impact of climate change triggered by destruction of the environment in upper areas, was as a result of collapsed dykes built at a cost Sh. 2 million.

“We have been hit hard. The loss was a result of collapsed buildings, damage and loss of merchandise.

The affected have lost their source of livelihood and regular income,” the official says.

Some experts have suggested the town be relocated. Some compare the town to a ‘cesspit’ because of the amount of garbage and soil from the hills that suffocated the town sitting on a watercourse as a solution to the

perennial disaster.

Dr Sankok says the disaster was a lesson for Governor Samuel ole Tunai, to come up with long-term strategy of solving the problem.

“The town’s future must be handled seriously. A master plan about its future is needed as a matter of urgency. Even if it means re-locating the town. Time is ripe for a new town to be built away from the river course,” says the official.

Even ‘ New Delhi, the capital city of India, emerged after the ‘Old Delhi’ failed to serve its purpose.

Former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communications, Dr Bitange Ndemo, says in one of his columns in the dailies: “These deaths would be non-existent if we developed a habit of anticipating disasters. At the very least, it is an embar-

rassment to not just the Narok leadership, but to the entire country. We have simply failed to protect the lives of our people,” says the former PS. “At a minimum, the laws protecting riparian land, historical data on flash floods in the area as well as the advent of urbanisation should have been used to bar people from settling in the lowlands that are likely to face floods in the event of rains,” says Ndemo.

Dr Ndemo advocates for a more sustainable policy that will permanently discourage people from settling and felling trees in hilly places.

The former PS believes that when the leadership settles for ‘The New Narok’ construction must be guided by a national building code that fully adheres to proper construction regulation.

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Kitui County residents to ‘kiss goodbye’ to drought

By Boniface Mulu

T

he perennial drought in most parts of Kitui County will soon be history, thanks to a multi-million shillings water project launched recently.

Kitui County government with its partners has an ambitious plan to rehabilitate Matinga Dam in Kivani Location, Kitui West District of Kitui County at a cost of 750 million shillings.

According to Jacob Mwandikwa, the Chief Officer of the County Agriculture, Water and Irrigation Ministry, the dam in the arid and semi-arid area was last de-silted in 1979, some 24 years after it was constructed by the colonial government, in 1955.

It has an area of 154 acres and has a capacity to hold more than three million cubic metres of water annually.

The official was addressing hundreds of guests during this year’s World Environment Day celebrations held at the Matinga Dam where George Mulatya, the County Environment, Energy and Minerals InResidents admire a site of a completed vestments Development multi-million shillings public dam Minister, represented Kitui completed in Eastern Kenya. Bottom: Kitui Governor, Julius Malombe, County Environment and Water minister, as the chief guest.

George Mulatya, who represented Kitui The event was organGovernor, Julius Malombe, during the World ised by Kitui County government in partnership Environment Day where he announced plans to upgrade Matinga Dam to serve residents with the Anglican Develand livestock in the area. opment Services Eastern, Photos: AWC Correspondent National Environment Management Authority, others regarding the climate change Kitui Development Centre, World Vision, Wildlife Clubs of adaptation measures in our county,” Kenya, Muungano Environmental Malombe said.

The Governor asked the residents Resource Management Alliance, Kenya Forestry Research Institute, to plant trees including bamboos Kenya Forest Service and Water Re- that can help them attract rain and to conserve the environment in the sources Management Authority.

Said Mwandikwa: “The dam and county.

The National Environment Manits associated Mutonguni hilltops and Kithyoko riverine ecosystem is an im- agement Authority (NEMA) Kitui portant, productive and unexploited County Officer, Boniface Mutinda, ecosystem in Kitui County and ex- said that the World Environment tends from the Mutonguni hills and Day has over the years grown to be a borders the famous Yatta Plateau in broad global platform for the public outreach that is widely celebrated by Matinga area.”

The Mutonguni hills are the main stakeholders in more than 100 counwater catchment in the area and the tries in the world.

“In many countries, this annual size of the ecosystem is more than 5,000 square kilometers catering for event is used to enhance political attention and action towards improv221,126 residents.

He said that the Matinga Dam ing the environment. It is best dearea is a shared resource between scribed as the people’s day of doing three wards namely Mutonguni and something for the environment,” the protection, restoration, conservation, Kauwi in Kitui West District and Mutinda said. development and management of the According t the officer, the annual environment, water and natural reNgutani in Mwingi West District of event is the biggest most celebrated sources for the equitable and sustainKitui County.

In his speech, read for him by activity for the environment through able development.

Mulatya, the Governor disclosed that which the global community celThe environmentalist urged Kitui they (the county government) had ebrates the positive achievements for residents to embrace good environused more than six million shillings the environment and seeks further mental practices like agro-forestry, in helping the residents plant more political goodwill from the govern- sustainable land use, sustainable sand ment at the national and county lev- harvesting and charcoal productrees in the area to attract rain.

“We partner with the UNDP, els. tion and to also invest the renewable Mutinda said NEMA’s mission is sources of energy like solar, wind and Christian-Aid and the Anglican Development Services Eastern among to facilitate good governance in the biogas.

In his speech, the KEFRI Kitui Regional Research Centre Director, Dr. James Ndufa, urged the public to help change the environment to be good and lamented about the cutting of trees by charcoal dealers without any plans for replacement.

The forester said. “KEFRI has identified the degradation of hills in the region through charcoal burning as a major environmental problem that must be addressed urgently and seriously.”

The Anglican Development Services Eastern programmes Officer, Lydia Muithya, said that they (the NGO) are working in 10 of the 40 wards in Kitui County on environmental conservation.

Muithya then appreciated efforts by the Kitui County government in supporting the non governmental organisations that are operating in the area, saying environmental conservation measures is a collective responsibility.

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Mageta women’s long boat ride to safe motherhood

By Omondi Gwengi

F

or pregnant women in Mageta island on Lake Victoria the trip to the labour ward is no laughing matter.

This is because most of them are forced to board a motor boat and seek medical services on the mainland at Usenge beach; some 20Kms away because the only healths centre there is understaffed and outstretched.

A case in point is of Monica Atieno who was met at the beach at 6am. on the Island in Siaya County waiting to board the homemade water vessel to cross from the former detention camp to the main land.

Atieno is a mother of five, and took and dangerous journey across the waters of Lake Victoria just to deliver her fifth born child at Mageta Health Center, run by the Government, and serves over 10, 000 residents living on the island.

“I was referred to Bondo SubCounty hospital because I had a delivery complication. I was given an appointment to be at the hospital at 9am to be examined by a doctor,” Atieno told Reject.

According to Atieno, she boarded the 6am. boat from Mageta Island to Usenge beach but unfortunately, she delivered in the boat just as they were approaching Usenge beach.

She was help by the women who were aboard the boat to successfully deliver my now two year-old baby girl,” says Atieno adding that she was taken back to the island where she was examined and allowed to go home.

Atieno is among the many women in Mageta, who despite the government’s free maternity care, have to contend with long distances and inadequate medical facilities to access health services.

Another victim is Grace Apiyo, 25, who delivered her son at home with the help of a traditional birth attendant because of unavoidable circumstances.

By the time her body was ready to deliver the baby, it was at night and the health center had been closed.

“The health center opens between 8am and 4pm; and only oper-

ates from Monday to Friday,” she says adding that hiring a boat costs between Sh1, 500 and Sh3, 000 to the main land.

A nurse in charge of the health center, Irene Omollo, says that they are always forced to refer complicated deliveries to the nearest Got-Agulu hospital or Bondo sub-county hospital. Their patients use public transport boats before they could be picked by an ambulance at Usenge beach.

“We incur extra costs on hiring a motor boat or canoe to cross over to the main land in cases of emergency medical referrals,” says the nurse, adding that a number of women have either lost their lives and/ or that of their babies before reaching the health facilities.

But she did not have the figures of hand during the interview.

Another challenge at the island, which borders Uganda, is an acute shortage of staff with those working feeling that they are overworked and unpaid.

Apiyo appealed to the County government to recruit more nurses and support staff to help in delivering babes some of whose mothers cross from neighbouring Uganda for the maternity services,” the nurse appealed.

A year ago, the United States Government donated a motorboat ambulance to Siaya County Government in a bid to help the residents access health care easily.

In his speech, during the handing over of the ambulances by US Ambassador to Kenya, Robert Godec, to Siaya Governor, Cornel Rasanga, the envoy said that the specialized boats would also to be used to facilitate the care and treatment of those with HIV and AIDs in the remote parts of the fish island.

That is why when he handed over the ambulances to Siaya, Busia and Homa bay counties; there was a collective sigh of relief from would-be beneficiaries of their services. But more than a year later, the Mageta,

Photos: AWC Correspondent Ndeda and Oyamo islands in Siaya County continue to report numerous maternal deaths.

“We sighed in relief when the US Government donated the ambulance boat after hearing our plea for a long time. By then, cases of pregnant women delivering on public transport boats were common. But since then, the situation has improved for the better,” one of the residents said.

But according to County Executive for Health Dr Edward Owila, the motorboat ambulance has not started its operations due to lack of funds by the government.

“The US Government only donated to us a boat and we’re making necessary arrangements to ensure that it’s fully equipped to help in medical referral cases in the hard to reach regions,” said Dr Owila.

According to the 2015/2016 fi-

nancial year budget, the county’s health sector received the highest allocation of Sh1.7 billion, including Sh1.5 billion for recurrent expenditure and Sh192 million for development projects.

“We have also allocated Sh15 million for providing stipend on deliveries in the county’s public health facilities. This is aimed at promoting safe deliveries,” said the executive officer.

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Machakos lady shines in agro-business and urge youth to emulate her

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By Mary Mwendwa

or the past two years, Pauline Ndalu has proved that business is not for the faint hearted.

Ndaku’s driving force has been that when the going gets tough, the tough get going by being part of the solution and not of the problem of high unemployment among the youth in the country.

Instead of lamenting about the high unemployment in the country, especially among the youth, the 23-year-old lady has made her Pauline’s Vegetable Green Grocer a household name through hard work and good public relations.

She is now commonly referred to as Mama Mboga (woman who sells vegetables) in the streets of Machakos town in Machakos County.

Her long journey of perseverance and determination is a symbol of hope to many fellow youth who are struggling with unemployment phenomenon.

She has also been recognized internationally and will be representing Kenyan youth at an international agri-business forum in South Africa in October 2015.

Her future plans are to help other orphans realise their potential and own farms that will help train youth on agro- businesses in order to be successful and employ fellow youth.

She has visited many agriculture forums and trainings and is a member of Exodus Group which linked her to the Machakos County government where she got seed money of Ksh50, 000 and also enjoys trainings from them.

Brought up by a single parent and orphaned at a very early age in Kyulu village, Makueni County, Ndalu recalls tearfully how she was abused in the hands of her guardians.

“I grew up in abject poverty and as an orphan who depended on relatives I really suffered. I was mistreated and even they refused to take me to high school until a well wisher came to my rescue.

Whenever I think of what I went through I get the motivation to work harder and prove to the whole world that my background will not determine my success.”She says confidently.

“I started this business back in 2013, I sell vegetables and fruits within Machakos County, l love this job very much, and I know many young people who fear doing such kind of work because they think it is not lucrative. Initially when I started this work I used to hide away from my former teachers at Kyilungi High School, but now I am confident.”

I have rented a two acre piece of land where normally plant my vegetables, kales and spinach and sell at whole sale, a full sack goes for Shs 3,000 and when I divide in bunches i sell at Shs10. I have many customers within, supermarkets and schools around here Machakos County,” says Ndalu says.

She makes a profit worth Shs15,000 per month and owes gratitude to Youth Empowerment Institute (CAP YEI), a non -government organisation that trains youth on basic employment and entrepreneurship targeting youth between 18-25 years of age.

“CAP YEI has been very helpful to me, they made me realise my potential as a young person, I am now self employed and I don’t have to sit and lament about the government’s failure to provide me with a job,” she says.

She takes advantage of opportunities at Scott University where she buys vegetables from them and sells to the public. She also gets training from Machakos County government agriculture department and they helped her by donating 50,000

A happy Pauline Ndalu outside her shop in Machakos town in Machakos County, where she is making heads turn. Her driving force has been the saying: “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Photos: AWC Correspondent ksh as seed money for her business.

According to Samuel Kazungu Kambi , Cabinet Secretary , Ministry of Labour , Social and Security Services in Machakos County government: “ Unemployment in the country is currently estimated at 12.7% and affects mostly the youth between ages 18 – 35 years , who account for 30 per cent of the total population. To address s the challenges facing the youth and women, the Ministry of Devolution and Planning, together with other Government agencies, have developed and implemented various programmes geared towards empowering the youth and women by providing

“CAP YEI has been very helpful to me, they made me realise my potential as a young person.”

them with financial resources, opportunities and skills to play a positive and productive role in society.”

In the same spirit, Dalmas Owino Okendo, the Operations Manager, Kenya Association of Manufacturers says the youth must stop the mentality of “twaomba Sirikali itusaidie (I am begging the government).”

Okendo says that the public sector is already reeling under a labor crisis. There is a very huge work force, leading to a very huge wage bill at the expense of development.

Similarly, Institute of Economic Affairs togeth-

Executive Director: Arthur Okwemba Editor: Jane Godia

er with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung published a book dubbed, Kenya Youth Fact Book, 2010 that reveals that most Kenyan youth are unemployed, underemployed or under-paid and are therefore in the swelling ranks of the working poor.

A large proportion of young adults and a rapid rate of growth in the working-age population exacerbate unemployment, prolong dependency on parents, diminish self esteem and fuels frustrations, which increase the likelihood of violence or conflict. The country’s working age population increased from 15.9 million persons in 1998/99 to 19.8 million persons in 2005/2006.

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Sub-Editors: Carolyne Oyugi, Joyce Chimbi and Odhiambo Orlale Designer: Noel Lumbama

Contributors: Mary Mwendwa, Omondi Gwengi, Enos Koko, J.M. Kwanya, Patrick Mutisya, Boniface Mulu, Fred Deya, Clifford Akumu, Antonia Musunga and Dancun Mboya.

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