News around the World

KENYA

When I was 10 years old I used to go honey hunting at night with older boys. We would burn the colonies and take all the combs, honey or no honey. One day we found a discarded top-bar hive containing a lot of honey. When I took the honey home my elderly uncle told me that it was taboo to harvest someone else’s hive and it could lead to many bad things among them sudden death! I later ‘borrowed’ my mother’s cooking pot and placed it in a mango tree because a swarm had come to rest just a few metres from our house. When I came back from school the next day I found the swarm had entered the pot. It was my happiest day. I told all my friends that I would be having my own honey soon. After a week my mother wanted to cook but could not find the pot. I was out and when I came back home I found my brother had lit a fire ...the pot was on the fire. All my bees had been cooked alive. After leaving school I had a few jobs and managed to save a little money. With the help of a small grant I bought my first hives four years ago. I have lost many colonies to wax moths, honey badgers and safari ants and am still learning about bees. However I teach communities and young school students about the importance of bees and share my experiences on Facebook under the name Samir Bokelo.

Samuel Bananah aka Samir Bokelo

PHOTO © Samuel Bananah

Samuel Bananah, Salama, Kenya

UGANDA

Meetings were held with 20 beekeeping groups and individual farmers in Kuju, Morungatuny and Ogolai sub-counties in January 2012. I recruited a co-ordinator for each sub-county visited and my aim is to recruit for all 12 sub-counties of Amuria District. The groups wish to form an umbrella body to co-ordinate and facilitate beekeeping activities in Amuria. It is estimated that there are over 500 beekeeping groups in the District, with an average of 50 groups in each sub-county. This number could double if the following points are addressed: lack of access to market, lack of training, acquisition of hives, identification of donor partners and lack of processing and packing equipment. The groups recommended that because of its wide forest coverage, Amuria Apiculture Demonstration Project is suitable for development into a study centre . There is also a plan to build a processing and packing plant in the District. Tree planting should be integrated into the plans to ensure conservation of the natural environment and to provide homes for bees.

Beekeeping co-ordinators are being recruited for the 12 sub-counties in Amuria District

PHOTO © AADEPU

M Okiro Emadit-Alex, Chief Executive Officer, AADEPU, Kampala