Sunday, April 28, 2024

COVID-19

Aquaponics Farming Helps Ugandan Women Regain Lost Livelihoods From The Pandemic

Diana Taremwa Karakire
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Aquaponics Farming Helps Ugandan Women Regain Lost Livelihoods From The Pandemic

KAMPALA, Uganda — On a hill above Kampala’s city suburb of Ntinda, new farmer Peace Mukulungu looks over her aquaponics farming project she says is slowly allowing her to recover from pandemic-related disruption. It is a manifestation of how new charity-backed interventions are allowing COVID-19 victims to restore livelihoods.

“Who knew I would become a fish farmer after all these years as a secretary!” she exclaims with a wide grin on her face.

The Aquaponics farming project is an initiative of Water Governance Institute WGI a local non-government organization that is supported by funding from USAID. It was rolled out in Kampala in 2018. Working with Kampala City Council, WGI has been promoting Aquaponics farming as a recovery initiative targeting women in Kampala that lost their livelihoods as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. The intervention is aimed at promoting food security, improved livelihoods as well as boosting household incomes.

The 50-year-old Mukulungu is a single mother who over the years relied on her job in a secretarial bureau in the city to support her five children. When the pandemic hit and Uganda started to lock down to slow the spread of the highly contagious virus, the business closed. Within weeks, she was home and jobless.

Today Mukulungu is a beneficiary of the aquaponics farming project, from which she has been able to replace lost income from the secretarial bureau. Her system was stocked with 115 catfish fingerlings and vegetables including spinach and lettuce. These initial inputs were offered by WGI including fish feeds for 6 months.

Mukulungu earns Uganda shillings 350,000 (USD 100) per month from her fish farming, nearly double what she used to earn at the secretarial bureau.

“Who knew I could become a fish farmer without owning land and a pond,” she keeps wondering. “This is more convenient because I don’t even have to pay transport fare.”

Deborah Gita harvests Kale leaves from her Aquaponics system that consists of a fish tank and a grow bed. She is already reaping benefits from her system
Deborah Gita an aquaponics project beneficiary harvests Kale leaves from her aquaponics system that consists of a fish tank and a grow bed. Credit: Diana Taremwa Karakire / Ubuntu Times

Similar stories of lost livelihoods across Uganda are commonplace. From teachers to market workers many women who had over the years supported their families have been left struggling as Uganda implemented one of the strictest lockdowns to stem COVID-19.

According to the World Bank, the COVID-19 shock caused a sharp contraction of the economy to its slowest pace in three decades. Household incomes fell when firms closed and jobs were lost, particularly in the urban informal and formal sectors. Gross domestic product contracted by 1.1 percent in the year 2020.

The impacts have been worse especially for women working in both the formal and informal sectors. A recent report by Akina Mama wa Afrika – a local charity – indicates that the economic impact has resulted in reduced incomes and opportunities to earn a livelihood for over 70% of women employed in the informal sector which is less secure in terms of social protection. The report further states that in the absence of mitigation in the form of gender-informed strategies, women are likely to face heightened tensions, financial uncertainties, food insecurity, and vulnerability to poverty.

Aisha Nalwoga the fisheries officer at WGI describes Aquaponics as a smart agricultural innovation that combines both fish rearing and growing horticultural crops in a closed-loop water-recycling system. The system comprises a water tank in which fish is reared and grow-beds. The grow-beds contain a sand-gravel-aggregate layered medium where crops are grown. Water is introduced, manually or automatically into the fish tank from where it is drawn out as fish-waste-water and irrigated onto crops in grow-beds.

“The system has a capacity of 1200 catfish and 160 horticultural plants in the grow-beds. The horticultural crops may include tomatoes, spinach, lettuce, green pepper among others,” says Nalwoga. It allows for the year-round production of protein and vegetables. WGI working with Makerere University Agricultural Research Institute, Kabanyolo came up with this innovation.

The system is movable and can be set up anywhere requiring a small piece of land. It may be automated with water pumps using grid or solar energy, depending on farmers’ preferences, affordability, and access to the energy options.

Deborah Gita poses next to her aquaponics farming system where she just harvested kale and beans. Aquaponics farming project beneficiaries are already reaping from their systems
Deborah Gita poses next to her aquaponics farming system where she has just harvested kale and beans. Credit: Diana Taremwa Karakire / Ubuntu Times

As COVID-19 ravaged the informal sector, the clientele for the project grew from less than 50 people to over 100 across Kampala’s five divisions. The project has established 8 demonstration sites in Kampala city, plus Kamuli, Hoima, and Adjumani districts, supporting more than 400 beneficiaries across the country, a critical intervention as the country struggles to recover from the pandemic.

“People are embracing the innovation and adopting it especially because these systems take up less space and can be located anywhere in the backyards or rooftops and the fish is protected from vermin unlike in ponds,” says Nalwoga.

The rapid urbanization, limited space, and a growing population in Kampala make aquaponics farming a better alternative to fish farming in earthen ponds that require bigger land and space.

For women most of who culturally in Uganda don’t own land under customary law and tenure land ownership, and are dogged by insecure land rights, Aquaponics farming is a ray of hope.

Other beneficiaries are like 55-year-old Deborah Gita, who used to run a garment shop, dealing in used beddings in the sprawling downtown market of St. Balikudembe. When the pandemic hit, the market, one of the country’s most congested was among the first to be closed down. Out of the job, the single mother faced a daunting challenge to support her five children. She was approached by KCCA and the village councilor to become an aquaponics adoptee. After days of training, she was assisted to set up a system at her home.

“My system was stocked with 400 catfish fingerlings and vegetables including kale and beans,” says Gita. “I am now able to feed my family with a balanced diet and at the same time earn some money from the produce.”

Now earning some 1,500 shillings ($4) per kilogram of Kale vegetable, Gita, who once struggled to feed her children earns enough money to afford necessities including food, pay for electricity, and her water bills. She is looking forward to the harvest of fish.

From her garment stall, she used to earn a profit of around Uganda shillings 500,000. Since she started on aquaponics, she has managed to get at least 400,000 each month from the sale of vegetables alone. When her fish gets of age, she hopes to more than double this.

An automated Aquaponics farming system consisting of a fish tank and grow beds where vegetables are grown.
Peace Mukulungu’s automated Aquaponics farming system consisting of 114 catfish and grow beds with spinach vegetables. Credit: Diana Taremwa Karakire / Ubuntu Times

However, it has not been entirely smooth sailing for the project. Low skills to manage aquaponics systems, limited access to inputs such as water, fish feeds, and expensive electricity are some of the challenges before people like Gita. Securing a dependable and affordable source of good quality fish feeds and fish fingerlings on the Ugandan market has also not been easy for most beneficiaries. This has led to system management lapses leading to fish deaths and crop failure in some cases. Nonetheless, project officers have come up with training manuals as well as system management manuals translated into local languages.

Beneficiaries are also required to keep books on how they manage the systems in terms of how much water is used daily. Weekly calls are also made to beneficiaries to check on their progress. Through community awareness-raising meetings and radio talk shows, WGI has been promoting aquaponics farming among farmers, households, and youth in targeted districts. “We see aquaponics being an opportunity for employment for the many unemployed youths in the country,” says Nalwoga.

For its part, the government of Uganda has put in place measures to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19 on the masses. Experts say that the majority of these interventions target the formal sector and leave out the informal sector where many workers live hand to mouth, mostly women.

It has also been noted that these strategies and interventions are not alive to the gendered impacts of the pandemic and fail to fulfill aspirations of sustainable development goal 5 on gender equality and empowerment of women and girls yet this is crucial to accelerating recovery from the pandemic.

“Aquaponics is a viable and smart agricultural innovation however beneficiaries need to be thoroughly trained so that they understand how a system works, as the only way they will sustainably reap benefits from the systems,” says Victoria Tibenda Namulawa head of Aquaculture at Uganda’s National Agricultural Research Organisation.

This reporting was supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Gender Justice Reporting Initiative.

As Taxes Soar Amid COVID-19, Kenyans Groan

Dominic Kirui
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As Taxes Soar Amid COVID-19, Kenyans Groan

The taxes imposed by the government have only made this worse, as businesses pass down costs to their customers so that they can stay afloat. Among those taxed include telecommunication costs, internet use, and fuel. Fuel prices have also affected liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) used by many for cooking in their households.

Jane Thiga runs a greengrocery in Roysambu area in Nairobi and says that it has become expensive for her to place orders for fresh farm produce through phone calls. As such, she has to hike the prices of supplies by a small margin so it can cover these costs and also those of transport as fuel prices have also caused a hike in fares.

As she cleans up her tomatoes that she has picked up from the market in the morning and readies them for sale throughout the day and most especially in the evening as those who went to the city for work return home, Thiga, however, says that most of her customers are now complaining as they buy, while others have reduced the amount of food they are buying into their households.

Thiga cleans tomatoes
Jane Thiga cleaning tomatoes at her stall in Roysambu, Nairobi. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

”Many are saying that the cost of living has gone up and they have to adjust accordingly. Some have even moved their families back upcountry to cut down on costs while some lost jobs during the pandemic and decided to return to their rural homes altogether,” she says.

Mobile phone loans were not left out as well by the government as they were also taxed. This also affected Thiga’s business because as she says, she normally takes a mobile loan to support her business.

“In most cases, customers take foodstuff on credit, and to maintain them, I normally take a quick mobile loan to bridge it,” she says.

In the Finance Bill 2021 that took effect on July 1st, the government imposed a 20% excise duty on data and calls, making it more expensive.  The Bill also proposed a hike in fuel prices, affecting LPG gas prices in the country.

Samuel Juma is a gas vendor in Roysambu, and says that since the price of cooking gas went up, customers either buying or refilling cylinders have declined, with most of them resorting to using other forms of energy such as charcoal or paraffin stoves.

”There is nothing we can do. Most people have resorted to using other forms of charcoal, while others decide to eat in restaurants rather than refill their gas cylinders and use it to cook at home,” Juma says.

A stand with gas cylinders
A gas cylinder stand where residents go to buy or refill their LPG gas cylinders in Roysambu, Nairobi. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

But, he says, those who heard about the hike in prices earlier are coming to buy, and that is what has kept them in business so far.

“Compared to last year when we were refilling a 6kg gas for Ksh850, the highest now goes for Ksh1300, noting an increase of Ksh450. This is too much, given also that every other item in the market is increasing, making life more difficult for the common citizens in this country,” Juma says.

Man arranges gas cylinders
Samuel Juma arranges gas cylinders at his stand in Roysambu, Nairobi. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

Not to be left out was also the price of fuel that has been on a steady increase this year in Kenya, hitting the historical highest mark in decades.

At the moment, petrol sells at Ksh127.1 in Nairobi and could go to Ksh130 in other parts of the country, depending on the cost of transportation.

William Kimani, a car owner who lives in Kiambu, in the city outskirts says that he has had to use a matatu (public service vehicle) to work on several occasions this year because he couldn’t raise money to buy fuel for his private car.

Man arranges gas cylinders
Samuel Juma arranges gas cylinders at his stand in Roysambu, Nairobi. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

“There is a time last year when I bought fuel for Ksh83, with the government telling us that it was a relaxation of tax to cushion us from the shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic. But look right now, the effects of the same pandemic are now biting but the same government is on a tax Christmas. They are celebrating our agony,” Kimani says.

In April, Kenyans trolled the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for loaning Kenya without a payback plan, while the East African nation’s Chinese loan and debt continued to burgeon.

Kimani says that he is aware that the government is hiking taxes in an attempt to raise money to pay back the loans.

“This government has been too greedy, never quenching its thirst for loans from almost all corners of the world, and now see how we are struggling. What will our future generations look like if we cannot put food on our children’s table nor pay their school fees?” he asks.

A petrol station
A Total petrol station at Thome, on the Northern Bypass Road in Nairobi. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

Kimani also continues to say that the problem would not be in borrowing, but rather in how the money borrowed is managed.

“We wouldn’t have a problem with the borrowing. Borrowing is good, but only if the same money is managed well to give value to the public. But now, the problem in Kenya is that corruption is taking away all this money. The other day you heard reports saying that we are losing 2 billion Shillings to corruption daily. And yet our president doesn’t know what to do with it. In fact, the other day he asked what we want him to do. We are doomed,” Kimani concludes.

Cameroon Audit Exposes Extensive Misuse Of COVID-19 Funds

Amindeh Blaise Atabong
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Cameroon Audit Exposes Extensive Misuse Of COVID-19 Funds

Several government officials, including ministers, charged with the country’s Coronavirus response have been found wanting in their spending of COVID-19 funds, according to a recently leaked preliminary report by the Audit Bench of the Supreme Court of Cameroon. The mismanagement and misappropriation are connected to an FCFA 180 billion (USD 338 million) Coronavirus Response Special National Solidarity Fund instituted in 2020.

In the summary report, government auditors disclosed that besides lapses in procurement procedures, there was widespread overbilling in the purchase of personal protective equipment (PPEs). This cost the state to lose close to FCFA 1.3 billion (circa USD 2.4 million). Also, some 100,000 face masks and 1,000 PPEs, donated by Chinese business mogul Jack Ma, could not be traced in the store’s accounting records of the ministry of public health.

Auditors also fault officials of the ministry of public health for circa FCFA 14.5 billion lost in overbilling through a contract for the supply of rapid tests kits awarded to Mediline Medical Cameroon SA. The firm, which is said to have been registered in 2017 but has had no experience in medical supplies and an inactive empty bank account, was granted a quasi-monopoly – supplying 89.97 percent of the country’s COVID-19 test kits.

Mediline Medical Cameroon SA bagged home FCFA 24.5 billion for 1.4 million test kits, giving a unit price of FCFA 17,500 per kit. But auditors reveal that, by the time the contract was being awarded to Mediline Medical Cameroon SA, the same STANDARD Q COVID-19 AG TEST could have been purchased directly from pharmaceutical firm SD BIOSENSOR at FCFA 7,084 per kit as proposed by the producer. Despite the whopping FCFA 10,415 disparity, the ministry of public health, in the fourth quarter of 2020, continued to buy the COVID-19 test kits through Mediline at FCFA 17,500 per kit whereas it could get the same through The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria at FCFA 2,932 per kit.

Though the unit price of the SD BIOSENSOR-produced STANDARD Q COVID-19 AG TEST proposed by Mediline Medical Cameroon SA was far much higher than applicable market prices, the ministry of trade is said to have biasedly okayed the price.

The auditors also noted in their report that some 610,000 COVID-19 test kits could not be accounted for. But the invoice for their supply was sent by Moda Holdings Hong Kong to Mediline Medical Cameroon SA on behalf of the ministry of public health.

In addition, Mediline Medical Cameroon SA and Yao Pharm Sarl were both awarded two contracts worth FCFA 880 million in August 2020 to furnish 16 medicalized ambulances within 90 days. But as at December 31, 2020, none had been delivered.

Again, the Audit Bench of the Supreme Court indicates that FCFA 657 million was allocated to the Institute for Medical Research and Studies of Medicinal Plants (IMPM) to locally produce 5 million tablets of hydroxychloroquine and 5 million tablets of azithromycin. Instead, IMPM imported from India, 5 million tablets of hydroxychloroquine, 5 million tablets of azithromycin and 300kg of raw material for the production of azithromycin. The institute proceeded to repackage the drugs with the inscriptions: “Produced by Zaneka, Packaged by IMPM,” though the packages with which the drugs reached Cameroon met good packaging standards and quality. According to Cameroonian regulations, the competence to import drugs lies with the National Supply Centre for Essential Drugs and Consumables (CENAME).

IMPM had also used FCFA 70 million of its budget to rehabilitate its production facilities although the department of pharmacy, drugs and laboratory in the ministry of public health had advised that the institute was unable to carry out local production.

The auditors also observed opacity in the management of funds destined to take care of COVID-19 patients as well as irregularities and disparities in the allowances given to healthcare personnel. In addition to products and services which were paid for but not rendered, auditors noted wasteful expenditure without any appropriate budgets. Other cases which smack of embezzlement were also highlighted in the report.

Ndi Nancy Saiboh, Executive Director of Actions for Development and Empowerment (ADE); a civil society organization that has been pushing for government transparency and accountability, welcomed the move. According to Saiboh, it had become expedient for the government to block financial leakages and ensure that funds do not end up in personal pockets.

“Our experience with the tracking of COVID-19 funds has revealed a deeply rooted systemic profiteering culture, especially in an environment that lacks accountability and civic engagement, ” Saiboh said.

Leader of the opposition Social Democratic Front party in the Littoral Region, Hon. Jean Michel Nintcheu has called for the immediate resignation of Ministers Manaouda Malachie, Madeleine Tchuente and Paul Atanga Nji, who were the key officials fronting government’s response efforts.

The audit which was ordered by the president follows recommendations of the IMF. Countries receiving IMF financing during the crisis are expected to publish pandemic-related procurement contracts and the beneficial ownership of companies awarded these contracts, as well as COVID-19 spending reports and audit results. By October 2020, IMF had granted a total of USD 382 million to Cameroon under the Rapid Credit Facility.

Sarah Saadoun, senior business and human rights researcher at Human Rights Watch said: “The IMF should take seriously the opportunity a new multi-year loan program presents to press for deep-seated governance reforms that will improve Cameroon’s transparency and accountability during this pandemic and beyond.”

Vaccine Diplomacy: Exposing Africa’s Untapped Human Resources

Gibson Nyikadzino
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Vaccine Diplomacy: Exposing Africa’s Untapped Human Resources

The receipt of Coronavirus vaccine donations by African countries from China increasingly expands the Asian giant’s Road and Belt Initiative (RBI) in the continent at a time the world is in turmoil. As the Coronavirus pandemic shows no signs of slowing, China’s influence is growing more scientific, sophisticated, and technological. With China’s influence in Africa growing, the dangling of the Coronavirus vaccine has reconstructed the sovereignty of African states that no longer demand transfer of scientific technology but giving in to advances from China.

China’s RBI concept, also known as One Road, is an idea it uses to strengthen its connectivity with the world and expand its geographic influence in Europe, Asia, and Africa through increased cultural ties. Zimbabwe has already received two consignments of a total 400,000 vaccines from China. Equatorial Guinea and Senegal were also among the first countries to administer China’s Sinopharm or Verocell vaccine, and the list continues to grow.

“The fact that we are the only country in Africa that has to date received the second batch of the vaccine doses from China, attests to the strong, comprehensive and strategic nature of our partnership,” said Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangangwa last Tuesday while receiving the second batch of 200,000 Sinopharm vaccines. Besides the donations, Zimbabwe has also purchased 200,000 vaccines from China’s Sinopharm.

China’s ambassador to Zimbabwe Guo Shaochun confirmed that in his country’s 14th five-year development plan, technological innovation is the torchbearer of his country’s global cooperation while dismissing the term “vaccine diplomacy” as a term by the West to discredit China.

“Western politicians and media discredit China’s vaccine assistance as “vaccine diplomacy”. Such a term shows their poor morality and intelligence or sour grapes. China’s aid has never been attached political strings. This is the most essential difference between China and the West in their aid to Africa because both China and Africa believe in national independence and liberty; both believe in sovereignty, equality, and fairness; both believe in solidarity and mutual support,” he said.

Vaccine diplomacy
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa and China’s Ambassador Guo Shaochun share an elbow greeting after Zimbabwe received the second consignment of 200,000 Sinopharm vaccines from China. Credit: Gibson Nyikadzino / Ubuntu Times

But Africa’s lack of thorough investments in scientific knowledge in the medical sector continues to reveal the continent’s shortsightedness and expose the strengths of China’s RBI, which is becoming farsighted and strategic in the post-pandemic cooperation.

Last March Madagascar became the first African country to produce a herbal tonic, COVID Organics, as a preventive and curing method to combat Coronavirus. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended that the tonic be clinically trialed. In another development, Tanzania last year stopped publicizing its COVID-19 cases as President John Magufuli, who was announced dead on March 17, declared his country was Coronavirus-free “thanks to God.”

The Coronavirus vaccine donations have given China power to becoming a kingmaker for new political alliances at the expense of Africa’s inability to develop and lead in science. The donations further create an imbalance that has overlooked Africa’s potential in fighting the Coronavirus using locally developed and scientifically certified vaccines. While Chinese vaccine donations continue to come, their formulas are patented in their countries, rendering Africa’s investments in scientific research weak.

On March 12, an inaugural quadrilateral summit by the United States of America (USA), India, Australia, and Japan pledged to checkmate China’s growing global influence and also in the way it is fighting Coronavirus. Africa has not been refuting advances by China, but embracing it as a way to salvation and redemption from the Coronavirus pandemic. In 2013 and 2014 the USA and China established partnerships to help Africa fight Ebola in Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Liberia. Today, the cooperation no longer exist as China continues to buy alliances in Africa through the vaccines.

In the case of Zimbabwe, besides receiving vaccines from China, in January the country also received a donation of twenty ventilators from the USA. In a statement, the embassy said “the ventilators, produced in the United States, reflect cutting-edge technology customized to Zimbabwe’s needs and requirements.”

These donations are not simply acts of kindness, but a lack of preparedness on the continental leaders in responding scientifically and technologically to Africa’s problems. The Coronavirus pandemic has exposed Africa and Zimbabwe’s slow pace in stimulating and up-scaling scientific investment and research.

Frontline workers vaccinated
An essential service or frontline worker receiving a first Sinopharm vaccine jab at Wilkins Hospital in Harare, Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is among the first African countries to administer the Sinopharm vaccine against COVID-19. Credit: Gibson Nyikadzino / Ubuntu Times

Zimbabwe’s Acting Foreign Affairs minister, who is also the minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development, Professor Amon Murwirwa says the much spoken “vaccine diplomacy phenomenon is a conspiracy theory” that is “problematic” in understanding China’s relationship with Zimbabwe.

Between Zimbabwe and China, there currently is no “active program going on” in terms of scientific research exchange.

“China and Zimbabwe are strategic partners. In terms of scientific research between the two, it is not transferred but exchanged. I am not saying there is an active program (on scientific exchange) going on, but there is active cooperation.

“After the COVID-19 pandemic, Zimbabwe is going to emerge from this crisis with improved capabilities,” said Murwira.

A government-commissioned report last month showed Zimbabwe has a 95 percent skills deficit in the medical and scientific sector hampering the provision of effective services. Qualified personnel leaving the country for better incentives, more opportunities, and good infrastructure in other countries are among issues triggering the skills deficit.

The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) recently identified institutions in its sixteen member countries that it can capacitate to develop Coronavirus vaccines. In Zimbabwe, only the Harare Institute of Technology (HIT) and Sable Chemicals were identified.

Tinashe Mutema, the director of Communications and International Relations at HIT said his organization is not “interested in developing COVID-19 vaccines” because it has “no capacity in that regard.”

“We never indicated interest in vaccines but we have an interest in ventilators. If you speak of vaccines that is something remote to us,” he said.

China is making inroads in Africa at a time the West is too busy to attend to Africa as it is combating the virus in their backyard. On the medical front, post-COVID-19 China has strategically positioned itself on the dual basis that they give Africa vaccines for free on the premise that Africa buys from the Asian giant and turn a blind eye to its scientific research.

Academic and writer on China-Africa relations Alexander Rusero notes that what China is doing forms part of its One Road initiative and is harvesting the “dividends of COVID-19 using vaccine diplomacy.”

“There is nothing for Africa in this setting. I would not want to call these developments alliances but the current COVID-19 arrangement is one strategically positioning China as dominant in terms of investments in Africa.

“So these are some of the dividends of COVID-19 and vaccine diplomacy that the Chinese modeled because it came at a time when Chinese investments in Africa were being questioned. The remodeled global political and social order post-COVID-19 is one where power is not restricted to the traditional attractiveness but on who helped us in time of need. It is leverage for China and there is nothing for Africa but China and its entire national interests,” said Rusero.

Can Zumbani, Zimbabwe’s Local Tea Leaves Treat COVID-19?

Farai Shawn Matiashe
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Can Zumbani, Zimbabwe’s Local Tea Leaves Treat COVID-19?

Nickson Mpofu (38) a resident of Cranborne, a medium-density suburb in Harare the capital of Zimbabwe, recalls how they used tea leaves to treat colds growing up in his rural home, Zvishavane. 

As a young boy, he did not know the plant would one day treat the symptoms of a novel virus: COVID-19.  

Last year, after many decades he realized the power of the plant in saving lives when he was diagnosed with COVID-19.

“I first developed a severe headache. I suspected it was just flu,” he tells Ubuntu Times.

“As the day went on the headache and fever became worse.”

Mpofu went to a COVID-19 testing center in Harare where he tested positive for Coronavirus. 

He was asked to quarantine at home.

At that time little was known about COVID-19, thus, Mpofu turned to Zumbani tea leaves. 

“I took Zumbani tea leaves. I also steamed using Zumbani, lemon, gum tree and guava tree leaves,” he said.

Since March 2020 when Zimbabwe recorded its first COVID-19 death, people have been using local remedies such as Zumbani to treat illnesses related to the virus. 

Zumbani, a woody erect shrub that grows naturally in Zimbabwe and other African countries, is known scientifically as Lippia javanica. 

Up until now, the world is battling to find a cure to the pandemic.

But as research efforts go on citizens of poor countries, who can hardly afford medical treatment have had to rely on local remedies to treat the symptoms of COVID-19. 

Several countries have developed vaccines that are currently being rolled out including United States’ Johnson and Johnson, Russia’s Sputnik V, China’s Sinopharm vaccine.

After receiving a donation of 200,000 Sinopharm vaccines from China, Zimbabwe rolled out its COVID-19 vaccination program on the 18th of January 2021. 

The initial phase of the vaccination program targets health workers, members of the security sector, and journalists.

The government aims to inoculate 60 percent of its population of over 14 million people with vaccines from China, Russia, and the Far East.  

In April 2020, the government allowed traditional herbalists to treat COVID-19 using herbs since very little information was available on how to treat the symptoms of COVID-19. 

Zimbabweans are using Zumabani tea leaves to treat COVID-19 related illnesses
Zumabani, known scientifically as Lippia javanica, grows naturally in Zimbabwe and other African countries and has been used to treat ailments such as colds and flu. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe / Ubuntu Times

The southern African nation is experiencing its worst economic crisis in decades which has hit the health sector characterized by shortages of medicines and personal protective equipment (PPEs).

Poor countries like Zimbabwe are struggling to purchase vaccines for their citizens.

They are relying on vaccine donations from developed nations. 

Towards the end of 2021 COVID-19 cases surged as Zimbabwean residents returned from neighboring South Africa for the festive season.

As of the 16th of March 2021, COVID-19 had claimed the lives of over 1,500 people while infecting more than 36,500 people in the southern African nation, according to the Health Ministry.

At this time, the majority of people in Zimbabwe—constituting almost 80 percent of the population resorted to using home remedies to treat common illnesses before seeking modern medical care services, according to Itai Rusike, the executive director of the Community Working Group on Health, a network of community-based organizations.

Another Zimbabwean, Constance Makoni says her parents tested positive for COVID-19 in July 2020 and they took Zumbani and other home remedies. 

“When they tested positive we asked them to steam. My father was in terrible shape. He was not breathing well.”

“My parents could steam 15 times a day. They also drank Zumbani tea leaves. My father was later put on oxygen. They all recovered,” she said.

Zimbabwe is not the only country that at the height of the pandemic resorted to home remedies. 

Other African nations such as Madagascar and Tanzania authorized and promoted the use of home remedies to cure COVID-19. 

In April 2020, Madagascan President Andry Rajoelina launched a herbal tea that was marketed in bottles. 

The herbal remedy made from artemisia-a plant with proven efficacy against malaria, according to the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research.

This herbal remedy was reportedly exported to other countries. 

In Tanzania, President John Magufuli, who did not put the east African nation on lockdown while declaring it COVID-19 free, also ordered a shipment of the Madagascan herbal to treat the respiratory disease in May 2020.

Magufuli died from heart-related complications aged 61 on the 17th of March 2020.

In Zimbabwe, there has been a rise in the number of traders packaging Zumbani tea leaves, for sale in major cities. 

The World Health Organisation has been urging nations to use scientifically proven traditional medicine to treat COVID-19 related illnesses. 

Zimbabwe’s Health Minister Constantino Chiwenga has encouraged medical facilities to undertake a scientific study to ascertain the efficacy of traditional medicine and herbs to combat COVID-19.

There is no scientific research that Zumbani can treat COVID-19
In Zimbabwe, entrepreneurs are packaging Zumbani tea leaves for sale in major cities. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe / Ubuntu Times

Africa University, located in the eastern part of Zimbabwe, is in the process of developing cough drops made from the Zumbani plant.  

The cough drops are not going to be sold as a pharmaceutical drug for now but as a herbal remedy and will be available commercially in one month’s time, according to Africa University. 

Despite its popularity among poor Zimbabweans medical practitioners are not convinced that it can treat COVID-19. 

“Zumbani is a herbal remedy which is probably good for general health and wellbeing. It has been found to have antioxidants like rooibos. It has no known specific effect against any particular bacteria or virus,” Shingai Nyaguse, president of the Zimbabwe Senior Hospital Doctors Association tells Ubuntu Times.

Medical experts say prolonged use of the triterpenoids in Lippia javanica causes liver damage, with jaundice being the most notable result.

Tanzania, Burundi Shun COVID-19 Vaccines

Kizito Makoye
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Tanzania, Burundi Shun COVID-19 Vaccines

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania — As nations worldwide are banking on COVID-19 vaccines to quash the deadly Coronavirus, Tanzania and Burundi have rejected the badly needed jabs, a move likely to derail efforts to fight the disease.

The World Health Organisation (WHO), which has started shipment of about 90 million COVID-19 vaccines to African countries including 320,000 jabs to Rwanda, Cape Verde, South Africa, and Tunisia, said this week it had excluded the two east African countries from its rollout plans.

No Plan For Vaccines

Earlier this week Tanzania insisted it had no plans to import COVID-19 after President Magufuli, who declared the country as COVID-free said the vaccine could be potentially dangerous.

Africa, which has seen a deadly resurgence of COVID-19 cases, recorded 3.6 million as of Monday, with 93,647 deaths.

While scientific modeling has shown an overall lower infection rate in Africa compared to Europe and the United States, experts warned that health systems could potentially become overwhelmed due to the on-going resurgence.

Herd Immunity

Health experts say to achieve herd immunity, about 60 percent of the continent’s population has to be immunized.

In Burundi, where more than 1,600 cases of Coronavirus had been recorded, officials said this week the country is counting on prevention measures since the majority of the COVID-19 patients are recovering.

COVID-19 personal hygiene
People wash their hands as a preventive measure against COVID-19 in Gatumba, Burundi. Credit: Onesphore Nibigira

“Since more than 95% of patients are recovering, we estimate that the vaccines are not yet necessary,” said Thaddee Ndikumana, Burundi’s Health Minister.

Testing Controversy

Tanzania recorded 509 cases of Coronavirus infections and 21 deaths, in May 2020 when authorities halted testing policy. The move came after President Magufuli cast doubt on the efficacy of the Chinese-made testing kits, which he claimed returned positive results on unlikely samples taken on a goat and pawpaw fruit.

President Magufuli’s decision to stop COVID-19 testing provoked widespread criticism among public health experts who have debunked wild conspiracy theories against COVID-19 vaccines with no scientific basis.

President Magufuli, who has largely abhorred social distancing measures including mask-wearing is strongly criticized for peddling wild conspiracy theories that contradict the global scientific consensus on the deadly disease.

Dorothy Gwajima, Tanzania’s minister of health said the east African country is not intending to import COVID-19 vaccines, including free doses it could get from the global Covax initiative which targets poor and middle-income nations.

“We are not satisfied that those vaccines have been clinically proven safe,” said Dr. Gwajima.

Tanzania government has shunned conventional medicines, it is instead promoting traditional remedies, such as steam inhalation to fight respiratory infections

“It’s better we continue to use traditional remedies that have been with us for generations,” she said.

Gwajima emphasized Magufuli’s stance against foreign vaccines while demonstrating how to make a drink using ginger, onion, pepper, and lemons which she claimed can help to obliterate the Coronavirus.

Despite facing strong opposition, WHO has urged the Tanzanian government to prepare for a vaccination campaign, encourage mask-wearing, and share information about Coronavirus infections.

“Vaccines work and I encourage the [Tanzanian] government to prepare for a COVID vaccination campaign,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s Africa director.

Tanzanians Raise Eyebrow Over $100 COVID Screening Fee

Kizito Makoye
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Tanzanians Raise Eyebrow Over $100 COVID Screening Fee

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania — Amidst rumours of the rising number of people with respiratory diseases in private hospitals, Tanzania authorities have issued new policy directives requiring national and foreign travellers to be screened for Coronavirus.

Dorothy Gwajima, Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children said in a statement that COVID-19 screening is mandatory at the fee of Tanzanian shillings 230,000 US$100 for all national and international travelers.

“All travelers are required to go to respective health facilities designated for COVID-19 testing, those whose results turn out negative will be issued with COVID-19 clearance certificates and their names will be transferred electronically to relevant officials,” she said.

All travelers, foreigners and returning citizens, whose countries or airlines require them to get tested for COVID-19 with a negative test result as a condition for travel are required to present a certificate upon arrival, the government said.

Questionable Data

The east African country which halted COVID-19 testing and subsequently stopped publishing relevant data in April 2020, on the grounds that the Chinese-made testing kits were defective, recorded a total of 509 confirmed cases and 21 deaths.

The new guideline sets out procedures for applications, testing, how to take the results, border checks and testing costs for travelers.

According to Minister Gwajima, technological changes have necessitated the cost of testing for COVID-19 to rise from Tanzanian shillings 40,000 (US$ 17) to $100.

At present getting COVID-19 test results, which involve a nasal and throat swab, takes up to 48 hours.

According to officials, COVID-19 positive patients have the option to stay under observation and treatment at the designated health facilities or isolate themselves at home under strict supervision.

Alternative Remedies

While the rest of the world has embraced conventional approach to fight the deadly pandemic, Tanzania switched to prayers, ginger, lemonade concoctions and steam inhalation to fight the virus.

Unlike other African nations, Tanzania shunned lockdowns opted instead to rely on the power of prayer and alternative remedies.

President John Magufuli—nicknamed “The Bulldozer” for his solid track record of getting things done declared in June last year that the nation had eliminated the virus after three days of prayers.

His remarks, however, casted serious doubts among public health professionals, with officials from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and African Centre for Disease Control, strongly criticising the government’s move to halt COVID-19 testing in May.

Infections Rumours

Speaking on conditions of anonymity for fear of reprisals, health workers at major private hospitals in Tanzania’s largest commercial city claim the number of people with respiratory-related complications and high fever has been rising although most of them recover quickly.

“There has been an increase in admission into health facilities, I would like to advise you to maintain precaution,” said a doctor at Safe Hospital in Dar es Salaam.

The government denied the claims.

Veneer Of Truth

Aidan Eyakuze, the Executive Director of Twaweza—a local governance think tank, criticized the official narrative on Coronavirus in Tanzania terming it “veneer of truth”

“We hear whispered insights from medical professionals, and circumstantial evidence of friends and colleagues losing loved ones after sudden respiratory distress which proved fatal,” wrote Eyakuze in The Citizen, Tanzania’s leading independent newspaper.

While neighbouring Kenya and Uganda are increasingly worried by the pandemic, Tanzania seems blissfully relaxed about it, Eyakuze said.

“Lack of open data contributes to this sense of security,” he said.

Zimbabwe Hit By Sixty COVID-19 Deaths In 24 Hours

Jeffrey Moyo
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Zimbabwe Hit By Sixty COVID-19 Deaths In 24 Hours

Harare — Zimbabwe was on Monday hit by 60 COVID-19 deaths in 24 hours, this at a time the country has lost a total of 773 people since the first case was confirmed almost a year ago.

A late night Covid-19 update by Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Health on Monday also said 689 new positive cases of Coronavirus were recorded on the same day the 60 people succumbed to the dreaded pandemic.

“60 COVID-19 deaths were reported today (Monday). 37 of the deaths occurred at institutional level with 23 at community level,” a statement from the country’s Ministry of Health reads.

The Ministry of Health here also added that ‘National Case fatality Rate now stands at 2.8% as at 18/1/21.’

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s Coronavirus mortality rate is relatively far lower than other countries that have so far experienced skyrocketing deaths due to the rampaging pandemic.

Yet the country’s democracy activists like Elvis Mugari of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change Alliance worry the deaths could be a sign of worse things to come.

“Our country’s dysfunctional health care facilities could mean much more Covid-19 deaths are in the offing,” Mugari told Ubuntu Times.

On Wednesday, COVID-19 killed the country’s foreign Affairs Minister Sibusiso Moyo, the former army general who went on state television and announced a coup that toppled former President Robert Mugabe in 2017.

Zimbabwe is currently in a 30-day national lockdown period ordered by the government in order to throttle the further spread of Coronavirus.

Healthcare Staff Nationwide Strike Exacerbates Kenya’s Health Crisis

Robert Kibet
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Healthcare Staff Nationwide Strike Exacerbates Kenya’s Health Crisis

Kenya’s public hospitals are likely to ground to a halt as nurses and clinicians vow to stay off work even as millions are facing three weeks in a row without healthcare amid the global COVID-19 pandemic.

With the rising cases of Coronavirus and the deadly toll the pandemic is taking on Kenyan, nurses, and clinicians at public hospitals made good their threat to boycott work over poor working conditions on December 6.

Through its union, the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN), the nurses’ number 23,000 said they will only resume work after their demands are met.

Seth Panyako, the union’s Secretary-General, among other demands, told the State to compensate families of 26 nurses who have died of COVID-19 in line of duty.

The striking healthcare staff lament that many of their colleagues are dying from COVID-19 due to a lack of both protective gear and health insurance.

Joseph Ondiek, whose wife was to undergo delivery through Cesarian Section had to seek medical services at the Kenyatta National Hospital, a facility already struggling with the surge of cases.

“My wife requires to undergo a Caesarian Section. On reaching Kenyatta National Hospital, I could not be attended to the emergency requirements because of the long queues. All I am praying is that the government come to our rescue by listening to the nurses’ demands,” said Ondiek, who resides in Mathare, one of the informal settlements in Nairobi.

Worsening this already dire situation was when Kenyan doctors in pubic hospitals, said to number 7,200 members joined nurses and clinical officers in the nationwide strike.

The doctors’ concerns revolve around the lack of protective equipment and health insurance for frontline workers fighting against the spread of Coronavirus.

However, the doctors called off the strike three days later after the government acquiesced to their most immediate demands. Nurses and clinical officers’ demands were never attended to and hence continue to picket.

Healthcare staff strikes are a significant threat to universal access to healthcare globally and especially in Sub Saharan Africa. Kenya’s healthcare sector has seen an increase in such industrial action.

Since 2013, Kenya’s public health sector has been affected by frequent short strikes, culminating in nationwide strikes lasting a total of 250 days by doctors and nurses in a span of 11 months in the years 2016 and 2017.

Whilst health professionals have the right to picket, experts say their strike cripples health services with almost no public hospital inpatient services being administered, thus violating people’s right to healthcare.

In most of the healthcare workers’ strike, the Kenyan government has been employing reactive solutions such as sacking striking workers, jailing trade union officials which neither addresses the underlying problems nor build the resilience of the health system.

Last week, Mutahi Kagwe, the Cabinet Secretary for Health directed county governments to sack all striking healthcare staff.

“County governments should start advertising vacancies to replace those on strike if the striking health staff continue to be adamant,” Kagwe gave the directive when he addressed the media.

Kagwe urged the over 8,000 nurses currently jobless to apply for the positions once advertised.

However, officials of the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMDU) were quick to rubbish the directive.

“We are shocked by the government’s level of insensitivity and arrogance in dealing with the grievances raised by our members on their welfare and safety in COVID-19 times. The minister’s ‘appreciation’ to healthcare workers is illaudable,” KMPDU Acting Secretary-General Chibnzi Mwachonda told a press conference.

Samson Cherargei, a senator in Nandi, one of the counties in Kenya’s Rift Valley called on CS Kagwe to instead use his energy in unraveling those behind a multi-million COVID-19 heist scandal under his health ministry.

Bowing to pressure, the CS later said the government will not replace the healthcare workers on strike, a move he said was aimed at ensuring services continue to be provided in all public health facilities.

With the virus spreading, and on the frontline between a nervous public, the healthcare workers on whom all depend have in many instances been forgotten.

The World Health Organization estimates that health workers during the Ebola outbreak and six years ago were between 21 and 32 times more likely to be infected than the general adult population. More than 350 healthcare workers died while battling Ebola in West Africa.

Kenya, currently with some 48 million people has 9,068 licensed medical doctors, 537 Intensive Care Units, and only 256 ventilators.

The Voices Of The Forgotten Population In Rural Kenya During COVID-19

Kelvin Mutugi
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The Voices Of The Forgotten Population In Rural Kenya During COVID-19

Every morning, a harmonious voice crosses the airwaves and finally lands in the countryside of Kajiongo village in Tharaka Nithi county. Here it meets people shut from modernization, and wake them up to the rhythm of the day.

The voice is Mwenda Antu radio. A community-based radio airing vernacular educational programs, updates and entertainment in this geographic location.

Just a few months ago, the little community could be accessed only through a one-way path that came to a dead end. However, the radio facilitated the opening of the village by forwarding their grievances to elected officials who responded by initiating the construction of abandoned roads.

This was briefly after the first case of Coronavirus was reported in the country. At that time, the radio had found itself with a challenge of reaching out to people.

Kajiongo village
A new road under construction in the rugged terrain of Kajiongo village has enabled Village HopeCore to provide maternal healthcare to many women. Kelvin Mutugi / Ubuntu Times

Today, a network of roads converges at this community. Some constructed and others are underway.

”The road here was demarcated before independence. It had begun to disappear until Mwenda Antu radio came, and we expressed our challenges to our elected representatives,” says Muriuki, 65, as he points to the trail of road under construction.

Tractors in Kajiongo village
Tractors winding up the construction of the road linking Kajiongo community to the Nairobi-Meru highway. Kelvin Mutugi / Ubuntu Times

Besides acting as the intermediary between the people and their representatives, the radio seeks to fill the literacy gap by offering educational programs. Occasionally, agricultural and health experts are invited to extend their knowledge to the residents.

Evidently, improved agricultural practices have increased their produce giving them enough food during challenging times of the drought and pandemic.

In the complex world of cutting-edge technology, a radio would not seem useful. This is not the case for Kajiongo community.

Constructed roads which now link this remote village has enabled Village HopeCore, a non-profit organization, to provide home-based maternal healthcare to girls and women, having reached more than 500 homes so far.

HopeCore distribution
HopeCore loading up the vehicles to distribute hand washing tanks to the community. Credit: Village HopeCore

Village HopeCore is committed to eradicating poverty in the villages through mobile health care, education, and empowerment.

“We provide hold educational meet up with girls and women while providing mobile healthcare,” says Mutwiri, a field health practitioner for Village HopeCore.

Through the agency of over 200 trained community health volunteers, Hopecore mobile healthcare programs have managed to help many vulnerable girls in these communities.

Teenage girls receive sanitary towels
Teenage girls receive sanitary towels at Mwimbi and Muthambi sub-county. Credit: Village HopeCore

For instance, Acosta, who is a community health volunteer, was notified about an incident where a 17-year-old girl from Ikumbo community had decided to get rid of her pregnancy by drinking a bottle of bleach.

She had no one to support her, so he visited and referred her to Magutuni sub-county hospital. Even then, she was determined to commit suicide. Through relentless effort, he advised and counseled her until she eventually accepted her situation and agreed to attend ANC clinics. Currently, she is relaxed and awaiting delivery.

Community health volunteers in rural Kenya
Community health volunteers gather with social distancing measures to receive training on how to educate and promote prevention measures on COVID-19 in their communities. Credit: Village HopeCore

For many women, the thoughts of pregnancy bring on a feeling of excitement. However, for teenage girls, forced into adulthood with hard decisions to make, it’s associated with uncertainty, fear and anxiety.

Equally important, Village Hopecore reaches out to school girls and give them free sanitary pads (enough to last for 6 months). Frequently, lack of sanitary towels lead them to engage in ‘sex for pads.’ Thereafter, they educate them on menstrual hygiene management and sexual reproductive health and rights.

HopeCore educate Girls on sex health rights
HopeCore educate Girls on sex health rights. Credit: Village HopeCore

According to the Grace Cup report, 65% of girls and women in Kenya cannot afford sanitary pads due to poverty. 1 in every 10 Kenyan adolescent girl ends up missing school during her menstruation period which affects her performance.

“We know that young girls who get pregnant do not access healthcare services like adult females because of the judgment,” said Ademola Olajide, the United Nations Population Fund representative in Kenya.

That makes them more vulnerable to health complications and unsafe abortions, he added.

Globally, pregnancy and childbirth are the leading causes of death for girls aged between 15 and 19, according to the World Health Organization.

Mwenda Antu radio and Village HopeCore are among many other organizations giving hope to vulnerable populations.

Whereas the pandemic has impacted many aspects of our society, reproductive healthcare is among the worst hit.

Two months ago a video surfaced on social media appearing to show a woman on labor delivering outside the gate of a reputable hospital while Health workers neglected her. It was devastating to many.

Furthermore, in recent past cases of babies disappearing from maternal units of renowned health centers in the country have raised concern about the effectiveness of reproductive healthcare particularly during COVID-19.

On the other hand, teenage pregnancies have been an obstacle, keeping thousands of adolescent girls out of school for years. Now as the students stay at home in a bid to curb the spread of the virus, more incidences have been reported.

While the social aspect of the inequality — which entails the difference in people’s physical well-being and access to livelihood opportunities such as wealth and education — affects many women overall, their plight has increased in rural areas due to lack of resources and poor infrastructure.

According to Kenya’s 2010 constitution (intended to improve the welfare of Kenya’s marginalized groups), women must have at least a third of seats in parliament and a third of appointed positions. However, the law has been difficult to apply.

The fact that the cases of girls’ and women’s rights violations keep rising, is an indication that even though they have representatives to speak for them, in most cases they are never heard.

Kenyan Health Workers In The Pandemic Dance To Ease Their Minds

Dominic Kirui
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Kenyan Health Workers In The Pandemic Dance To Ease Their Minds

When Kenya recorded a first COVID-19 case in March, the government announced the closure of learning institutions in the country and eventually picked a few of them to be isolation centers for those who were traveling into the country as well as those who had been found to be positive.

Fridah Kibiti, a Nairobi-based nurse was deployed by her employer to the COVID-19 isolation and quarantine center at the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) five months ago, and she didn’t think much of it.

In August, Kibiti was tested for the virus after she developed flu and started sneezing, and was found to be positive. She had contracted COVID-19.

“I came for the night shift on a Wednesday and upon being given supper, I felt that food was tasteless,” she says.

Health workers in the front line against the pandemic dance to ease their minds
Kibiti, a health worker at the KMTC isolation and quarantine center who caught the virus in the line of duty speaks during an interview. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

Overwhelmed already by the care she was expected to give to her patients, Kibiti now had another challenge to add to her situation: that of fighting to recover from COVID-19. She was in need of psychosocial support, together with her colleagues who had been in the frontline in the fight against the disease at the center.

At the KMTC which is affiliated to Kenya’s leading public hospital, the Kenyatta National Hospital in the capital, Nairobi, Kibiti, together with her colleagues is engaging in weekly Zumba dances to ease their minds and make themselves feel better. Apart from the dance, the health workers also get psychosocial support from Amref Health Africa through funding from the EU.

According to the World Health Organization of the United Nations (WHO), COVID-19 has exposed health workers and their families to unprecedented levels of risk. Although not representative, data from many countries across WHO regions indicate that COVID-19 infections among health workers are far greater than those in the general population. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director-General stresses the importance of keeping these health workers safe.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded all of us of the vital role health workers play to relieve suffering and safe lives,” said Dr. Ghebreyesus. “No country, hospital, or clinic can keep its patients safe unless it keeps its health workers safe. WHO’s Health Worker Safety Charter is a step towards ensuring that health workers have safe working conditions, the training, the pay, and the respect they deserve.”

The Charter, released last month for World Patient Safety Day, called on governments and those running health services at local levels to take five actions to better protect health workers. These included steps to protect health workers from violence; to improve their mental health; to protect them from physical and biological hazards; to advance national programs for health worker safety, and to connect health worker safety policies to existing patient safety policies.

Doctor Caro Ngunu the head of the Division for Communicable Diseases who has been responsible for case management and prevention says that the Zumba and dance activity assists the health worker to debrief.

Health workers in the front line against the pandemic dance to ease their minds
Health workers enjoy a dance during one of the sessions in Nairobi. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

“COVID-19 is associated with a lot of stigma and the number of hours that we are working coupled also with the kind of environment within isolation and quarantine sites can be quite stressful and so it takes care of the mental wellbeing of the healthcare workers and that is why we regularly conduct it. It also brings people together, enhances teamwork,” says Dr. Ngunu.

The Psychosocial First Aid (PFA) sessions were established to provide psychosocial support to staff who are working at the isolation centers and clients being admitted at the isolation centers to relieve them from stress and depression.

This is after it was found out that the heavy workload and long hours of work that the health workers are tasked with during the pandemic, coupled with separation from their family members and loved ones has led to mental disorders i.e. anxiety, depression, stress, poor productivity or low morale at work among the health workers.

The weekly Psychosocial Support Sessions (PSS) and Zumba dance came in handy to relieve the pressure off from work and share challenges and experiences during COVID-19 Response.

The Deputy Director for Preventive and Promotional services at the Nairobi Metropolitan Services Dr. Thomas Ogaro says that the mental therapy through these activities is of great importance for the health workers.

“It was important for the health workers to come together, share information, and get psychological help so that they can come back to their normal duties. This is very important and I would advise other counties to do the same because this will make their mental state very stable,” Ogaro says.

Health workers in the front line against the pandemic dance to ease their minds
Dr. Thomas Ogaro the deputy director for preventive and promotional services at the Metropolitan Services speaks during an interview. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

“The Zumba here is what we have been getting every Wednesday and the team has helped me. The exercise there is making me now even feel stronger because I can breathe better and also psychologically, I have started getting the strength, as opposed to what I have been telling my friends that I am a convict. Now I’m not a convict anymore!” Kibiti concludes.

COVID-19 Imposed Lockdown Effects, Dwindling Incomes And Child Labor In Zimbabwe

Farai Shawn Matiashe
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COVID-19 Imposed Lockdown Effects, Dwindling Incomes And Child Labor In Zimbabwe

Zimunya, Zimbabwe — The October sun is blazing hot in Zimunya, about 56 kilometers southwest of Mutare. Johnson Muranda (11) is resting on his pickaxe inside a mining pit.

Muranda has been here before sunrise searching for gold.

He has a uniquely awkward beginning to his day compared to his agemates. 

Most boys of his age spend their pastime at home doing extra-lessons to compensate for time lost as a result of the COVID-19 imposed lockdown. 

Since March this year when the government imposed a nationwide lockdown, Muranda has been visiting the area along Odzi River, daily, in search of the precious metal – gold.

The story of Muranda is a tip of the iceberg of the threatening effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on school-going children. 

Zimbabwean children had been out of school for nearly seven months until the government opened schools to some exam classes in early October. 

The rest of the classes are expected to open later this year.

As family incomes dwindled during lockdown, children have had to carry the mantle of fending for their needs even if it meant delving into dangerous ventures such as illegal mining. This has seen a number of Zimbabweans losing their lives in unprotected mines. 

“I have been coming here since April with my friends. I sell gold to buyers from my home area. I realize about $20 per day,” said Muranda whose name has been changed to protect his identity.

Muranda, a Grade 5 student lost his father in 2015 and is now staying with his mother and two other siblings. 

He is slowly graduating into a “young parent.”

“I started mining in May and used the money to buy food for my family. My mom is not formally employed and her sources of income were impacted by Coronavirus,” he said. 

Muranda is not alone in this dangerous venture. Many more children from his school have answered to the lure of illegal gold mining as they seek ways to make ends meet.

Illegal gold miners at work along a riverbed in Zimbabwe
Chemicals such as cyanide and mercury used to separate ore and gold put the lives of child minors at risk. Credit: CNRG

Another child miner Sarudzai Muchemwa (17) works about five hours a day along Odzi River. 

She too has a heart and responsibility of an older person.

“I use the money to buy food as well as clothes for me and my family,” said Muchemwa whose name has been changed to protect her identity.

Apart from looking after the family needs, Muchemwa, who is in Form 3, is saving the money to pay school fees when her class opens late October.

“We are opening on the 26th of October. My parents are peasant farmers and they struggle to raise money for my fees. So, I have decided to help them,” she said.

Zimbabwe has a long history of child labor.

Children at an illegal mining area in Zimbabwe
Child rights defenders have recorded an increase in the number of child miners in Zimbabwe during lockdown. Credit: Zela

In 2019, of the 50,000 children surveyed in the southern African nation, 71% were working in agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors and 5.4% were in the mining and quarrying sectors, according to the Labour Force and Child Labour Survey released by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency.

Adolphus Chinomwe, International Labour Organisation senior program officer based in Harare told Ubuntu Times that loss of incomes could be forcing children into illegal mining. 

“The period from March up to now was postseason for agriculture and from May to June households, especially those in rural areas normally supplement with artisanal mining,” he said.

He added that the lockdown period has been long to the extent that children become “susceptible to child labour-both economic and non-economic.”

According to the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (Zela) in its report titled “Impact of Covid-19 response mechanisms on children in selected gold and diamond communities in Zimbabwe”, children have resorted to drastic mechanisms that compromise their welfare and puts their rights at risk of being violated.

Zela said children were no longer attending classes and the pandemic also drove some to engage in economic activities including illegal mining while stating that sexual exploitation is rampant in mining areas around the country.

“Since the COVID-19 induced lockdown and the closure of schools, the number of children involved in alluvial diamond and artisanal gold mining in the areas under review has increased,” said Zela. 

“For diamond, the activities include milling of alluvial diamond, skirting of diamond, cooking for the syndicates and digging of diamond ore. For gold, the alluvial mining is mainly happening along river beds.”

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) defines a child or minor as a human being underage of 18. 

But according to the International Labour Organisation the fundamental convention sets the general minimum age for admission to employment or work at 15 years, even at 13 for light work and the minimum age for hazardous work at 18 while 16 years is considered as well though under certain strict conditions.

Even though the Labour Act in Zimbabwe allows people under the age of 18 to be employed as part of educational training it makes it illegal for children under the age of 18 to perform any work which can jeopardize their health, safety or morals. 

Without proper monitoring, observance of these laws is minimal. Children venturing into mining are exposed to dangers and are left to learn the ropes of the trade on their own.

“Fortunately, we do not use any chemicals. We first create holes on top of a 200-liter water container. We then put a carpet on top of it. Gold usually does not pass through the carpet but only soil will. This is how we separate the gold,” said Muranda.

He said he has never fallen into any open pits left by other miners.

The environmental damage left by illegal miners along river beds in Zimbabwe
Illegal miners often leave a trail of environmental destruction in forms of gullies and open pits putting the lives of other miners at risk. Credit: CNRG

Desperate to get money during lockdown some young girls had to engage in sexual activities with illegal miners operating in Manicaland. 

“In Odzi we met young girls who are having sex with artisanal miners in exchange for money. Miners take advantage of them. They sleep with them without protection and pay them huge sums of money,” Hazel Zemura, a coordinator for Women Against All Forms of Discrimination told Ubuntu Times.

Organizations that advocate for the rights of children are concerned about the involvement of young people in illegal mining activities.

Zela said the government needs to speed up the formalization of the artisanal and small-scale mining sector to discourage the increasing involvement of children in the sector.

Mines deputy minister Polite Kambamura professed ignorance on the involvement of children in mining activities.

“Our Labour laws in the mining industry do not allow employment of anyone under the age of 18 years. If ever there are such employers they must account for such actions,” he said.

Kambamura challenged mining companies to formalize their operations. 

“We encourage all miners to register and formalize their operations so as to avoid unethical work practices.”

But while solutions to child laborers and observance of law by miners continue to be sought, pupils like Muranda and many other young girls who are forced into illegal mining activities might be irreparably damaged. 

They are beginning to see mining as a pastime venture with lucrative proceeds albeit its associated dangers.

“This is my only source of income. I will be back in the mining fields whenever we break at school,” he said.

Kenya’s Unlikely COVID-19 Hero

Dominic Kirui
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Kenya’s Unlikely COVID-19 Hero

Nyeri, Kenya — On a chilly Tuesday morning at the Consolata Mission Hospital in Kenya’s Nyeri County, Jane Kagwiria attends to patients and visitors at the gate as they come into the hospital. She checks their temperatures and ensures they follow the COVID-19 rules to wash their hands and maintain a social distance before entrance. She is a security guard at the hospital.

The 27-year-old mother of one, was able to get all these skills from the training she received from Amref Health Africa through the EU COVID-19 Response Programme. As a security guard, a vital part of her work is providing information about the virus to people coming to the hospital.

Security guard takes forefront in fight against COVID-19
Kagwiria answers a phone call at her security office at the Consolata Mission Hospital. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

Kagwiria continues to educate her community on the importance of adhering to prevention measures to curb the spread of the disease. Because of her dedication and passion in her work, she was chosen by the hospital management to be part of the hospital’s COVID-19 response team.

“When we first attended the training, there were some forms we were supposed to fill but after filling, the person in charge of training looked at the list and asked who I was and what a security guard was doing at a health workers’ training. I had put my name among those of doctors and nurses,” she says. ”But after explaining myself and my passion, I was allowed to attend and complete the training.

Kagwiria is also a student at the Sister Leonella Consolata Medical College that is housed by the hospital. She is studying preoperative theatre technology, a course she says has been the best challenge in her life and one that she says will fulfill her dream.

Security guard takes forefront in fight against COVID-19
Kagwiria checks patient temperature using a thermo gun at the gate to the hospital. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

But, even as she climbs up the ladder of life and succeeds in what she does right now, Kagwiria’s past life has not been a walk in the park.

In 2006 at age 11, she ran away from her home when her father wanted her to get circumcised so she could be married off.

“My father who was a drunkard at the time wanted me to get married after getting circumcised. I thought to myself that I couldn’t continue with that life and so I decided to run away,” she says.

Security guard takes forefront in fight against COVID-19
Kagwiria walks along the pavements at the hospital towards the theater. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

She then went to the priest at their church and explained to him what had happened and he took her to a nun with whom she lived and worked as a house help at Nkubu in Meru County where she was born.

She then met another priest while at Nkubu and being a jovial kid and an active Sunday school pupil, he asked her what she would like after she explained to him she had run away from home. “I told him that I would wish to go back to school,” she says.

Security guard takes forefront in fight against COVID-19
Kagwiria prepares theater equipment for use by the surgeon ahead of a surgery. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

The priest agreed and took her back to school, this time to a boarding school, where she sat her primary school exam three years later and passed. She then joined a secondary school and after four years, she sat her high school final year exams.

She then went back to her previous employer who was a nurse to work again as a house help, and she was welcomed. A few months later, Kagwiria joined some youth who were looking for a job at a security company. After going through an interview, she was hired.

“That was the beginning of my career as a security guard. As I went through training, my former high school principal gave me pocket money to survive through training. And when I started working, I was posted to St. Teresa Mission Hospital where I met a man who was a doctor there and fell in love with. I got pregnant with my son but he wanted me to have an abortion. He gave me money but I did not take it as I felt that my child’s life was more important,” she explains.

Security guard takes forefront in fight against COVID-19
Kagwiria hands an equipment to the surgeon during the surgery. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

Kagwiria now works for AND Security Company Ltd and is stationed at the Consolata Mission Hospital at Mathari in Nyeri. Here, she is praised as being the best.

Regina Kajuju, the Quality Assurance Manager at the hospital says that she met Kagwiria in 2018 when she was employed to work at the gate as a security guard.

Security guard takes forefront in fight against COVID-19
Kagwiria assists her son with homework at home. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

“Despite the fact that she has been working at the gate, she is so much attached to the patients. She has even gone ahead to join the college when she heard of an opportunity to train as a theatre technician. That was her own initiative, not being sponsored by the hospital,” Kajuju says.

Security guard takes forefront in fight against COVID-19
Jane Kagwiria sweeping the veranda with her son. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

Father Lucas Gatero, the Assistant Director at the Archdiocese of Nyeri (ADN) Security Company Limited also confirms the same.

“She has been the best we have in the company and have, in several occasions added her responsibilities. There was a time we wanted to move her to another workstation but even the hospital management opposed it, saying she was their best guard at the hospital gate,” Father Gatero says of Kagwiria.

Security guard takes forefront in fight against COVID-19
Kagwiria feeds her chicken at a small hutch near her house. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

Kagwiria is now almost completing her studies and is left with an internship where she is attached to the hospital and working at the theatre as an intern. She is on unpaid leave at the security company, but still volunteers to work there and help out during the pandemic.

Recurring Diplomatic Row Between Kenya And Tanzania Likely To Threaten AfCFTA Success

Robert Kibet
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Recurring Diplomatic Row Between Kenya And Tanzania Likely To Threaten AfCFTA Success

Nairobi, September 3 — The recent diplomatic tiff between Kenya and its neighbor, Tanzania is likely to spell doom for the East African Community (EAC) and by extension the highly ambitious African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) which was entered into force on May 30, 2019, after 22 African countries had deposited ratification instruments.

Experts say the dispute helps put into perspective the enormous challenges awaiting African states in their attempt to eliminate trade barriers under AfCFTA.

While promoting intra-African trade and integrating the African market towards making the continent a strategic player in global trade and policy, an argument has been raised as to why African politicians are not showing leadership for this to succeed.

Closer home, the East African Community, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Ethiopia have ratified AfCFTA while Tanzania and the EAC’s lone ranger, Burundi are yet to ratify.

The Kenya-Tanzania border trade disputes following Corona fears exposes African political leaders as the weak link in promoting African integration.

“The route cause of the diplomatic row between Kenya and Tanzania lies in the history of how the old EAC split and who was left with what sorts of assets and those undertones still exists. These can be wiped out if our political leaders take an initiative to focus people’s eyes on the current structure,” Waturi Matu, coordinator of the East Africa Federation of Tourism told Ubuntu Times.

When the EAC broke, it was necessary to create some sort of cooperation on how both countries would cooperate because like in tourism, they share an ecosystem and mutual plans, which gave rise to the 1985 bilateral agreement

When the new EAC was created and the East Africa treaty was signed and the common market protocol came into being, Matu says Kenya stopped following the 1985 bilateral agreement to the later. 

“Until about July 2013,  the sectoral council directed Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda to meet and iron their issues around free movement of services. Kenya and Uganda were quickly able to agree that the issue that was pending was how to allow foreign vehicles to enter national parks,” says Matu.

As at February last year, both countries agreed at a meeting to go back and implement the bilateral agreement. However, one party had not recognized what impact this would have on the tourism operation, which includes close access to the national parks and attractions such as the airport.

Following fears of COVID-19 cross-border transmission between Kenya and Tanzania, Kenya maintained that long-distance truck drivers must be subjected to COVID-19 test before being allowed entry into Kenya.

This was after Kenya identified Kenya-Tanzania and Kenya-Somalia borders as hotpots for Coronavirus. Tanzania authorities would then swiftly retaliate by restricting movement between the Kenya-Tanzania border by forbidding all automobiles and persons from Kenya.

In July during his tenth State address, President Uhuru Kenyatta said countries not making public their COVID-19 data does not mean they were doing better in handling the pandemic. He asked Kenyans not to take the virus lightly adding that Kenya is a democratic society and must conduct its business in the open.

“The fact that countries don’t report what happens in their countries does not mean they are fine, we are an open society and we have to tell our stories,” he said.

It is a statement that appeared to hit at neighboring Tanzania as it was not making public its COVID-19 cases.

In what is viewed as reciprocation, Tanzanian aviation authority redirected a plane carrying Kenya’s envoy to the late former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa mid-air on grounds that the weather was bad.

In June, Tanzania President John Mugufuli suggested that Tanzania was free of COVID-19 as God had ‘answered their prayers.’

Magufuli’s directive came a few days after he skipped the video-conference between East Africa Community head of states and government on May 12. Present in the virtual meeting were Presidents Kenyatta (Kenya), Museveni (Uganda), Kagame (Rwanda), and Salva Kiir (South Sudan) with Magufuli (Tanzania) and former Burundi’s president the late Pierre Nkurunziza, missing.

According to the EAC, the consultative video conference was meant to assess the development of COVID-19 in the region in a bid to develop a regional approach.

When Tanzanian authorities burned 6,400 poultry allegedly imported illegally and imposed a 25 percent import duty on Kenyan confectionery in 2017 and 2018 respectively, Kenya on the other hand banned Tanzanian tour vans from accessing Maasai Mara National Reserve.

In the latest heightened and deepening row, Tanzania moved swiftly and banned Kenya Airways flights “on a reciprocal basis” after Kenya decided against including Tanzania in a list of countries whose passengers would be permitted to enter Kenya when commercial flights resumed on 1 August.

If successful and fully implemented, AfCFTA will create a single market for its population of about 1.3 billion, perhaps the best for Africans since breaking colonial chains and catapulting Africa into the leagues of China and India in terms of market.

Female Entrepreneurs Learn Financial Skills To Tame COVID-19 Economic Losses

Kizito Makoye
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Female Entrepreneurs Learn Financial Skills To Tame COVID-19 Economic Losses

Dar es Salaam — Low-income female entrepreneurs, whose Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) suffered losses after the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic are being equipped with financial literacy skills to absolve their businesses from COVID-19 economic ravages.

Women working in the informal sector are among the most marginalized and underutilized citizens in Sub-Sahara Africa who are less likely to have access to training and credits even though they are the main caregivers of many households. They face a myriad of challenges due to a lack of business and financial literacy skills.

In an effort to cushion women-led businesses from the impacts of COVID-19 Equality For Growth(EfG)—a local charity working to empower women economically recently organized gender-sensitive training course to help low-income women protect their businesses in a crisis.

“This training is aiming to equip businesswomen with essential financial literacy skills so that they can budget, plan and live within their means,” said Jane Magigita, EfG Managing Director.

EfG strives to empower women working in Tanzania’s informal sector, to fight poverty through access to financial legal and human rights education. The firm envisions removing exploitation, gender bias, legal and economic barriers.

According to Magigita, the training entailed intensive courses such as book-keeping, how to prepare a business plan, budget, and how to manage their businesses during crisis all of which are designed to develop women’s financial skills and capabilities.

As businesses in the east African country are still wobbling in dire economic uncertainties, financial education is proving essential to ensure recovery and survival of women-led ventures.

“One of the most critical pathways to empower women is to give them the opportunity to learn financial literacy skills to positively change their attitudes and behavior towards money,” said Magigita.

While poor knowledge on financial matters among women is not a new phenomenon, observers say such training opportunities are vital to avert future crises.

“When the Coronavirus crisis struck, most women in the informal sector were caught off guard, worse still they didn’t know what to do to protect their businesses,” said Margareth Chacha, former Managing Director of Tanzania Women’s Bank.

According to her women’s economic empowerment increases economic diversification,  boosts productivity, and bridges yawning income inequality with men.

Chacha applauded a recent move by Tanzania’s central bank to temporarily increase mobile money transaction limits and waive the fees during the crisis to ease the burden on women-led businesses.

Meanwhile, Magigita called upon banks and other financial institutions to momentarily defer loan repayments for women-led SMEs whenever a crisis strikes.

Magigita hailed how technology was shaping responses to the Coronavirus pandemic, especially the role that digital financial services played to salvage businesses in the country.

“Digital Financial Services play a significant role in stimulating financial inclusion for low-income women groups,” she said.

While women entrepreneurs are increasingly recognized as key drivers of economic growth, many of them are wobbling in financial doldrums that prevent them from sustaining their businesses.

The trainers also taught women to solve the challenges they face when trying to secure bank loans.

Although the informal sector constitutes a vibrant economic force in the east African country, officials say most small businesses die within the first year of operation.

In Tanzania the informal sector is made up of roughly 3 million businesses which provide approximately 48 percent of the GDP and 36 percent of the total employment, official government data show.

Asha Shababu (27) a trader at Tandika market in Dar es Salaam who attended the training said it has helped her to understand the importance of balancing her stock before the start of each business day.

She routinely tallies additions and deductions and jots the figure down on a handwritten ledger.

“I barely kept my sales record before,” Shabani said of her previous approach to run her business. “I have now realized every penny has to be accounted for.”

Kenya’s Corona Billions From Loans And Donations Fail To Save Its Citizens

Dominic Kirui
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Kenya’s Corona Billions From Loans And Donations Fail To Save Its Citizens

Nairobi — It’s a busy Monday evening at the Zimmerman estate in the outskirts of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, and Mary Waithera is busy arranging her goods, hoping to make a few sales before the sun sets, signaling the end of the day.

Waithera has just been kicked out by a shop owner just across the street from whose verandah she had set up a table to sell old magazines, teddy bears, necklaces bangles, and other beauty products. Luckily, she has found a small makeshift stall by the roadside to rent and hopes to make ends meet.

“But the main challenge right now is making sales. Customers fear that they might contract the virus by touching these goods and therefore keep off them. The result is that we make no money and yet life goes on, and landlords need rent. What the government has been promising that it will give to those affected by the harsh times like me; we haven’t gotten even a penny. And neither do I know someone who has received it, nor been told that the money is given out somewhere and that I can go collect it,” the 34-year-old mother of two explains.

Ever since it reported the first COVID-19 case on March 12, Kenya has received billions of Shillings in donations and loans from international banks, philanthropists and donors, that was meant to help the country fight the virus. But in a new wake, Kenyans seem to be getting a raw deal.

In May alone, Kenya received a number of loans that were said to be used to help poor Kenyans cope with the hard economic times during the pandemic. These loans came from three main international lenders; the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and also the African Development Bank.

On May 6, the IMF executive board in Washington, DC approved about US$739 million that it said was to be drawn under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF). The loan would help to meet Kenya’s urgent balance of payments need stemming from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The World Bank Board of Directors then, on May 20, approved a $1bilion loan for the East African country while sitting in Washington, DC as well. The loan, the Bank said, would  “help close the fiscal financing gap, while supporting reforms that help advance the government’s inclusive growth agenda, including in affordable housing and support to farmers’ incomes.”

The institution then said in a statement on May 21 that its Board of Directors had approved a US$43 Million (Sh4.59 billion) International Development Assistance loan that was to assist the country in responding to the desert locust outbreak threat and to also strengthen its system for preparedness.

The next day on May 22, the African Development Bank (AfDB), through its Board of Directors approved a €188 million loan which it said was meant to support the Government of Kenya’s efforts to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigate the related economic, health and social impacts.

“The loan will extend additional resources to Kenya as the country takes steps to contain the spread of the pandemic and deal with its unprecedented impact. It follows a request by the Government of Kenya, as part of its COVID-19 Emergency Response intervention, to help contain the scourge,” the bank said in a statement.

“We are very pleased to join other development partners in supporting the Government of Kenya’s efforts in mitigating the financial impact of the pandemic, especially in terms of the country’s expenditure in the health, social and economic sectors. The next step will focus on helping build resilience for post-COVID-19,” the Bank’s Acting Director-General for East Africa, Nnenna Nwabufo, noted.

But in all these, there is little to show trickling down to assist Kenyans who are suffering the hard economic times brought about by the effects of COVID-19. And as Waithera says, landlords are still comfortably demanding for their rent, even after people lost jobs.

“Where I stay, I think my landlord is the strictest because I have witnessed him throwing people out when they fail to pay rent. Right now I am struggling and praying to God so hard that rent is found before such happens to me and my family,” she says.

Waithera’s husband also has a shop, selling electronics at the Ngara estate, just a few meters from the city center. And, according to Waithera, his business is no better.

“In fact for him, it has been a hit to the point that we don’t talk in the house. There is no happiness. He is always silent, thinking about where the money to keep our family going will come from,” Waithera continues.

Apart from bank loans, the country has also been receiving money and personal protective equipment (PPE) from donor organizations and philanthropists, both local and international.

One of such kind is the July 1 U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) $50 million support to Kenya’s response and recovery efforts that the country had made through its embassy in Nairobi. The grant, it said, was meant to meet the immediate and longer-term challenges that COVID-19 is posing.

“The American people have always been generous to those in need around the world, and today Kenya is facing the compound challenges of COVID-19, flooding, and locusts.  We are focusing on ensuring resources get to the counties and communities because Kenya’s communities are Kenya’s greatest asset in overcoming these challenges,” stated U.S. Ambassador Kyle L. McCarter.

COVID-19 loans fail to help ordinary Kenyans
Waithera arranges her goods for sale as she sets up her new stall. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

But in all these, there has not been a notable effect on the ordinary Kenyan people. The money has been squandered and/or stashed in bank accounts either by officials in government or the rich elite in the country.

A good part of the billions was also supposed to assist hospitals in getting equipment for health officers to be able to effectively and safely attend to patients at their facilities. But this has not been the case.

At the Mathare North Health Centre in Mathare slums, there isn’t enough equipment, including protective equipment and other patient handling equipment that the health workers need in order to be safe.

“Here, only God will be able to help us. You never know who you are handling and even though we check the patient’s temperature at the entrance, you know well enough that there are people who might have the virus but are asymptomatic. So, if possible, we would demand from the government that they also think about us as much as they would want to accumulate some of the money for themselves and their rich friends in government,” says a health worker who chose to remain anonymous for fear of losing her job.

When the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Kamau Macharia tested positive for COVID-19 on July 24, the PS handed over his duties on July 30 as he proceeded to self-isolation.  He then raised concerns about where all the billions went to that the government was not able to conduct an effective contact tracing to establish who he came in contact with and might have put at risk.

“For all the billions that have been spent on this campaign, it’s hard to imagine that at the point of contact where the disease actually happens, there is no system to make sure that we have access to proper care and the proper contact tracing is actually done to keep track of those who are not well or maybe infecting others,” Macharia said in a WhatsApp group of top government officials.

In a document to the National Assembly in April, Health Cabinet Secretary, Mutahi Kagwe had pointed out that the Ministry had spent 42m shillings to lease ambulances, 4m shillings on tea and snacks, and 70m shillings on communication. This was a break-down of the 1.3bn Kenyan shillings ($12.2m), mostly donated by the World Bank in April, to be used in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

The Minister was then summoned by the National Assembly and the Senate to appear before the Parliamentary Health Committee in early May after concerns by Kenyans on the expenditure.

Doctors and nurses have always gone on strike, citing unpaid salaries and unfavorable working conditions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. On August 4, doctors and nurses at the Homa Bay County Hospital in western Kenya were the latest to do the same.

The Cabinet Secretary at the Finance Ministry in July acknowledged that about half of the money that the country has so far received was being held in the bank accounts of rich individuals.

“This will go on for a month or two, and then the banks will start lending to the private sector,” Yatani had said in late July.

Africa Could See Spike In Illicit Financial Flows Amid COVID-19 Onslaught

Robert Kibet
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Africa Could See Spike In Illicit Financial Flows Amid COVID-19 Onslaught

Nairobi, August 1 — With COVID-19 proving to be the most adverse peacetime shock to the global economy, tax advocates have raised concern over a possible rise in the scope of Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) in Africa.

Fearing that existing fragile health systems might be swiftly overwhelmed if the pandemic spreads beyond a small number of cases, governments across Africa are stepping up their preparedness to curb its spread.

A recent tax justice advocacy training done via online conferencing sought to end aid dependency in Africa, helped redefine roles to be played by various sectors in an effort to eliminate the structural causes of poverty and underdevelopment in Africa.

The training by International Tax Justice Academy (ITJA) and Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), attracted participants from 40 African countries drawn from the media, academia, civil society, and trade unions.

“Since we started such training in 2014, we have so far imparted knowledge on over 1,000 participants on issues which include the need for domestic resource mobilization to finance Africa’s development,” Alvin Musioma, Executive Director at Tax Justice Network Africa, a Pan-African advocacy and research network of 31 members in 16 African countries told the conference in his opening remarks.

It is estimated that illicit financial flows in Africa stand between $50 and $80 billion annually; with 44 percent of the continent’s financial wealth thought to be held offshore, which corresponds to tax revenue losses of some $20 billion. The ultimate objective is not only to reduce but ultimately eliminate illicit outflows.  

Africa, endowed with significant natural resource wealth with good husbandry has the potential to finance its development but existing illegal cross border movements of money and capital that threaten the continent’s sustainable development have been growing every year.

“The threat that illicit financial flows pose on the continent’s integrity and stability of its financial system in normal times has existed over decades, and now there is much to worry of in the face of the pandemic,” adds Mosioma.

Carried out by experts in their respective fields, the trainers shed light on an array of topics including Double Tax Treaties and the role they play in facilitating international corporate tax avoidance, global financial secrecy and how tax systems are rigged against Africa as well as techniques used by multinational companies to reduce or avoid taxes among others. 

This year marks the 7th Edition of ITJA training with the theme: Tax Justice Advocacy: Increasing Participation of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Journalists through Capacity Building. This, according to Mosioma proved that with technology, regular capacity building activities can be held amid a global pandemic as COVID-19.

Africa is home to the world’s largest arable landmass, second largest and longest rivers (the Nile and the Congo), and its second-largest tropical forest. 

A study carried out by the African Development Bank Group estimates that the total value added of the continent’s fisheries and aquaculture sector alone stands at US$ 24 billion. Besides, about 30 percent of all global mineral reserves are found in Africa. 

The continent’s proven oil reserves constitute 8 percent of the world’s stock and those of natural gas amounting to 7 percent. Minerals account for an average of 70 percent of total African exports and about 28 percent of gross domestic product. 

Even with such enormous resources, the continent’s poverty rate stands at 41 percent, and out of the world’s 28 poorest countries, 27 are in Africa all with a poverty rate above 30 percent.   

Undoubtedly, IFFs have turned the continent into a net creditor. During the academy, TJNA empowered the target groups with skills to identify, track, and report illicit outflows from the continent. 

Trade misinvoicing, tax evasions, and the criminal smuggling of cash, illicit goods ad human trafficking across borders are the main types of IFFs.

A recent Global Financial Integrity (GFI) report on the problem of trade misinvoicing found that illicit cross-border movement of money by hiding within the regular commercial system indicates massive levels of IFFs are going undetected through the global trading system.

“Approximately $ 8.7 trillion is the sum of the value gaps identified in trade between 135 developing countries and 36 advanced economies over the ten-year period 2008-2017,” says the GFI report.

Between 1980 and 2018, Sub-Saharan Africa received $2 trillion on foreign direct investment and official development assistance and emitted over $1 trillion on IFFs. Ethiopia, South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nigeria account for over 50 percent of illicit financial flows in Sub Saharan Africa.

Zimbabwe’s Agriculture Minister Succumbs To COVID-19

Jeffrey Moyo
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Zimbabwe’s Agriculture Minister Succumbs To COVID-19

Harare, July 29 — Zimbabwe’s Minister of Agriculture, Perrance Shiri has succumbed to the novel Coronavirus at the age of 65, becoming the first government minister to be claimed by the virus.

Shiri, notorious for commanding Zimbabwe’s Fifth Brigade army unit that massacred thousands of civilians in the 1980s across western Zimbabwe when government cracked down on opposition Zimbabwe African National Union party (ZAPU), allegedly contracted COVID-19 from his driver who also recently succumbed to the dreaded disease.

Before becoming the country’s Agriculture Minister, he (Shiri), who was commander of Zimbabwe’s Airforce for 25 years, is also known for helping plot the military coup that overthrew the Southern African nation’s former late longtime President Robert Mugabe in 2017.

Without mentioning what killed his minister, turning to his official Twitter account, Zimbabwe’s President, Emmerson Mnangagwa tweeted ‘I am deeply saddened to inform the Nation of the death of the Minister of Agriculture, Air Chief Marshall (retired) Perrance Shiri, a longtime friend and colleague.’

Shiri is reported to have died in the early hours of Wednesday at a hospital in the Zimbabwean capital Harare.

Although Mr. Mnangagwa did not mention in his statement what killed the Minister, Zimbabwe’s local media said Shiri succumbed to complications from Coronavirus, which has so far infected closer to 3,000 Zimbabweans and killed 40.

On his Facebook page, Zimbabwe’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Vangelis Haritatos confirmed the death of his immediate boss.

“Sadly this is true. Hon. Minister Shiri passed on this morning,” Haritatos said.

Meanwhile, the 1980s army massacres, notoriously known as ‘Gukurahundi’ a word in Shona native language which means early rains that wash away the chaff—which Shiri led, remain a source of bitterness for this country’s people in the Matabeleland regions, many of whom lost loved ones during the genocide.

Youths At Frontline Tap Solar Power To Provide Clean Water For Local Communities

Kelvin Mutugi
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Youths At Frontline Tap Solar Power To Provide Clean Water For Local Communities

Chuka, Kenya — Back in 2017, Eric founded Stegmax Construction company with the aim of solving the problem of water shortage in his village.

The startup, which focuses on drilling boreholes and installing them with solar-powered water pumps, has supplied over 10,000 liters of water to hundreds of poor families living in arid and semi-arid areas of Tharaka Nithi and Meru counties.

They usually start the whole process by digging a borehole if a client doesn’t have one. If the client has a borehole, they proceed directly with the installation.

First, pipes fitted to an electric solar pump are sunk into the borehole. The pump is in turn connected to solar panels stationed in an open place preferably on rooftops. Water pumped from a borehole is then connected to the tanks for storage to ensure sufficient water at night and when there is no sunlight. Complete installation takes less than ten days depending on the client’s needs.

Solar Power for Clean Water in Kenya
Kananu (furthest left) join the villagers in the supply of labor for the construction of a water tank stand. Credit: Kelvin Mutugi / Ubuntu Times

‘Solar water pumps have saved us time and energy which we instead employ in other areas to increase production,’ says Kanaanu a resident at Kiang’ondu village from Tharaka Nithi County. ‘Now we have enough water for cleaning our hands,’ she adds.

Stegmax usually source the solar water pumps from overseas while other supplies like electrical fittings, metal supplies, pipes, plumbing fittings, waterworks, and labor are obtained locally.

In recent years, solar pumps have also been used in higher altitude areas to pump water from nearby rivers.

‘Here the nearest river could be too far below the location’s altitude to pump a significant amount of water. Also, climate change has turned many places to semi-arid leading to drying up surface water. That’s why we decided to face this challenge by restoring water using renewable energy,’ says Eric the co-founder of Stegmax Construction company.

Solar Power project for Clean Water in Kenya
A complete solar water pump borehole with a storage water tank. Credit: Kelvin Mutugi / Ubuntu Times

Most of the people are able to fund the whole project by themselves. For those who are unable to meet the demands, they are supplemented with special funds by government and NGOs known as climate mitigation finance.

Mitigation finance is used to support projects that limit (mitigate) the onset of climate change. For instance, renewable energy projects and reforestation initiatives.

‘The definition of climate finance is enshrined in UN conventions in that it must be “new and additional” to any aid money previously pledged, and must be specifically pledged to climate change hence minimizing the chances of misuse,’ says Arthur Wyns, a tropical biologist and science journalist.

Energy transition is on its way. While there are still some who are against it, the great majority like Eric, have embraced the transition and have proved to be unstoppable.

Solar Power project for Clean Water in Kenya
Water pump erected above the earth’s surface supplies enough water for the community. Credit: Kelvin Mutugi / Ubuntu Times

Sustainability is the big picture of the whole system, and we cannot bring successful businesses while ignoring the people and environment.

When Trump administration walked away from their commitments to climate change finance and other pledges, many US citizens, businesses, and local states who felt that they were still committed to Paris Agreement responded by forming a new coalition called ‘we are still in’ during COP23.

Consequently, new donations were pledged and finances tripled in order to fill the gap left by the US government.

COVID-19 Takes A Toll On Women And Girls In Kenya’s Marginalized North

Dominic Kirui
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COVID-19 Takes A Toll On Women And Girls In Kenya’s Marginalized North

Merille, Kenya, June 8 — On a scorching hot mid-morning at Merille, about 413km (257 miles) north of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi and in Marsabit County, Lilian Lelikoo sits under a shade with their baby. Her husband sits on a rock a few meters away, looking away from his wife and daughter as they converse. They are contemplating what to do next to make an income to meet their household needs after the closure of the livestock market that has been their source of income.

The 20-year-old mother of two has been buying and selling livestock together with a group of her women friends for profit. But after the closure of the Merille Livestock Market, the women are now left without a source of income.

COVID-19 restrictions affecting livelihoods in Kenya’s dry, marginalized north.
Lilian Lelikoo looks across a fence into the closed Merille Livestock Market. She used to sell goats inside the market for survival. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

“I personally used to make up to Ksh2,000 ($20) on a good day when I use Ksh5,000 ($50) to buy goats that I would later resell. But now, I have been using my savings to cater for our household needs so we can put food on the table,” Lelikoo says.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta announced a number of measures in late March 2020 to curb the spread of COVID-19 after the country registered its first positive case on March 13. These measures included the closure of major markets that would lead to social groupings as the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation advised social distancing among individuals.

COVID-19 restrictions affecting livelihoods in Kenya’s dry, marginalized north.
Isaac Lelikoo looks at an abandoned water through that used to serve animals at the Merille Livestock Market. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

Her husband, Isaac Lelikoo, who is also a herder, has been hard hit by the measures as he is not able to change his cattle and goats into cash like he used to easily do every Tuesday at the market place. He would help her wife herd the goats to fatten them before she resells to make more money.

“Now, if one wants to sell, he may be lucky to get a buyer who will come and buy in the field while herding. Such is very rare and the prices drop drastically. At the market, we would get very good prices for our animals and money would be exchanging hands even if one doesn’t sell,” he says.

COVID-19 restrictions affecting livelihoods in Kenya’s dry, marginalized north.
A signpost next to a closed gate that otherwise enters the Merille Livestock Market. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

Edward Lentoror, the Livestock Production Officer at Laisamis Sub-county where Merille falls says that the Merille Market is the largest in the area and that it’s closure has had a negative impact on the lives of the local community members.

“In the sub-county, there are five livestock markets but four of them are feeder markets to Merille market. Those who never used to move with their families and their animals in search of water and pasture have started doing so due to desperation,” he says.

His sentiments are echoed by Tom Lalampaa, the Chief Executive Officer at the Northern Rangelands Trust, says that the closure of the livestock markets is a reason for concern for the pastoralist communities in the north. “This is really stressful for local communities simply because they cannot convert their livestock to cash so they can put food on the table, to meet their medical bills, and to get their clothing,” he says.

COVID-19 restrictions affecting livelihoods in Kenya’s dry, marginalized north.
Lilian Lelikoo walks into her house at a manyatta in Merille, Marsabit County. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

But the Lelikoos are not the only ones affected. At the Loisaba Conservancy in Laikipia County, about 356km (221 miles) south of Merille, women have come together to save their community both from COVID-19 and its effects. They are using tailoring skills to make face masks and also make reusable sanitary pads for girls in the community.

Like the Lelikoos, the community here is a pastoralist one and they depend largely on livestock for their survival. But when drought comes, it kills all the animals and leaves them with hunger and famine, something that had for so long forced the women to fell trees for charcoal, further exacerbating climate change and making the droughts more severe.

COVID-19 restrictions affecting livelihoods in Kenya’s dry, marginalized north.
Elsie Modester demonstrates how to use a reusable sanitary pad on a panty to a group of girls in her cottage at Ewaso, Laikipia County. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

Until Elsie Modester, a businesswoman from the community who owns the Lewaso cottages advised the women to take tailoring classes after forming the Chui Mama Self-help group. She then supported them with two sewing machines which they used to learn and would later mend clothes for neighbors. Being an hotelier herself and having grown up in the same local community and understands the challenges, she also taught them how to attend to guests and clean around the cottages, and now she employs a section of the women.

Having turned away from destroying trees for charcoal, the women then noticed that the forests growing round them were good for beekeeping. They sought a donation of beehives from World Vision Kenya, an international NGO that is operating in the area which gave them 60 beehives that are now spread around the bushes near the cottages and also four more sewing machines to help the women sew masks and sanitary pads for girls and women around the village.

COVID-19 restrictions affecting livelihoods in Kenya’s dry, marginalized north.
A woman employed makes a bed at the Lewaso Cottages in Laikipia County in the absence of tourists who would stay there. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

Margaret Rampai, a 28-year-old mother of five, who is also a member of the Chui Mama group takes a break to go check on the beehives in a bush next to the cottages where they are working from after Modester offered to house them since there are no guests at the moment.

“We learned the value of trees that we had all along been destroying and now we can at least earn something by letting them grow as we can now keep bees in them,” she says.

COVID-19 restrictions affecting livelihoods in Kenya’s dry, marginalized north.
Margaret Rampai points at beehives hanging on trees inside a bush next to the Cottages. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

At the village, 15-year-old Margaret Leadura is busy washing the dishes at her parents’ home. Modester has come to visit her with a pack of sanitary pads made by the women, a face mask, a pant, and soap. Lendura’s mother is the sole breadwinner of the family and a member of the Chui Mama group. Her father lives with a disability and so cannot work. They all depend on their mother.

COVID-19 restrictions affecting livelihoods in Kenya’s dry, marginalized north.
Margaret Leadura washes the dishes at her home in Ewaso, Laikipia County. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

Leadura is a class eight candidate and is expected to sit her national exam this year. Since schools closed, she has run out of sanitary pads that used to be supplied by the government at school but is very thankful for the women group for coming to her rescue with the reusable sanitary pads.

COVID-19 restrictions affecting livelihoods in Kenya’s dry, marginalized north.
Elsie Modester arrives at Leadura’s home to gift her a pack of sanitary pads, soap, pantie, and face mask. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

The women also traditionally made beads that they sold to guests at the cottages who were on Safaris and would spend there. They would as well perform traditional folk songs to entertain them. But since the stopping of international flights dies to COVID-19, there are no guests at the cottage and business has gone down, leaving them to only depend on the sale of honey and face masks.

COVID-19 restrictions affecting livelihoods in Kenya’s dry, marginalized north.
Margaret Rampai sewing a mask at the Lewaso Cottages in Laikipia County. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

“The markets in Australia and America have all shut down, yet they were the biggest markets for beadwork. That means that the source of income have been hit and the women and their families will continue to suffer,” says Lalampaa.

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