Thursday, May 16, 2024

Kenya

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.

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.

The Untold Suffering of East Africa’s Donkey Community Owners!

Sebastian Mwanza
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The Untold Suffering of East Africa’s Donkey Community Owners!

Sebastian Mwanza is the Senior Communications Officer at Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW)

Dr. Dennis Bahati is the Programs Manager (Animal Care) at Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW)

By &

The final orange-hued rays had appeared on the skyline, which went through the clouds and the prodigious sky was easily visible. And now, the hot bowl had gently come out of its abode across the brilliant orange horizon and glimmered in the sky, just above the tangerine Kenya-Tanzania border hills.

The time is 9:27 AM. A silhouette feeble figure, walking with a cane and draped in green Maasai regalia warily crosses the international beacon-marked border, from Tanzania to Kenya, at the Olposumoru border Point in Narok County, Kenya, headed for a donkey forum at the Chief’s camp just a stone throw away. He looks as though a puff of wind could blow him down.

When he was within sight, the old man’s deep wrinkles seemed to carve a map of his life on his still agile and mobile facial features. With each movement, there was the creak of old bones, hand tremor, and constant waggling and bobbing of the head. Mzee (loosely translated to mean ‘male elder’) Ezekiel Morintat, as we would later learn of his name, had a fringe of grey-white hair around his balding, mottled scalp and a back slightly hunched.

After joining the meeting and exchanging normal pleasantries with fellow donkey owners, he quietly latched his seemingly tired body frame on a stone’s slab facing the direction to which he had come.

Kenya-Tanzania International Border at Olposumoru
Beacons showing the International border between Kenya and Tanzania at Olposumoru, Narok County, Kenya. Credit: Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW)

Fifteen minutes later, Julius Lekoole, the Olposumoru area chief called the meeting to order. With the help of a Maasai translator, he introduces Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW) Staff and their mission to this sleepy and almost forgotten corner of East Africa’s economic powerhouse. When the 27 donkey consultative meeting attendees learn that ANAW staff members are there to discuss the impact of illegal cross-border movement and trade of donkeys and to partner with the community in seeking ways of stopping the prevailing rampant donkey theft, the initial disquiet mood of the meeting suddenly lightens up, and nods multiply.

Eerie silence ensues before the next person shares his or her experience. They painfully absorb and swallow hard as harrowing narratives of donkey loss are shared. Before 2016, when wanton donkey theft visited their village at the border, many of them were keeping an average of 20-70 donkeys per household. Life changed so dramatically when the Kenyan government allowed commercial slaughter and export of donkeys. They all agree that is when their donkeys started missing and could not find them even after reporting the theft cases to the area chief, who jiggled his head in agreement. They learned that their stolen donkeys were being slaughtered in Naivasha’s Star Brilliant Donkey abattoir and wanted ANAW to help them ‘talk’ to the government to close the donkey slaughterhouses so that they may keep their remaining few donkeys.

Towards the end of the meeting, we notice Mzee Morintat who had introduced himself as a Tanzanian once-a-donkey owner, residing not far from the border had not uttered a word. All through the discussions, his expression was of frustration and fatigue. The world seemed no place for him; he had had enough. He seemed to have had stories to tell, experience danced on his lips like a curious child. And yet he stayed silent, those listless eyes just watching, not telling. His not-so-good memories haunted him, sometimes drawing a tear.

The chief gestured to him to share his story. After clearing his throat, the wizened old man described his life, and we were instantly transported to another place and time. His voice was slow, and he stumbled on his words at times. Sometimes, he was overtaken by emotions that had been buried for years and he would have to pause.

Kenya-Tanzania Border Point
Makeshift police post at the Kenya-Tanzania border in Olposumoru, Narok County, Kenya. This was one of the alleged routes where stolen donkeys passed through from Tanzania to Kenya. Credit: Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW)

“The manyatta where our seven families have stayed for more than four decades had 600 donkeys before 2016. Now we have only eight remaining. We have sold none; all of them stolen at night, and we have not recovered any.” Mzee pauses and continues after whisking a fly away from his weary eyes. “My family has no donkey currently, and yet we had 48 donkeys before 2016. The first batch of 29 donkeys were stolen in March 2017 and the remaining taken away by December of the same year.” He looks down, with his left gnarled hand supporting his stubbled chin and leaning on his walking cane, by his right hand.

His eyes were so heavily lidded and weighed down with wrinkled folds that it was almost like talking to someone asleep, yet he was quite alert.  He looked up and in unexpected crescendo said, “Those donkeys were our lives. We drank water because of them. We ate because of them. We moved because of them. They were part of our family. We bewail their disappearance. Life has been hard for my family. At times we sleep hungry. Children sometimes miss school. My wives are now the donkeys themselves…”

With those words, Mzee staggeringly rose. His eyes were wet. Amid difficulty, he started out for the border point, from where he had come. After three steps he abruptly stopped and turned around to face the gathering. Looking directly at ANAW staff he firmly said, “If you can, ask Kenyan government to shut the donkey abattoirs. Communities that rely on donkeys for their livelihoods are suffering. People are dying.” He then straightened up and with the cautiousness of a calculating chameleon, he proceeded for home, with that resigned look of one who knows that at his age, life had stopped giving and only took away.

Mzee Morintat represents hundreds of donkey owners especially those living on the borderlines of Kenya and Tanzania who have wallowed in the miasma of pain, sorrow, and abject poverty arising from the illegal cross-border trade of donkeys that has continued since 2016 leaving behind a trail of socio-economic destruction.

Donkey Welfare Meeting in Kajiado County
Maasai elders meet Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW) team in a Focus Group Discussion on donkey cross-border movement at Kona Maziwa near Shompole, in Kajiado County, Kenya. Credit: Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW)

From Kenya’s Oloolaimutia, Olposumoru in Narok County to Shompole, Namanga, Olgulului, and Olmapinu in Kajiado County, deep etched pain and resignation register in the eyes of donkey owning communities; their facial furrows occasioned not by age, but of sorrow and poverty are marks of their endurance. In Tanzania’s Longido, Sinya, Tarakea, and Mgagao regions the story is the same for the donkey dependent communities. The situation is so dire that community elders warn there would be no donkey left roaming the expansive border stretch by 2023 if nothing is done to halt the illegal cross-border movement of donkeys.

When the rains started pounding

Since 2016, Kenya has seen the operationalization of four donkey abattoirs—more than any other country on the continent—that has hitherto driven the ‘beast of burden’ to near annihilation. These entities: Star-Brilliant (Nakuru County), Goldox Kenya Limited (Baringo County), Fuhai Machakos Trading Company (Machakos County) and Silzha Limited (Turkana County) have been slaughtering over 1,000 donkeys every day to quench an insatiable demand for donkey skin products by the Chinese and Asian populace, crippling an already dwindling population of 1.8 million as per the Kenya National Population and Housing Census (2009).

Kenya and Tanzania share a scarcely unmanned border stretch of nearly 769 kilometers with only two official border crossing points (Namanga and Kibauni) along Kajiado and Narok Counties that link the two countries to facilitate socio-economic ties.

Donkey Forum in Narok County Kenya
Donkey owners in an Open Forum Meeting to discuss the impact of cross border movement of donkeys along the Kenya-Tanzania border, at Oloolaimutia, Narok County, Kenya. Credit: Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW)

According to our sources, the donkey cross-border movement was driven by the soaring demand for donkeys in Kenya induced by better prices offered in donkey markets and slaughterhouses. Unscrupulous traders would pay middle-men mostly Maasai traders around KES 5,000 to ‘get’ donkeys from Tanzania and move them across the border through unofficial routes to Kenyan soil from which they would load them inhumanely on waiting trucks and transport them for days without any nourishment, to slaughterhouses or donkey markets, where they would sell them between KES 12,000 – KES 15,000 making exorbitant profits, a claim confirmed by the County Director of Veterinary Services in Kajiado County, Dr. Achola Yala. “An estimate of 108,000 donkeys were trafficked into Kenya from Tanzania between 2017 and 2019 through seven unsanctioned and treacherous routes: Ololaimutia, Ilkerin, and Olposimoru in Narok County as well as Shompole, Namanga,” Dr. Yala added.

The Promise That Never Was!

The promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya in August 2010 promised a fresh epoch for its subjects’ dignity (both human and non-human). One of its key promises was sustainable exploitation, utilization, management, and conservation of the environment and natural resources; while fostering public participation in the management, protection, and conservation of genetic resources and biological diversity. A decade down the course, this realization and conviction is still a transient ambition.

Donkey Forum in Olposumoru
Donkey owners meet with Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW) Team at Olposumoru, outside Chief’s office, to discuss the impact of Kenya-Tanzania donkey cross-border movement. Credit: Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW)

The wanton slaughter of donkeys in Kenya for meat and skin with no regulation or resource allotment towards research and future preservation is contrary to the ideals of Kenya’s 2010 constitution. There exists a massive disparity regarding policy and legal frameworks that are responsible for upholding donkey welfare, public health, and environmental conservation both at national and county levels. In addition, the lack of a national donkey identification, registration, and traceability system has muddled the tracking and recovery of the animal across the vast border.

Glimmer of hope

After a sustained media campaigns against illegal cross-border movement of donkeys by ANAW and Brooke East Africa climaxing on airing of a special investigative piece dubbed #HideousBurden by a regional broadcaster, concerned communities breathed a sigh of relief on February 24, 2020, as Kenya’s Minister for Agriculture and Livestock, Hon. Peter Munya made a landmark pronouncement that the government was banning donkey export trade and subsequently giving the proprietors of the existing four donkey abattoirs a month’s notice to wind up donkey business. Hon. Munya has since published the ban in Kenya’s Gazette Notice to make it a government directive.

However, while this seems to be good news to many, there are fears that this trade is far from over, for it may have just opened the dark door to donkey’s black market. Importantly, with Kenya still reeling under the cancer of corruption, some shrewd businessmen with a keen interest in donkey trade may end up buying their way to have the ban lifted.

Kenyans Stare At Hunger As Birds Destroy Rice

Dominic Kirui
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Kenyans Stare At Hunger As Birds Destroy Rice

Kisumu, June 1 — At midday in the West Kano irrigation scheme in Kenya’s Nyando Sub-county of Kisumu County, Erick Otieno has just received his lunch from his employer but can’t have it since a group of Quelea birds keep descending on the rice field he is guarding and he has to drive them away. He is employed to scare them.

The 23-year old says that he has known rice farming since he was born and watched his parents and neighbors only engage in it for a living.

Rice farmers have had to meet an extra cost of hiring youth to scare birds in their farms as the bird population has kept growing in number in the past few years. They say that the government used to spray and control their population using planes but that has since stopped since the Kenya Wildlife Service warned against the killing.

Birds destroy rice plantation by feeding on it.
Otieno shows hot to stick a lump of soil on a wooden stick that he uses to throw it to the birds to scare them. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

“I arrive here at the field at 5 AM. The trick is to wake up before the birds so that by the time they get here, I am ready to scare them. In the evening, I leave about 6:30 PM or 7 PM when they go back to their nests to roost,” explains Otieno.

The red-billed Quelea, also known as the red-billed weaver or red-billed dioch, is a small-sized migratory, sparrow-like bird of the weaver family, Ploceidae, that is approximately 12 cm long and weighing 15–26g and is native to Sub-Saharan Africa. They have bills adapted to eating seeds.

The birds are normally found on wheat, rice and sorghum plantations and are said to be able to consume an average of 10g of grain a day, and an average of 72,000kg per season.

Birds destroy rice plantation by feeding on it.
Otieno digs up some clay soil that he uses to scare the birds. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

Now, the farmers have been put between a rock and a hard place as they have to choose between conserving the birds’ lives and losing their crop to the devouring birds.

Next to the field that Otieno is guarding is Fredrick Obiny’s 2-acre rice farm. He also recounts the same losses inflicted by the birds. Obiny, a 35-year-old father of two has engaged in rice farming for the past five years after leaving a job at a nearby molasses plant.

Obiny says that the last time they experienced such an invasion was 1997 when a huge swarm of birds descended on the crop. But, he quickly notes, “This has been the worst! We have never seen something like this before.”

Birds destroy rice plantation by feeding on it.
A farmer shakes some pieces of iron sheets to scare the birds on a rice plantation. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

“We have called on the county government when our Governor came here a few weeks ago. We told him about our plight and fears but he just laughed it off, saying he had never imagined using a plane to control the birds. The Kenya Wildlife Service also, through the National irrigation Board has warned us against killing the birds. But what option do we have if our livelihoods and source of income is at stake?” Obiny asks.

Efforts to obtain a comment from the Kenya wildlife Service on the same have been futile.

Just next to his farm, birds have completely destroyed rice and are reporting very low yields, as others, none, having left the farms for the cows to graze on when they realized that the grain was gone and only the straw was left.

Birds destroy rice plantation by feeding on it.
A swarm of birds land on a rice field to feed on the crop at the West Kano Irrigation Scheme on May 29, 2020. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

“On an acre of land, you are supposed to get 35 bags, but some farmers are getting only two or three bags or even only one bag. Some have even left the farms completely. Growing up, it was enough for one boy to scare bards in an entire ten acres of rice. Now it takes about four grown men to scare them on two acres,” he adds.

According to a review by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), human-wildlife conflict has been in existence for as long as humans and wild animals have shared the same landscapes and resources. However, the UN agency notes that conflict does not occur only in Africa. “Nowadays human-wildlife conflict exists in one form or another all over the world. Conflict between humans and crocodiles, for example, has been reported in 33 countries spanning the tropics and subtropics, and the problem probably exists in many more.”

“All continents and countries, whether developed or not, are affected by human-wildlife conflict. However there is an important distinction to be made between the level of vulnerability of agro-pastoralists in developing countries and that of well-off inhabitants of developed nations,” it says.

Birds destroy rice plantation by feeding on it.
Otieno uses a stick to throw the lump of clay stuck on it at the birds. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

Experts, however, note that it is not an easy task to balance economic development, livelihood, and conservation.

“Balancing conservation and economic development is not easy nor for the faint-hearted, as it is anchored on sustainable development. Sustainable development has three pillars, all of which support each other namely ecological, socio-economic, and political. Majority of times, economics takes first precedence over ecological integrity,” says Brian Waswala, an environmental science lecturer at the Maasai Mara University.

Birds destroy rice plantation by feeding on it.
A farmer shows a pair of handmade shakers that are used to scare the birds. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

Community members feel the impact of crop losses after investing time and resources. This has negative impacts on their social and economic well-being, not to forget exposes them to food insecurity.

Waswala recommends home-grown natural remedies to the conflict, saying that ecosystem restoration would work in ensuring that the birds have alternative source of food so they don’t only depend on the grains.

Birds destroy rice plantation by feeding on it.
A young woman employed to guard a rice plantation against the birds digs up some clay that she uses to scare them. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

“It would thus be prudent to promote empathy and home-grown remedies in addressing the situation. These may include building capacity and creating alternative livelihoods such as eco-tourism in the region; promoting conservation awareness and training through CBOs; investing in active ecosystem restoration practices so the birds have alternative food as opposed to grains; and offering community members opportunities to study biodiversity (bird) behavior, association, diseases, etc. among other variables.”

“The use of raptors that detour, chase, and feed on the seed-eaters can also be employed. Also utilizing air-guns to actively kill the birds, but only to licensed users can also be looked into. These remedies are better off than the use of poisons which indiscriminately kill non-target species and leave toxic residue in the environment,” he adds.

Back at the West Kano irrigation scheme, farmers are desperately begging the government for assistance in controlling the birds. “Where it has come to right now, we are only left with one choice; to plead with the government to do something about these birds so that our lives can get back to normal and we can feed our children and send our children to school,” Obiny concludes.

Kenyan Blood Banks Run Dry Amid COVID-19

Dominic Kirui
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Kenyan Blood Banks Run Dry Amid COVID-19

Kericho, May 14 — It’s mid-morning and Mary Moraa and her sister sit at the reception to the Kericho Blood Transfusion Center at the Kericho County Referral Hospital in western Kenya, about 270km (168 miles) away from the country’s capital, Nairobi.

More and her sister have just donated blood at the county Hospital to help save their kin who had fallen ill at the same hospital a few days ago.

“When the doctor told us that our cousin was in dire need of blood to save her life and that there was no blood in the blood bank that would match hers, we had no choice but to walk to the Centre and donate some for her,” Moraa says.

Kenya's Health Ministry expresses concern that there is a dire need for blood and a huge shortage.
Healthcare worker pricks a donor’s finger during a blood drive organized by the MP Shah Hospital in Nairobi. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

She continues to explain that even though her sister’s blood did not match their cousin’s the doctors wouldn’t take chances but encourage her to also donate blood as they said there was not enough blood at the hospital and that it would help save other people’s lives.

For the past few months, Kenya has had a challenge with blood donations after the US stopped funding blood drives around the country.

Coupled with the government’s directives banning groupings and, minimizing movements and advising people to stay home in order to curb the spread of COVID-19, running blood drives is a challenge. Kenya mostly depended on schools and colleges to get blood donors. All learning institutions are closed at the moment since March 15 when President Uhuru Kenyatta directed the same after Kenya confirmed the first case of coronavirus disease on March 13.

Kenya's Health Ministry expresses concern that there is a dire need for blood and a huge shortage.
Healthcare workers assist donors to donate blood at the MP Shah Hospital in Nairobi during the Sunday 10 blood drive. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

However, the then Cabinet Secretary for Health, Sicily Kariuki had expressed optimism that blood transfusion services will continue as “normal” despite the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) announcement to stop providing the Ksh2billion ($18.7million) annual funding from September 2019.

Kariuki, who had spoken in September last year at a press briefing held at the Ministry headquarters Afya House in Nairobi, noted that the country was in need of one million units of blood every year and that if 1.5 to 2% of the population would donate, it would be enough.

“I would like to thank the US government for the support it has been extending to KNBTS over the years. However, as a responsible government, we would like to reassure all Kenyans that we shall strive to ensure the funding gap is addressed appropriately,” she said.

Kenya's Health Ministry expresses concern that there is a dire need for blood and a huge shortage.
A lady donates blood during the blood drive at the MP Shah Hospital in Nairobi on May 10. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

But her counterpart, the current Cabinet Secretary, Mutahi Kagwe expresses concern that there is an acute shortage of blood in the country. Speaking end of April during an update of the COVID-19 situation in the country, Kagwe said that the country needs to do more to collect blood.

“A critical review of blood situation in Kenya shows that there is a huge, huge, huge gap that we have and to ensure that we can respond to our patients we need to address this issue with the utmost seriousness that we can garner,” he said.

At the Kericho County Referral Hospital, patients’ relatives like Moraa continue to walk to the County Blood Transfusion Center to donate blood and save the lives of their loved ones. This has been the trend in the past months after the country confirmed its first case of COVID-19, worsening the already staggering blood situation in the country.

Kenya's Health Ministry expresses concern that there is a dire need for blood and a huge shortage.
A signpost at the entrance to the Blood Transfusion Center in Kericho town next to the County Referral Hospital. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

Dr. Josphine Korir, the person in charge of the County’s Blood Transfusion Center however claims that there is enough blood in the county hospitals, contrary to the Cabinet Secretary, Mutahi Kagwe’s concern two weeks ago.

“We have enough blood at the County. There is no shortage,” Dr. Korir said in a phone interview.

Eric Tonui, the Medical Superintendent at the Longisa County Referral Hospital in the neighboring Bomet County expresses fears that if the coronavirus situation continues to threaten hospitals and societal behavior, then many lives will be at stake.

Kenya's Health Ministry expresses concern that there is a dire need for blood and a huge shortage.
A signpost showing the blood transfusion center in Kericho NC Kenya. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

“There is shortage, I wouldn’t lie to you. Our main donors were schools and colleges and now that they have been closed after the government directive to curb the spread of the COVID-19, there is a reason for concern about the blood situation, not only in our county but the whole country,” Tonui says.

A health worker at the Kericho County Referral Hospital who spoke to Ubuntu Times on condition of anonymity for fear of jeopardizing his job said that there is an acute blood shortage at the hospital and that the officials there need to disclose the real situation to the public.

Kenya's Health Ministry expresses concern that there is a dire need for blood and a huge shortage.
Blood donors are assisted by Healthcare workers as they donate blood in a room at the hospital. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

“If you came here three or four months ago, you would find that there was a lot of blood that was poured away. There was a change in the management of blood transfusion in the country and that is what really messed things up. They will only blame the cutting of funding by the US but that is not really the case because that would only cater for buying the reagents and some staff who were laid off immediately,” he said.

“Sometimes, the county governments across the country are able to take care of the reagents and ensure that patients who need blood are well taken care of and their lives saved. The issue is in the functions of these governments where a few individuals still want to hold on to the blood transfusion function in the national government when health has already been devolved and is now controlled by county governments,” he explains, noting that the same should as well be devolved if the government really needs to save lives especially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Kenya's Health Ministry expresses concern that there is a dire need for blood and a huge shortage.
A blood donor lies in a hospital bed as he donates blood during the May 10 Blood drive in Nairobi. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

But as for Moraa and other donors, all they hope for is that things get back to normal so that people can be saved.

“It’s not even only our relatives who would need blood, other people also need blood and their lives should be saved. Government should rethink such an important aspect,” she concludes.

Kenya Wildlife’s plan to build a hotel in the Nairobi National Park attracts an uproar by conservationists and activists

Dominic Kirui
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Kenya Wildlife’s plan to build a hotel in the Nairobi National Park attracts an uproar by conservationists and activists

In the past decades, the Nairobi National Park has not missed accompanying the word ‘encroachment’ in one sentence. This has always been the case of activists and environmentalists seeking to conserve the city’s jewel.

The Park is situated just across the city and is the only one in the world that shares a fence with a capital city, Nairobi. It is only five minutes away from the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD). But the tourist attraction that hosts a number of wildlife is now under threat by its own manager, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). The Service is planning to construct an eco-lodge and a high-end restaurant inside the park as a part of its 10-year management plan for the Park.

The Kenya Wildlife Service plans to set up buildings inside the Nairobi National Park, threatening its biodiversity.
A pride of lions take a walk inside the Nairobi National Park. Credit: Olga Levari Ercolano

The Park, which was set up by British colonialists in the 1940s is now under immense pressure from all development sectors including roads, railways, factories and lately, housing infrastructure. And just like many other countries in Africa, Kenya is now faced with very tough choices between development and conservation as it races against time to keep up with the fast-growing city population and be able to provide for it.

But, the development side has always rubbed shoulders with conservation activists the wrong way. In 2016, they contested the government’s decision to construct the standard gauge railway (SGR) that cuts across the Park.

Two years later in 2018, the Kenya Railways Corporation also constructed a 4-kilometer road connecting the Inland Container Depot (IDC) to the Southern Bypass that had also encroached the Park as it was constructed to divert motorists, especially heavy trucks from the city as they transport cargo from Mombasa towards western parts of the country and into neighboring Uganda. The road hived about 20-acres off the 28,860-acre park.

The Kenya Wildlife Service plans to set up buildings inside the Nairobi National Park, threatening its biodiversity.
A view of a section of the Southern Bypass in Nairobi that stretches along the park. Activists were opposed to its construction as it encroached on Park land. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

In its 10-year draft plan for the Nairobi National Park, the Kenya Wildlife Service is proposing a number of development projects inside the park.  Among these projects will be the fencing of the Park and also some construction that is set to take place, among which will be a high-end hotel inside the park.

This plan has caused an uproar among environmental activists, with some calling for proper stakeholder involvement in the plan, while others oppose the plan entirely. As a result, the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife directed the Kenya Wildlife Service to give more time up to the end of June for the review of the plan.

“The public participation shall be extended for the public to raise their concerns or support, so that analyses and improvement of the plan can be undertaken for public interest,” read part of the Ministry’s press statement dated April 21.

The Kenya Wildlife Service plans to set up buildings inside the Nairobi National Park, threatening its biodiversity.
Zebras graze inside the Nairobi National Park, with sights of buildings in Nairobi city at the background. Credit: Reinhard Bonke

Brian Waswala, an environmental science lecturer at Maasai Mara University in southern Kenya says that the move will undermine conservation efforts.

“If I was a key decision-maker, I will not allow construction of the said hotel inside Nairobi National Park. My opinion is that making such a move will undermine the country’s efforts in the conservation of both Flora and Fauna. Kenya Wildlife Service role is to manage our animals and plants, and protect their territories from human interference,” he says.

However, environmentalists and activists in the country are expressing their concerns about the Park that they say has already been too encroached by human activities within the city. Initially, animals would freely move from the Mount Kenya region in central Kenya, through the Park and into the Mara Triangle in southern Kenya, all the way to Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. This is no longer the case as the city sprouted and the Park was fenced off, restricting movement of the animals.

The Kenya Wildlife Service plans to set up buildings inside the Nairobi National Park, threatening its biodiversity.
The Standard Gauge Railways (SGR) that was built by China in 2016 saw a number of people oppose it as it threatened the Park’s biodiversity. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

There have been human-animal conflicts as a result. Sometimes people in nearby estates in Nairobi wake up to roaming lions as they go to work in Nairobi. Recently, residents were scared by an African rock python in Langata estate that shares a fence with the Park.

If the management plan was to be implemented and the planned constructions inside the Park continue, this will set a bad precedent. Activists say that this will allow many other future leaders to follow suit and do the same if one of them was to go forward and interfere with the green spaces without being questioned.

Patricia Kombo, a Nairobi-based environmentalist and founder of PaTree Initiative says that constructions inside the Park would lead to the loss of natural habitat for some plant and animal species that are already facing threats and are endangered. “This will open up the Park for pollution, depletion of resources such as water and also to noise pollution. The Park has been battling with threats such as the SGR in 2016 where some acres were used to construct the railway line. Our parks are too precious to be lost and our animals need a safe and livable place,” she says.

The Kenya Wildlife Service plans to set up buildings inside the Nairobi National Park, threatening its biodiversity.
A section of the standard gauge railway as it enters the Nairobi National Park. Activists and environmentalists say that the railway has affected the normal life of the wildlife inside the park. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

There is also a need to have the park sustained for future generations and environmentalists say that this is a responsibility that all have for our children and their children.

“Ecological integrity is very important to the future. KWS should work hard to secure it, not frustrate it. The park having experienced brutal abuse does not need another beating. Wildlife territories should be as pristine as possible for future generations, for all to benefit from, not just a few,” Waswala says.

The Kenya Wildlife Service plans to set up buildings inside the Nairobi National Park, threatening its biodiversity.
Zebras and giraffes graze and browse on trees and shrubs inside the Nairobi National Park. Credit: Reinhard Bonke

Josphat Ngonyo, the CEO of Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW) also says that every person has this responsibility with them. “We cannot afford to let Nairobi National Park go, that will be the worst mistake ever that we will not be forgiven by our children and children’s children,” he says.

Reinhard Bonke, an environmental and conservation activist and coordinator for the lobby group, Friend for Nairobi National Park (FoNNaP), says that the plan not only has a hotel to be constructed but several other infrastructures that will have a negative impact on the plant and animal life in the Park.

“We had a meeting with the Cabinet Secretary, and they gave us a plan and it was very clear that these guys were in the advanced stages of doing all the construction; they call it Upgrading Nairobi National Park. Some of the details presented to us which by then we were warned not to share out to the public in almost like a threat, they want to build an amphitheater, a high-end hotel, in the forest area, which is the black rhino breeding site; and you know NNP is the only highly endangered black rhino sanctuary in East and Central Africa. They also want to build the Director General’s house; I think a Ksh50 million house which will have a swimming pool and all that. They will also build a restaurant at hippo pool; there is a lot of heavy infrastructure,” Bonke explains.

The Kenya Wildlife Service plans to set up buildings inside the Nairobi National Park, threatening its biodiversity.
Giraffes browse on shrubs inside the Nairobi National Park. Credit: Reinhard Bonke

“Allowing the project to go ahead will not only damage the reputation of KWS but will also open a door to cartels finding a way to our parks (not only NNP) and by the end we will become unsustainable. The trend will go on everywhere and this is seen in some parks and reserves, where encroachment is rife. We need our parks, reserves to be as natural as possible unless we want to retain them as zoos which I believe will not serve the purpose that a National Park does,” Waswala concludes.

Tea farmers in Kenya find reprieve as international market opens up for their produce.

Dominic Kirui
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Tea farmers in Kenya find reprieve as international market opens up for their produce.

Kericho, April 20 — On a fine Monday morning, and as the sun beats down on the tea farms in Kaptoroi village in Kenya’s Kericho County, Sarah Keter plucks tea together with her brother-in-law and his wife. They are helping each other rotate and pick the green leaves in their farms for sale at the buying center just across the road from their farm.

Today, and since the confirmation of the first case of coronavirus in the country on March 13, they have to sell their tea very early in the morning by 9:45 am. This is in line with the government directive that all workplaces should close by 4 pm, three hours before the 7 pm to 5 am curfew that was imposed by President Kenyatta. As such, factory workers have to be out of the factories by 4 pm.

They are all jovial as they tell of the looming good prices for their produce, as the demand goes up for tea in Europe and other countries who are on lockdown, and people need tea inside their houses. This coupled with the measures and directives that the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture has put in place to ensure that tea farmers in the country get value for their produce.

The coronavirus outbreak has forced many to stay home, driving up the demand for tea.
Thomas and his wife pick tea on their farm at Kaptoroi village in Kenya’s Kericho County on April 20, 2020. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

“I listened to the news and heard what the Minister said about phasing out cartels and brokers in the tea sector. For many years, tea was all we knew and tea farmers were rich. It is very sad that we are now categorized as poor, despite farming tea, a major foreign exchange earner for the country,” says Thomas Keter, Sarah’s brother-in-law.

After the lorry that ferries tea arrives, Sarah walks to the tea buying center where upon arrival she washes her hands and puts on a mask before she is allowed to enter the center. She then spreads her tea on the floor and a factory official inspects it for quality freshness then weighs them, after which she is handed a sales receipt.

The coronavirus outbreak has forced many to stay home, driving up the demand for tea.
Sarah Keter carries tea on her back to the buying center at Kaptoroi village in Kericho County. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

In its presser last week, the agriculture ministry announced that tea farmers are going to get 50% their proceeds remitted directly to their factory accounts, rather than go through bank-management accounts where they are mismanaged, delayed, and later written off as bad loans.

The farmers here have known no other source of livelihood and proceeds from the sale of tea has seen them take their children to school, but in most cases are left with nothing. For instance, when someone has a farm and cannot pick tea on his own like the Keters, one has to hire another person to pick it. They then pay half of what the tea is worth to the person picking it.

The coronavirus outbreak has forced many to stay home, driving up the demand for tea.
Sarah Keter picks tea on her farm at Kaptoroi village in Kenya’s Kericho County on April 20, 2020. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

One kilogram of tea is sold to the Kenya Tea Development Agency Holdings at Ksh16 ($0.16) per kilo. The person picking tea gets Ksh8 ($0.08) per kilo. This is before a farmer is also met with deductions for development, such as building of factories, supply of fertilizer, and many other statutory deductions.

“What we normally only depend on is the yearly bonus because what we get monthly is paid out to the pickers. And that is why we have decided as family to help each other pick the tea, so we can at least save the money,” Sarah says.

The coronavirus outbreak has forced many to stay home, driving up the demand for tea.
Sarah washes her hands before she enters the tea buying center as David Kosgei, the Chairman looks on. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

Kenya’s Minister for Agriculture Peter Munya in his April 16th press conference at Kilimo House in Nairobi introduced the measures, which he says will help place the Kenyan tea farmers in their rightful place.

“We want them to earn 50% of what their green tea leaf is worth so that farmers can also have a monthly income like every other person, and then you can give them the rest 50% in what is called the yearly bonuses,” he says.

Kenya’s tea sector alone generates 23% of the country’s total foreign exchange earnings, making it one of the leading exports for the country. The sector also employs and supports a population of about five million people.  It generates over Ksh117 billion in export earnings and a further Ksh22 billion in local sales.

The coronavirus outbreak has forced many to stay home, driving up the demand for tea.
Sarah pours green tea leaves onto the floor at the buying center for inspection before she sells it to the Kenya Tea Development Agency. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the main buyers of Kenyan tea are Pakistan, Egypt, and the UK accounting for more than 65 percent of national tea exports. Forced to a lockdown by the COVID-19, the demand for tea has gone up as people need tea as they stay indoors.

“In spite of the economic and social challenges forced to Kenya and indeed the global community by the coronavirus pandemic, tea production and trading have continued unabated, with tea exports being shipped to about 40 market destinations monthly since January 2020,” said Munya.

The coronavirus outbreak has forced many to stay home, driving up the demand for tea.
Sarah airs her tea leaves to make sure they are fresh as the factory official inspects it before it is bought. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

This has come as a blessing in disguise for the tea farmers in Kenya who can now smile as both the government changes in the sector as well as the rising demand for tea only means that they will smile to the bank in the next few days.

The coronavirus outbreak has forced many to stay home, driving up the demand for tea.
Sarah Keter weighs her tea at the point of sale at the buying center at Kaptoroi village. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

Still on April 16, Kenya Airways dispatched a Dreamliner plane with 40 tons of fresh produce to London. The plane was a passenger one that had been grounded to curb the spread of COVID-19. Tea farmers are happy that tea is among the fresh produce that is being ferried to Europe and other markets.

“We hope that a cure is soon found and that the market will continue to be steady so that we can still supply the produce, which include this tea,” Sarah says.

The coronavirus outbreak has forced many to stay home, driving up the demand for tea.
Sarah watches as her tea is weighed and recorded, then she is given a sales receipt. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

The Kenyan government now gives the tea farmers a 14-day period to participate by airing their opinion on the measures that the government has taken. The farmers already support the measures and say that they will support the policies before the government gazettes them after the fourteen days.

“These are good news to the farmer that has taken too long to implement and therefore has led to the farmers suffering when they should be earning better,” says David Kosgei, a chairman at the Kaptoroi tea buying center where the Keters sell their tea.

Fish traders in Kenya’s lakeside city of Kisumu enjoy an economic boom amid Coronavirus

Dominic Kirui
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Fish traders in Kenya’s lakeside city of Kisumu enjoy an economic boom amid Coronavirus

Kisumu, April 8 — At 7 am in the morning, fishermen are docking in their fishing boats on the Dunga Beach in Kisumu’s Lake Victoria shores in western Kenya. They bring ashore their night’s catch and fishmongers crowd around their boats, buying the catch from them.

Among the most popular fishes that the Lake is known for is the tilapia and the Nile Perch; the mongers scamper for them as they are well aware that they will not miss a buyer this time around.

A few weeks ago, this was not the case as there was a steady import of, especially the tilapia species, from China into the Kenyan market.  The import had negatively affected the trade in locally-sourced fish in the country as many people do not know the difference and had hence quit eating the fish altogether.

The coronavirus outbreak stops Chinese fish imports, as business booms for Kenyan fish traders.
Francisca Odhiambo bargains the fish before she buys from a fisherman in his boat at the Dunga Beach in Kisumu’s Lake Victoria. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

At the shores, Francisca Odhiambo, a 44-year-old mother of five is busy buying fish from the fishermen, then scaling and gutting them for sale to the traders who come to the shores to buy and transport the fish to different parts of the country.

From the first fisherman, Odhiambo buys a dozen fish, which she scales and guts, and after a few minutes, she sells them all off and awaits the next boat to dock.

“Now, the trade is better than before as people are now sure that there is no fish coming in from China after they heard that China is the place where the coronavirus broke out from. And even though the coronavirus scare has slowed down the consumption of the fish in hotels and restaurants in towns, many of the fish is going to homes as many people stay home and order that the fish be taken to them,” she says.

The coronavirus outbreak stops Chinese fish imports, as business booms for Kenyan fish traders.
A fish trader deep-fries fish for customers who come to buy at the beach on April 8, 2020. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

There had been concerns surrounding the import of fish from China, as it was hurting the trade of the fish in Kenya. During a meeting with small scale traders at Strathmore University in Nairobi in October 2018, Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta had promised to stop the fish imports, saying that the country could say “the Chinese fish was bad”. This prompted Beijing to take action, also promising to stop funding key projects in the country, including the standard gauge railway (SGR).

Nairobi then quickly backed down, allowing more of the Chinese fish to be imported and sold around the country.

The virus outbreak, that is stretching the world’s health apparatus has in a way proved to be a blessing in disguise for the Kenyan fish traders as their businesses now boom.

The coronavirus outbreak stops Chinese fish imports, as business booms for Kenyan fish traders.
Odhiambo scales and guts fish on the shores of Lake Victoria as she prepares them for sale. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

Fredrick Omondi, a resident of Kisumu says that now there is a sigh of relief as he is now able to eat fish without worrying about its quality and source.

“Born here on the shores of the Lake, we have always known no other staple food apart from fish. Fish is what defines us as the Luo tribe and for the past few years, we have had to worry about the fish we get, especially the ngege (tilapia). I wonder why our government would allow the Chinese to saturate our fish market when we have our own fish,” Omondi poses.

Aloice Ager, the director of Kisumu Governor’s press unit and the county government spokesperson expresses optimism that the local supply of fish in the county can feed the whole country without having to import fish.

“What had prompted the import of fish from China was the hyacinth that had clouded the Lake and suppressed the breeding of fish. But now, after the clean-up the riparian counties around the Lake are reporting catching of large numbers of fish,” Ager says.

The coronavirus outbreak stops Chinese fish imports, as business booms for Kenyan fish traders.
Francisca Odhiambo, a fishmonger at Dunga Beach at the shores of Lake Victoria selects fish inside a boat before she buys from a fisherman at the beach. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

The clean-up of the lake has created more opportunities for our people as more fishermen now want to go back to the Lake to fish since there is now plenty of fish. Lake Victoria is not only able to feed the East African market but the world market as we have enough fish. There is no need for fish from outside,” he continues to point out.

Back at the Beach, one can observe that there is minimal movement as compared to other times and even as many would attribute this to the advice by the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO), Mary Achieng’, one of the fishmongers says that this has also been contributed by the trust that people now have.

The coronavirus outbreak stops Chinese fish imports, as business booms for Kenyan fish traders.
Benard Oluoch, a fish trader at Dunga Beach weighs fish for sale at the shores of Lake Victoria. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

“Initially, people would come to the lake to actually buy from us here and make sure that the fish we give them is the real fish that is gotten from the Lake. Now, they know there is no Chinese fish, so they will just comfortably buy from the market or have it delivered to their homes,” she says.

The coronavirus outbreak stops Chinese fish imports, as business booms for Kenyan fish traders.
Fishermen and fish traders crowd around a boat that just docked early morning bringing ashore the night’s catch. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

As for Odhiambo and her colleagues at Dunga Beach, their prayer is that things will remain this way so that they can be able to fend for their families even after the coronavirus is gone and things come back to normal.

“I just appeal to the government to stop the importation of Chinese fish. We have no other jobs and fully depend on this one. If the government is mindful enough of our future, it will stop the Chinese fish imports because we have enough fish to feed the country,” Odhiambo concludes.

Continued Floods In East Africa Threatening To Jeopardize Fight Against COVID-19 Spread

Robert Kibet
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Continued Floods In East Africa Threatening To Jeopardize Fight Against COVID-19 Spread

BUDALANGI April 5, 2020 — For 54-year-old Esther Anyango, who resides in Maduwa village nestled in the swampy Yala, an island within the Lake Victoria waters is not her choice.

“This time, the waters are too much to bear. This is different from the other floods,” she tells Ubuntu Times in an interview, speaking through a translator, referring to the ongoing flooding in Budalangi, a region that sits on the shores of Lake Victoria.

It has never been Anyango’s delight to endure floods that happen in her village almost every year. Those financially okay, she says, have relocated and established their new residences in much safe land, mostly Bunyala north.

A mother of six, Anyango’s family is one of hundreds displaced due to the ongoing flooding in Budalangi, which experts say is much due to rising water levels at Lake Victoria.

As of March 28, close to 500 families were reportedly affected by flooding, forcing them to seek refuge on safer raised grounds.

Of concern to Anyango and thousands of residents here is how they will balance having to practice self-distancing and handwashing using clean water or sanitizers, now that they have their homes submerged.

“Toilets have been submerged in floodwater. The water is now contaminated and soon, we are foreseeing a cholera outbreak and other water-borne diseases. To worsen it, families are forced to share single rooms in safer places,” Elijah Wanjala, a resident of Mabinju told Ubuntu Times in an interview.

In its Eastern Africa regional flood snapshot for November last year, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said over 2.8 million people had been affected by the floods.

The floods, which came in the back of consecutive droughts triggered flooding and landslides across the region, destroying homes, infrastructure and livelihoods, and the risk of communicable diseases — including cholera.

In Kenya’s western region, as floodwaters stagnate, potential threats of a water-borne disease outbreak is imminent, threatening to jeopardize the government’s efforts in containing the spread of coronavirus pandemic.

A spot check at one of the trading centers saw businesses brought to a halt, with few remaining shops staring at a possible total closure as the floodwaters continue to occupy the surrounding.

Raphael Wanjala, a Member of Parliament for Budalangi constituency, told Ubuntu Times in a telephone interview that the ongoing floods are likely to complicate the government’s efforts to combat coronavirus spread.

Woman outside a flood submerged house.
A woman with her children is spotted outside her submerged homestead with few belongings. Ongoing floods have caused residents to flee to safer grounds in Budalangi. Credit: Robert Kibet / Ubuntu Times

“The flooding threatens to sink the people of Budalangi into deeper poverty. One of the biggest concerns will be managing overcrowding in safety camps where families affected by the raging floods seek refuge,” says Wanjala.

Plagued by heavy rain and flooding over the last few months, with the February flooding leaving 40 dead and 15,000 people displaced, Tanzanian authorities had to order at least 25,000 people to evacuate to safer grounds.

This was after Nyumba ya Mungu dam, located in Mwanga district in the northern Kilimanjaro region, showed signs of breaking due to rising water levels.

Last month, roads in and around the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam were closed due to heavy rains, with a bridge in Kilosa district on the important Morogoro-Dodoma highway collapsing.

A March report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) indicates that torrential rains caused damage in Mutimbuzi and Kabezi communes in Burundi’s Bujumbura rural province and Nyanza-Lac in Makamba province resulting in two deaths and over 300 people displaced from their homes

Other provinces affected by the torrential rains in Burundi include Rumonge, Gitega and Ruyigi provinces.

The unusual torrential rainfall witnessed in most countries of the East African region within the last quarter of last year, were said to be primarily been driven by the positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD)-an irregular oscillation of sea surface temperatures in which the western Indian Ocean becomes alternately warmer (positive phase) and then colder (negative phase) than the eastern part of the ocean.

Budalangi in Kenya, currently witnessing floods is home to a multi-million Bunyala rice irrigation scheme, with fears emerging that continued flooding will disrupt jobs and food security given the timing of the floods which come at the time of planting season.

Child sleeps outside a flooded house.
A child is seen sleeping outside a grass-thatched mud-walled house in Runyu village as Lake Victoria’s backflow water cause havoc in Budalangi constituency. Credit: Robert Kibet / Ubuntu Times

Leaders say the sudden rising water levels in Lake Victoria could have been occasioned by neighboring Ugandan government’s decision to let off water from its Jinja dam through Kiira and Nalubaale powers stations spillways into the River Nile.

For residents living in villages within the Yala swamp, accessing medical services is a tedious exercise, with the nearest health center located in Osieko, several miles away

“People here live by the mercies of God. For them to access medical care, they have to sail a boat far away. With floods causing havoc, the situation is worsened,” says Collins Ayango, a water and beverage consultant from the region, who is in the process of putting up water treatment and bottling plant, seeking to solve the problem of access to clean portable water for the region’s residents.

Uganda and Kenya are part of the countries that signed the 2010 Cooperative Framework Agreement that allows the development of projects along the Nile without approval from Egypt. Under the framework, the River Nile Basin Commission was established to act as a forum for co-operation and a clearinghouse for the planned measures that could cause any harm to other riparian states.

Collins Ayango told Ubuntu Times that lack of political goodwill in the implementation of infrastructural projects, including building reliable dykes on the River Nzoia that empties its water to Lake Victoria used to contribute to annual floods in Budalangi.

“Until when the World Bank funded construction of concrete dykes few years ago, residents used to witness fatal flooding. The ongoing floods look different from the past. It seems it is being caused by the lake’s backflow,” he says.

Some of the vastly affected areas in Budalangi include Osieko, Maduwa, Bukhuma, Bulwani, Iyanga, Rukala, Runyu, Bubamba. Others are Kholokhongo, Mabinju, Musoma, Rugunya, Omena Beach and Buongo villages.

Through radio women refugees at Dadaab now know their rights and how to fight for them

Abjata Khalif
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Through radio women refugees at Dadaab now know their rights and how to fight for them

Dadaab, Kenya March 9 — It’s Friday evening and as the sun sets, a group of women refugees converge at Dagahley settlement block inside Dadaab Refugee Camp.

They are converging for their regular group radio listening sessions where they exchange information on women’s rights and advocacy skills.

Emerging from different directions inside the refugee camp, some of the women are carrying sitting mats, others portable radios to be used during the special radio session, while others are sharing excitedly experiences they went through loudly as they take their positions at the venue of their meeting.

Suddenly, the women group leader brings the session to order and introduces the evening radio topic to her colleagues numbering 45 before the session starts.

Each evening a new set of women participants attend the sessions who include victims of rape, sexual exploitation, gender-based violence, early child marriage or female genital mutilation. They operate under the Somali Women Refugee Radio Listening Project.

Most of the women participants have in one way or the other suffered different human rights violations in the camp. Their cases were handled through a traditional justice system established by elders at the refugee camp who hear the cases before determining them and imposing unjust fines thus denying the victims justice and shielding the perpetrators from facing the law.

Violence and outdated cultural practices fuels rape and gender based violence in Dadaab refugee camp.
Rehabilitated ex-traditional circumcisers participating in radio listening group session in Dadaab refugee camp, Northern Kenya. Credit: Abjata Khalif / Ubuntu Times

Dagahaley camp is one of the four settlements located inside Dadaab Refugee Camp billed as the world’s largest refugee camp that hosts an estimated 640,000 refugees from conflict-hit countries of Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda and Ethiopia with majority fleeing from war-torn neighboring Somalia.

Before the radio listening session starts, women refugee rights activists share their advocacy campaigns and the challenges they face within their respective refugee settlement blocks and then introduce any women and girl’s victims of rape, sexual exploitation, gender-based violence, early child marriage or Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), to the group.

On this particular Friday radio listening session, a refugee women activist Mrs. Asha Ahmed, introduce a girl who was raped by a group of youths in one of the settlement blocks at the refugee camp.

Mrs. Ahmed reveals that the rape victim’s parents decided not to bring the issue to the attention of law enforcement officers at the camp and instead accepted two goats from parents of the alleged rapist as fine or compensation for the offense committed by their son who was accompanied by others in the barbaric act.

The case was picked up by women refugee rights defenders operating under the Somali Women Refugee Radio Listening Project who convinced the victim’s parents to seek justice and honor for their daughter.

The parent agreed and the case was reported to the Dadaab Refugee Camp police unit and the suspect was apprehended and charged before a mobile court that offers judicial services in the refugee tower.

Women refugees converge for gender violence debriefing and education in Dadaab refugee camp.
Women radio listening members listen to a radio program on reporting rape cases and other gender-based violence in Dadaab refugee camp, Northern Kenya. Credit: Abjata Khalif / Ubuntu Times

“First it was hard to convince the victim’s parents to return the two goats and report the matter to the nearest police station, but they eventually agreed after we enlightened and assured them,” Mrs. Ahmed a women refugee rights defender at the camp says.

The women refugee radio listeners heard from the refugee rights defenders that more women refugees need to be reached and given education and other support for them to shun the traditional Somali justice system and report human rights violations to the police promptly.

Mrs. Ahmed told the radio sessions listeners that concealing rape, sexual exploitation, gender-based violence, early child marriage or female genital mutilation was unacceptable and such cases should not be handled through the traditional Somali justice system but within the purview of the Kenyan law.

“Many women and girls whose rights have been violated in the refugee camp have failed to get justice due to unjust judgments made by traditional Somali justice system,” she noted.

Every new women radio listening group members at the refugee camp establish their own women radio group which is coordinated and supported by Somali Women Radio Listening Group Project.

The rape victim whose case had been taken over by the Somali Women Radio Listening Group Project went through a comprehensive training to equip her with skills to be able to agitate for the rights of other girls in her refugee settlement block.

“We believe through this initiative we are going to reach out to more women and girls who are victims of sexual violence, those subjected to early marriages and are threatened with Female Genital Mutilation (FGM),’’ Mrs. Ahmed observed.

So far the Somali Women Radio Listening Group Project has reached out to 45,000 women refugees and 3,400 women and girls victims of sexual violence and 4,500 victims of outdated cultural practices within Dadaab refuge tower.

Violence and outdated cultural practices fuels rape and gender based violence in Dadaab refugee camp.
Women radio listening audience participating in radio listening and feedback sessions in Dadaab village, Northern Kenya. Credit: Abjata Khalif / Ubuntu Times

The Somali Women Radio Listening Group Project leader, Mrs. Muslima Hassan, took new women refugee members through an orientation exercise on the kind of advocacy expected from them in their respective refugee settlement blocks.

After the induction, the radio listening sessions start with a pre-recorded radio program on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) aired through a portable radio using a removable device containing the program which was recorded in a local radio station within Dadaab Refugee Camp.

The pre-recorded program is a 20-minutes radio feature story giving in-depth coverage of the practice within the camp and containing voices and advice from health, religious and community leaders, parents and women victims of FGM.

Ten minutes into the radio listening session several women refugees engage each other in low tones with others grimacing from the facts and information they received on the danger of FGM on young girls and women who have already undergone it.

Medical experts detailed the health dangers associated with the practice while religious leaders emphasized that the practice was not sanctioned and supported by Islamic faith thus parents should not conform to it blindly as it was un-Islamic.

Strongest voices and confessions came from girls and women victims of the practice who narrated how they now live with lifetime scars, with one FGM victim claiming she is experiencing difficulties in giving birth due to pain and injuries to her genitalia.

One parent revealed during the sessions that she lost her daughter to FGM following excessive bleeding after the exercise was performed on her by inexperienced traditional circumcisers.

Lack of proper security and protection makes refugee women vulnerable to sexual exploitation and outdated practices.
Women radio listeners preparing their solar-powered radio for radio listening program on women’s rights. Credit: Abjata Khalif / Ubuntu Times

During the radio sessions, a middle-aged woman claimed that she was divorced by her husband due to persistent pain she developed after undergoing FGM. She revealed that she started experiencing pain while having sex with her husband a development that made her hate sex resulting in her being divorced.

She added that she had been forced to turn down several men who approached her for marriage after her divorce due to fear of pain during sex as she has visited several hospitals for assistance without success.

Her radio testimony ended with a call for communities and parents to shun Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) saying she is suffering due to permanent injuries from it.

During the heated discussions, it emerged that many women did not know that FGM was not supported by Islam and was meant to stop girls from engaging in promiscuity.

The majority of participants were not aware of the health complications caused by FGM and the health and psychological impact on girls and women.

To most of them, FGM is an outdated cultural practice that should be shunned by all women and the Somali Women Radio Listening Group Project is a panacea that had brought change in their lives.

Kenya’s reported COVID-19 death set to cause panic, learning from Italy’s rise in death toll

Robert Kibet
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Kenya’s reported COVID-19 death set to cause panic, learning from Italy’s rise in death toll

NAIROBI MARCH 26, 2020 — Kenya, on Thursday confirmed its first Coronavirus (COVID-19) death after a 66-year-old male Kenyan citizen passed on in the afternoon as confirmed cases rise to 31.

Mutahi Kagwe, the country’s health minister, said the patient who was suffering from diabetes arrived in the country on March 13 from South Africa from Swaziland and had been treated at Aga Khan, a private hospital in Nairobi.

“He died this afternoon at an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where he had been admitted,” said Kagwe in a statement.

The ‘sad’ news came barely hours after a 27-year-old Kenyan who had tested positive on March 13 recovered from the virus after a test analysis.

The reported recovery gave Kenya a much-awaited hope against the pandemic, with so far five of its 47 counties having reported confirmed cases.

Amidst increasing fears over the virus, the country’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, when he addressed the nation on Wednesday announced measures meant to help prevent its spread.

So far, since the virus’ outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December last year, it has spread to at least 175 countries and territories as per data compiled by the United States-based Johns Hopkins University.

And with over 2,400 confirmed cases of Covid-19 across the African continent, the continued growth of reported cases poses major challenges for the continent’s under-resourced healthcare services.

Kenya will go into a lock-down beginning Friday March 27 every day from 7 pm to 5 am in an attempt to avoid a catastrophe, said the president, Uhuru Kenyatta when he addressed the nation.

In Kenya, the announced lock-down seeks to confine all persons excluding medical professionals, health workers, critical and essential service providers.

Most African nations have imposed restrictions and taken a range of extraordinary measures to try to combat the crisis. Many flights have been suspended, with entries for travelers from much of Europe and the US effectively impossible.

Other countries that have imposed curfews and lock-down in recent days in Africa include Rwanda and The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

President Uhuru further announced that he and other top Kenyan officials would have salaries, while countries like DRC is seeking to isolate its capital, Kinshasa from the rest of the country, as Ethiopia is planning to release more than 4,000 prisoners as one way of de-congesting crowded jails.

There are fears that lockdown will bring significant hardship for the continent’s poor, many of whom live hand to mouth without formal employment.

African governments are now worried if the virus spreads through crowded cities, and places like refugee camps as its healthcare systems can only deal with a fraction of those needing care from the virus.

Other measures announced by President Uhuru include implementation of a 100 percent tax relief to increase disposable income, with the country’s Labour and Social Protection ministry appropriating $95 million for the elderly, orphans and other vulnerable citizens through cash-transfers to cushion them from adverse economic effects of the pandemic.

As Kenya Advises Minimal Movement, Kids and Families in Slums are Disadvantaged.

Dominic Kirui
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As Kenya Advises Minimal Movement, Kids and Families in Slums are Disadvantaged.

Nairobi, March 23 — On a fine Monday morning, the streets of Mathare slums in the outskirts of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi are busy with residents engaging in the hustle and bustle of daily lives to at least put food on their tables. But the lack of food or money might not be in most of their minds at the moment. Kenya has recorded up to 16 cases of the novel coronavirus in the country.

Children are playing on the streets, unknowingly, as some help their parents sell on the street sides. Schools have closed and they have no other thing to do, unlike in most suburbs and other parts of the country where their parents would have television sets, smartphones, computers or tablets for them to access online lessons as promised and directed by the government.

Esther Anyango, a 41-year-old mother of seven and a resident of Mathare’s Area 4 is operating an open-air kiosk in the streets selling silver cyprinid fish, and says that she will only heed the advice to stay home when there is no option left. “If I stayed home today, tomorrow I would be begging in the streets for food together with my husband and children. So, unless the government is supplying us with food, staying home only spells another death sentence for us,” Anyango says.

Slums dwellers will soon be hardest hit by the coronavirus.
Maureen Anyango talks to a client after selling her fish in Nairobi’s Mathare slums. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

Her daughter gradually slides away as I approached her stand and Anyango later tells me that she had thought I was a government official who was here to enforce the government’s directive to stay home and have children learning indoors.

On March 13th, Kenya reported its first case of the virus. President Uhuru Kenyatta then ordered the closure of all learning institutions in the country, with the latest closing on Friday 20th. The Ministry of education then announced that students will continue their learning online and on TV, as they await the next directive by the government.  This was even after the President also said that everyone should work from home except those in essential services.

Today, the Kenyan Cabinet Secretary Health, Mutahi Kagwe announced that nine more cases had been confirmed to be COVID-19 positive, bringing the number to 25, up from 16 as of yesterday. This has been followed by stricter measures by the government banning gatherings in churches, weddings, bars, and public transportation; and advising Kenyans to remain and work from home, wash their hands regularly, and exercise social distancing.

Coronavirus outbreak will affect life in the slums.
An aerial view of a neighborhood in Nairobi’s Mathare slums. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

But as for the case of Anyango and many other families living in informal settlements, they are faced with difficult times ahead that are threatening to wipe them out should the virus enter their residential areas.

Asked whether her children have been studying at home since the government ordered the closure of schools, Anyango smiles and says, “It doesn’t make sense. They had promised the children laptops, they didn’t bring them. Maybe those would be the ones they would be using to learn from right now. We don’t have TVs here and cannot access the internet. I don’t have a smartphone, their father does, but how many children can learn at once on such a small gadget given also that they are in different grades, others even in high school?” Anyango wonders.

Cecilia Ayot, the Member of County Assembly for Laini Saba ward in Nairobi’s Kibera slums, the largest informal settlement in Africa says that the pandemic can only spell doom if it hits their area.

Coronavirus outbreak will adversely affect lives of slum dwellers.
An aerial view of Mathare slums in Nairobi. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

“As slum dwellers, we already have challenges in our lives trying to cope with the harsh conditions in our areas of residence eve before we have a pandemic like the coronavirus. So basically, it means that it will really push us because most of our people are those who work in the informal sector, trying to make ends meet and depending on a daily wage,” she says.

Ayot adds that women will be worst hit because most of them normally depend on doing house chores for people in other suburbs and with the government directives to have people work from home, this will be a huge loss for them

“In most cases, you will find women from the slums going to other estates to do cleaning so they can be able to cater for their families. Now that people are working from home and want to exercise social distancing, it basically means that these women do not have jobs. What has happened in the past few days is that the younger women have turned to prostitution because that is the only way they can get quick money,” Ayot explains.

And as for the children in these settlements, it is uncertain what will happen to them as their counterparts in areas where they can access television sets and other tech-savvy gadgets to access the education ministry’s curriculum courses.

Coronavirus reported in Kenya will hit worst the slum dwellers.
Children crowd around a water point in Nairobi’s Mathare slums on March 23, 2020. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

Diana Mukami, a teacher in one of the schools in Mukuru Kwa Njenga slums also points out that teachers are not well equipped to lead these studies. “I cannot use a computer myself, what was taught in college was not adequate and we were never given the resources for practice. So, if the government expects me to deliver courses for children online, then it means that our children are not going to learn,” she says.

Most children in the Kenyan slums also depend on schools for meals, especially those in schools where the United Nation’s World Food Program distributed food for the provision of free lunch to the pupils.

“You always find that these children depend fully on these meals and their parents cannot afford any other meal for them. The closure of schools means first a burden for the children in terms of hunger as well as the parents in trying to provide for them even when work is suspended; all before we start talking of the pandemic. We only pray to god that this pandemic does not strike the slums and that a miracle will happen,” Ayot concludes.

Cancer pandemic: With its affluent citizens and politicians still flown overseas for cancer treatment, Kenya leaves its millions at risk

Robert Kibet
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Cancer pandemic: With its affluent citizens and politicians still flown overseas for cancer treatment, Kenya leaves its millions at risk

KAKAMEGA, KENYA MARCH 21, 2020 — Julius Shilenga Lumwamu struggled 13 months in a series of misdiagnosis beginning June 2006 after discovering a swollen lymph node on his left arm and numbness on small fingers of both his hands.

Then aged 48, and a teacher in one of the local schools in Kakamega, some 390 km north-west of the capital, Nairobi, he would frequent Nairobi to seek medication after exhausting all medical options in his rural district.

“I underwent a series of medical tests, all at my own expenses which involved traveling all the way to Nairobi and back. It was a costly affair, and more painful because I wasted the little money I had without getting to unearth the cause of my sickness,” Lumwamu, 62-year old father of six, who is a cancer survivor tells Ubuntu Times as he attends to his dairy cows in his rural home.

Now a retired teacher, Lumwamu story depicts a sense of hopelessness for millions of citizens living in low and middle-income countries, in which the World Health Organization in its February report dubbed ‘Setting priorities, investing wisely and providing care for all’ predicts a 60 percent increase in cancer cases if the current trend is anything to go by.

“There is a need to step up cancer services in low and middle-income countries. If the current trend on cancer cases continues, the world will witness a 60 percent increase in cancer cases over by 2030,” states the report.

Kenya, like countries in the developing world, has had to focus limited health resources on combating infectious diseases and improving maternal and child health, while health services are not equipped to prevent, diagnose and treat cancers.

According to WHO, the year 2019 saw more than 90 percent of high-income countries reporting that comprehensive treatment services for cancer were available in the public health system compared to less than 15 percent of low-income countries.

Unlike millions of Kenyans who die in silence of cancer, Lumwamu was lucky to access medical help and a financial facility to have him undergo early diagnosis and treatment at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) – Kenya’s oldest and largest public, tertiary referral hospital for the Ministry of Health located in Nairobi.

“It was traumatizing. I was required to part with some 500 USD for manual biopsy, a test in which sample tissue is taken from the body in order to carry out close examination at KNH. I had exhausted a 5,000 USD loaning facility from my teachers SACCO and so became hard to raise the amount,” says Lumwamu, who got help from a family friend who linked him to a private hospital where his biopsy specimen was done.

“Again, I was to take the biopsy specimen to KNH to confirm the type of diagnosis but then again, the facility’s biopsy machine had broken down and so the sample had to be flown to India for further analysis,” he narrates.

What he didn’t know then was that two weeks later, the verified results would prove that he had tested with Non-Hodgkin lymphomas cancer, a cancer that arises from lymphocytes, a kind of white blood cell usually found in blood and lymph nodes.

Sitting in their living room on a quiet village in Kakamega County, Lumwamu and his wife Esther Shimenga said they were so shocked at the results, especially having a loan of 500 USD to repay, with the real treatment cost staring at their stretched financial resources.

“Having received the exact diagnosis, I had to be subjected to chemotherapy treatment twice a month for three months. I now had no other option than approaching a commercial bank for a loan,” Lumwamu, who sourced for a 10,000 USD loan from Equity Bank.

Julius display medical loan facility documents.
Julius and his wife Esther Shilenga display documents for a loan they took from a commercial bank to facilitate treatment. Credit: Robert Kibet / Ubuntu Times

Despite being a subscriber to the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), this only helped him pay a bill of a meager $43, against a required $500 for biopsy test at the KNH, the public health facility.

“From what I went through, I don’t think the government has ever known exactly how to go about helping especially people facing life-threatening diseases like cancer. People just die quietly, they suffer because the time they are supposed to get treatment, the drugs are not there and if they are available they are very expensive,” he says, adding that for him, he was forced to buy drugs in the city, far from KNH where he was receiving treatment, which would cost him up to $300.

Cancer medical treatment document.
One of the hospital document obtained by Julius while seeking treatment. Accessing cancer medication in Kenya is an expensive one, barring the poor from quality treatment. Credit: Robert Kibet / Ubuntu Times

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) through its recent report titled ‘Cancer Research for Cancer Prevention’ says high-income countries have adopted prevention, early diagnosis, and screening programs, which together with better treatment, have contributed to an estimated 20 percent reduction in the probability of premature mortality between 2000 and 2015, but low-income countries only saw a reduction of five percent.

“The challenge will be for countries to select treatments balancing considerations including cost, feasibility and effectiveness. Each government is tasked with choosing the appropriate innovative cancer therapies, while recognizing that established treatments, many of which are very effective and affordable, can provide benefits for cancer without causing financial hardship,” says the report.

Each time an affluent Kenyan or a politician succumbs to cancer disease, government operatives are quick to fill airwaves with promises of improving the healthcare system, including policies governing cancer management, but fade into thin air a couple of days.

Dr. Catherine Nyongesa, physician and radiation oncologist, founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Texas Cancer Centre told Ubuntu Times in an interview that Kenya, compared to years back, has made progress combating cancer.

“Introduction of oncology packages by NHIF since 2016 to cater for treatment be it surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, launching of the National Cancer Control Strategy, formulation of national cancer treatment guidelines 2013, National Cancer Treatment Protocols 2018 and the National Cancer screening guidelines has upped efforts to combat this life-threatening disease,” she said.

In Kenya today, cancer is ranked as the third leading cause of death, exceeded only by infections and heart disease.

The Global Cancer Observatory (GLOBOCAN) 2018 findings show that each year, about 47,887 Kenyans get cancer and 32,987 die from the disease. The most common remains breast cancer with 5,985 women and men diagnosed every year compared to 2,864 prostate cases. Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers in women, in developing countries, constituting a real public health problem.

As Federal Government of Somalia pursues fugitive minister, a Governor in Kenya is on the receiving end

Robert Kibet
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As Federal Government of Somalia pursues fugitive minister, a Governor in Kenya is on the receiving end

NAIROBI MARCH 13, 2020 — “When the safety and security of our population is threatened by foreign forces regardless of how they came into Mandera County, our position is very simple, which is that of protection of our population at all costs. We respect our neighbors and wish them well. Their problem is their problem and Somali Government and its people must find a solution to their problem in their own ways,” so goes a statement by Ali Ibrahim Roba, governor for Mandera, a county bordering Kenya to the porous Somalia in the north.

Earlier last week, heavy fighting erupted in the border town of Bulla Hawo, a contested frontier town, a business hub, a transit point, and a critical geopolitical outpost lying along the common borderline when the Somali Federal Government troops engaged forces from the semi-autonomous regional government of Jubaland.

In 2019, Jubaland authorities raised accusations against the Federal Government of Somalia for what it termed as attempts to interfere with its elections, so as to facilitate removal of Jubaland President Sheikh Ahmed Madobe who is perceived as a close ally to Kenya.

Governor Roba was responding to sentiments in a March 13 Strategic intelligence website titled ‘Leadership at Kenyan Frontier Prefectures Trading off with Terrorists & Enemy States: Treason & Principles of Loyalty in Geopolitics’ in which the governor is perceived to be siding with the Mogadishu government.

“Some desperate leader from northern Kenya has resorted to hired goons in the name of Strategic Intelligence who are pretending to be experts who know more about the desperate security situation in Mandera. Our level of patriotism and sense of belonging can never be measured through a partisan support to a regional government of Jubaland at the expense of the security of our population,” reads the response statement.

Somalia Federal Government had accused Kenya of harboring fugitive Jubaland security minister Abdirashid Hassan Abdinur also known as Janan, who is said to have escaped from a Mogadishu prison on January 28, where he had been held since August 31, 2019 on accusation of ‘grave human rights violation and killing civilians in Gedo region’.

Somalia’s government army engaged Janan’s troops in Bulla Hawo, forcing the fugitive’s fighters to cross over to Kenya’s border county of Mandera, raising fears among locals.

And with these myriads feuds between the fragile government in Mogadishu and its federal states, it would prove a huge obstacle to fighting the armed Al-Shabaab group in war-torn Somalia.

After over two decades of civil war and inter-clan conflict, Somalia started an ambitious program of national reconciliation and development, with federalism as a pillar of its plan, leading to the establishment of regional governments under the federal government based in Mogadishu.

After several attacks by armed insurgents in Kenya’s northeastern region, mostly targeting non-Muslim, leaders from the region were under pressure to seek local solutions on curbing the menace.

Recently, eleven Members of Parliament who made a secret trip to neighboring Somalia were later arrested by police for questioning when they jetted back into the country. Of the 11 MPs, six were from Mandera, three from Wajir and two from Garissa counties.

“The legislators might have had a genuine reason on seeking amicable solution to terrorism activities in neighboring country of Somali about terror issues plighting the northeastern region, but they ought to have sought the government protocol,” says Mbijiwe.

According to Governor Roba, the article sought to sway the Kenyan government views to have him change the position he holds against the presence of foreign forces in the county of Mandera.

“Let it be clear to everyone that we have nothing against Jubaland forces in Mandera. We have nothing against Jubaland or anyone else but are just interested in the safety of Mandera people against foreign fighters. If not accepting such risks translates to opposing anyone so be it,” reiterated the governor.

At least 11 people were killed in the fight involving the Somali government army and the Jubaland troops in the border town of Bulla Hawo.

Mohammed Mahmoud, a senator from Mandera County says with an already existing internally displaced persons, such conflicts are likely to put the lives of residents in the northeastern counties in limbo.

“Our people have borne the brunt of calamities such as droughts and hunger. Such a situation in our borderline threatens the existence of a people living in fragility,” said Mahmoud.

BREAKING: Kenya confirms first case of Novel Coronavirus as WHO declares its outbreak officially a global pandemic

Robert Kibet
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BREAKING: Kenya confirms first case of Novel Coronavirus as WHO declares its outbreak officially a global pandemic

NAIROBI MARCH 13, 2020 — The virus which exploded in China’s Wuhan City in Hubei Province has claimed 4,600 lives with over 126,000 people infected globally out of whom 67,000 have recovered.

Kenya has become the first country in the Horn of Africa to confirm the first case of coronavirus, a virus which the World Health Organization on Wednesday declared it a global pandemic.

The case, which the country’s health ministry said was confirmed on March 12 become the first case to be positively confirmed in Kenya since its outbreak in China’s Wuhan city in December last year.

Addressing the country at a press conference today, Health cabinet secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the victim, a Kenyan female is said to have jetted in the country on March 5 from the United States via London.

The case was positively confirmed by the National Influenza Centre Laboratory at the National public health laboratories of the ministry of health.

“The patient is in stable condition and is being managed at the infectious disease unit at the Kenyatta National Hospital,” said Kagwe when he addressed the media.

The health minister assured Kenyans that proper measures were being strengthened through its National Emergency Response Committee on Coronavirus by providing strategic leadership working through the government approach to respond to the case in the implementation of mitigation measures.

And while the news sends shocks to Kenya’s 50 million populations, the government said it has traced contacts and names of the persons who traveled with or sat next to the victim, including their names to help in curbing possibility of its spread.

“Most people who become infected may experience only mild illness and recover easily, but the disease can be more severe in others, especially the elderly and people with chronic illnesses,” said Kagwe.

Kenya now joins the 11 African countries drawn from northern, western and Southern Africa after the continent’s first case was reported in Egypt on February 14.

The latest statistics from WHO indicate that already Egypt leads with the number of confirmed cases standing at 59, followed by Algeria with 20 confirmed cases.

  • South Africa (7 cases)
  • Tunisia (5 cases)
  • Senegal (5)
  • Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Morocco (each reported two confirmed cases)
  • Togo and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) confirmed two cases each.

The African Union’s centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) through a statement by its Africa head Dr. John Ngekasong at the Africa Union (AU) on Tuesday in Addis Ababa, said proper measures have been put in place.

“We have distributed testing kits capable of testing over 10,000 people, purchased more emergency medical items including test kits, thermal scanners and other critical medical supplies and stockpiling them to meet the requests from member states,” he said.

The current global death toll from COVID-19 which now stands at over 4,000, and more than 110,000 confirmed cases, according to WHO, the pandemic has already spread to more than 115 countries and territories.

Kenya suffers the effects of Coronavirus outbreak even without a single case reported.

Dominic Kirui
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Kenya suffers the effects of Coronavirus outbreak even without a single case reported.

Nairobi, March 11 — As the world scare from the coronavirus also known as the COVID-19 intensifies, many businesses across the world continue to register losses due to movement restrictions that have resulted in slow or no trade at all.

The virus that broke out from the Chinese city of Wuhan in December, and has so far killed more than 4,600 people across the world and infected close to 126,000 has been the recent pandemic that the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health emergency on January 30.

On March 11, the United Nations health agency declared the virus a global pandemic.

But as most Asian and European countries are reeling from deaths from the disease, a few countries in Africa have reported cases of infections. But even so, many of these countries are suffering the consequences of the travel restrictions that are being imposed by governments as a way to curb the spread of the virus.

Kenya is among the countries suffering an economic loss from this disease even though the country has not confirmed even a single case. In the past month or so, about 20 suspected cases of the virus have been tested and dismissed after being found to be negative.

The hospitality sector has been badly hit in the country and also the region, as hotels register low bookings. International conferences that would normally happen in Kenya have also been banned by the government, with the Ministry of Health saying that it is for the good of the people, and for reducing the chances for the virus to spread.

Coronavirus outbreak affecting the hospitality industry.
A view of the reception area at the Prideinn Hotel on Raphta Road in Nairobi’s Westlands area. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

On March 10, the Kenya Private Sector Alliance launched a report that examined the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) on Kenya’s economy.

“21% of Kenya’s total imports value is sourced from China while trade between African and China is 12%. In the first two months of 2020 Kenya’s imports from China declined by 36.6%. Similarly, exports to China have been affected due to reduced demand– these include Kenyan avocadoes, tea, coffee, and other products”, part of the report read.

The Cabinet Secretary, Mutahi Kagwe, however said that the government will allow one empty plan from Italy to land in Kenya to evacuate about 800 Italians who are stuck in the country.

His Zanzibar counterpart, Hamad Rashid on Friday banned Italian tourists from the east African island saying that the move was to control the spread of the outbreak.

Italy has been the second worst hit country outside of Asia, coming second after China in terms of recorded number of deaths.

The coastal town of Malindi in Kenya’s Kilifi County near Mombasa, the hub of tourism that normally registers full hotel bookings is also deserted. The town, normally referred to as the Kenyan Italy has seen a drop in hotel bookings as well.

“In 2018 alone, the Chinese spent USD 277 billion in international tourism, and in 2019, China predicted around 166 million outbound travelers. Therefore, when the Chinese are not traveling or restricted to travel, just assume during the first quarter of 2020, that means a loss of USD69 billion and might be increased more than we can imagine, hence the global tourism industry will suffer. As far as global tourism, the industry is concerned, when the Chinese do not travel”, says Hasnain Noorani, the Pride Inn Hotels Managing Director.

“While the ultimate outcome is unknown, it is clear the economic impact will be significant as China’s travel market to Africa and Kenya in particular is one of the fastest-growing, so the losses are expected to be much bigger than those from the 2003 SARS outbreak, moreover, the spread of the illness, and the fear that has come with it, has caused companies doing business in China to close offices and factories, and restrict travel to and from the country. Airlines and cruise ships have canceled flights and tours in the country”, Noorani added.

Apart from the tourism and hospitality industry, trade in Nairobi and other parts of the country has also been affected as many traders who normally get their stock from China now have a hard time getting the products they trade in delivered to them.

Traders feel the brunt of the coronavirus outbreak.
A trader selling jackets in Gikomba, Nairobi. Most of the secondhand clothes are imported from China and traders fear as no more supply is coming in. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

However, farmers have not also been left out. Last year in April, the Kenyan government signed an agreement with the Chinese government allowing Kenyan farmers to export avocados to China. After the halting of flights to China, farmers are now recording losses as they now lack a market for their produce.

Peter Kinuya, an avocado farmer in Kiambu County says that he has started experiencing losses as his fruits are no longer going for export.

“Up until December, we had a very steady demand for avocados and China was our best buyer since the government has assisted us to get market over there. Now, I don’t know what to do because I am a farmer, and I won’t say that I have another job to feed my family”, said the 52-year-old father of five.

Elsewhere in Nairobi’s Gikomba market, traders in second-hand clothes are also feeling the effects of the virus. Monica Mueni has just arrived in the market to check for her luggage. And even though she is able to get what she says is half of what she normally gets and goes to sell in Kitui, Eastern Kenya.

The streets will soon be short of China supply.
A view of the busy street at the Gikomba market in Nairobi, Kenya. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

“My supplier has just told me that this was what was left from the last cargo ship in December and that no other ship has arrived with the luggage since”, Mueni says.

Tabitha Wambui, Mueni’s supplier says that things are not good as everyone is now feeling the heat and looking for ways to adapt.

Coronavirus outbreak affects supply of secondhand clothes.
Tabitha Wambui poses for a photo inside her shop in Nairobi’s Gikomba market on March 11, 2020. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times

“As for me, I have no idea what to do because I had started this business after getting fired from my job. I have a family of three kids and two orphans and my parents are depending on me since I am the firstborn in the family”, says Wambui, a 38-year-old mother of three.

“All we do is ask God to lead the scientists to a cure for the viral disease”, Wambui concludes.

Stuck in weak healthcare system and panic, Kenya temporarily ban international conferences as coronavirus eats into Africa

Robert Kibet
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Stuck in weak healthcare system and panic, Kenya temporarily ban international conferences as coronavirus eats into Africa

NAIROBI, KENYA MARCH 7,2020 — Kenya, on Friday issued a temporary ban on meetings, conferences and international events that involves attendees from countries affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19). The announcement comes in the wake of the deadly virus making inroads in a handful of countries in Africa.

The ban, which included a temporary ban lifting on flights from Italy, will see the government allow flights from Italy to Kenya, with no passengers and will jet into the country to evacuate Italian citizens.

“As a government, we are only doing a temporary lift on Italian flights to Kenya, but only to evacuate Italian citizens from the country. The flight(s) will only contain their cabin crew, who will not be allowed to disembark while the passengers are being picked,” Mutahi Kagwe, the country’s Health Ministry Cabinet Secretary told a press conference in the capital, Nairobi.

The cabinet secretary said this when he launched a newly completed Kenyatta National Hospital isolation center and the infectious disease unit for coronavirus, located at the city’s Mbagathi Hospital as part of efforts to contain the virus should it be positively reported.

Coronavirus isolation facility.
Cabinet Secretary for health, Mutahi Kagwe (left) in brown shirt is taken through installed equipment at the newly launched coronavirus isolation center at Mbagathi, a public hospital in the capital, Nairobi. Credit: Robert Kibet / Ubuntu Times

Although the East African nation, despite having investigated 23 alerts involving 31 suspected cases that have tested negative for Covid-19, with two of recently investigated cases being in the capital, Nairobi, continues to assure its citizens that proper measures have been put in place.

Kenya is boasting of having set up over 100 hospital beds in public hospitals to handle patients in case of positively identified cases. China built two coronavirus hospitals in over a week, with a 1,600-bed capacity.

“Our government tells us the country is ready to fight coronavirus in case there is an outbreak while at the same time allowed flights from China which is the origin of this threat. Our government should not gamble with our lives,” Joseph Omolo, a resident of Kibera, Africa’s largest slum located in Nairobi told Ubuntu Times in an interview.

Togo is the latest African nation to have reported a positive case of coronavirus, adding to the list of African countries affected so far standing at eight, other countries being Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia, South Africa, and Cameroon.

In February, there was an uproar when a Chinese plane carrying 239 passengers touched down at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA). The government demystified fears, telling its citizens that the passengers were safe having been scanned from their country of origin and that they would be put on self-quarantine for 14 days.

Following the uproar, a high court in Kenya issued temporary orders suspending all flights from China, after the Law Society of Kenya moved to court seeking orders to bar the government from allowing planes from China flying into Kenya.

The World Health Organization (WHO) indicated that as of 5th March 2020, 95,333 coronavirus cases had been reported globally, and a bigger percentage of the 3,282 death cases coming from mainland China.

Among other measures the Kenyan government has taken include having a diagnostic capacity at the National Influenza Centre and Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) laboratories to test suspected cases of COVID-19.

“We are ensuring proper and mandatory screening at all points of entry to minimize the risk of importation of the virus from affected countries,” said Kagwe, the health minister, procuring an additional 5,000 personal protective equipment with the support of United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Coronavirus hospital bed facility in Nairobi.
Cabinet Secretaries Mutahi Kagwe (Health), Rachael Omamo (Foreign Affairs) together with other government officials are taken through the newly established coronavirus isolation facility at Mbagathi hospital health Cabinet Secretary together with Foreign Affairs. Credit: Robert Kibet Ubuntu Times

A United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report titled ‘Impact of Coronavirus Outbreak on Global Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)’ says the epidemic will exert downward pressure on FDI.

“The impact on FDI will be concentrated in those countries that are most severely hit by the epidemic, although negative demand shocks and the economic impact of supply chain disruptions will affect investment prospects in other countries,” says the report.

With African countries having health systems that are overwhelmed by various disease outbreaks, WHO has called on the continent’s governments to ensure it invests in early detection for efficient control of the epidemic spreading once it hits.

Outside of China, Italy is one of the worst-hit from the coronavirus epidemic with a toll of over 100 deaths. This led to Kenya banning all flights from Italy to Kenya as a possible measure to avoid threats.

Esther Lusaka, 35-year-old mother of four, a resident of Nairobi told Ubuntu Times in an interview that most of the women, like her who have been seeking medication at Mbagathi Hospital where the isolation center has been set up will tend to keep off the facility.

“We are used to theatrics in Kenyan government especially in the health ministry where officials gamble with Kenyans’ lives. How sure are we that the facility will handle the outbreak if there will be, and have normal patients seek medication at the same public hospital?” she wondered.

Ethiopia, Africa’s major airline gateway with its national airline operating 34 flights from China has strengthened its surveillance, diagnostic and medical care as well as public health information in readiness for a potential outbreak.

Could tree regeneration hold out hope for Africa’s vulnerable smallholder farmers?

Robert Kibet
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Could tree regeneration hold out hope for Africa’s vulnerable smallholder farmers?

Homa Bay, Kenya MARCH 4, 2020 — With more than half of the estimated 2.2 billion people to be added to the global population by 2050 expected to be from the African continent, according to the UN report on global population, this rapid growth and its development policies, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa will inhibit efforts to alleviate poverty, ensuring food security, preserving the environment, and improving Africans’ well-being, increasing vulnerability to climate change impacts and undermine sustainable development efforts on the continent.

Staring at a crisis in which some 256 million people are facing hunger, and where much of its current discourse on food security is focused on increasing and expanding agricultural production, the African continent’s expansion in agricultural production is speculated to be at the expense of natural resources.

As one of the solutions, an ambitious program dubbed Regreening Africa, a multi-country project funded by the European Union is seeking to scale up evergreen agriculture targeting an estimated 500,000 farm households over an area of one million hectares by 2022.

The eight beneficiary countries; Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Rwanda in East Africa and West Africa’s Niger, Mali, Ghana, and Senegal are at the forefront in restoring already degraded land to more productive use.

The project builds on the considerable experience in land restoration consortium partners which are World Agroforestry Centre as project lead, World Vision, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), CARE, Oxfam, and Sahel Eco.

“We are blending research with development and identify practices that are suitable for the different kinds of farms that we are working across the eight countries in East Africa and West Africa’s Sahel region. Working with research and development partners together helps us to be able to make decisions that are informed by scientific evidence,” Susan Chomba, Regreening Africa Project Manager told Ubuntu Times in an interview.

The project encourages the use of Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR), a quick, affordable and easy-to-replicate way of restoring and improving agricultural, forested and pasture lands by promoting systematic regrowth of existing trees or from naturally occurring tree seeds. It can be used wherever there are living tree stumps with the ability to coppice (re-sprout) or seeds in the soil that will germinate.

A farmer in northern Uganda prunes regenerating tree.
Stephen Tumhaire, a farmer in Chamkama, northern Uganda cattle corridor prunes indigenous trees on his farm. He practices Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) after acquiring skills on how to make sprouting trees regenerate. Credit: Robert Kibet / Ubuntu Times

Maxwell Ochoo, 32-year old father of four, quit his job as a community health mobilizer to engage in farming, a risky venture amidst degraded land in Lambwe, Kenya’s lakeside region.

“I worked as a community health mobilizer but when my contract ended, I resorted to try [my] luck in farming. It was a challenging undertaking with degraded land where none believed it would one day turn green,” says Ochoo.

After successfully practicing FMNR on his farm, Ochoo is currently a proud farmer as he is able to take his children to school, thanks to reliable income from his pawpaw fruits and a fish pond he established on his farm.

A farmer examines male pawpaw tree on his farm.
Farmer James Gichuru examining his male pawpaw tree on his farm in Aringo village, Homa Bay. Farmers in this region have found hope in pawpaw farming due to its ability to do well on harsh dry climate. Credit: Robert Kibet / Ubuntu Times

To minimize food cost for fish, I utilize calliandra — a small tropical legume tree he planted on his land, whose dry leaves are consumed by fish.

Farmers increase food security by retaining trees on agricultural land, by encouraging natural regeneration and by planting trees and other forest plants. For most of the year, herders in arid and semi-arid lands depend on trees as a source of fodder for their livestock.

Nancy Kemboi, a smallholder farmer in Baringo, a region characterized by constant drought also benefited on this simple innovative technique of protecting wildlings and pruning stumps that coppice so they rapidly regrow into trees.

Together with her husband, Nancy, through a capacity building on the FMNR skills offered by World Vision Kenya, she started regenerating indigenous trees such as acacia and re-growing pasture in the same field to cushion her livestock during extreme drought periods.

Africa’s indigenous trees coppice when cut, their stumps looking like weeds, but when farmers select the tallest and straight stems and cull the rest, trees rapidly grow.

Tree pruning where excess branches are removed to encourage healthy growth.
Florence Namembwa, a smallholder farmer in Chamkama, northern ASAL part of Uganda practicing FMNR on her farm. A beneficiary of training, she has learned to regenerate trees on her farm, which provides her with fuelwood. Credit: Robert Kibet / Ubuntu Times

“At first, the practice seemed [like] it would take long, but with patience and continuous pruning of the trees, benefits started to trickle. My children could not spend time having to fetch fuel wood mile away. I started getting fuel from tree branches, a product of pruning of growing sprouts,” Nancy told an interview at her farm.

Nancy’s children field soon started to contrast with the bare bleak ones of her neighbors. Her livestock started to thrive, with milk production increasing due to the availability of quality pasture.

“Before practicing FMNR, I used to get merely five-liter of milk a day from my cows, selling it to middlemen who used to buy at low prices,” says Nancy, adding that since her milk production increased, she now sells her milk to a nearby dairy facility.

A female farmer in Homa Bay mulches pawpaw fruit trees.
Juliana Aoko, a 52-year old farmer mulches pawpaw fruit trees on her farm in Lambwe. Mulching helps reduce moisture in areas where there is extreme sun exposure. She has learned to plant indigenous trees on her farm, which are adaptable to the climate. Credit: Robert Kibet / Ubuntu Times

Lilian Dodzo, World Vision Kenya Country Director says the decision to train and capacity-build farmers with simple skills on how to mitigate against the changing climate is such a big phenomenon in the current environment.

“It is important to build skills in our communities to find very simple and low-cost ways in which we can mitigate against climate change to be able to build the resilience of our communities,” Dodzo told in an interview.

She adds, “Our greatest interest in these activities is to see what it contributes to the child well-being. With access to pasture and more milk to sell, the income goes all the way to helping pay for children school fees, buy food and develop gardens where women can grow drought-resistant crops.”

According to Clare Rogers, World Vision Australia Chief Executive Officer, Nancy’s courageous move has not only changed her family but the community and farms around her area, with her neighbors starting to adopt the same approach after losing livestock to drought being an inspiration for the future.

“Nancy and her husband had the courage to try something new. They began to make the change happen here, and now her having to walk miles away to collect firewood solved. The changed landscape, availability of firewood and pasture means her kids can go to school,” she said.

“Women can change the world. This was not an easy journey but the fruit of the work after they did this was so obvious that it became very hard for people to deny,” Clare told a group of local farmers who had come to see the success in Nancy’s farm model.

Education crisis: Surge in armed insurgents’ in Kenya’s arid north push education system to the brink

Robert Kibet
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Education crisis: Surge in armed insurgents’ in Kenya’s arid north push education system to the brink

Nairobi February 26, 2020 – Abdulkarim Adan has lived in one of Kenya’s harshest environments in the northern arid and semi-arid region for 52 years. He has seen many droughts that have for decades left thousands of people without enough food and killing hundreds of precious livestock- their sole source of livelihoods. But the recent sequence of attacks by Alshabaab insurgents targeting non-local teachers working in counties in this region has made him question the future of his pastoral community, with education seen as a stepping stone out of extreme poverty.

Wearing a white waistcoat and holding a greyish walking stick, he sits on a bunch of fuelwood in the village of Halugho, a constellation of rickety shelters fashioned from tree twigs and sticks, and a few ridged iron-sheets structures.

Halugho is about a five-hour drive, some 250km on bone-clanking tracks from Garissa town, where men cluster to buy the mild stimulant khat as goats and camels wander by.

Kenya’s northern expanse is a classic illustration of how tackling climate change and attaining sustainable development – as defined by the UN global goals are two sides of the same coin.

Caught as it is in spans of politically-driven historical economic marginalization, educating its children appears to be the appropriate route out of poverty for inhabitants of Garissa, Mandera, and Isiolo and Wajir counties.

“I have in mind so many things,” says Abdulkarim. “Children should be sent to school in order to obtain income-generating skills. Each child needs to have access to quality education and access to trained teachers. But now, all you see here are education premises with no teachers.”

On the night of January 13, 2020, armed militants believed to be from neighboring Somalia raided Kamuthe Primary School in Garissa, where they killed three non-Muslim teachers, abducting a Muslim one and leaving another teacher wounded before proceeding to set fire to Kamuthe police post and destroying a communication mast.

Kenya’s teacher employer, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) bowed to pressure from teachers’ unions to have non-local non-Muslim teachers transferred from the regions perceived to be at risk of attacks from the Alshabaab insurgents and started transferring the teachers early this month.

With the move to transfer teachers having the potential to paralyze the education system in the region, local political leaders came strongly to protest the motion calling for an urgent meeting to resolve the standoff.

Aden Duale who is Garissa town Member of Parliament and leader of the majority in the National Assembly told Ubuntu Times, “We will spearhead sustainable solutions especially that which seeks to curb the killings of non-local teachers working in schools within the northeastern region.”

For locals, like Abdulkarim, attacks targeted at educational institutions such as schools and hospitals have a direct impact on the vulnerable, mostly women and children.

Kenya Defence Forces vehicle in Garissa.
After several incidences of attacks by Alshabaab insurgents in northeastern counties, including the 2015 raid in Garissa University leading to the death of 147 students, ‘the government increased security surveillance in the region. Credit: Robert Kibet

Recently, local leaders led by Governors Ali Korane of Garissa and Mohamed Abdi of Wajir threatened to sue TSC for its move to transfer non-local tutors from the region owing to insecurity, adding that it would include seeking to have the commission stripped of powers to transfer teachers and duty taken over by county governments.

Akelo Misori, Secretary-General of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET), while supporting the role of teacher transfer bestowed on the devolved unit of government, reiterates that tutors’ security was a priority.

“We stand with the TSC’s move to prioritize the safety of tutors in the northeastern region,” Misori told Ubuntu Times in a telephone interview, calling on leaders in the region to shy away from blaming victims and instead play a role in ending insecurity and terror attacks in their locality.

A 2018 armed militants attack at Qarsa Primary School in Wajir East that led to the death of three people, including two teachers saw a mass exodus of teachers.

In this year’s early January a dawn attack at Saretho Boarding Primary School, situated in Dadaab saw a teacher and a child lose lives, leading to the immediate closure of the school.

In the new era of sustainable development, where all countries are expected to implement a universal development agenda, the Kenyan government need to be held to account for human rights abuses affecting a significant part of their young population, as well as failure to provide adequate protection to which children are entitled under the convention on the rights of the child.

Under the international humanitarian, law, schools are protected civilian objects and therefore benefit from the humanitarian principles of distinctions and proportionality.

Direct physical attacks and closure of these institutions as a result of direct threats have since 2011 been added as triggers of inclusion on the list of the Secretary General’s parties to conflict committing grave violations against children in armed conflict. Attacks on schools during conflict is one of the six grave violations identified by the UN Security Council.

Statistics indicate that over 2,000 non-local teachers already left the northern region since 2015 with the government’s efforts to replace them not bearing fruits, worsened by recent tactics by militants to attack non-native tutors, who possess the required teacher qualification.

Health staff in Garissa
Health staffs in Garissa came out strongly to condemn attacks carried out by armed militants targeting non-native health staffs and education tutors working in northern counties of Garissa, Wajir, Isiolo, and Mandera. Credit: Robert Kibet

The National Council for Nomadic Education (NACONEK), an agency tasked with promoting education in nomadic areas of northeastern Kenya routes for recruitment of curriculum assistance as well as employing local teachers graduating from teacher training colleges.

“The government ought to reduce entry grade level of learners who wants to pursue teaching in teachers training institutions, and retake teacher retirees aged 65 years and below from the region to curb shortage,” Harun Yusuf, NACONEK Chief Executive Officer told Ubuntu Times.

Wilson Sosion, Secretary-General of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) says the government’s delay in moving in to seek a reliable solution to the education crisis in the northeastern region is a big disservice to residents of the region.

“The government’s dalliance is a big disservice and an affront to the constitutional right of children to access education as outlined in the UN 2030 Agenda on sustainable development goals,” Sosion told in an interview.

According to Sosion, teachers must be created from children of the Somali community and equitably derived Somali clans with a mean grade of D (+) and above and registered as untrained teachers and immediately deployed immediately to class while undergoing in-service training.

In 2015, armed Alshabaab attackers raided Garissa University, leading to the death of 147 students, an attack that shocked the country’s education and security system.

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