Archive for August, 2007
Kenya to Develop Three Tourism Resort Cities; But At What Environmental cost?
That the Kenya Government has made advanced plans to develop three tourist resort cities is highly commendable from an economic point of view. In recent years golf tourism has increased in popularity and the number of golf courses is growing rapidly all over the world.
However, economic development must not override concerns for environmental degradation. The government must come out openly and publicize the environmental impact assessment reports of these projects so that they may be debated exhaustively.
Within the last 5 years, golf tourism has been spreading rapidly in South Asia and the Carribean leading to serious degradation of coastal environments, groundwater pollution, water scarcity and resulting in conflicts with local communities and resident farmers who see themselves forced to sell their land to golf course investors. Has the Kenyan Government taken into consideration such effects in Kenya?
While many countries have put in legislation to control the growth of new golf course developments as there are serious concerns about water conservation and environmental degradation, Kenya seems to be doing the opposite.
The Impact of Golf Estates:
Water demand/ supply
The amount of water golf courses use varies greatly depending on the region, but on average they use about 10 800 000 litres of water per year (according to the Golf Course Superintendents Association, US golf courses use, on average, 414 500 000 litres a year). In essence each golf course uses enough water to provide at least 1200 people with their basic water needs for a year. Kenya is a dry country and many people still do not have access to running water.
Can we afford to waste water on playgrounds for the rich?
However, using water-saving measures can cut the water use by a third, and some golf course estates are using recycled sewage effluent to water their greens and fairways. This however has other negative environmental impacts.
Pollution through pesticides and fertilisers
The addition of any nutrients to the system, for example through using fertilizers, impacts upon surrounding ecosystems. Increased nutrients may encourage aliens species to invade and discourages indigenous vegetation. Eutrophication of water bodies may also occur. This is associated with a proliferation of plant life, especially algae, which reduces the dissolved oxygen content and often causes the local extinction of other organisms. While the use of sewage water for irrigation may solve the water problem, it adds even more nutrients to the system, compounding the negative environmental impacts of using fertilisers.
Pesticides and herbicides kill off insects and weeds within the confines of the golf course estate. However these can spread into nearby ground water or river systems. The use of pesticides may affect species higher up the food chain by either reducing the amount of food available, or through the accumulation of persistent poisons in their bodies. Insects also provide important ecosystem functions such as pollination and seed dispersal. Their removal may have serious long-term implications for habitat viability.
Alien vegetation
Golf estates may facilitate the spread of invasive alien plants through increased disturbance and nutrient levels. Furthermore, gardens are recognised as an important source of invasive species. The introduction of kikuyu grass, for example, may have devastating effects on surrounding natural habitats.
Golf course estates are essentially upmarket, residential areas located within their own private park. They are generally not located within urban areas. They usually cover large tracts of land and are frequently proposed within pristine areas, where they reduce biodiversity and destroy conservation-worthy habitats. In the short-term the overall monetary value of golf course estates may be greater than that of farming. However, in the long term, these short-term monetary gains, which benefit only a few individuals, may be eclipsed by a shortage of food-producing areas.
Urban sprawl
Many golf estate developments are on the urban edge or in semi-rural areas. This results in urban sprawl and can create unplanned-for development nodes where infrastructure does not exist. This places an added burden on local municipalities and the community at large, for example, through increased traffic congestion and demand for services.
Supply of services
In general these developments consist of clusters of 500 housing units, or more. In effect they are creating small towns. This has enormous impacts on water demand and sewage services, especially where such large-scale growth has not been planned for. As these are housing developments for the upper end of the market, where are the resources to be found for the lower end, disadvantaged communities development?
Socio-political issues, equity and access
This is probably the most serious weakness of golf course estates. Golf course estates are frequently elitist enclaves, isolated from surrounding communities. They have thrived on people’s fear and insecurities in the face of increasing levels of crime and violence. They are populated by people who have accumulated sufficient wealth to do something about this, but rather than use their considerable resources to assist in addressing the problem, they attempt to block themselves off from the rest of society. At its most benign, this takes the form of fencing and closing off residential areas to the public, limiting access to public open space. At its most extreme, it means guards, razor wire and electric fences.
For society, this cannot be healthy, creating divides between the elite and the surrounding communities, and fostering resentment and tension between the haves and the have nots. By limiting access to natural resources such as arable land, fuel, water, food and medicinal plants, golf estates further impoverish poor communities, both economically and psychologically.
Increasingly, attempts are being made to compensate communities for these losses by making substantial financial contributions, or by offering to build facilities for the affected community. These financial contributions are equitable exchanges as they do not address the issues at hand.
– Golf course estates are not necessarily for golfers.
On average, only a very small percentage of residents are golf players, the remainder choosing to live there because of the secure environment, and because they like the idea of staying in a park. This may possibly be extended to the golfing tourist industry, as we have reason to believe that a substantial number of tourists on these golf tours do not play golf at all. This is an important factor to consider when addressing the environmental issues and, perhaps more importantly, when trying to find solutions and alternatives.
The enthusiastic drive for golf course estates amongst local authorities appears to be linked to perceived economic growth, and job creation, through golf tourism. Local authorities also seem to think that the rates created by the exclusive golf course estate can then subsidise the development of disadvantaged areas.
However, these conclusions rely on certain assumptions:
– That all economic growth will lead to job creation and skills development, particularly at the lower-skilled end of the labour force.
This is not necessarily true. There are generally fewer jobs than initially promised, and the jobs are often menial with little prospect for training or capacity building. Skilled staff are generally drawn from the ranks of those who already have jobs, thereby depleting the skills base in other areas. Even at construction phase, construction firms often prefer to bring in their own labour.
– That foreigners spend large sums of money in the country.
Golf tourism necessarily relies on overseas tourists who pay for their tours in their country of origin. The money actually remaining in South Africa is therefore somewhat limited, with the vast amounts of money being recycled back to the country of origin.
– That the value of the land is signified by the amount of income it generates (generally through rates) and that any development which increases this is positive.
The loss of agricultural land means loss of potential food production in the future. Although it is increasingly recognised that pristine habitats have economic value of their own, through inter alia the services and resources they provide and the tourists that flock to appreciate our
scenic and endemic landscapes, these values are not generally considered in conventional economic systems.
The current proliferation global of golf course estates is not sustainable. In order to ensure that all the above issues and concerns are addressed, we request that a strategic environmental assessment be required for any major golf estate development.
On a more positive note, if golf estates are appropriately located and planned for, they could play a valuable role in rehabilitating derelict areas and transforming them into green belt areas. However, where a golf course estate development is proposed for an ecologically degraded environment
Such a development could only be supported if;
– the results of an objective, independent Environmental Impact Report show that there would be no significant negative environmental impacts.
– an environmental monitoring committee is formed to ensure that the development follows an environmental management plan.
– the environmental management plan follows international best practice.
AND if such a development;
– will ensure public access to the communal green space,
– will rehabilitate a degraded habitat,
– will enhance the overall economic, social and environmental benefits to the surrounding communities, will result in pockets of protected conservation-worthy land, and will provide a buffer between the urban area and the non-urban land.
In summary, it would appear that golfing estates are less about golf and more about the widening and increasingly prevalent gap between the rich and the poor. Golfing estates are an aggressive, and environmentally and socially destructive method used by the rich to insulate themselves from what they regard as uncomfortable realities.
Related story on this blog:
KENYA’S GOLF COURSES: A Threat to the Environment?
Africa Prepares for Impact of Climate Change
African regions at most risk from climate Change
There is wide recognition that Africa, the region least responsible for generating the polluting “greenhouse gases” that cause global warming, will need significant financial aid to cope with its effects. Whether this money will be available is an open question.
Africa is already struggling to find funds to lift its people out of poverty, and it has failed to attract investment in projects that will protect the African environment. Despite world leaders’ promises to increase assistance to developing countries, aid actually dropped last year by more than 5%.
In fact, poverty and environmental protection are closely linked, as the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), Africa’s development blueprint, makes clear.
Nepad’s environmental action plan states: “Africa is characterised by two interrelated features: rising poverty levels and deepening environmental degradation … poverty remains the main cause and consequence of environmental degradation and resource depletion in Africa. Without significant improvement in the living conditions and livelihoods of the poor, environmental policies and programmes will achieve little success.”
Protecting forests
African scientists argue that the continent is already making important contributions to the fight against global warming, primarily through its forests, which absorb and trap carbon dioxide — a principal cause of global warming. Africa is home to 17% of the Earth’s remaining forestland and fully a quarter of its dense rainforests, which clean the atmosphere of emissions caused by industrial polluters thousands of kilometres away.
However, forests in Africa are vanishing at a rate of more than five million hectares per year. They are cut down in wasteful and unsustainable commercial logging and “slash and burn” clearing for agriculture. Experts note that between 1980 and 1995, about 66-million hectares of forests were destroyed.
Despite initiatives like Kenya’s Green Belt Movement, a grassroots women’s campaign that has planted 10-million trees since 1977, the rate of deforestation is increasing. Green Belt Movement founder Professor Wangari Maathai is a Nobel Peace Price Laureate and the brainchild behind UNEP’s Billion Tree Campaign.
Nepad urges enforcement of sustainable logging laws and reducing agricultural demand for forest land by improving harvests on existing farms. But logs are an important export commodity for some countries, and reducing exports could cost jobs and create budget shortfalls that may be difficult or impossible to fill.
African and other countries have called on industrial countries to recognise the environmental value of forests and to pay developing countries to preserve them. To date, there are only a few small pilot programmes, and Africa’s efforts to combat climate change remain severely hampered by a lack of money.
Greening the market
The challenge of meshing urgent environmental needs with stubborn economic realities is not unique to Africa. The cost of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions has been a major obstacle to action against climate change, even for rich countries. Scientists argue that it is cheaper to cut emissions now and prevent the worst effects of climate change, but some governments push for slower and smaller reductions, pointing to the cost to industry and consumers and the risk of damaging the global economy.
In a major study for the British government in 2006, Sir Nicholas Stern, a former chief economist for the World Bank, said that the nature of free markets prevent them from being greener.
It works like this: the financial benefit of manufacturing a tonne of steel, for example, is enjoyed by a small number of people — the mill owners, workers and shareholders. The cost, when measured in greenhouse-gas emissions and environmental damage, is borne by billions of people around the world over many generations. They pay through ill-health, polluted air and tumultuous changes in the climate.
There is little reason for mill owners to raise their own costs in order to reduce pollution. “Climate change,” noted Stern, “is the greatest market failure the world has ever seen.”
Changing the economics by raising the producers’ costs of polluting is therefore an important part of halting global warming. One proposal is to tax greenhouse-gas emissions, but “carbon taxes” have encountered strong opposition and have been adopted by only a handful of governments.
A different way to put a price on pollution is the “cap and trade” schemes that have proven more popular since 1997 when the Kyoto pact limiting pollution emissions was adopted. Kyoto requires industrial countries that sign on (only the United States and Australia have not) to reduce greenhouse gases by about 5% from 1990 levels.
The agreement also established the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which allows heavily polluting industries to, in effect, buy pollution rights from countries with low emissions by investing in green projects there — thus keeping down overall emissions worldwide.
Carbon trading is now a $22-billion industry and Africa hopes to benefit from its low emissions by attracting CDM investments. It still can, but by mid-2007, it had received less than 2% of CDM projects worldwide. Experts say this is because of the generally weak investment climate in Africa. They point to a lack of sophisticated financial and marketing institutions, and limited administrative and management capacity.
But with the Kyoto agreement set to expire in 2012 and evidence mounting that the Earth is heating faster than expected, Africa’s green development agenda may yet benefit from efforts to change the economics of global warming.
“We have a very short window for stopping the rise in greenhouse-gas emissions,” Rajendra Pachauri, head of the influential United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told reporters in Bangkok in May. “We don’t have the luxury of time.”
Adapted from UN Africa Renewal
Additional reporting and Image by KEPN
Related Story on this web log: THE BILLION TREE CAMPAIGN: 145 Days To Go!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )Half Of Us Are Female, But Only 10 Of Our Leaders Are
Interesting Graph of Good Magazine is reminding all people of goodwill that while half of the world’s population is female, only 10 women occupy positions of national leadership in the whole world. In other words, world leaders are 95% male and only 5% female!
This web log certainly hopes that Kenyan MPs will take note of this unbalanced statistics and that Kenyan voters will do justice and improve the gender percentage in our parliament and civic bodies in the next term by voting in more women candidates.Kenyan voters will also have done the country a great service in voting in more women as it will help Kenya towards meeting Millennium Development Goal No. 3 which aims to Promote Gender Quality and Empower Women.
With the general elections around the corner, this web log is offering free publicity to women aspirants as its contribution to assisting prospective women candidates.
Women aspirants are encouraged to leave a comment below and the editor will contact them via e-mail in order to obtain digital photos and development plans for your respective constituencies or civic areas. These will be published in this blog for free.
- Affirmative Action Bill 2007: Kenya’s GNU in Yet Another Cock-up
- Worldwide, Women Seek Greater Political Representation
Kenyan Communities Come Together to Protect Water Sources
Kenya’s Nanyuki River is drying up, and thousands of Kenyans who rely on it are working together to learn how to reverse this process.
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| Climate change has led to drying rivers and lakes across Africa. Photo Credit: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps |
Car washer Githogori Maina remembers swimming in the “Indian Ocean” – the nickname of a once flowing part of the Nanyuki River in Kenya’s Laikipia district that now runs almost dry.”Back then, you could see the water. We also used to fish here,” he said, pointing to a shallow part of the river. “Now you have to walk several kilometres to catch a single fish.”
The Nanyuki River has become shallow and full of stones. Sometimes, there is no flow downstream, and the remaining water is stagnant and dirty.
Experts blame the large scale removal of forest both on the banks of the river and the surrounding hills. Without trees to hold the soil together and feed water back into the ecosystem, water evaporates back into the atmosphere and river levels drop.
Residents say the resulting decline in the Nanyuki area has affected the livelihoods of thousands of people relying on the rivers for domestic use, livestock and farming – now they are working together to protect these water resources and reverse the damage.
Water Management
The introduction of better water management practices has seen river levels slowly begin to rise over the last two years, says ministry of water official Lawrence Thooko.
National and community-based water organisations have been formed, encouraging local people to become involved in tree planting and the protection of the river’s catchment areas from degradation.
Car washers, like Maina, are one example of the community making a difference. Most of them, he says, appreciate the need to protect and conserve water. They have been planting indigenous trees around Nanyuki and have moved their businesses away from the river banks to avoid polluting the water.
One of the key ways for people to take part in water management has been through Water Resource Users Associations (WRUA).
The WRUAs help police wells, tributaries, and river basins, and provide education on the benefits of managing water resources. They also train people on proposal writing, catchment rehabilitation and conservation, monitoring, regulation and the inventory of legal water extractors.
Nanyuki WRUA official Michael Mugo says cooperating with groups that remove large volumes of water from the river has already yielded results. “When there is low flow, we ration the amount of water extracted so that there is some flow downriver,” he said.
WRUA members are also planting trees in areas of the river that were stripped of wood after the government banned illegal logging in the nearby forests. “When the poachers were chased from the forests, they started cutting down trees along the river banks,” Mugo said.
Regenerating Water Supplies
There have been difficulties in encouraging some residents to choose long term conservation over short term economic gain.
Mugo supplies indigenous trees with medicinal value, which are also good for the conservation of water towers. “But it is hard getting people to plant these trees because they do not mature quickly compared to exotic, fast growing trees that often end up draining the water table,” he said.
Despite this, the Nanyuki WRUA and other community organisations have planted a stretch of four kilometres on both banks of the river. With the support of other stakeholders, it aims to provide another 20 kilometres of trees.
In the neighbouring district of Meru Central, similar schemes in the Ex-Lewa catchment have seen large areas of land reforested through joint community and government efforts.
Already three underground water springs supplying clean water to residents have been regenerated, and another 10 should soon follow, said Maitima M’Mukindia, the regional manager of the Ewaso Nyiro Water Resources Management Authority. The authority spans 12 districts, covering 210,000sqkm and works with at least 32 WRUAs.
Meanwhile, the government formed the Water Resources Management Authority under water sector reforms in 2005 to ensure the efficient and effective usage of water and to ad dress conflicts stemming from water resources.
Thooko says permits must be issued to anyone who wants to start an irrigation scheme, set up a motorised pump on the river, or to divert river flow.
Catchment Degradation
Countrywide, deforestation and land degradation continues to take its toll despite these government and community efforts, says Benson Mbugua, an officer in the Ministry of Water.
According to various sources, Kenya has an overall forest cover of less than two percent, and deforestation has eroded the country’s soil cover, causing flash floods and the flow of soils downriver. Forests are necessary for water retention.
“Without them we cannot hold rain water long enough for it to percolate. Declining surface water levels have also led to declines in ground water levels,” says Mbugua
Rivers like the River Njoro – which recharges Lake Nakuru – are now only fast-flowing during rainy seasons, Thooko said, while Lake Elementaita, also in the Rift valley drainage basin, has also almost dried up.
Other Factors
Nobel laureate and environmentalist Professor Wangari Maathai says the negative impact of climate change in Africa includes the loss of snow and ice on the mountains, drying up of rivers and water towers [mountainous sources of fresh water], change in rainfall patterns and even rainfall failure.
The loss of water is expected to affect irrigation, hydroelectricity power generation and the provision of water to people and livestock. She says forests must be protected and response strategies put into place to reduce the impact this will have on water supplies.
However, a big challenge is the lack of alternative affordable sources of fuel for people who rely on wood.
Despite the sensitization of communities on conservation, people continue degrading the environment, Mugo, of the Nanyuki WRUA, said.
There is also need for a change of focus, he said. “Most conservationists just target wildlife for protection but there is need for people to view trees as living things.
“Trees are more vulnerable than wildlife; they cannot run away from the danger posed by humans,” he said. “Without trees, even the wildlife we seek to preserve will not be there. Human activity has destroyed the environment; the same should be used to restore it.”
Contributed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )Kenyans to Know Kibaki’s Election Challengers this Weekend
Two of Kenya’s main opposition parties are due to nominate their flagbearers this weekend. Both the Orange Democratic Movement – Kenya (ODM-K) and the “original” Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) parties will hold their nomination functions at the notorious Kasarani Gymnasium on Friday and Saturday respectively. KADDU will follow-up with its own a week later.
ODM-K
ODM-K are due hold their National Delegates Conference on Friday 31st August 2007. But the function is threatened by the outcome of a court case in which a section of elected ODM-K councillors have moved to court seeking an injunction to stop the National Delegates Conference. The plaintiffs want the party’s NDC meeting held after the party’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) and after all national office bearers are named. The also want the party to hold branch elections countrywide before the AGM. The court will hear the suit on Thursday, just a day before the NDC. A ruling in favour of the civic leaders might spell political and financial doom for the organisers of the ODM-K’s NDC.
The race for the presidential ticket in ODM-K is between Julia Ojiambo and Kalonzo Musyoka. It is not known if Nazleen Umar will also join the race having expressed an interest during the early days of ODM-K, but never submitting her nomination papers to the then National Elections Board.
ODM
Meanwhile, the “original” Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has reportedly finalised the selection of 4,200 delegates who will nominate its presidential candidate on Saturday 1st September 2007 through secret balloting. Each of the country’s 210 constituencies will be sending 20 delegates to the Kasarani Gymnasium for ODM’s Special Delegates Conference. Observers will be required to pay Sh5,000 to attend the meeting. Accredited of delegates was still going on at Orange House as at 14h00 EAT.
The race for ODM’s ticket is between Raila Odinga, Joseph Nyagah, Musalia Mudavadi and Najib Balala. All these candidates held a bonding session in Mombasa yesterday and were this morning still locked in a meeting in a Nairobi Hotel. The meetings were called to strategize in light of Moi’s announcement that he will support Kibaki in forthcoming elections. The candidates also want to avoid a fall-out after nomination of their presidential ticket flagbearer.
KADDU
The Kenya Democratic Development Union (Kaddu), hitherto a party thought to be former President Moi’s decoy in Western Province, plans to hold a rally on 8th September 2007 at Kakamega’s Muliro Gardens in which its Chairman, Mr. Cyrus Jirongo, is expected to launch his presidential bid. Following former President Moi’s declaration that he would supporting President Kibaki second bid, Mr. Jirongo has been quoted appealing to the opposition to unite in order to defeat the powerful alliance of the old men. He obviously feels betrayed by the former president whom he had banked on to bless an alliance between himself, ODM-K’s Kalonzo Musyoka and KANU’s Uhuru Kenyatta.
Other major players whose next move is being monitored are NARC’s Charity Ngilu and KANU’s Uhuru Kenyatta. The former has announced that she will also be in the race for the presidency, but she is keeping her cards close to her chest waiting for President Kibaki to announce which political party’s ticket he will seek the presidency on.
A united KANU are expect to call an NDC to determine if party Chairman Uhuru Kenyatta will be in the race or if they will be forming an alliance with another party to support a different candidate from its own. Uhuru and his faction rival Nicholas Biwott are thought to be waiting for dust arising from the latest nominations to settle before making his next move. That next move is widely expected to be along similar lines to that of former President Moi.
Related posts in this blog:
- Former President Moi Endorses Kibaki, Vows to Remain a KANU Member
- Are Kenya’s ‘First Families’ Uniting to Support President Kibaki’s Second Term?
Improved Nutrition ‘cannot replace HIV or TB drugs’
Good nutrition alone cannot fight HIV and tuberculosis
Christina Scott
Source: SciDev.Net
Improved nutrition cannot substitute medication to treat people infected with HIV or tuberculosis, says a report released recently by the Academy of Science of South Africa.
A panel of 15 researchers, funded by the United States National Academy of Sciences, spent 16 months examining local and international medical research on nutrition, HIV and tuberculosis.
”No food, no component made from food and no food supplement has been identified in any credible study as an effective alternative to appropriate medication,” said Barry Mendelow of South Africa’s National Health Laboratory Services, who chaired the study.
In South Africa, traditional healers claim to have herbal cures for HIV, while some salesmen have been encouraging HIV patients to stop taking antiretroviral drugs in favour of vitamins.
And the South African health ministry has supported the use of beetroot, lemons and garlic to treat HIV. Researchers and HIV/AIDS activists have also accused the ministry of being reluctant to provide antiretroviral drugs.
”We need a well-nourished nation,” said Dan Ncayiyana, editor of the South African Medical Journal. ”But a well-fed population on its own is not going to resist HIV/AIDS without antiretroviral drugs.”
The panel noted that better nutrition can postpone when an HIV-positive person has to start taking antiretroviral drugs, and called for more research into how nutrition, HIV and tuberculosis interrelate in the developing world.
The panel also said there was a “startling” lack of locally-relevant, well-designed research on the best kind of diet for people with HIV or tuberculosis — particularly distressing given the wide range of malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies present in South Africa.
Malnutrition and poverty remain a contributing factor in many infections, including HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, said Esté Vorster, director of the Africa Unit for Transdisciplinary Health Research at South Africa’s North-West University, and also a member of the panel.
South Africa’s ministries of science and technology and health received the report last week (14 August).
Health Ministry spokesperson Sibani Mngadi told radio station SAFM (22 August) that the study confirmed the correctness of the Health Department’s focus on nutrition.
Nhanhla Nyiade, spokesperson for the Department of Science and Technology, told SciDev.Net that future briefings will be carried out to incorporate the recommendations into policymaking.
Related stories on this blog:
Falling HIV Rates Tell A Complex Story
Male Circumcision “Overstated As Prevention Tool Against AIDS”
Former President Moi Endorses Kibaki, Vows to Remain a KANU Member
The hottest political news story coming out of Nairobi this afternoon is that former President Moi has finally officially confirmed that he will be supporting President Mwai Kibaki’s bid for a second term in office during the forthcoming general elections. (See Nation Newspapers story reproduced below)
The former President reiterated that he would remain a KANU member but will urge its members to support Kibaki. This announcement all but confirms that KANU will not have a presidential candidate in Kenya’s general election for the first time in the history of independent Kenya. KANU Chairman Uhuru Kenyatta is widely expected to go by the former President’s move and will most likely form an alliance with Kibaki thereby strategically positioning himself and his party in the next government should Kibaki win the elections. Such an alliance will also make Uhuru’s re-election under a KANU banner much much smoother in his Gatundu South constituency.
In coming out to openly endorse Kibaki, former President Moi may be unwittingly positioning his favourite son – Gideon Moi – to not just fly the flag as Kibaki’s cabinet minister, but also more significantly in pole position in Kibaki’s succession battle that will begin in January 2008 should he emerge the winner.
This web log had a few days ago predicted an alliance of “Kenya’s first families” in an article titled “Are Kenya’s First Families Uniting to Support President Kibaki’s Second Term?” . The latest development should therefore not come as a surprise to readers of KEPN.
President Kibaki is expected to welcome former President Moi’s support with open arms, especially against the backdrop of the humiliating defeat his government suffered at the hands of the opposition during the 2005 constitution referendum. Moi supported the opposition in 2005 referendum vote.
http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=1&newsid=105391
Moi endorses Kibaki for second term
Story by LUCAS BARASA and BENJAMIN MUINDI
Publication Date: 8/28/2007
It is now official – retired President Moi will back and campaign for his successor Mwai Kibaki’s re-election in the General election expected later this year.
The former President made the announcement this morning, finally confirming long held expectation that he would support the incumbent.
Addressing journalists at his Kabarnet Gardens residence in Nairobi, Mr Moi who was accompanied by his private secretary John Lokorio and spokesman Lee Njiru described President Kibaki as the best candidate for the seat.
“I am convinced that President Mwai Kibaki ought to be given a chance to complete the constitutionally-accepted two-term tenure,” Mr Moi said.
He added: “My reason for this decision is that President Kibaki, by virtue of his office as Head of State and Government of Kenya is a symbol of nationhood.”
Mr Moi dismissed ODM and ODM-Kenya presidential candidates as visionless, tribal, selfish and liars.
Although he could not name them, Mr Moi said President Kibaki opponents were only interested in leadership and warned that if allowed, they could plunge the country into chaos.
Mr Moi said none of the aspirants had a clear and credible manifesto spelling out development strategies for Kenyans.
“All one hears is high-sounding rhetoric, giving false hopes to the people, as if a politician can develop the country in exclusion of individual participation and hardwork of every Kenyan. While imagination and creativity are in order, pragmatism is a must.
End – of – Article
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 3 so far )Male Circumcision “Overstated As Prevention Tool Against AIDS”
New study finds the key to understanding the global spread of AIDS is the size of the infected prostitute community around the world.
In new academic research published in the online, open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal PLoS ONE, male circumcision is found to be much less important as a deterrent to the global AIDS pandemic than previously thought. The author, John R. Talbott, has conducted statistical empirical research across 77 countries of the world and has uncovered some surprising results.
The new study finds that the number of infected prostitutes in a country is the key to explaining the degree to which AIDS has infected the general population. Prostitute communities are typically very highly infected with the virus themselves, and because of the large number of sex partners they have each year, can act as an engine driving infection rates to unusually high levels in the general population. The new study is entitled “Size Matters: The Number of Prostitutes and the Global HIV/AIDS Pandemic” and is freely available online at the PLoS ONE publication website at “Size Matters: The Number of Prostitutes and the Global HIV/AIDS Pandemic“.
The study has a number of important findings that should impact policy decisions in the future. First, male circumcision, which in previous studies had been found to be important in controlling AIDS, becomes statistically irrelevant once the study controls for the number of prostitutes in a country. The study finds that the more Muslim countries of North Africa do indeed suffer much less AIDS than southern and western Africa, but this lower prevalence is not due to higher numbers of circumscribed males in these Muslim communities, but rather results from the fact that there are significantly fewer prostitutes in northern Africa on a per capita basis. It appears that religious families in the north, specifically concerned fathers and brothers, do a much better job protecting their daughters from predatory males than do those in the south. A history of polygamy in these Muslim communities does not appear to contribute to higher AIDS prevalence as previously speculated. In a frequently cited academic paper, Daniel Halperin, an H.I.V. specialist at the Harvard Center for Population and Development and one of the world’s leading advocates for male circumcision, weighted results from individual countries by their population. When this artificial weighting was removed Talbott found that circumcision was no longer statistically significant in explaining the variance in AIDS infection rates across the countries of the World.
Second, to date, there has not been an adequate explanation as to why Africa as a continent is experiencing an AIDS epidemic far in excess of any other region of the world with some African countries’ prevalence rates exceeding 25% of the adult population and tens of millions dying from the disease on the continent. Talbott’s new study suggests that the reason is that Africa as a whole has four times as many prostitutes as the rest of the word and they are more than four times as infected. Some southern Africa countries have as many as 7% of their adult females infected and working as prostitutes while in the developed world typically this percentage of infected prostitutes is less than .1%. If these 7% of infected prostitutes in Africa sleep with five men in a week that means they are subjecting 35% of the country’s male population to the virus weekly. The virus is not easy to transmit heterosexually, b ut over time with multiple exposures, infection is inevitable. These men then act as a conduit to bring the virus home to their villages, their other casual sex partners and to their wives.
The study has important policy implications. Several international AIDS organizations have begun to provide funding for male circumcisions as a deterrent to AIDS. While male circumcision may indeed reduce the risk of transmission by some 50% to 60% in each sexual encounter, reducing single encounter transmission rates alone cannot control the epidemic. The reason is that individuals in highly infected countries have multiple contacts with the infected so reducing transmission rates only defers the inevitable.
The real question is what can be done with the prostitute community. Outlawing the world’s oldest profession would most likely prove to be ineffective. If the profession can be legalized and treatment and care provided to the practitioners, there would be much more reason to be hopeful. But, and this is the key, programs of action can not just be voluntary. Too many innocent people are dying and there is too much disregard for human life among infected prostitutes to leave treatment decisions solely up to them. A program of testing and treatment for prostitutes must be mandatory and those that refuse treatment must be held liable.
Many international aid organizations are against such mandatory treatment programs for prostitutes as they find them to be discriminatory, violate the individual’s human rights and are perceived as an attack on female prostitutes who are viewed as victims of gender and income inequality. Such organizations do not properly weigh the loss of human rights and life itself that this virus, unleashed on a community, is causing. This virus, itself, is a violation of human rights and we must do everything in our power to stop it. To argue we should do nothing about infected prostitutes during an AIDS epidemic because of a fear of creating a stigma against the infected would be like an animal rights activist claiming that a rabid dog must be allowed to run free in a neighborhood regardless of how many men women and children he infected and killed.
It is not surprising that computer models rarely show the virus reaching epidemic proportions; it is very hard to transmit this illness heterosexually. Only when model building researchers introduce a highly sexually active infected subset of “prostitutes” to their mathematical models does the infection spread exponentially to the general population.
Readers may want read the other view point at: “The dollar, circumcision and AIDS”
Related story on this blog: Falling HIV Rates Tell a Complex Story
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Kenyan Radioactive Waste Plant Awaits EIA Approval
The proposed radioactive waste processing plant (RAWP) is reportedly awaiting approval of its Environmental Impact Assesment (EIA) report from Kenya’s National Environmental Management Authority.
Disposal of radioactive waste is a complex issue, not only because of the nature of the waste, but also because of the fact that proper disposal is essential to ensure protection of the health and safety of the public and quality of the environment including air, soil, and water supplies.
It therefore comes as a great surprise to Kenyans who are concerned about public health and environmental quality that the Radiation Protection Board (RPB) have made advanced plans to construct a RAWP facility worth over KSh100 million at the Karen-based Institute of Primate Research in the Nairobi municipality.
According to a report published in the Daily Nation on 19th August 2007, Kenyan Geologists have said that the terrain in the hilly Karen/Lang’ata area and the strong seismic activity in Kiserian, Ongata Rongai and Ngong areas make the location vulnerable to geological disasters. A radioactive waste facility would, therefore, put the area to an even greater risk.
Radioactive waste can be in gas, liquid or solid form, and its level of radioactivity can vary. The waste can remain radioactive for a few hours or several months or even hundreds of thousands of years. Because radioactive waste can be extremely hazardous and can remain radioactive for such a long period of time, finding suitable disposal facilities or locations is difficult. Shiploads of radioactive waste from the developed world are always ‘monitored’ in the highseas while they search for countries willing to be used as dumpsites in exchange for large sums of money.
It does not make any sense that the RPB is handling this matter as if it is a security issue or a government top secret. If there was to occur any radioactive leakages at the plant or a transport accident near the plant, the first people to be exposed to the risk will be Karen residents. One would have therefore thought that the RPB would have held public meetings with Karen residents to sensitize them to increase awareness and also educate them on preventive measures. Such a facility will certainly attract terrorists. Was this project thought out exhaustively?
Kenya is a large country with large tracts of isolated land. Did the RPB consider need to isolate such a facility?
On the other hand, at present, there are no known disposal routes for long-lived radioactive materials. The burial of these materials must not be confused with their safe containment and isolation from the environment. It would seem that the only real solution is to STOP creating the long-live waste.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Floods: Public Health Lessons for Kenya
BANGLADESH: Effective systems keep diarrhoea in check even during floods
 Photo: Sujan Map/UNICEF  |
| A young boy drinks water from a tube well in Munshigonj, Bangladesh |
DHAKA, (IRIN) – Appropriate technology, strong government maintenance and repair structures, and good preparedness are mitigating the humanitarian impact of perennial flooding in Bangladesh.
In the latest crisis, more than 10 million people were affected and hundreds of people killed, after torrential monsoon rains battered much of Bangladesh over the past month. Hundreds of thousands of people were left homeless and vulnerable to water-borne disease – making access to safe drinking water all the more critical.
Every year on average, according to government statistics, 1,000 people die from diarrhoea and a further 1.5 million get diarrhoea.
This year between 30 July and 21 August some 80,000 cases of diarrhoea were reported from the flood-affected area, including 16 deaths from the disease, according to the Bangladeshi Ministry of Health. The number of cases may seem high but up to one third of the country was flooded, poverty is widespread, and Bangladesh has a population of some 153 million.
Also, in three years of particularly severe flooding (1988, 1998 and 2004), from July to December, which includes the actual flood period and its recovery period afterwards, the average number of diarrhoea cases was 300,000-400,000. Neither the government nor the World Health Organization are, therefore, unduly concerned about the level of diarrhoea cases this year.
One of the reasons for relative success in keeping diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases in check is Bangladesh’s extensive network of tube wells and effective government maintenance and repair systems. These allow a reliable supply of safe drinking water from uncontaminated groundwater sources – even in the midst of serious flooding.
Tube wells
Tube wells are the most common clean water source in Bangladesh following a major push in the 1970s and 1980s. Prior to that, people were largely drinking only surface water – often contaminated – which resulted in an even larger number of diarrhoea cases than presently.
 There is a strong tube well culture in the country. In this country, it’s a technology that has proven cost effective. It’s low tech, low cost and it’s working. |
“There is a strong tube well culture in the country,” Louis-George Arsenault, country representative for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), told IRIN in Dhaka. “In this country, it’s a technology that has proven cost effective. It’s low tech, low cost and it’s working.”
There are an estimated 8-10 million tube wells throughout the country.
According to Bangladesh’s Department of Public Health and Engineering (DPHE), there are some 500,000 tube wells in the flood-stricken areas, of which between 10 and 15 percent are estimated to be affected.
Yet given their sheer numbers and coverage, even if a well is flood-affected, people can easily shift to another well that is not affected, experts say.
“It’s not like these tube wells are sparsely spaced,” Paul Edwards, chief of UNICEF’s water and environmental sanitation section in Bangladesh, explained. “And if you got 10 or 20 people using a tube well, that’s way below its capacity to serve more people.”
 Photo: Shehzad Noorani/UNICEF  |
| A young boy takes a bath using water from a hand pump (tube well) in the village of Bolarampur in Narandrapur Union of Jessore district, Bangladesh |
Additionally, fairly routine now is the capacity of the DPHE to identify those wells that are affected, as well as dispatch trained personal to raise the tube wells above flood levels in a timely manner.
Raising a tube well above flood water levels requires only an extension pipe to be added, combined with a disinfection process if necessary. To date, 4,586 tube wells have already been raised above flood levels, while 13,564 have been repaired.
While most tube wells are privately-owned, “these would be government tube wells that hadn’t gone under the floods or perhaps were slightly damaged. Normally these repairs are pretty minor,” Edwards said. “The government has a good capacity for this. It’s really the core business of the Department of Public Health and Engineering,” Edwards said, adding: “They really come into their own in situations like this.”
A further 29,129 tube wells have been disinfected, the DPHE reported.
Assuming that 150 people could be provided with water from a given well, just taking the number of tube wells raised and repaired, represents access for 2.7 million people.
“In Bangladesh you get into big numbers quite quick,” Edwards noted.
Preparedness
UNICEF has assisted in constructing another 3,380 tube wells in flood shelters in areas deemed particularly flood prone areas.
But it is not only tube well coverage that is ensuring satisfactory access.
The pre-positioning of 20 million water purification tablets, bleaching powder for disinfection, as well as the earlier procurement of a number of mobile water treatment plants, are already paying dividends.
 Photo: David Swanson/IRIN |
| Each year, low lying areas of Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, are flooded during the annual summer monsoon – affecting scores of the city’s poor. About one-third of the country floods annually |
Following the mega-floods of 2004 which affected more than 30 million people, the government, in collaboration with its international donor and development partners, made significant efforts to enhance emergency preparedness capacity.
Another reason for the low incidence of deaths from diarrhoea is the widespread use of oral rehydration salts (ORS) in homes.
Hygiene concerns
Describing the water access situation as “under control”, Edwards said:
“We’re not alarmed, but we’re still cautious,” citing the relationship between diarrhoea and issues of hygiene and sanitation.
“It’s really not so much the water coming out of the tube wells at this point for us, but rather what happens to the water between the tube well and the mouth,” he said.
Other Stories on the Flooding Disaster in Kenya at this blog:
Western Kenya Flood Menace is Back
40,000 Displaced, 5 Die in Western Kenya Floods
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Landslide Lessons for Kenya
Landslide Victory: Bioengineering in Nepal
Landscape and road, Nepal
Badri Paudyal
Source: SciDev.Net
Nepal is using plants and modern engineering to combat the landslides that regularly plague the nation. Badri Paudyal reports.Five years ago, landslides and road blocks on the highways were a common subject in Nepal’s news. But now, the worry in people’s minds as they travel by road during monsoons has been replaced by a sense of relief.Combined with floods, landslides are the second biggest disaster-related killer in Nepal. And when landslides occurred in Krishnabhir, situated 82.5 kilometres west of the capital Kathmandu, they were a nightmare for the hundreds of thousands of people travelling on the Prithvi highway, the main transport artery of the nation. Landslides frequently blocked the road between 1999 and 2003, disrupting essential supplies to Kathmandu and adjoining hill areas.But things are different now. Krishnabhir has received a total facelift. It is one of more than 100 major landslide sites that have been stable since 2003–2004.These facelifts — mainly along the 110 kilometre Naubise Mungling section of Prithvi highway and the 36 kilometre Mungling Narayanghat highway of central Nepal — are a result of bioengineering technology, which along with conventional civil engineering, has helped combat landslides in Nepal.
The faceliftBioengineering combines vegetation — grass, shrubs and trees — with minor structures such as small dams, walls and drains to manage water and debris, to protect and stabilise slopes.Its legacy lies in Nepali farmers’ centuries-old use of trees on the terraced slopes of their farmland and forests. Scientists have combined this indigenous method with modern engineering structures to minimise the cost and maximise the benefits.The main causes of landslides in Nepal are steep slopes, combined with loose material and excessive rainfall during monsoons. Human building activities such as excessive cutting into hillsides, disturbing natural drainage systems and inappropriate land use also contribute to landslide risk.Usually, deep-seated landslides — those where earth becomes detached from deeper in the ground and the volume of the landslide is bigger — are treated with complex civil engineering structures, including large supporting walls, extensive drainage measures and technologies for anchoring unstable slopes to more solid ground.Shallow-seated landslide sites — which make up 80 per cent of those in Nepal — are treated largely with vegetation.
The notorious Krishnabhir landslides required a tailored approach. Usually slopes are protected first, but in Krishnabhir work on water and debris management was given priority, as they were the main triggers for landslides in the area and had already disturbed previous rehabilitation efforts.
Once the water and debris were dealt with — by constructing dams and drains to direct water in the least harmful way — slope protection activities were introduced. These included structures such as wire nets, low-height retaining walls, bolster tubes — a tube or wire containing stones used for drainage — and bioengineering.
“[Krishnabhir] has become unique bioengineering work in the country, which has given a permanent solution to such a notorious landslide”, says Nepal’s Department of Roads (DoR) geotechnical engineer Naresh Man Shakya, chief architect of landslide treatment activities in Krishnabhir.
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| Krishnabhir in 2003 and today | |
| Credit: Naresh Man Shakya, Badri Paudyal | |
Planted vegetation helps stabilise areas in the long term, with plants gradually taking on the functional work of the engineering structures. It’s a perfect handover. As Shakya says, “Plants need around three years to gain their engineering function and become stronger as they grow older, while civil structures become weaker as they get older.”Among the plants mainly used in Krishnabhir were primary grass plants like kans, babiyo, amliso, and napiere. Large trees like khayer, bakaino, bhujetro, epil and bamboos were also used.
The grasses perform the function of retaining small loose debris, while shrubs form ‘walls’ to catch debris. Bamboos strengthen slopes and remove large quantities of water from the soil.
Some of the broad-leaf plants like bhujetro can grow in harsh conditions, even on the rock surface. Apart from strengthening the slope, their broad leaves also intercept rainfall, minimising its impact on the soil surface.
And the plants have another function — to fulfil household and agricultural needs. Local people can use firewood, grass and fodder and can use some plants as a source of income.
People living at the roadside have benefited greatly. Maya Kandel runs a small tea and food shop nearby Krishnabhir. She is happy to find the market prospering as the road is improved. She says, “It was so difficult during the landslides as we were caught in the middle. The area is settled now and we are really glad.”
The road to bioengineeringThe concept of bioengineering in road construction was introduced in Nepal 40 years ago with roadside plantations in a US-assisted project on the Dhangadhi Dadeldhura highway in western Nepal. It was later applied in the Lamosangu Jiri highway in the country’s central hills region, built with Swiss assistance.Bioengineering in the modern sense was first introduced on a massive scale with the involvement of the UK-based Transport Research Laboratory on the eastern Dharan Dhankuta highway, supported by the British government. They then facilitated the transfer of the technology to Nepali institutions and professionals.Now the DoR is paving the way for the bioengineering of roadside slopes. DoR’s division offices throughout Nepal now use bioengineering in the construction, maintenance and upgrading of all roads, especially in hilly and mountainous areas.The Krishnabhir and Mungling-Narayanghat highway in central Nepal, the Dang-Surahi section of the East-West highway, and the Masot Khola section of Lamahi-Tulsipur road in the country’s mid-west are some examples of successful landslide rehabilitation works carried out by the DoR.Prakash Bhakta Upadhyaya, an engineer at Bharatpur Division Office of the DoR, says in his experience bioengineering leads to comparatively less slope degradation.
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| Debris flow drainage constructed at Krishnabhir |
| Credit: Badri Paudyal |
“Early incorporation of bioengineering into planning, designing and construction processes will reduce the life-cycle cost of roads to a considerable extent,” he added.The Department of Soil Conservation and Watershed Management (DOSCWM) and Department of Water-Induced Disaster Prevention are also using bioengineering in landslide treatment.
The DOSCWM alone has completed about 600 landslide treatment works across the country through its nationwide network of 55 district offices. The department has also developed a model demonstration site in Godamchaur village in the Lalitpur district, south of Kathmandu valley, to display how bioengineering minimises the occurrence of landslides.
Future bioengineering: Despite these efforts there are still landslides in some parts of the country. But Jagannath Joshi, assistant technology development officer at the DOSCWM says, “We cannot provide full solutions to landslides, but by studying their natural process and ground conditions, and applying corrective measures we can prevent them or minimise their harmful impact.”Joshi says the country also needs to map locations vulnerable to landslides to identify disaster prone areas and develop a system of forecasting.He says that if hazard mapping and preventative measures were made mandatory in development activities that could cause landslides — like building roads, reservoirs, dams, irrigation canals and mining works — they could minimise harm.Similarly, strict legal provisions are necessary regarding land use in disaster prone areas, Joshi adds.Preventing landslides with bioengineering is a long process and a combination of various activities, rather than a one-off activity. Input and insight from a multidisciplinary team of experts, including geologists, geomorphologists, geotechnical engineers, hydrologists, botanists, civil engineers and social scientists is necessary. But that cooperation is itself an advantage. As Naresh Man Shakya says, “The combination of different sciences and people makes bioengineering a holistic approach in addressing a challenging problem. That, and its use of local materials and potential for local use and involvement of local people makes it harmonious, sustainable, environmentally friendly and participatory.”
Bioengineering techniques can be used in other mountainous countries with a similar topography to Nepal, providing a low cost solution to the problem of landslides in geologically weak and fragile areas. Maximising the use of locally available materials and resources — making the entire process less expensive — is another advantage.
Keeping landslides out of the news is a bonus.
Other Kenya Stories on Landslide Disasters in this blog:
LANDSLIDES IN KENYA – How Do We Preserve Life and Property
40,000 Displaced, 5 Die in Western Kenya Floods
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Are Kenya’s ‘First Families’ Uniting to Support President Kibaki’s Second Term?
Move is seen more as aimed at stopping the ‘any other party’ winning elections rather than one of getting Kibaki re-elected.
When the 2007 Africa Motorcycle Union (AMU) motocross championship ended last weekend, the Kenya team emerged the overall team winners with 450 points ahead of Zimbabwe and South Africa (tied at 364), Zambia (307), Namibia (205), Uganda (66) and Tanzania (2). The 2007 Brookside AMU Continental Championship is the second most prestigious continental motocross event after the FIM, MX 1 and MX 2 World Championships annually hosted by South Africa.
It was double joy for the Kibaki family because young Mwai Kibaki junior was a Kenya team participant in the 65cc Class (6-12years) category which was one of the categories won by Kenya.
A company owned by the Kenyatta family and a leading milk processor in Kenya – Brookside Dairy Limited, were the official Title Sponsors for the 2007 Brookside AMU Continental Championship after donating a KShs 1million package. Brookside also provided free dairy products to all competitors during the event.
Kenya is an affiliate of the AMU headquarters in South Africa through the Kenya Motorsports Foundation (KMSF) whose Chairman is Mr. Maina Muturi, a grandson of the late President Jomo Kenyatta. AMU are the recognised African subsidiary of Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (International Motorcycling Federation) or FIM which is in turn recorgnised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). AMU are mandated to act in all matters in relation to motorcycling activities in Africa from sport, tourism, leisure, environment, mobility, road safety, to legislative affairs and the protection and defence of the rights and interests of motorcyclists.
Both Gideon Moi and Jimmy Kibaki are members of the East African Motor Sports Club , the organisers of the AMU event. Apart from being favourite sons of their fathers, Gideon and Jimmy’s young sons Kimoi Moi and Mwai Kibaki Junior are budding motocross riders, a sport still in its infancy in Kenya and, like polo, only played by people from very rich family backgrounds.
In a vote of thanks memo dated 20/Aug/2007 sent by e-mail to the KMSF through his wife Sheryl Kibaki, Jimmy Kibaki is quoted saying:
“Wonderful, magical, majestic, fantastic… I run out of words”
“The Brookside 2007 AMU Challenge will go down as one of the greatest sporting events ever held in Kenya. It was a sight to behold, and for our children, well, they will remember it for the rest of their lives.”
“I would like to thank the Chairman of Brookside Dairy, Mr. Muhoho Kenyatta, whose personal commitment and involvement made the event a resounding success….”
“To the entire Organizing Committee, thank you for a job well done. You have done Kenya proud. The rest of Africa stands warned that Kenya is a motocross force to be reckoned with. And as far as the 65 cc class is concerned, all we can tell them is…. “iko na wenyewe – it has it’s owners”….Jimmy Kibaki concludes.
Two days later, the president was in attendance at 29th anniversary of the death of the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta at the Mausoleum at Parliament Buildings, Nairobi. The long chats the president had with Mama Ngina and Uhuru Kenyatta did not escape anyone’s attention, and their body language did not indicate any hostility towards each other, unlike mzee’s 24th anniversary in 2003 which was a tension packed formality for the president and the founding father’s first family. The president actually walked together with Mama Ngina and others to the Holy Family Basilica for a church service.
President Mwai Kibaki greets Mama Ngina Kenyatta on arrival at the mausoleum of the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta at Parliament Buildings, Nairobi. Looking on is Hon Uhuru Kenyatta and Nairobi Mayor Dick Wathika.
There is every indication that former President Moi is fighting ODM on behalf of President Kibaki. During the same week, on 20th August 2007, Gideon Moi speaking as KANU’s Rift Valley representative, was widely reported in the local press as dismissing ODM elders meeting in Eldoret last weekend. He also trashed the ODM inaugural rally in Eldoret on Sunday, in which Rift Valley leaders passed a resolution to remain in ODM. He claimed that local people were being hoodwinked that there would be an ODM National Delegates Congress at Kasarani to elect a presidential candidate, yet the “winner is already known”. Gideon reiterated KANU would field candidates in the General Election later this year. “As Kanu, we are not going that route (the ODM way). We are going to field parliamentary and civic candidates”. He said Kanu was negotiating with other like-minded leaders with a view to coming together to offer a middle ground (sic)!
It is an open secret that political deals are not cut in boardrooms. If recent events are anything to go by, then the Kenyatta, Moi and Kibaki families are warming up to each other and any alliance that they choose to form will be formidable political grouping by any standards. In concluding his KMSF memo, Jimmy Kibaki could be telling the likes of ODM, Kenya iko na wenyewe!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 4 so far )OneWorld Development Report for Kenya
Kenya remains firmly in the bottom quartile of the Human Development Index rankings with nearly 60 percent of its population surviving on less than $2 per day. Economic growth has been largely ineffectual in stimulating progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. Indeed crucial poverty indicators such as child and infant mortality are moving in the wrong direction. President Mwai Kibaki has been unable to shake off international donor concern over corruption and there are limited prospects for social development initiatives in an election year.
OneWorld.net provides country guides that offer an introduction to relevant sustainable development and human rights issues, with pointers to more detailed content.
Millennium Development Goals
The prognosis for Kenya to meet its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is bleak, being unlikely to meet the Goals for poverty reduction, gender equality, fighting AIDS, improving maternal health or environmental stewardship. Measured by the Human Development Index (HDI), Kenyans are worse off today than in 1980…..more.
Food Security
In spite of its glossy image for tourists, the majority of Kenya’s land is arid or semi-arid, the home of pastoral and nomadic people living on the margins of subsistence. The country lacks robust food production and is vulnerable to unstable rain patterns……more
Health and HIV/AIDS
Like many of its neighbours, Kenya has suffered a massive human and economic loss from HIV/AIDS, reducing life expectancy to 48 years. The current rate of infection is 6.1 percent of the adult population, down from a prevalence rate of 16 percent in urban areas and 8 percent in rural areas in the late 1990s……more
Politics
Kenya gained independence from Britain in 1963, but since then has had only three Presidents. The first, Jomo Kenyatta held office from 1963 to 1978; the second, Daniel arap Moi inherited the post from Kenyatta and retained power until the most recent election in December, 2002 when Mwai Kibaki of the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) toppled Kenya’s historic ruling party — the Kenya African National Union (KANU) — to form the new government. This election was widely regarded as free and fair and, after years of repression Kenya now has an embryonic, but vibrant civil society. For many observers, the electoral defeat of KANU was greeted as the dawn of a new, more democratic era, and was even described as Kenya’s “second liberation”.
The current mood is less euphoric. The new government promised to…..more
Human Rights
Another criticism of the draft constitution concerned its failure to protect minority ethnic rights in matters of ownership of land and minerals. Ambiguity over these rights in Kenya creates a vacuum for unsavoury jockeying for political power, generating tensions which boil over into local violence, especially in the run-up to elections. The most serious current example of these land clashes is in the Mount Eldon region…..more
Economy
Poor economic growth coupled with an uneven distribution of wealth are the two principal reasons for Kenya’s dismal MDG record. Currently, the richest 10% of the population control almost half of the nation’s wealth, while the poorest 10% control only 1%……more
Information and Media
After initial optimism that press freedom would increase following the 2002 election, recent events have done little to inspire confidence……more
Environment
By far the most severe environmental threat to Kenya is caused by increasingly unpredictable rainfall patterns that are consistent with the predictions of human induced global warming……more
Reprinted with permission from OneWorld.net . The Kenya Guide was first published in January 2006 with a text written by Volunteer Editor Keith Child
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Kenya May Adopt Third Generation Number Plates This Year
The Kenyan motor industry is set to change significantly if the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), which is responsible for issuing motor vehicle number plates through its Road Transport Department (RTD), adopts proposals to introduce a new third generation motor vehicle number plate series. The first motor vehicle registration in Kenya was issued in 1938.
The current second generation number plate system was adopted in 1989 and going by current registration rates the final KAZ999Z number will be issued before the end of the year. The KRA is presently estimated to be issuing about 400 number plates per day. Going by the current system, the next series will start from KBA001A and end at KBZ999Z. How boring! Most people interviewed in Mombasa where most imports are licenced from, are of the opinion that Kenya needs to discard the present series describing them as ‘old-fashioned, colonial and outdated’. Most Kenyans feel that that the country needs to adopt a modern number plate registration series and system in conformity with regional and international standards. However, government is said to be considering a radical change in motor vehicle registration and number plate numbering.
Local businessmen who have been importing used cars (mitumbas) in large numbers from Japan, UAE, Singapore and from the United Kingdom are anxiously awaiting word from KRA so that they can ‘confirm bookings’ of golden numbers, eg triple numbers, which are popular with their clients and are about the only way to obtain custom made number plates in Kenya. The KRA charges an extra fee for advance booking of golden numbers.
In issuing a new generation number plate, the government will be looking to widen the tax base without necessarily increasing tax burden of the citizens. More importantly, the government will also be keen to integrate additional security features on the number plates so as to reduce incidences of carjacking, illegal number plate manufacture by jua kali artisans and improve management of traffic offences.
Perhaps the manufacture of motor vehicle number plates may need to be outsourced through international tendering from qualified manufacturers. Current number plates are said to be manufactured at the Kenya Prison Industries who lack the advanced technology required to produce modern number plates.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 10 so far )Worldwide, Women Seek Greater Political Representation
WASHINGTON, Aug 22 (OneWorld) – Around the world countries have managed varying levels of success in assuring equal political participation and representation for women. But activists are working as hard as ever to secure unbiased opportunities for women and men alike in the political sphere.
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| Women at a political rally in Nigeria. © Centre for Development and Population Activities |
Last week the Kenyan government dealt a huge setback to equity-minded activists and politicians as it rejected a bill that would have reserved 50 seats in its parliament for women. The bill, which required a two-thirds majority to pass, was left in limbo as roughly half the members of parliament departed the building ahead of the vote.
With only 18 (8 percent) female representatives in a 222 seat parliament, Kenya trails far behind neighboring Tanzania, where women occupy 30 percent of the parliamentary posts. Even impoverished Rwanda, still struggling to recover from years of civil war, boasts a 49 percent representation in its lower house.
The situation is not necessarily better in many more developed nations. The Council of Europe has shown great concern recently over signs of disproportionate and gendered representation in the European political sphere.
At a 2003 meeting of the Council’s Committee of Ministers, participants agreed on the necessity of ”balanced participation in decision making bodies.” In order to facilitate action and measure effectiveness, the Committee established that “the representation of either women or men [in any given political body] should not fall below 40 percent.”
But by 2005 Sweden was still the only country in which the national parliament met this benchmark. Although several countries, including the remaining Scandinavian nations, Austria, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands, came close to meeting the criterion, “in half of Europe, the representation of women was below 20 percent and seven countries had less than 10 percent” representation — Albania, Armenia, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Turkey, and Ukraine.
A parallel state of affairs was witnessed in the respective national governments as well as the Council of Europe.
Responding to these challenging statistics, the Committee of Ministers considered a variety of measures that might encourage and sustain women’s pursuit of political careers.
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| Angela Merkel, the first female Chancellor of Germany. © North-South Centre of the Council of Europe |
One of these programs, widely recognized in the United States as Affirmative Action, revolved around the implementation of quotas. The Committee of Ministers concluded that such a system is not only controversial and discriminatory but may also raise questions regarding the competence of employees. Furthermore, the Ministers feared that quotas may simply reinforce the status quo unless they are “sufficiently ambitious.”
Accordingly, the legal quotas remain few and far between in Europe as most governments prefer to invest in “various forms of voluntary targets.”
Indeed, the representation of women in European parliaments has improved since the 2005 statistics were taken. Partly thanks to initiatives that raise awareness and set new norms, such as that forged by the Committee of Ministers, “it is now rather an electoral disadvantage not to be able to bring forward a gender balanced list” and “the nomination process has become self-correcting.”
Confirming Europeans’ commitment to such change, this spring an Albanian women’s coalition hosted the Open Forum: ”Local Elections 2007 and Participation of Women and Young Girls in the Political Processes in Albania.”
The forum addressed topics such as the call for a female presidential candidate and women’s involvement and representation in the latest local elections.
The meeting was characterized by lively and interesting debate but several leaders “expressed their concerns that although many initiatives have taken place during the election period, still the number of women candidates was very low.”
The participants generally endorsed the call for a woman president but concluded that a joint effort by Albanian civil society and the political sphere would be necessary to achieve deep-seated change.
Similarly, South Asian activists are exceptionally concerned that women are not adequately represented in the region’s political realm. As such, the South Asia Partnership International (SAPI) is organizing a regional conference on ”Women in Politics: Breaking the Silence”, to be held next month in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Rights advocates identify the macho political culture and violence targeting female politicians as major impediments to women wishing to rise within South Asian political ranks.
Organizers hope the South Asia Regional Conference will allow participants to consolidate their voices as they “share knowledge and resources,” enhance regional understanding, and raise awareness among South Asian authorities, as well as regional and international bodies.
Article first published at OneWorld.net
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