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Sound agriculture policies can save Kenyans the agony of begging
Related to country: Kenya

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Publication Date: 6/16/2008

The reports that over 100,000 people in Baringo District are now depending on wild fruits and tubers for their survival, due to famine, are particularly worrying.

The situation is also bad in other arid and semi-arid districts of Samburu, Turkana, Marakwet and West Pokot, whose residents depend on cattle due to harsh climatic conditions not favourable for farming.

People in these areas normally receive little rainfall between March and April, but this year, the region has experienced a prolonged drought.

As a matter of fact, however, failure by the Government to come up with a practical and workable rational food policy in Asals is to blame for the frequent food shortages.

The truth of the matter is that Kenya has many experts in agriculture, but these experts have failed to come up with long-term solutions to food shortages.

It is because of this that when serious famine strikes, the Government runs to the international community for support.

But when will we utilise the resources we have to contain the situation so that the international community can also to run to us for help?

Our country has diverse climatic conditions. Some areas receive plenty of rainfall almost all the year round, while other areas get little or no rainfall.

A country like Egypt has climatic conditions that are worse than ours, and yet it has turned many of its areas into giant food producers through investment in irrigation.

Irrigation schemes have proved that they can transform the lives of many Kenyans in areas such as Sigor Wei Wei scheme in West Pokot District.

Having been started in 1987, following an agreement between the Kenya Government and Italian development cooperation, the project has made a significant contribution to employment and income generation in the area.

The project benefits are also being shared with the pastoral communities bordering the area, who have access to crop residue that caters for their livestock.

The lives of the Pokots in the project area have been transformed with crop harvest of twice a year.

A thriving and rapidly expanding market has developed at Sigor. Before the start of the project, the population of the area was roughly 40,000, but now the population stands at 200,000.

For the sustainability of the project, the community has also played a key role in the conservation of the environment and especially the water catchment areas.

This project has demonstrated to the Government that more investments need to be directed to irrigated agriculture.

This is the only way to eradicate the frequent food shortages.

Replication of the Sigor project has been carried out by Kerio Valley Development Authority (KVDA) in the Arror Irrigation Scheme in Marakwet District.

Many people in Turkana and other areas have depended on relief food for a long time since there have been no meaningful harvests due to the poor rainfall in the area.

Surely, Kenya’s population of 34 million people is still small. We can afford to do without relief if the right policies are formulated and implemented.

Kenyans in the Asal areas need irrigation schemes, if the serious food shortage that has continued to hit them has to be solved once and for all.

June 16, 2008 | 5:35 AM Comments  3 comments

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Kenya’s leadership sets an example
Related to country: Kenya

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Story by FRED WERE
Publication Date: 6/16/2008

ALMOST 1,000 OF THE WORLD’S leading experts in infectious diseases and vaccines convened in Reykjavik, Iceland, last week to tackle a leading killer of children and adults worldwide — pneumococcal disease.

They came from the front lines of field clinics, hospitals and research laboratories in more than 80 countries — including Kenya — to mobilise around the common goal of saving of lives through widespread vaccination against this deadly, but preventable, disease.

Most people have never heard of pneumococcal disease. They are often shocked to learn that it kills 1.6 million people every year — more than half of whom are children under five years of age — and that this puts it at par with well-recognised killers like tuberculosis and malaria.

A major cause of pneumonia, meningitis, sepsis and other life-threatening ailments, it all too often strikes those who are young, poor and least equipped to fight it.

In Kenya alone, more than 20,000 children die each year from the disease, and up to 5,000 more are debilitated by it.

An effective vaccine for children is available to safely and effectively prevent pneumococcal infections, and expanded protection vaccines are coming in the next two years.

These vaccines represent the collective efforts of thousands of researchers, including those in Kenya and other African nations. Estimates show that in Kenya alone, current and future vaccines could potentially prevent 50 to 80 per cent of pneumococcal deaths.

Kenya has shown leadership by making the decision to include pneumococcal vaccines in the expanded primary immunisation (Kepi) programme, and with the support of the GAVI Alliance, implementation will begin in the near future.

In doing so, our Government has demonstrated a commitment to protecting our children and set an example for other countries in Africa and across the globe to follow.

Innovative financing mechanisms, such as the GAVI Alliance and the Advance Market Commitment, are making sure that these vaccines are affordable and available to all the children who need them — not just those living in countries that can afford them.

Groups such as the Pneumococcal Awareness Council of Experts (Pace) are working to educate policy-makers about the benefits of — and opportunities for — prevention.

Working together, we can save millions of lives. We have the vaccines, the technology, the financing mechanisms and the demand to prevent this disease.

It is time for the governments of developing nations to follow Kenya’s example, take advantage of these innovations, and bring them to the people who need them most.

The price of action will be measured in shillings. The price of inaction will be measured by the number of children who lose their lives to a preventable disease.

Dr Were is the national chairman, Kenya Paediatric Association.

June 16, 2008 | 4:37 AM Comments  0 comments

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Empowering youth more than tokenism
Related to country: Kenya

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Publication Date: 6/16/2008

As the dust settles on the Budget debate, it is time to examine the fine print of the Government’s finance plan.

One of the key items of last week’s Budget was the allocation of Sh500 million for youth development. Like last year when a substantial sum of funds was allocated to the youth, there is clear understanding that this group requires specific interventions to address their plight.

Notably, the Government has set up the Youth Enterprise Fund to provide seed money to support young people to venture into business.

Underlying this is the acknowledgement that young people remain a disempowered lot that operates at the periphery of the economy. They suffer due to rampant unemployment and lack of access to funds and opportunities for gainful engagement.

But is funding the surest alternative out of disempowerment? After two years of experimenting with youth funds, there is little to show for it. The allocation is minimal and the mode of disbursement faulty.

Not only do youth groups formed to source for the money receive meagre allocations, whatever they get, except for few cases, has not been wisely spent. Seldom do we see the fund put into strategic investment.

Most of the fund has just ended going down the drain. At any rate, we have not heard of investment clinics rolled out to sensitise youth and equip them with the right skills and attitudes on investment.

Whereas the youth fund is a noble idea, it is time the Government used a holistic approach to tackling issues affecting the young people.

One of their grouses is exclusion in governance and decision-making. With octogenarians dominating top political positions and Government appointments, the youth are left to watch things helplessly at the fringes.

This spawns disillusionment, which in turn, leads to criminal tendencies. Not surprising, it’s the youth who took part quite viciously in the violence that rocked the country in the first two months of the year.

The point is that tokenism won’t end the youth crisis. A more strategic and forward-looking approach must be adopted.