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Kenya

Feed the World: Bugs |

Jokes naturally followed the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation’s new report extolling the virtues of eating bugs.

The most popular tweet was a variant on “Let them eat cake.” Others pointed to the scene in the Disney movie the Lion King where Timon and Pumba introduce bugs to Simba. They assure Simba that bugs are “slimy, yet satisfying.”

It’s all in good fun and probably got more people to pay closer attention to an issue (hunger) in a report that would have otherwise only been discussed within development wonk circles.

Setting aside jokes and a gross-out-factor, bugs turn out to be a pretty awesome food. They pack some real protein punch and are better for the environment as compared to cows, pigs and chickens.

The Economist shows how: Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Basics, Health, bugs, Economist, FAO, food, insects, Kenya, termites, UN

March 15, 2013 | 11:00 AM | By Tom Murphy |

What’s Next in Kenya? Clearing Off the Election Dust |

Uhuru Kenyatta may have won the Kenyan presidential election, but the dust has yet to settle.

He barely made it past the 50 percent mark to avoid a runoff with the current Prime Minister Raila Odinga. The election itself exceeded and fell below expectations. Violence did not follow, as some warned, and the voter turnout was much higher than predicted. What looked like a likely runoff between Odinga and Kenyatta appears to be over.

All of this raises some new questions.

I spoke with Kennedy Opalo to hear about his personal experience voting in the election, why the turnout was higher than expected and what may come next following the final results.

Opalo is a Nairobi native who is presently studying for his Political Science PhD at Stanford University as the Susan Ford Dorsey Fellow. He also writes the popular blog Opalo’s Weblog, a vital resource on issues regarding Kenyan politics. In the run up to the election, Opalo published analysis of the campaigns and opinion polls. Read on for his view of the process and where this is all headed.

What was your experience like in terms of voting? How did people you know feel about the campaign, election, media coverage and vote tally?

I waited for three hours to vote. And this was in a relatively sparsely populated area of Nairobi. I heard stories of people who got in line at 5 AM and did not vote until in the early afternoon. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Justice, Politics, #KenyaDecides, elections, ELOG, IEBC, Ken Opalo, Kennedy Opalo, Kenya, Opalo, Raila Odinga, Runoff, Uhuru Kenyatta

March 12, 2013 | 9:00 AM | By Tom Paulson |

A King County Yankee amid Kenya’s Electoral Count |

Apologies to Mark Twain, for bastardizing the title of his novel about a Connecticut engineer transported back to King Arthur’s time. But it seemed like a nice, phonetic headline for this guest column by Michael Golomb, a University of Washington student who, with his physician fiance Aliza Monroe-Wise, is in Kenya working on a variety of development & health issues. I asked Mike for his perspective on Kenya’s recent elections. More about both of them at bottom.

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By Michael Golomb

As an American student temporarily living in Kenya and witness to the recent elections here, I’ve gained a unique perspective on how distinctly different a story looks depending upon how it’s covered and by whom.

: Polling station in a Maasai village. Laikipia district, central Kenya; Mike Golomb

Leading up to Kenya’s election, western media mostly ran with headlines playing up the fear of political violence while Kenyan newspapers reported on the problems, but also on the progress being made, the many peace parades and positive political dynamics.

On March 9^th, Uhuru Kenyatta was announced the winner of the election by both the Kenyan government and international observers. His challenger, Raila Odinga, condemned the process as fraudulent – but also called upon his supporters to refrain from violence and said that the matter would be taken up by the Kenyan judiciary at a later date.

So far, only isolated demonstrations have occurred. There have been no widespread demonstrations or violence like what took place here in 2007 and 2008. Odinga’s camp has made numerous public statements urging peace and denouncing violence as a roadblock to electoral justice.

In Nairobi, the day after the announcement of Uhuru’s win, one Kenyan told me, “We are just happy to move past this. It is time for Kenyans to go back to our lives.”

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Basics, elections, global health, Kenya, Mike Golomb, University of Washington

February 12, 2013 | 11:58 AM | By Tom Murphy |

Kenya Holds Historic Presidential Debate |

: Flickr, Albert Kenyani Inima

Analysis

Kenya held its first ever presidential debate on Monday, an historic event.

The eight candidates* gathered in Nairobi to debate the most pressing issues in the first of two televised debates. The young country’s event was everything that the 2012 US presidential debates were not.

Candidates from minority parties with no chance of making a dent on election day stood side by side with the front runners. The event went over its scheduled 2 hours lasting near 3.5 hours when all was said and done.

However, it was not because the candidates were wasting time or talking too much. An efficient tandem of moderators, NTV’s Linus Kaikai and Citizen TV’s Julie Gichuru, moved the conversation along, kept the candidates to their time limits, interrupted them when the question asked was not answered and provided immediate follow-ups when necessary.

Those in his vicinity should be buying Linus Kaikai vast amounts of drink about now. Exceptional reffing of 1st half. #Debate254 #KEDabate13 Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Politics, Debate, elections, Kenya

March 13, 2012 | 10:20 AM | By Tom Paulson |

PATH gets sexy to save lives in Kenya |

Sex sells, everyone knows, so PATH is selling it to save lives.

Shuga: Love, Sex, Money – Official Trailer from MTV staying alive on Vimeo.

The Seattle-based global health organization has recently launched a steamy six-part television series in Nairobi, Kenya, called Shuga: Love, Sex, Money aimed at preventing the spread of HIV, the AIDS virus.

“This is pretty racy for Kenya,” said Rikka Trangsgrud, PATH’s long-time country programs director for Kenya. “There are some fairly explicit scenes and themes … We are really pushing the envelope here but the idea is to prompt important discussions.”

Or as PATH says on its website: Shuga, which features a cast of red-hot African actors and an Oscar-winning directing team, addresses the thorny issues of sexual health head-on, confronting taboos such as rape and sex-for-gifts through the tangled love lives of its characters.

The TV series is, in effect, paid for by American taxpayers through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (widely regarded as one of President George W. Bush’s most successful international endeavors). PATH has been the facilitator, administering the affiliated Partnership for on HIV-Free Generation program in Kenya and launching a commercial youth branding scheme G-Pange.

“One of our partners on this project is MTV,” said Trangsrud. The first goal of this project is to be entertaining and provocative, she said, with the aim of capturing the attention of young people in order to get them talking about these issues.

“It has to be appealing,” Trangsrud said. “It’s sexy.”

And, if it works, will save lives.

FILED UNDER: Health, HIV-AIDS, Kenya, media, PATH

October 26, 2011 | 10:28 AM | By Tom Paulson |

Does chasing down terrorists in Somalia help or hurt famine relief effort? |

DFID

Refugees in East Africa

The deadly famine in East Africa continues and now conflict involving the Islamist extremists known as al-Shabab could make a terrible situation much worse.

Aid workers are getting kidnapped, the Kenyan military invaded Somalia to search for the extremists (who deny the kidnappings), which then prompted a claimed member of al-Shabab to explode grenades in Nairobi – prompting Somalia’s president to ask Kenya to back off.

This, in turn, caused officials in the U.S. and Europe to urge Somalia to allow Kenya in to pursue al-Shabab.

Meanwhile, as Voice of America reports, those most in need are figuratively caught in the crossfire as the military campaign undermines the relief efforts.

The United Nations says recent military activity along the Kenya-Somalia border is restricting famine relief efforts and preventing Somalis from fleeing to refugee camps in Kenya. The U.N. Refugee Agency said Wednesday that only 100 Somali refugees entered Kenya last week, down from 3,400 in the previous week.

To combat the tendency for the American public, and the media, to forget about this ongoing catastrophe, USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) has launched a PR campaign together with the Ad Council called “We are the relief.” I think they could have come up with a better theme, but at least they’re trying. Here’s some of what USAID is putting out:

USAID

Comparative catastrophes

FILED UNDER: Basics, al-Shabab, famine, Kenya, Somalia, USAID

September 26, 2011 | 3:25 PM | By Tom Paulson |

Plant a tree for Wangari Maathai |

Green Belt Movemen

Wangari Maathai

Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize, has died at age 71 after battling ovarian cancer.

Maathai was often described as an environmentalist, a Kenyan activist who started Africa’s Green Belt Movement — an effort dedicated to planting trees as a means to protect biodiversity and against habitat destruction.

But calling her an environmentalist doesn’t quite cut it.

Maathai was a bold political activist, an academic, a feminist, a fighter for social justice and someone intensely focused on the needs of the poor. For her work she was imprisoned, beaten and ostracized.

In short, she was an environmentalist only in the sense that she realized how all of these forces in a society — environment, human rights, equity — are intimately interwoven.

Maathai was also someone who constantly stressed that a single person, like a single tree, truly can make a difference. Here are some good articles describing Maathai and her work:

TIME: The legacy of Wangari Maathai, Nobel environmentalist

CNN: World mourns passing of true African heroine

New York Times: Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, dies

GlobalPost: Wangari Maathai, Africa’s first woman Nobel laureate

FILED UNDER: Basics, Justice, environment, Kenya, Wangari Maathai

August 24, 2011 | 9:00 AM | By Tom Paulson |

The heroic humanitarian narrative: A force for good or bad? |

Flickr, Stephen Poff

The heroic narrative is almost irresistable as a storytelling strategy.

But many in the aid and development community think it frequently does more harm than good:

By implying individual, private efforts (i.e., DIY or “Do-It-Yourself” aid) are somehow superior to large-scale organizational or government-run programs when the evidence (one rebuttal to DIY aid) suggests otherwise;
By disguising a poorly functioning program (e.g., Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea scandal) or perhaps advancing a commercial interest (e.g.,TOMS shoes) through compelling personal stories that may do more for the hero than those he/she is supposed to be helping;
Or by simplistically glossing over the complex political, economic and social problems that often contribute to the problems of poverty, disease or inequities these humanitarians say they are trying to solve.

It is the dog days of August, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a fairly strong negative reaction based on these kind of concerns to a recent column by the New York Times’ David Brooks. Other such tales — though usually well-intended — tend to really irritate those working out there in poor countries for humanitarian organizations actually trying to help poor people.

NYT

David Brooks

Brooks, who is traveling in East Africa, wrote about The Rugged Altruists in which he — perhaps taking a cue from his NYT colleague Nick Kristof, champion of DIY aid — celebrates the good work of some individuals he’s encountered on his trip. Brooks opens by saying:

Many Americans go to the developing world to serve others. A smaller percentage actually end up being useful. Those that (sic) do have often climbed a moral ladder. They start out with certain virtues but then develop more tenacious ones.