Items by Dosma

Kenya Environmental & Political News Weblog

• Mau Forest Appeal Brings Multimillion Dollar Pledges and Hope to Kenya

  Posted: May 6, 2010, 2:56 pm by Dosma

  UNEP Pledges Support and Calls for Donor Action to Meet the USD $ 99 Million Target Nairobi, 5 May 2010 – Donors Wednesday pledged approximately USD $10 million in support of the Kenyan Government’s appeal to save the vital Mau Forest Complex, at a Partners Forum convened by the Kenyan Government and the United Nations [...]

• Lightweight kit for small farmers

  Posted: April 20, 2010, 1:12 pm by Dosma

  A new piece of kit in the form of a backpack could help small farmers in Kenya increase yields, profits and agricultural know-how in a sustainable way. The backpacks, weighing 15-42 kg, contain things which help farmers bring a crop to harvest, including tools, a training manual and, in some versions, a collapsible water tank. [...]

• “Merry-go-round” Micro-Finance keeps Kibera Residents Fed

  Posted: April 20, 2010, 1:12 pm by Dosma

  Josephine Awuor, 34, always looks forward to her turn to receive “merry-go-round” contributions from fellow members of Msingi Bora (Good Foundation), a micro-finance group she belongs to in Kibera, Nairobi’s largest slum. Meeting weekly, the 23 Msingi Bora members each contribute 50 shillings (60 US cents), which is pooled for members to take loans from. [...]

• Political Will the Missing Link for MDGs

  Posted: March 23, 2010, 5:58 pm by Dosma

  By Chryso D’Angelo UNITED NATIONS, Mar 19, 2010 (IPS) – Despite numerous factors that threaten the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 – a global financial crisis, a food crisis, climate change, natural disasters – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said this week that his main concern is “political will”. Ban addressed U.N. member [...]

• Draft Policy offers new hope for Kenya IDPs

  Posted: March 19, 2010, 7:15 pm by Dosma

  Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN A view of the Eldoret IDP camp after the post election violence (file photo) NAIROBI, 19 March 2010 (IRIN) – Internally displaced people (IDPs) in Kenya are set to enjoy greater protection under a national policy that also aims to prevent future displacement and to fulfil the country’s obligations under international IDP [...]

• WHAT is the relationship between the eight MDGs and the ‘coming of age’ of Soccer on the African Continent?

  Posted: March 11, 2010, 10:10 am by Dosma

  For when the sounds of the ‘vuvuzela’ start blurring across four South African cities, MDG campaigners will also stand up to make a point in order to be heard. A few days ago, the clock chimed a 100 days left before the global curtain is raised on the first-ever World Cup on African soil and [...]

• International Womens Day 2010 : Chronology of Women’s Rights from Clara Zetkin to Angela Merkel

  Posted: March 8, 2010, 9:29 pm by Dosma

  The right to vote and hold a political office is a fairly recent development for women. Read a timeline charting the milestones in equal rights for women from Clara Zetkin to Angela Merkel. The first International Women’s Day was held in 1911 as a way to attract attention to the cause of gender equality. In [...]

• Ethiopian Dam Critics Won’t Go Away

  Posted: February 12, 2010, 6:08 pm by Dosma

  ADDIS ABABA, (IPS) – Ethiopia is building a 240-metre high dam on the Omo River that is intended to end the country’s electricity shortage and supply power to neighbouring countries. Not everyone’s happy. The Gilgel Gibe III dam will hold back 14.7 million cubic metres of water. Its 1,870 MW generating capacity will be a [...]

• Kenyan Bumper Maize Harvest in Coast and Southeast

  Posted: February 9, 2010, 12:50 pm by Dosma

  Photo: Wikimedia Commons The Ministry of Agriculture estimates that about 540,000 metric tons of maize will be harvested from the short-rains season (file photo) NAIROBI,  (IRIN) – Kenya’s coastal and southeastern regions will harvest a bumper maize crop from mid-February following El Nino-enhanced rains that fell in December, according to experts. “The most likely situation [...]

• Tree planting in Kenya’s Mau Complex Signals New Beginnings for a Critical Ecosystem

  Posted: January 18, 2010, 10:14 am by Dosma

  Nairobi, 15January 2010 – Kenya took a step to restore its diminishing water towers and address rapid environmental degradation when it launched a tree planting drive in the Kiptunga area of the Mau Forest Complex on Friday. 20,000 tree seedlings were planted on 20 hectares at a ceremony attended by Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga [...]

• What drives conflict in northern Kenya

  Posted: December 18, 2009, 7:02 pm by Dosma

  MARSABIT, 18 December 2009 (IRIN) – Cattle raids, inter-communal resource conflicts and banditry are common across much of the arid lands of northern Kenya, where firearms are increasingly common among pastoralist communities. In 2009 alone, such violence claimed more than 354 lives, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Kenya. [...]

• Dandora Waste Site Under the Spotlight

  Posted: December 18, 2009, 7:02 pm by Dosma

  Eight years after Dandora, the site of Nairobi’s only rubbish dump, was declared full and a health hazard, tons of fuming waste from more than four million city dwellers continue to be added daily, exposing local residents to illness but also profiting a few. More than 100,000 people live around the dumpsite, a 13-hectare grey [...]

• Historic UN Climate Change Conference Kicks off in Copenhagen

  Posted: December 8, 2009, 10:03 am by Dosma

  Copenhagen (Denmark), 7 December 2009 – The United Nations Climate Change Conference kicked off today in Copenhagen with a strong sense of confidence that countries can seal a comprehensive, ambitious and effective international climate change deal in Demark and with an unprecedented sense of urgency to act on climate change. The highly anticipated conference marks [...]

• Can indigenous knowledge reduce climate disaster risk?

  Posted: November 17, 2009, 9:22 am by Dosma

  I have just spent three weeks in Northern Kenya among the Borana people, followed by three weeks in Mindanao, southern Philippines, partly with the Higaonan tribe. Vastly different countries yet I was immediately struck by the similarities in the challenges the communities faced, including drought, conflict, floods and general environmental degradation. In my discussions with [...]

• Africa Takes Firm Stance on Climate Change

  Posted: October 30, 2009, 11:50 am by Dosma

  Africa will neither accept replacement of the Kyoto Protocol, nor its merger with any new agreement, say African climate change negotiators meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at the last African major preparatory gathering, before the UN Climate Change negotiations in Copenhagen in December. Negotiators say actions for Africa should be voluntary and nationally appropriate, and [...]

• What is Behind the Mau Complex Controversy?

  Posted: October 1, 2009, 11:31 am by Dosma

  Photo: Jane Some/IRIN Over the past two decades, the Mau complex has lost at least 107,000ha of forest cover due to irregular and unplanned settlements, logging and charcoal burning, as well as increased agriculture (file photo) The continued degradation of the Mau complex – Kenya’s largest water catchment area – threatening everything from the spectacular [...]

• Kenya Threatened by New Urban Disaster

  Posted: September 24, 2009, 11:15 am by Dosma

  Rapid urbanization is changing the face of poverty in Kenya “If the government does not acknowledge this crisis, it will get even worse. Failure to address this now will leave Kenya paying for generations to come.” Philippa Crosland Taylor Head of Oxfam GB, Kenya Kenya is facing a new urban timebomb, with millions of Nairobi residents [...]

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Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

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The end of the fish cakes