Day: March 17, 2023

Laikipia County Government has urged the community to welcome back, embrace and help released inmates re-integrate into the society. Speaking during the discharge board meeting on deliberations to release two inmates who had completed their jail term, Nyahururu Sub-County Administrator Charles Ndegwa said that the community plays a big role in re-integrating the inmates. The two inmates John Akuta and Peter Kuria Mburu had been jailed for 10 years for possession of a firearm loaded with ammunition and attempted incest respectively. ‘I want you to liaise with the area chiefs and ward administrators as soon as you get home. This will help us easily consider you whenever the county government is hiring people for casual jobs,’ Ndegwa told them. ‘I believe a job will easily help the released inmates re-integrate easily into the society. Moreover, I want to urge our community to embrace the released inmates. I believe they have truly reformed and everyone deserves a second chance in life,’ said Ndegwa. John Akuta, a reformed bandit, narrated to the discharge board how he bought a gun because his peers had been buying guns and successfully used them to amass livestock which they would sell and purchase motorbikes or use the money to marry new wives. He was sentenced in November 2017 to 10 years having served three years in remand. According to John Kagecha the Deputy-in-Charge of the Nyahururu women’s prison, the prison service reduces the jail term by a third based on the discipline of the inmate. ‘Akuta had no indiscipline case on his file since being jailed at the Nyahururu prison thus prompting the prison in charge recommending his early release from prison,’ said Kagecha. Before his arrest and sentencing, Akuta was married and had three grown up children who had attended the discharge board meeting at the Nyahururu prison. Also accompanying them was Akuta’s brother and his aged ailing mother. ‘I have trained in carpentry while in prison and I have been awarded grade three certification. Was it not the long corona break, I would have been released having attained the grade one carpentry certification,’ Akuta said. ‘I have never blamed anyone for being caught and jailed. Owning a gun according to my peers then was an achievement but now I know it is a crime. I promise to be a reformed person and I shall also tell those owning guns to surrender them,’ said Akuta.Mburu from Kiriita Ward in Nyandarua County who also faced the discharge board had been jailed for 20 years in 2016 with attempted incest. He appealed his sentence and it was reduced to 10 years. He also leaves the prison having attained grade three training in tailoring and a Diploma in Theological Education by Extension, a Diploma offered by the PCEA church. John Mwangi the In-Charge of industries at the Nyahururu prisons urged the released inmates to join social help groups back in their villages to enable them socially re-integrate easily with others in society. The prison discharge board comprises various stakeholders that work closely with the prisons, including probation officers, interfaith council, and local administration. The stakeholders help and give recommendations on how the prisoners will be received back into the society.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Seed Savers Network is working with smallholder farmers to trace and preserve indigenous seeds at risk of extinction and reintroduce them to farms in Kenya while promoting traditional farming practices devoid of pesticides. Once identified, the seeds are then preserved in seed and gene banks where farmers can access them during planting season. During harvest season, farmers will be required to take back some of the seeds from the harvested crops to store in the seed and gene banks with their names coded for identification and traceability. The seedbanks have been established in villages close to farmers across Kenya. The Network has established 51 Community Seedbanks and Gene-banks. It has a registered farmer base of 60 000 members countrywide with headquarters in Gilgil and spread across Vihiga, Baringo and Kakamega counties. In Kakamega the network has registered 500 farmers with a presence in four sub counties of Mumias West, Navakholo, Butere and Mumias East. Occasionally, the Network hosts farmers who are its members to a seed fair both physically and virtually, where they showcase the different varieties of seeds, learn about and even sell some of them. SeedSavers Network Programme Officer for Kakamega Mercy Ambani says the seed banks are used to preserve seeds from indigenous leafy vegetables, cereals, indigenous trees and gene banks are used for preserving vegetative propagated materials for indigenous crops such as Sugarcane, Yams, Arrow Roots, Cassava, Sweet potatoes among other crops. She says the Network is using fossil tool analysis to establish endangered species of indigenous crops and coordinates with the National Gene Bank to establish crop accessions that cannot be traced in the field to reintroduce in the community. ‘We have identified about 300 different varieties of indigenous seeds and seven traditional methods of preserving them. The network encourages transfer of different knowledge practices from farmer to farmer through the Training of Trainers (TOT) model,’ she noted. Some of the methods of preserving indigenous seeds are the use of wood ash, ash from neem tree leaves, sap from crops like the herbs, use of soot among other methods. She says the Network is promoting use of traditional methods of farming to smallholder farmers which is pesticide-free and less costly to enable them participate in farming practices to increase their households’ incomes while at the same time improve their nutritional status. ‘Indigenous seeds go hand in hand with traditional farming. Farming is a venture that should be enjoyable and profitable to many, it should not be a venture which many small-scale farmers cannot afford,’ Ambani explained. She says the Seeds that are preserved over time are adaptable to particular soils or climatic zones, are climate resilient, adaptable to high temperature levels, low rainfall and when combined with manure during planting they produce maximum yields. ‘We as Seed Savers Network believe that when the soil has enough nutrients, the soil will be able to support the crop and when the soil’s pH has been interfered with by adding too many chemicals, it will make the soil too acidic hence plants will not get enough nutrients,’ she explained. ‘So, we are training our farmers to use the available resources, the waste from the farm and compost manure to do planting, we are also training them to prepare bio-pesticides to mix the available chilies to do spraying on their crops in case of diseases,’ Ambani noted. Seedsavers Network Kenya works with small-scale farmers with less than two acres of land who face challenges in getting inputs to do farming that will improve their lives using minimal cost. During the Seed fair, the Network also launched a mobile App to assist farmers market their seeds by logging into Seed Exchange Kenya, register and upload pictures of their indigenous seeds and do exchanges and sell. ‘We are also appreciating women for being custodians of seeds and their role in seed selection. We are also bringing men on board because men own the land and are the ones to allow women to do cultivation in these farms,’ she explained. Due to Intellectual Property rights and the Plant Variety Act which currently prohibits farmers from selling or exchanging seeds that are not registered, Seedsavers Network is encouraging farmers to come on board, have their seeds coded in the community seed banks so that they can lock out the issues of biopiracy and stealing of their indigenous seeds. ‘We have been using participatory methodology to develop the descriptors and do characterization and documentation of the indigenous crop varieties and this has been largely done by farmers so that they are involved and they know their indigenous seeds and they can go to the stage of registration and we pull out the issue of biopiracy,’ she noted. One of the farmers, Grace Chitechi said that the seedbank enables them to save their seeds to await the planting season since some of them have the habit of consuming the seeds whenever there are food shortages. ‘We have a farm outside the seedbank established at Musanda, which we shall use as a demonstration plot for farmers to benefit from the programme and others who are curious about what we do,’ she noted. Member of County Assembly (MCA) for Musanda Joseph Omusinde Umusola who attended the seed-fair urged farmers to join Seedsavers network to ensure they benefit from education to boost food production.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Kisii County Government has reiterated its commitment to support the interests of all persons living with disabilities within the county through economic and social-support programmes. In a speech read on his behalf by Kisii County Assembly Speaker, Dr Phillip Nyanumba at Gusii stadium on Thursday, area Governor, Simba Arati said they are seeking partnerships with various organisations to help alleviate the suffering of persons with mobility challenges and other forms of disability. Arati said the County will provide basic entrepreneurship skills, business tools like sewing machines, and other capacity-building avenues for persons with disabilities to engage them in income-generating activities to earn a living. ‘We are considering the PWDs in employment opportunities and are set to introduce aspects of inclusion, like sports activities for PWDs such as sitting volleyball and para-athletics. This is besides giving them equitable opportunities in accessing County tenders,’ he added. The Governor said his administration is keen on mainstreaming PWDs matters in the County and will be introducing access ramps in existing government buildings and encouraging the inclusion of ramps in new buildings. Arati noted the need for the development of a comprehensive community-based household identification and assessment targeting PWDs in the County to recognise the bedridden cases who cannot access medical and rehabilitation services due to high poverty levels. The County Boss called for a multi-sectoral approach in disability service provision to ensure total identification and registration of all PWDs and enable them to access dignified intervention by government agencies and non-state actors. In addition, he lauded the Walkabout Foundation for partnering with the County to donate wheelchairs to beneficiaries in all the nine sub-counties saying the gesture indicated both partners’ desire to provide PWDs with a support system to lead better lives. The Walkabout Foundation is a registered charity whose mission is to restore dignity, freedom, and independence by providing wheelchairs and rehabilitation in the developing world and funding research to find a cure for paralysis. Further, he appealed to the residents to discard the social stigma associated with disabilities and avoid hiding persons with disabilities from the public to enable the county government and non-state actors to reach out to all needy cases. Arati promised to activate the registration card printer for PWDs at the Department of Culture for the purpose of continuously taking records to plan appropriately on how to assist them.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Restore Africa has launched a tree planting and restoration exercise at Iten grounds aimed at increasing forest cover in various parts of the country. The exercise is targeting to plant at least three Million trees in the next five years in Elgeyo Marakwet. Restore Africa Program is an initiative geared towards restoration of degraded land through local smallholder farmers. Restore Africa Program Director Mr. Kiunga Karego Kimani noted that the programme is seeking to improve livelihoods, food security and resilience to climate change. The organization is also looking at working with 250,000 farmers in four counties. The program will be implemented in four counties that are, Elgeyo Marakwet, Kwale, Narok and Kilifi with the aim of restoring 250,000 hectares of land and improving livelihoods of small-scale farmers and pastoral households. Elgeyo Marakwet Governor Wisley Rotich asked the NGO to engage the local community through all the Members of County Assembly MCAs and Ward Administrators to ensure that the exercise achieves the objective within the specified timeframe. The Governor asked the organization to source all tree seedlings from the County, highlighting that there are sufficient seedlings and the local farmers have the capacity to supply. Elgeyo Marakwet County Commissioner Mr. John Korir said that the only way to salvage the forest cover from wanton degradation in Elgeyo Marakwet is to inculcate tree planting culture in the younger generation. ‘We have done disservice to the environment and the only way to salvage it is to bring in a new generation that will embrace the environment,’ said Korir. The County Commissioner warned charcoal burners who he blamed for environmental degradation in Kerio Valley that their illegal human activities have contributed towards the decreased forest cover.

Source: Kenya News Agency