On Hunger and Starvation in Kenya

[Onyango Oloo]

Onyango Oloo Does a Digital Reprise from Nairobi

PART ONE:









Here are some of the latest headlines about the unfolding disaster of famine in Kenya:

"Kibaki appeals for relief support"- Presidential Press Service/KBC, Saturday, December 24, 2005

”Military Steps in as Government if Blamed”-Standard, Saturday, December 24, 2005;

”Famine:Now Kibaki Summons Ministers- Kenya Times, Saturday, December 24, 2005

”At Last Help is Coming”-Daily Nation, Saturday, December 24, 2005

”Kenyans Migrate to Ethiopia”-Standard, Saturday, December 24, 2005

” KENYA:Drought Related Deaths in the North East”-Reuters, December 22, 2005

Ever since the above headlines started gripping millions of Kenyans, some of my friends abroad and online have asked me to comment on famine and hunger in Kenya. When Adongo Ogony, one of my closest pals in Canada suggested I visit some of the famine stricken areas and generate a field report, I simply said that the WHOLE of Kenya is a famine stricken area.

I was not being flippant.

Earlier today (Saturday, December 24, 2005; Friday in the United States where Njamba is based) a fellow who uses the handle “Njamba” reiterated the call for a digital contribution from yours truly on the aforesaid subject. I merely responded with the somewhat cryptic: “Wacha nitafakari, niwaze, niwazue kuhusu mapendekezo uliowasilisha hapa ukumbini.”

The reason I have been slow-footed on this famine/njaa topic is because I feel a weird sense of literary déjà vu, as if I have been at this place, not once, not twice, not thrice, but many times.

I think that there is a grave danger that I will insult my readership by repeating myself for the umpteenth time.

It is my humble submission that as far as this issue is concerned, Onyango Oloo has been here before and done that.

That is why I am NOT going to compose a brand new essay about a grand old issue that I have grappled with in at least half a dozen digitals over the last year or so.

Instead I am going to go down a writer’s memory lane reproducing my contributions on this burning issue…

CONTINUED…..

[Onyango Oloo]

PART TWO: A Contribution on the Subject of Famine and Hunger from July 2004

Here is an excerpt from an essay I posted online in early July 2004:


www.mashada.com/forums/index/show_topic/22/50693/index.php

www.mambogani.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t2959.html

Stop Scape-Goating the Weather, President Kibaki!

Towards A Sustainable Approach to Food Security Issues in Kenya

A Digital Intervention from Onyango Oloo (unedited first draft)
Montreal
Wednesday, July 07, 2004


2.0.Why Is Kibaki Begging Foreigners to Feed Kenyans?

You know your country is sliding into canine territory when you log on to a news portal and read that your own president is pleading with anyone and everybody to please hurry up and send us some food fast because we are going to die of hunger soon:

www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L06280400.htm


This is barely two weeks after shocking environmentalists and anti-globalization activists with his enthusiastic endorsement of GMOs:

allafrica.com/stories/200406230736.html


I think it is time somebody stood up for the much maligned “weather”.

Everything from broken dates, skipping work, lack of food or televised addresses can be quickly blamed on the weather.

And it is because the weather “does not have a mouth.”

Let me explain.

A very long time ago, when I was just a little boy and somebody misplaced something and we kept looking for it all over the place and could not find it, my mama would sigh in exasperation, speaking of course, in her Dholuo mother tongue:

“Gima ong’e gi dhoge yawa!”

Meaning that if the item- comb, scissors etc had a mouth, it would say, “ I am right here! Stop looking for me.”

In the same way if the weather- or its components like the rain, the wind, the drought “had a mouth”, the weather would probably tell President Kibaki:

“ Mtukufu Rais, please stop blaming ME. How come EVERYONE blames me for EVERYTHING? What did I do to deserve all this? Please look elsewhere. This has nothing to do with ME, OK?”

And Mr. or Ms. Weather, Rain or Drought would be absolutely CORRECT.

3.0. Revisiting The Prescient Observations of an American Living in France

It is 1976 and

Susan George has just written her magnum opus (actually just one of several).

It is called How The Other Half Dies and it is destined to be a bible for the sustainable agriculture/food security movement for decades to come.

I remember that it was in 1984 when Maina wa Kinyatti gave me his own paper back version to read.

Underneath the lice ridden blankets in those chilly Kamiti cells, Susan George’s little classic was quite an eye opener and changed forever how I looked at questions of world hunger, sustainable development and food security. As I read the book I remembered the yellow maize cattle fodder that Kenyans lined up for during “goro goro” and other periodic famines- remembered what she said about US Public Law 480 and how all this “food aid” was a deliberate part of US domestic and foreign policy ultimately designed to help the agribusiness giants rather than starving people around the world. The fact that I was reading this in prison around the time Belafonte, Quincy Jones and others- Sir Bob Geldof on the other side of the Atlantic- were doing their We Are The World gig helped to really contextualize concrete events like the Ethiopian famine and whether or not “drought” had anything to do with it.

For those who have never read this book, now is a good time to get your hands on a copy from your local library if it is available or by ordering it online- especially if you are a Kenyan overseas who can afford an internet connection:

www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0140220011/102-9915987-7083319?v=glance


www.addall.com/detail/0916672085.html


In the meantime here is more background information on Susan George:



a revealing profile that outlines her enduring influence;

text of a speech by Susan George on Neo-Liberalism

Looking at those links made me appreciate Susan George even more- she anticipated by almost twenty years, the contemporary discussions on globalization, GMOs, structural adjustment and so on. It would be instructive for everyone not familiar with it, to learn MORE about the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute where Ms. George is a director:

www.tni.org/index.htm

CONTINUED...

[Onyango Oloo]

PART THREE: July 2004 Essay on Hunger Continued....

4.0. Why Blaming The Weather for Hunger in Kenya is a Cynical, Lazy Excuse of the Rich

We know that whatever happens in the next few months, none of the residents of Muthaiga, Runda, Loresho, Lavington, Hurlingham, Karen, Kilimani, Kileleshwa, Nyali or Mbaraki will be lining up to receive their measly quota of cattle fodder dumped in Kenya from the USA.

The Kenya rich will continue throwing away leftovers in cities like Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisumu, Kitale, Eldoret and elsewhere, where the urban poor- some of them working, still go to bed hungry EVERY NIGHT.

Kibaki may have surprised the middle class that Kenya is facing a famine, but this is certainly NOT BREAKING NEWS to the millions of poor people in Kenya in the rural areas who have experienced growing food scarcity over the last twenty five years as the true cost of the disastrous structural adjustment policies begin to bite Kenyans.

We are talking about a looming famine in Kenya at a time when more and more arable land is being turned over for the cultivation of ROSE FLOWERS meant for European and North American lovers- because the Biwotts and their ilk make more money in horticulture than in food production.

It is preposterous to talk of an imminent hunger crisis when NARC ministers like Beth Mugo and her cousin Uhuru Kenyatta have thousands of acres of land their patriarch Mzee grabbed from the Dawida community in Taita Taveta district cultivating inedible SISAL.

It is scandalous to read of Kibaki begging the world to feed us when we have not solved the problems bedeviling the Masaai, the Turkana, the Pokot and other pastoral communities that HAVE BEEN MAINTAINED more or less in pre-colonial conditions by a government who cares more for the tourist dollars which come from the game reserves and the money invested in recruiting, training and arming vicious paramilitary anti-stock theft units more than they care about feeding its own people.

It is a complete outrage to hear a government talk of being unable to pay its people yet they can afford astronomical salaries and obscene perks for an overfed and under-performing cabinet- a government that is very willing to throw 25,000 public services workers out of their jobs at the behest of the IMF but will defend every ndururu they award themselves for “working so hard for the nation.”

It is shocking to see our head of state going cap in hand to the same imperialist powers who robbed Africa blind for centuries when it should be frankly standing up to these donor countries to DEMAND a renegotiation of the unpayable foreign debt. Why should bankers in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Stuttgart, Marseilles, Vienna, Geneva, New York, Chicago, Manchester and Edinburgh grow obese on the interest payments coughed up by emaciated rural dwellers in Bura, Kinango, Sotik, Kapenguria, Migori, Nyambene and Runyenjes?

Kibaki and his friends play golf in spaces that could be used for urban gardening and they have the nerve to talk about Kenyans being unable to feed themselves?

And let us talk about the big one:

Land Ownership.

Who owns the land and who grows the food?

How much land does Uhuru Kenyatta own?

How about Simeon Nyachae, Raila Odinga, Mwai Kibaki, Karisa Maitha, David Mwiraria, Daniel arap Moi, William Ruto, Nicholas Biwott, Joe Wanjui, Mukhisa Kituyi, Charles Njonjo, Dalmas Otieno, Philip Okundi, Beth Mugo, William Ole Ntimama, Najib Balala, Joseph Kamotho, David Musila, Kalonzo Musyoka, Odongo Omamo, Raphael Tuju, Darius Mbela, Marsden Madoka, Manu Chandaria, George Saitoti, Noah Wekesa and all the other fat cats in Kenya?

How much of this land do they NEED to own?

How much of this land was acquired legitimately and how much was GRABBED and STOLEN?

What percentage of the land they own is GIVEN OVER TO FOOD PRODUCTION?

Of the percentage given over to food production, what percentage is SPECIFICALLY EARMARKED for DOMESTIC consumption?

And of that portion, what ratio is dedicated to AFFORDABLE FOOD that a tenant in Korogocho can purchase without breaking into a middle class home?

Who grows the food that Kenyans eat?

What percentage of these food growers are women?

What proportion of them are poor?

What resources are at their disposal when they toil to feed the nation?

I would be interested in SOME HONEST answers to these questions.

CONTINUED...

[Onyango Oloo]

PART FOUR: Conclusion of July 2004 Essay on Hunger


5.0. Can Kenyans Eat the Zero Draft?

Some shady, over caffeinated middle class defenders of the Kenyan status quo have been barking and yelping at me repeatedly, doggedly demanding to know whether Kenyans can feast on a new constitution; repeating with daffy, flipped out and off the wall glee that irritating, useless, content free over-used phrase of “ how many sufurias of ugali” blah blah blah yakety, yakety yak.

As my comrade Mwandawiro remarked during our recent interview, it is a good thing that it is not these cynical petit-bourgeois scumbags yodeling NAK yajenga nchi hymns to whom the future of Kenya is entrusted.

Wouldn’t that be scary?

The Wundanyi MP said that scatterbrained jackasses who rant and rave like this lag way behind the political consciousness of the Wananchi and the simple common sense of the Wanjikus of Kenya who know that a democratic dispensation formalized by a ratified constitution is the SINE QUA NON for future sustainable development in Kenya.

And speaking of sine qua non, that Latin phrase simply means:

“An essential element or condition: “The perfect cake is the sine qua non of the carefully planned modern wedding” (J.M. Hilary).

________________________________________
[Late Latin sine qu (caus ) n n, without which (cause) not : Latin sine, without + Latin qu , ablative of qu , which, what, who + Latin n n, not.]”

So keep your underwear on, OK?

Let us yap about land tenure and agrarian reforms in Kenya for a New York minute (will they discover a Montreal hour one of these days) shall we?

Professor Okoth-Ogendo (who not coincidentally was also very active in the Kenyan constitutional review process) is one of Africa’s leading authorities on the question of land tenure systems in the East Africa region. Certainly his contributions on the subject as it pertains to Kenya is required reading for any serious scholar- I saw it cited by virtually all those Kenyan academics from Dr. Kameri-Mbote to Waiganjo et al who have approached the issue in various full length papers that are available at the click of the mouse for any one who shows a hint of intellectual curiosity.

Here are the links to the document I will be quoting from:

www.gtz.de/orboden/oss/oko_inh.htm

Here is what the avuncular don hits us with the moment we open his document:

“An important factor in the development of natural resources is the quality of land available for each sectoral activity. Of Kenya's 44.6 million hectares, only 8.6 million or 20% is considered medium to high potential. Specifically, 13% is high potential, 7% medium and the rest, i.e. 80% is either arid or semi-arid (ASALs). That has important implications for natural resource development and human settlement throughout the country. In the one case, agriculture, which for many years has remained the backbone of the country's economy, is optimal only in the medium to high potential areas; the rest of the country being suitable mainly for livestock, wildlife and fuelwood. Indeed the ASALs as a whole are home to over 50% of the country's livestock and as much as 95% of its wildlife.

“As regards human settlement, however, the situation is quite the reverse. According to the 1989 census, nearly 80% of Kenya's population resides in the medium to high potential areas. This means that the vast ASALs are settled by only 20% of the country's approximately 28 million people. The actual pattern of settlement, however, is not necessarily uniform in these areas. Because of a rather skewed pattern of land distribution, the medium to high potential areas are still characterized by large farms with relatively low population densities. At the margin of these farms or in pockets within them, usually high densities are to be found. This is the case with most of Nyanza, Western, and Central Provinces. In the ASALs, densities vary from one eco-climatic zone to another, thus making it possible for pockets of relatively moderate densities to exist alongside general sparsity.

“Despite these significant variations in land quality, availability and distribution, Kenya's development policy, planning and investment over the years have focused largely on the medium to high potential areas. The agrarian sector has, in particular, been a major target of public investment. Attempts at the improvement of the social and economic well-being of the ASALs have, instead, been largely project-based and often characterized by intense sectoral and institutional rivalry between state agencies, non-governmental organizations and the donor community. The effect of this apparent neglect has been significant deterioration of the ASAL environment; a fact which is particularly noticeable in respect of loss of rangeland, increased erosion and depletion of ground water.

“More recently, however, the Kenya government has woken up to the need for broad-based development in the ASALs. Several policy documents have, since 1979, attempted to identify a number of options for development in these areas. As has been the case with the medium to high potential areas, the thrust of development policy in the ASALs is to ensure that resources are productively used and that strategies are in place for their conservation and regeneration. Consequently, policy documents emphasize the need for organized access by different groups to those resources, and the institutionalization of appropriate technological options for their productive utilization.”

Now get the historical context:

“As a British Colony, Kenya was founded on the basis that development required firm commitment to the institution of private property. Being essentially an agricultural settlement, that expectation was fundamental to the colonial enterprise. Indeed the very first colonial settlers made it clear that unless steps were taken to enact laws that would guarantee the private ownership of land, they would not spend any investment capital in the colony. Consequently this matter was settled quite early through a general importation of 19th century English property law.

“In time and as colonial agriculture started registering a modicum of growth, it was argued, often without empirical justification, that it was the private property regime that had caused that success. And because African agriculture was doing so demonstrably poorly, it was assumed that in addition to poor husbandry, the proprietary structures under which African production systems operated were also fundamentally defective.

“Although early colonial policy was, by and large, ambivalent about what to do in respect of African land management systems in general, and agriculture in particular, it was thought, initially, that husbandry was the problem. Attempts were therefore made in the mid-1940s to "teach" selected African farmers how to turn their wastelands into lush agrarian meadows through a number of "betterment" or "land improvement" programmes. When these failed, colonial administrators decided that the real cause of agrarian decline in the African areas was land tenure. It was argued that African land tenure was defective in a number of respects. Firstly, its community based nature was thought to lead to much diffuseness in the allocation of land rights hence a fertile cause of disputes some of which went on for generations. Secondly, because rights were not individualized and indefeasible, no security of tenure was thought to exist. As a result it was considered a disincentive to long-term capital investment and an insecure basis for raising production credit. Thirdly, by permitting individuals and lineages or clans to acquire multiple parcels of land, often situated at distances from one another, the tenure system was thought to encourage fragmentation; a phenomenon that tended to minimize returns to labour and time. And, finally, inheritance procedures were accused of encouraging the subdivision of holdings thus leading rapidly to units of sub-economic size. The cumulative effect, it was concluded, was that proper husbandry under that kind of tenure system, was impossible.

“Tenure conversion was thus seen as the only solution to these defects. According to a report published in 1955, [individual tenure has great advantages in giving to the individual a sense of security in possession and enabling by purchase and sale of land an adjustment to be made by the community from the present unsatisfactory fragmented usage to units of economic size., Moreover individual tenure should lead to the release and encouragement of new genius and to new experiment in finding the most productive use of land [East African Royal Commission 1955 (Cmnd. 9475 and para 77)]

“In the basis of these arguments a policy paper was prepared by one R.J.M. Swynnerton, entitled "A Plan to Intensify the Development of African Agriculture in Kenya" (hereafter the Plan), setting out the modalities for tenure conversion and the support services infrastructure necessary for a robust growth. The plan was a comprehensive document covering not only the medium to high potential lands but also the semi-arid pastoral zones. As regards the former, the Plan emphasized that only tenure conversion will make available to the African farmer
a unit of land and a system of farming whose production will support his family at a level ... comparable with other occupations.

“On the former, the Plan urged that there was need for exclusive control and strict management of grazing, limitation of stock numbers to the carrying capacity of land, marketing facilities for excess stock and the provision of permanent water supplies. Although the Plan did not link those recommendations to tenure conversion, it is clear that their implementation would entail radical changes in pastoral/nomadic resource tenure.

“The Plan thus established the principle that the privatization of indigenous property relations was a pre-condition to the sound management of land and land-based resources. In the case of the medium to high potential areas, privatization meant individualization, while for the semi-arid pastoral/nomadic areas the Plan foresaw group management within specified territorial limits. Launched, in earnest, in 1956, initially in Central Province, the Plan remains the primary reference for a massive programme of tenure conversion which, we estimate could take a full century to complete.”

(Prof. Okoth-Ogendo,” Land Tenure And Natural Resource Management: The Kenya Experience” 1996)

The roots of contemporary socio-economic problems in Kenya such as poverty, landlessness, unemployment, hunger and dislocation are thus firmly wedded to the original colonial-capitalist legal (and yes, CONSTITUTIONAL) assumptions that laid the foundations of the current neo-colonial political economy of Kenya.

Dr. Patricia Kameri- Mbote has done a fascinating study tracing the correlation of land tenure and social conflict in Kenya:

www.acts.or.ke/paplrr/docs/LandTenureConflict-PAPLRRCTK-Mbote.pdf

The two chapters on conflict- III and V- make for very interesting reading.

Here is a more recent update which brings in the contemporary political dimension to land grabbing:

iupjournals.org/africatoday/aft47-1.html

And when it comes to things like these that the whole artificial edifice of intra-elitist cat fights collapses to see the comprador- bourgeois class solidarity that will make the Kibaki regime protect the land grabbers of the Moi and Kenyatta periods. I mean, George Saitoti, Fred Gumo and Beth Mugo are still ministers in the NARC government- and those are just three names. And of course Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto, Nicholas Biwott and Gideon Moi are smiling from the opposition benches. Somebody told me that Basil Criticos, the millionaire land grabber from Taita Taveta District who abandoned his parliamentary seat to flee the squatters who wanted to kick his Kenyan-Greek derriere because of his allegedly racist and exploitative methods- is reportedly back in the country to maintain his rural chunk of real estate swag.

Kenyan social justice activists fighting for the rights of the urban poor are finding to their costs that the NARC government will not hesitate to use force to protect the interest of the absentee landlords and telephone farmers:

212.100.241.38/news/2004/06/34.php

Odenda Lumumba is a former Kenyan political prisoner who has remained very active in the Kenyan progressive movement from the 1980s. He is currently the big cheese at the Nakuru-based Kenya Land Alliance. And he was also one of the Bomas delegates. Harun Ndubi is a human rights lawyer who was among those at the forefront of opposing the Tiomin project that Kalonzo Musyoka gleefully acceded to the other day. Ndubi is also the Executive Director of Kituo Cha Sheria. Here is a joint presentation they did on land about three years ago:

www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/livelihoods/landrights/downloads/publicka.pdf


The National Constitutional Conference at the Bomas of Kenya dealt EXHAUSTIVELY with the question of land.

That is why I want to direct my readers to one of the documents that emerged out of that process:


216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:JHEie6jzJ00J:www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/livelihoods/landrights/downloads/kenya_land_policy_principles.rtf+%22A+SUMMARY+OF+LAND+POLICY+PRINCIPLES+%22+%22kenya%27&hl=en

If you want to download similar documents dealing with the same subject the following Oxfam site is

Is the one place shopping centre:

www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/livelihoods/landrights/africa_east.htm

Here is an excerpt from the Zero Draft that was OVERWHELMING adopted by the Bomas delegates on the on the 15th of March 2004:

“Land is Kenya’s primary resource and the basis of livelihood for the people, and shall be held, used and managed in a manner which is equitable, efficient, productive and sustainable.

The Government shall define and keep constantly under review a national land policy ensuring the following principles -equitable access to land and associated resources; security of land rights for all land holders, users and occupiers in good faith; sustainable and productive management of land resources; transparent and cost effective administration of land; sound conservation and protection of ecologically sensitive areas; the discouragement of customs and practices that discriminate against the access of women to land; and encouragement of communities to settle land disputes through recognized local community initiatives consistent with this constitution.

Source: Article 77. Chapter 7, Land and Property, Draft Constitution of Kenya, 15 March 2004”

There are other notable quotes from the Draft Constitution that are peppered throughout the land policy document.

But I found the 8th section so fascinating that I am reproducing it here almost in its entirety:

8. Productive and Sustainable Land Use

8.1 The contemporary land use context
The policy framework should facilitate:-

a clear land use policy to be developed to guide rural and urban development; the attainment of orderly, productive and sustainable land use through sound land use practices; the conservation and enhancement of the quality of land and land-based resources; the improvement of the condition and productivity of degraded lands in rural and urban areas; the development by the State of a set of guidelines for adoption by planning authorities throughout the country in order to ensure uniformity in the exercise of the State’s regulatory power; appreciation of the essential linkages between the environment and development and the promotion of individual and community participation in environmental action; the provision and maintenance of adequate infrastructure, particularly the promotion of agricultural development; the proper management of demographic and health parameters in the country and especially in the rural areas; integrated land use planning through information based and participatory processes; the provision of social, economic and other incentives to induce the sustainable use and management of land; and the dissemination of agricultural research results and experience to farming communities.

8.2 Rural Land Use

A review is needed of the social, economic, legal and ecological contexts in which rural land is used. The review should build on the following principles:-

the need to re-establish an enabling environment for agriculture and livestock development, especially as regards research, extension services, finance and infrastructure including marketing, agro-processing, rural electrification and farmers training; the need for realistic policies for the management of rural population growth, particularly as regards rural-rural migration; the institutionalisation of mechanisms designed to induce land owners to put their land to productive use;the intensification of land use in the high potential, densely populated areas, through the application of efficient technology; the need to control agricultural imports that threaten local farmers and industries; periodic consolidation of holdings and re-organisation of rural settlements as a method of controlling sub-economic fragmentation of rural land; the need to review the desirability of reducing/consolidating the existing multiple laws and institutions and bureaucratic agencies dealing with agriculture and livestock development and marketing; the application of cost-effective irrigation methods in areas of low agricultural potential; the need for a clear policy for the comprehensive development of the livestock sector; and the need to restore the management and control of commodity boards and institutions, established under the Agriculture Act and associated legislation, to producers.

8.3 Urban Land Use


Planning for urbanisation should take account of the following principles:

the need to undertake an audit of the informal settlers and renters;the need to provide legal security of tenure;the need for a comprehensive national plan for low income and high density housing and shelter development with well defined targets and financing mechanism as a strategy for minimising informal settlements in the long run;the need to empower the disadvantaged groups to access decent environmentally acceptable and affordable shelter; the need to provide funding or to mobilize resources for upgrading of informal settlements;
the need to create an enabling environment for urban development through the establishment of transparent, accountable, sustainable, comprehensive, and participatory governance structures and decision making processes; the integration of comprehensive urban plans into long range development plans so as to ensure harmony between the urban centres and the rural areas;
the development of secondary towns as a means of stimulating agro-industrial development, thus easing pressure on demand for urban services; the provision of services such as electricity that would stimulate the growth of secondary towns as a basis of agro-industrial development, thus easing the pressure on demand for urban services;the need for protection of agricultural land from indiscriminate extension of urban boundaries and other encroachments and the re-planning of peri-urban areas for agricultural or pastoral communities; the control of spatial growth in order to generate an economic and social environment for urban development; the reconceptualisation of zoning and sub-division control, not as exclusionary mechanisms within and across residential areas, but as tools for the creation of integrated viable urban communities sharing common services;the provision of efficient amenities for urban settlements;the provision of resources for the upgrading or gentrification of existing slums, and the discouragement of further slum development;the reservation of green and recreational areas within urban centres and beyond the pale of speculative land grabbing; and the need to encourage urban agriculture.”

SOURCE: A Summary Of Land Policy Principles…

Here is something on urban farming:

www.cityfarmer.org/KenyaPolicy.html


6.0. Towards Sustainable Food Security Policies in Kenya

From the foregoing it goes without saying that President Kibaki is out to lunch when he blames looming famine on the weather.

Our humiliating inability to feed ourselves has everything to do with colonialism and neocolonialism and the choices made as regard to land tenure, food production, an integrated national economy and doing away with regional uneven development within the country and the continued marginalization of pastoral and nomadic Kenyan communities.

One last point:

I do not take as a UNCHANGEABLE given that arable/non-arable split should be a constant throughout our lives.

Humankind has distinguished itself from the lower primates and other forms of animal and plant life by being the only species that consciously INTERVENES and INTERACTS with the natural environment in order to transform it for economic development or improve upon for the social good.

I also do not accept the premise that Kenya should be doomed to remain an agricultural country that grows cash crops for the capitalist market but can not set aside resources to have food to feed its populace.

If we had a coherent national development plan, we could contemplate a serious industrialization growth strategy that has backward and forward linkages with the agricultural sector and still founded on firm social justice principles of equity, regional and community affirmative action, incentives for those driven by the profit motive and the democratization of economic planning right down to the locational level.

And it as at this point where we come back to the proposals on the devolution of powers detailed in the Zero Draft.


So yes, in a sense, you can “eat the constitution”.


Onyango Oloo
Montreal
11:18 am EST, Wednesday, July 7, 2004

[Onyango Oloo]

PART FIVE: Essays Dealing With Concrete Socio-Economic Problems in Kenya

Essays which have dealt with concrete, specific and regional socio-economic problems within a Kenyan national context:

1. Written in the wake of the North Horr massacres, this essay located the problems of northern Kenyan people within the vortex of colonialism, neocolonialism and under-development;

2. Beyond the tribute to Muindu Mbingu who led the great Akamba rural protest march from Ukambani to Nairobi at the end of the 1930s, this essay emphasized the need for urgent agrarian reforms

3. I argued in this essay that poverty in Nyanza, far from being caused by the so called innate laziness of the Luo people, is actually another symptom of uneven development in Kenya;

4. In this digital intervention I predicted that the failure to deal with the land rights question would form one of the triggers of a national uprising in Kenya;

[Onyango Oloo]

PART SIX: Suggested Solutions

Beyond describing and analyzing the socio-economic problems of Kenya- of which the current famine is a mere manifestation- I have endeavoured several times to advance specific solutions. Here is a small sample of those recommendations:

(i) Not too long ago, I suggested that a democratic constitution can literally increase the level of food security in Kenya;


(ii) The first of a two part essay on solving Kenya’s economic problems;

(iii) The concluding part of my essay where optimistically declare that social prosperity is a distinct possibility in Kenya.

[Onyango Oloo]

PART SEVEN:

I rest my case.

Onyango Oloo
Nairobi

[Onyango Oloo]

On Hunger and Starvation in Kenya

Printed From: Nation Media Discussion Forum
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Topic: On Hunger and Starvation in Kenya
Posted By: Onyango Oloo
Subject: On Hunger and Starvation in Kenya
Date Posted: 24/12/2005 at 11:27am



Replies:
Posted By: kongongo
Date Posted: 24/12/2005 at 1:08pm

A most shameful thing is to be unable to provide the most basic human needs for your population!!

It is a big shame to read reports that Kenya, a once self sustaining, proud and respected country can not feed itself!

The leadership of this country have something to think about?

[Onyango Oloo]

- News & Politics (http://www.kenyaniyetu.com/v20/forums/forumdisplay.php?forumid=6)
-- On Hunger and Starvation in Kenya (http://www.kenyaniyetu.com/v20/forums/showthread.php?threadid=26734)
Posted by Onyango Oloo on 12-23-2005 09:34 PM:

On Hunger and Starvation in Kenya

jukwaa.proboards58.com/index...35410906&page=1

Posted by Mossad on 12-24-2005 02:34 AM:

@ Oloo

Now there's a problem that seem to be bigger than we think. This has to do with the carelessness that's exposed by kenya leaders of all walks of life. Whether in govt or the oppositon, all of them seem to think the same and they have the same characterristics and midsets as far as dealing with kenyans is concerned. I have not heard of cries from many politicians in kenya today. Even the comments made by the likes of Musyoka are not that passionate as to how much they are affected by this issue of hunger in kenya.

Ok OO in case we send money to buy food for the hungry who are we going to trust with that money on the point that the money will be 100% spend to aid those affected. I read of a place where the local chief took the donated food and started selling it to tha pple he was supposed to feed. I mean @ Oloo, i dont see a will in most pple in our society to deal with the problem since no one seem any much concerned but a few who might not have much impact in solving the problem. Otherwise, keep up the good work.

Mossad.

Posted by milele on 12-24-2005 02:53 AM:

Originally posted by Mossad
@ Oloo


Ok OO in case we send money to buy food for the hungry who are we going to trust with that money on the point that the money will be 100% spend to aid those affected..

well i think you can trust the combination of Nation Media, EABL, and Stanchart to deliver......do not trust kila mtu. The donations are been delivered at Nation Center second floor

__________________

[Onyango Oloo]

From the Forest Action Network website:

www.fanworld.org/pap_fsec.html

Food security and sustainable natural resources management in Kenya.


By DOMINC WALUBENGO

1.0 The Country

Kenya straddles the equator on the east coast of Africa. It has boundaries with Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. The northern border is about 4 degrees North, while the most southerly point of the country is about 5 degrees South. Kenya is about 583, 000 square kilometers in area.

The country can be divided into several distinct zones. The largest being the low lying north and northeast part of the country, most of which has an altitude of less than 900 meters above sea level.

The southwest of the country consists of a high plateau with an altitude of about 1500 meters above sea level. This plateau rises to the snow-capped peak of Mt. Kenya with a height of about 5,200 meters above sea level. The Great Rift Valley splits this plateau into two from the north to the south.

To the west, the highlands descend towards Lake Victoria, which is shared with both Tanzania and Uganda. To the northwest lies Lake Turkana, which is a long narrow lake running about 250 kilometers in a north-south direction from just inside Ethiopia.

The two main rivers, Tana and Athi, flow eastwards from the highlands to the Indian Ocean. The Yala and Nzoia rivers to the west of the highlands flow into Lake Victoria, while the Turkwell flows into Lake Turkana.

The country is divided into eight administrative provinces, which in turn, with the exception of Nairobi, are divided into several districts. There is an effective administrative link between the capital, Nairobi and the districts. This allows for the rapid dissemination of centrally-made decisions. Government departments are generally all represented at the district level.

2.0 History

2.1 History of Natural Resources Management in Kenya

The history of natural resources management in Kenya was affected by two major factors: the geography of the country and the entry of the Europeans into the hinterland of the country.

2.1.1 The History

Archeologists estimate that Kenya was colonized by farmers and herders from the horn of Africa about 6,000 years ago. About this time, Bantu people also started arriving into the area from the south and west. Later on, there were waves of immigration by Nilotic pastoralists from the area that is now Sudan and possibly from as far away as Egypt.

From around the 14th century, the country started receiving visitors from the Arabian peninsula. Europeans arrived in the 15th century. The British arrived at the coast of Kenya in 1824. When during the Berlin Conference (1884-1885), the European powers divided Africa among themselves, Kenya was allocated to Britain.

In 1895 the British physically occupied Kenya, and decided to open up the interior of the country by building a railway line from the port of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean to Kisumu on Lake Victoria. Started in 1896, the railway reached Kisumu in 1901, having covered a distance of more than 800 kilometers.

The opening up of the country was followed by an influx of European settlers who occupied the highlands to the southwest. However, these lands were already settled by African people. These were displaced in favor of the new arrivals. Although the new settlers built a modern agricultural economy, the bitterness created by the annexation of these fertile lands remained .

In 1920, the country was declared a British colony, thereby making it a province of Britain. This had the effect of reinforcing British control over the country, its people and its natural resources.

After World War II (1939-1945), there was an influx of British war veterans into Kenya. These veterans were given huge chunks of land as an appreciation of their valor during the war. This annexation of land was again carried out without any reference to the local population.

In 1952, the local population launched the Mau-Mau revolution; and in 1964, following more than a decade of widespread resistance to colonial rule, independence was achieved and the country became a republic.

2.1.2 Climate and Natural Resources

Kenya has a wide range of climatic and ecological zones, with the altitude having a moderating effect on the temperatures. The natural resources and the type of food available in these zones is determined by the rainfall pattern.

In the north and northeast of the country, which represents 80% of its total area, the annual rainfall is less than 600 mm. The rain in this area is erratic and droughts are frequent. The natural vegetation is that of the arid and semi-arid savanna, with scattered trees, scrub and grass. The predominant tree species are of the acacia family. These trees constitute what is sometimes referred to as the dry forests of Kenya. The people in this area are for the most part cattle keepers and very little agriculture is carried out. The food they depend on includes milk, meat and wild fruits. Those who live in the urban areas have access to the foods that the markets have to offer, including rice, beans and maize.

The drylands of Kenya are however, the areas which supply the bulk of the charcoal that is used in the urban areas of the country. The acacia tree species are particularly suitable for charcoal production. In addition, land ownership in these pastoral areas is communal. This means that the trees too are owned on a communal basis. But as the pastoral people pay more attention to pastures than to trees, charcoal makers have a free hand to exploit this resource.

In addition, most of the wildlife found in Kenya is found in these drylands. Thus there is constant conflict between the pastoral people and the wildlife authorities in this zone.

The areas neighboring the north and north east and those around Lake Victoria, which account for about 7% of the country's area have a rainfall ranging between 600 and 900 mm per year. These areas have got some tree cover. However, the quantity of rainfall only allows for sparse forest cover. The predominant tree species in these areas include: the African pencil cedar (Juniperus procera), Markamia (Markamia lutea), and the African Olive (Olea Africana). The people living in this zone practice subsistence agriculture, producing food crops like millet, sorghum, cassava and beans. Those who are close to the lake practice fishing for both subsistence and commercial purposes. At the same time, the country's sugar industry is based in this region.

The remaining 13% of the country, consisting of the highlands of the southwest has an average rainfall of 900 mm or more per year. This is where the country's thickest forests are found. These forests form the rain forests of Kenya, and where there are high mountains, we find the montane forests. This 13% of the country is also where the majority of the population lives. The predominant tree species in this area include Elgon Teak (Olea welwitschii), Red Stinkwood (Prunus africanus), Meru Oak ( Vitex keniensis) , East African greenheart (Warburgia ugandensis) and Podo (Podocarpus falcatus). This is the area which also produces the country's main crops: coffee, tea, maize, wheat, potatoes and vegetables. It is also in these highlands that the country's dairy industry is based.

The coastal strip of the country has got a peculiar climate which is hot and humid, with a high rainfall. The main crops in this area include cassava, coconuts and citrus fruits. However, the coast of Kenya is a net importer of food.

2.1.3 Population

The population census of 1999 revealed that there were about 29 million people in Kenya at that time. Ten years earlier (1989), the country had one of the highest birth rates in the world, at 4%. However, owing to concerted government and civil society pressures and awareness campaigns, this rate has now fallen to about 2.8%.

While the average population density over the whole country is low, the distribution of people is skewed. Over 75% of the total rural population lives in the Highlands where the average population density is close to 200 people per square kilometer.

Close to 70% of the 29 million people live in the rural areas, while the rest live in the cities. Overall, the population growth in the cities is higher than in the rural areas as more and more people move into the cities.

The expanding urban population has two effects: it puts pressure on the housing in the cities resulting in the expansion of the urban areas; and it puts pressure on the rural farmers who need more agricultural land to feed the growing urban population. The only land that looks available is that on which forests stand. Thus there is a lot of pressure on the country's forests . This pressure is exerted first by the rural population that lives adjacent to the forests. There is constant shifting of forest boundaries as the population increases and encroaches onto the forests.


The increasing population also puts pressure on two other natural resources, water and wildlife. In the case of water, because people have moved into the arid and semi-arid lands, they need water for irrigation, and to water their animals. Indeed, the pressure on water is so high that conflict has occurred over it, with some people being killed. In the case of wildlife, the expanding population is a threat to the national parks as people live closer and closer to the boundaries of these parks. Further, some people have now opted for game meat to supplement their protein needs.

2.1.4 Economic activities

The Kenyan economy is heavily dependent on agriculture. This sector produces food to feed the population and cash crops to earn money for the country. The most important food crops are maize, beans, sorghum, millet potatoes and cassava. The important cash crops are tea, coffee and sugar cane. Putting into account the fact that only 13% of the country is suitable for agriculture, there is a lot of competition for land, between food and cash crops. The farmers allocate their land to different crops according to what they forecast prices to be in the future.

Kenya is the most industrialized country in east Africa, with the main manufacturing industries being cloth, paper and sugar. There is also a vibrant timber industry. However, this is now threatened owing to the degradation of the forests. The tourism sector is also an important source of income for Kenya.

3.0 The Link between natural resources and food security

The natural resources that are available in Kenya and have a direct impact on food security, include forests, water, wildlife, and fish. Although Kenya is the most industrialized country in east Africa, by international standards, the country is still at an agrarian level. This means that people are still very dependent on the natural environment for their survival. For this reason, the line between having enough food and not having enough is very thin. The country depends on rain-fed agriculture to produce most of its food. If there is a failure of rain in one season, the country has to import food.


Further, most of the people in Kenya are not in the market place yet. They produce all the food they need and do not have the wealth to buy it from the market. This means that if the environment fails to support these people, they immediately go on food relief.

In addition, those people who live close to national parks or forests suffer from their food crops being damaged by wildlife. And if this happens, the farmers are not in a position to replant or to buy food from the market. They cannot simply replant, because agriculture is rain-fed. This means that crops can only be grown at certain seasons. And they cannot purchase food from the market because they do not have the money.

When water sources are interfered with, the pastoralists are not able to water their animals. This leads to lack of food for these people, as a thirsty cow cannot produce milk.

Water sources are interfered with by destroying the water catchment areas of the country. This happens when forestland is alienated and given to selected groups to convert it into farmland. Degraded forests also lead flash floods as well as soil erosion in the surrounding farmlands.

For Kenyan people to have adequate food, it is necessary that a balance between agriculture and natural resources be maintained. This calls for policies that can adequately ensure the sustainable management of natural resources. It also calls for measures that will reduce people's direct dependence on natural resources. These measures include good food storage facilities; better animal husbandry in the drylands; and industrialization.

[Onyango Oloo]

This is the html version of the file www.ifpri.org/2020africaconference/program/day1summaries/kinyua.pdf.

ASSURING FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY IN AFRICA BY 2020:
Prioritizing Action, Strengthening Actors, and Facilitating Partnerships
April 1-3, 2004, Kampala, Uganda
SUMMARY NOTE
Parallel Session:
Priorities for Action: Perspectives for East and Central Africa
Panelist:
Joseph Kinyua, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Kenya
Title:
Towards Achieving Food Security in Kenya
Date:
April 1, 2004

Agricultural Production

Land is the main asset in agricultural production and generally, limited availability of productive land is a major
constraint to increased agricultural production. Kenya has an area of about 587,000 square kilometersof which 11,000 and 576,000 square kilometers are water and land mass respectively. Only about 16% of the latter is of high and medium agricultural potential largely because it receives adequate and reliable rainfall. The rest falls under arid and semi arid lands (ASALs). Land tenure in Kenya is classified into three broad categories, namely: communal land, government trust land, and the private land (owned land, by individuals, groups or companies).

The main feature of Kenya‘s agriculture is domination of small-scale farmers who account for 75% of total
agricultural production and 70% of marketed agricultural output. On average, small-scale farmers produce over 70% of maize, 65% of coffee, 50% of tea, 90% of Sugar, 80% of milk, 85% of fish and 70% of beef and related products. Production is carried out on small land holdings averaging 2-3 hectares mainly for both dairy and beef subsistence and commercial purposes.

Large-scale farming is practiced in Kenya on farms averaging 50 hectares and above and accounts for 30% of
marketed agricultural production, covering are mainly tea, coffee, horticulture, maize, and wheat as well as keeping livestock for commercial purposes. The latter comprises 10 million beef cattle, 3 million dairy and dairy crosses, 9 million goats, 7 million sheep, 800,000 camels, 520,000 donkeys, and 300,000 pigs. The population of both indigenous and improved poultry breeds averages about 30 million.

Food Insecurity

The communities in arid and semi-arid lands of the country are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity because of
the recurring natural disasters of drought, livestock diseases, animal and crop pests, and limited access to appropriate technologies, information, credit, and financial services.

Kenya‘s average poverty level exceeds the 50% mark. The number of the absolute poor increased from 10 million
in 1994 to 13.4 million in 1997 and by the year 2000, the overall poverty situation in Kenya was 56% of a population estimated at 30 million people. The reasons for the worsening situation are many and varied.

The causes of poverty and food insecurity in Kenya include low agricultural productivity, inadequate access to
productive assets (land and capital), inadequate infrastructure, limited well functioning markets, high population pressure on land, inadequate access to appropriate technologies by farmers, effects of global trade and slow reform process.

Poor planning results in available resources being directed to interventions that does not give sustainable impact.
For example when North Eastern parts of the country experienced extended drought for four consecutive seasons, the Kenya government, United Nations Agencies and NGO‘s spent a total of 27.2 billion Kenya shillings or US $340 million, on the provision of famine relief food to the affected 4.1 million people from March 2000 to September 2002. Approximately 20% of the amount was spent on food distribution and logistics. Properly planned, this amount of money would go a long way in establishing sustainable food security measures in the country.

Measures to Achieve Food Security

The Concept Note outlining Kenya Special Program for Food Security (KSPFS) was developed in the year 2002. In
developing this program the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and the Kenya Rural Development Strategy were used as the building blocks. These strategies describe measures needed to alleviate poverty in the country. Majority of the poor in the country live in the rural areas where the main activity is agriculture. The food Security program gives specific focus to the more than 15 million absolute poor households living in rural areas primarily as farmers, pastoralists and fisher-folk. The Kenya SPFS program is working towards the food security needs of these people by encouraging and supporting farmers and
community-based organizations in their efforts to improve agricultural productivity and other income generating activities.

Extensive successful experiences throughout the country in agricultural production and extension points to the need of supporting farmer groups in order to improve their capacities in realizing their food security needs and increase the desire to correct the situation.

In June 2003, Kenya Government launched an Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth Creation and Employment in order to halt and reverse further economic degeneration and poverty. In order to attain the goals stated in the Economic Recovery Strategy, The Ministries of Agriculture and Livestock and Fisheries Development developed the Strategy for Rehabilitation of Agriculture 2004-2014 that defines ways and means of economic recovery through improved agricultural growth. This strategy was launched in March 2004. It recognizes the need to mobilize resources to stimulate agricultural growth and need for coordinated resource utilization. The private sector will take the lead while the Government will play a facilitative role.

The Approach of SPFS

In addressing food security issues in Kenya it is recognized that there are many extension service providers within the Government, NGOs, private sector, religious organizations and community based organizations. There are also many resources, (human, physical and financial), held by these organizations. However, they are utilized in an uncoordinated
manner with little impact to the communities they are directed. The activities carried out by most of the extension service providers often do not consider the priority demands of the farmers.

Through this program farmers are being empowered to identify their priorities and make demands on the service
they need to solve their problems. The extension service providers then work in a collaborative manner to respond to the farmers‘ demands.

Demands from the farmers fall under different categories such as information, new technologies, credit, value
addition and marketing. Some of the demands can be provided immediately, while others require research or borrowing of technologies from elsewhere or seeking for financial resources in case of demands on credit.
Within the country there are many successful experiences that have benefited local farmers and communities. The
main approach of the Special Program for Food Security is in up-scaling such successful experiences. This is best achieved by organizing farmers‘ tours to areas where solutions to their demands have succeeded. Farmers learn faster from other succeeding farmers than from extension providers. This approach has proved very useful and cheap.

In carrying out extension advisory services, group approach is employed. This enables extension service providers to reach many farmers at a goal. It also helps farmers to identify their problems and assess the progress they are making with interventions that are extended to them. Common interest groups, e.g. dairy, horticulture, beekeeping etc., provide for fast delivery of service.

This program was intended to be on pilot basis in 15 districts. However, through sensitization of all stakeholders it has spread to about 40 districts. There is a total of 71 districts in the country. The simplicity and effectiveness of the approach has led to the fast growth of the program. However, in order to make the program more successful and to achieve the millennium development goal on fighting hunger financial resources are required to accelerate the process. Resources are required for capacity building (for both farmers and extension workers) credit and grants to farmer groups.

Note:

This note has not been edited. The views expressed in this summary note are those of the author and are
not necessarily endorsed by or representative of IFPRI or of the cosponsoring or supporting organizations.

[Onyango Oloo]

SOURCE: www.ifad.org/events/gc/26/speech/kenya.htm


Events and Meetings
International Fund for Agricultural Development
Statement by Kenya

THE 25TH SESSION OF THE IFAD GOVERNING COUNCIL MEETING ROME, 19TH – 20TH FEBRUARY, 2003

KENYA’S COUNTRY STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE AND LIVESTOCK DEVELOPMENT HON. KIPRUTO ARAP KIRWA, MP

MR. CHAIRMAN
THE PRESIDENT OF IFAD

YOUR EXCELLENCIES
HEADS OF DELEGATIONS
DISTINGUISHED DELEGATES
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

ON BEHALF OF MY COUNTRY, KENYA, MY DELEGATION AND ON MY OWN BEHALF I WISH TO EXPRESS OUR GRATITUDE TO THE GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE OF ITALY FOR THE WARM WELCOME ACCORDED TO US SINCE OUR ARRIVAL ON MONDAY. IN ADDITION, I CONGRATULATE IFAD FOR MAKING AVAILABLE TO US EXCELLENT FACILITIES FOR THE CONFERENCE. I AM CONFIDENT THAT THE CONCLUSIONS WE ARRIVE AT DURING THIS COUNCIL SESSION, WILL GO ALONG WAY IN ACHIEVING OUR STATED OBJECTIVE OF ENABLING THE RURAL POOR TO OVERCOME THEIR POVERTY. WE ARE PROUD TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH IFAD AS ITS OBJECTIVES ARE IN LINE WITH KENYAS NATIONAL ASPIRATIONS AND GOALS OF REDUCING POVERTY AND ENSURING FOOD SECURITY FOR OUR PEOPLE.

MR. CHAIRMAN,



AS YOU MAY BE AWARE, KENYA IS A COUNTRY THAT IS HEAVILY DEPENDENT ON AGRICULTURE AS IT PLAYS A MAJOR ROLE IN PROVIDING LIVELIHOOD TO OVER 85% OF THE POPULATION AND CONTRIBUTES OVER 65% OF OUR FOREIGN EXCHANGE EARNINGS. IT IS ALSO A MAJOR SOURCE OF RAW MATERIALS FOR OUR INDUSTRIES. GIVEN THE IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE IN KENYA, THE GOVERNMENT HAS SINCE INDEPENDENCE IN 1963, GIVEN TOP PRIORITY TO THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR. HOWEVER, SEVERAL CHALLENGES HAVE BEEN ENCOUNTERED IN OUR EFFORTS TO DEVELOP THE SECTOR, WHICH INCLUDE:

EXTREME CLIMATE FLUCTUATIONS IN THE LAST 12 YEARS. KENYA HAS EXPERIENCED FREQUENT AND LONG DROUGHTS SUCH AS THOSE THAT OCCURRED BETWEEN 1991-1993 AND AGAIN FROM 1998 TO 2000.

LESS THAN 20% OF THE COUNTRY IS SUITABLE FOR RAINFED AGRICULTURE; THE REST BEING ARID AND SEMI–ARID.

DUE TO POPULATION PRESSURE, MORE PEOPLE ARE MOVING FROM HIGH POTENTIAL AREAS TO SETTLE IN MORE FRAGILE ENVIRONMENTS WITHOUT CORRESPONDING APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGIES FOR UTILISING RESOURCES IN SUCH AREAS.

IMPACT OF TRANSITION OF MOVING FROM A STATE CONTROLLED ECONOMY TO A LIBERALIZED ECONOMY.

POORLY DEVELOPED RURAL INFRASTRUCTURE THAT LIMITS PRODUCTION AND ACCESS TO MARKET.

WEAK FARMER ORGANIZATIONS.

LIMITED ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE CREDIT BY FARMERS AND HIGH COST OF PRODUCTION.

TRANS-BOUNDARY PESTS AND DISEASES.

HIGH INCIDENCES OF HIV/AIDS.

MORE THAN 50% OF THE POPULATION NOW LIVING BELOW POVERTY LINE (THAT IS EARNING LESS THAN EQUIVALENT OF ONE DOLLAR PER DAY).

MR. CHAIRMAN,
DESPITE THESE SHORTCOMINGS, KENYA IS ADDRESSING THESE CHALLENGES IN LINE WITH COMMITMENTS OF THE 1996 AND 2002 WORLD FOOD SUMMITS. WE ARE DETERMINED AND COMMITTED TO ACHIEVE THE MILLENNIUM GOAL OF REDUCING BY HALF, THE NUMBER OF MALNOURISHED PEOPLE BY THE YEAR 2015. IT IS A DAUNTING TASK BUT IT CAN BE ACHIEVED. TOWARDS THIS END, WE HAVE INITIATED A PILOT PROJECT PROGRAMME FOR FOOD SECURITY IN ONE OF THE REGIONS WITH HIGH POVERTY LEVELS THAT WILL EVENTUALLY BE UPSCALED AND THEN REPLICATED IN OTHER AREAS OF THE COUNTRY.

IN ADDITION, WE HAVE DEVELOPED A NATIONAL CONCEPT PAPER ON SPECIAL PROGRAMME FOR FOOD SECURITY TO COVER OTHER REGIONS STARTING WITH THE ONES WITH HIGHEST POVERTY LEVELS. THE PROGRAMME WILL BE IMPLEMENTED THROUGH AN APPROACH THAT BRINGS TOGETHER ALL EXTENSION SERVICE PROVIDERS INCLUDING THE GOVERNMENT, PRIVATE SECTOR, NGOS, RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS AND FARMERS. IMPLEMENTATION WILL TAKE INTO ACCOUNT FARMER PRIORITIES IDENTIFIED BY THE FARMING COMMUNITY IN EACH AREA. FUNDING OF THE PROGRAMME WILL BE THROUGH THE GOVERNMENT, LOCAL INITIATIVE OF ALL STAKEHOLDERS AND SUPPLEMENTED BY OUR DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS.

OTHER EFFORTS PUT IN PLACE TO ENSURE FOOD SECURITY AS PER SUMMIT GOALS INCLUDE:

DEVELOPMENT OF A POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY COVERING ALL SECTORS OF THE ECONOMY INCLUDING AGRICULTURE (1999/2000).

DEVELOPMENT OF A KENYA RURAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY WITH EMPHASIS ON EMPOWERING THOSE AT THE GRASSROOTS TO ENSURE PROJECT/PROGRAMMED SUSTAINABILITY (A 15 YEAR STRATEGY TO DEVELOP RURAL AREAS).

ESTABLISHMENT OF A DISASTER MANAGEMENT UNIT AS DISASTERS HAVE A BEARING ON FOOD SECURITY.

ACTIVELY PARTICIPATING IN THE REGIONAL TRADING BLOCKS SUCH AS COMESA AND EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY. THIS HAS INCREASED FOOD SECURITY BY ENCOURAGING FLOW OF FOOD FROM SURPLUS TO DEFICIT AREAS. IT WILL ALSO ASSIST IN TACKLING COMMON PROBLEMS SUCH AS TRANS-BOUNDARY PESTS AND DISEASES AND OTHER PHYTOSANITARY ISSUES.

IFAD’S CONTRIBUTION TO DEVELOPMENT IN KENYA IS VERY SIGNIFICANT. THE ASSISTANCE TO-DATE AMOUNTS TO OVER US $108 MILLION IN LOANS AND US $15 MILLION IN GRANTS. A TOTAL OF 14 PROJECTS HAVE BENEFITED FROM THIS ASSISTANCE. CURRENTLY, THE HORTICULTURE AND TRADITIONAL FOOD CROPS PROJECT FOCUSES ON IRRIGATION FOR HORTICULTURAL CROPS FOR LOCAL AND EXPORT MARKET.

THE CENTRAL KENYA DRY AREAS PROJECT AND THE LAKE VICTORIA REGION PROJECT UNDER PREPARATION (SOUTH NYANZA PROJECT) ARE ALL AIMED AT ENHANCING FOOD SECURITY. THE FUND THEREFORE, WILL PLAY A MAJOR ROLE IN OUR MILLENNIUM GOAL OBJECTIVES FOR FOOD SECURITY CONSIDERING THAT MOST OF THE RURAL FARMERS ARE WOMEN WHO WILL BENEFIT FROM THIS ASSISTANCE. KENYA TAKES SERIOUSLY THE ROLE WOMEN PLAY AS AGENTS OF CHANGE IN THE RURAL AREAS AND THEREFORE THE DISCUSSION PAPER OF THEIR OVERALL CONTRIBUTION IS VERY WELCOME.

AS FAR AS MY COUNTRY’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE FUND IS CONCERNED, ALL EFFORTS ARE BEING MADE TO MEET OUR OBLIGATION. ON THE 6TH REPLENISHMENT FOR THE PERIOD 2003/2004, KENYA WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A PLEDGE OF US $60,000.

IN CONCLUSION, I WOULD LIKE TO THANK IFAD FOR THE ROLE IT HAS PLAYED AND CONTINUES TO PLAY IN KENYA IN ITS STATED OBJECTIVE OF ENABLING THE RURAL POOR TO OVERCOME THEIR POVERTY. I AM OPTIMISTIC THAT TOGETHER, WE CAN ENHANCE FOOD SECURITY IN KENYA AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO THE POOR.

THANK YOU.

[Onyango Oloo]

A research paper by Hannington Odame, Dr. Patricia Kameri-Mbote and David Wafula

www.gapresearch.org/governance/ACTS6final.pdf

[Onyango Oloo]

Impact of Agricultral Trade and Related Policy Reforms on Food Security in Kenya:

www.kippra.org/Download/DPNO39.pdf

[Onyango Oloo]

From: maurice oduor <mauricejoduor@...>
Date: Sat Dec 24, 2005 10:43 pm
Subject: Re: [kco-l] On Hunger and Starvation in Kenya

Mr. Oloo,

Interesting essay. Lots of info. I wonder how many people read it whole. I urge all of us to read it and take it to heart.

One misconception though; You name Raila Wuod Jaduong' in a listing of major land-holders in Kenya.

Do not include Raila in the grouping of land grabbers or major land holders. Tell us how much land each of these people hold. Do not just throw prominent names into a listing. You may be perpetrating that dreaded 'big lie'. Amolo has never grabbed anyone's land thura. You may get sued for discrediting one's reputation wuod Gem.

I also notice that you're sneaking in negative perceptions of Kalonzo in your essays. What gives?

Try to shorten your essays thura. You may not be able to reach people if they do not read them in whole. I'm
sure you put alot of effort to produce your writing but they become ineffective if no one reads them and takes them to heed.

I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a fantastic New Year Oloo. May you endeavour in interesting times.

Pass my regards to your family and friends.


Courage,
Maurice J Oduor

P/S Exactly what type of people are allowed to join
your forum? I've tried several times in the past but all in
vain. I guess maybe I'm just a political pedestrian whose
opinion is irrelevant in those cirlces. Just kidding. We all
count.

[Onyango Oloo]

Posted By: Dave Muir
Date Posted: 24/12/2005 at 11:14pm


It seems there is much more we do not know about our condtions in various parts of the country. Those who seem to know are totally careless or don't care.

THIS IS SHAMEFULL ON ALL OF US. REALLY HUMBLING. ABSOLUTELY DEMEANING.

We have a problem. Our priorities are wrong.

For many years, it seems like there has been many organizations doing research in Arid and Semi Arid areas of Kenya. Many papers on diverse varied issues related to weather, vegetation, soil, people(Samburus, Turkanas, Borans, Somalis and Ariaal), livestock, livestock marketing, transhumance – nomadism, security, food distribution, water distribution, communications network, health et al have been produced and archived without follow up action.

The comments and observations being made here are not new. Too much money has been used on futile research. Too many ideas and comments have been made on this region. However- comments, ideas and research not transmutable into concrete action seems not to be helping at all. And in most of the times we seem to be more reactive than proactive to conditions in these regions.

What is required is a no nonsense approach to the conditions in the region and the entire country. Heads must roll and crash when people go hungry to the extent of death. If the local leadership cannot act due to clanism intertwined with corruption, the Government should use force regardless of political repercussion and feed the people into health condition.

We know there is a lot that go on within the communities out there in the North that is reminiscent of Somalia clanism but that should not hinder Government machinery from getting into full swing when the conditions necessitate such action.

[Onyango Oloo]

COMMENTARY

State squarely to blame for famine

Story by MACHARIA GAITHO
Publication Date: 12/27/2005

I was sick to the pit of my stomach the other day listening to some Cabinet ministers trying to absolve the Government from blame over the famine that is killing Kenyans in large swathes of the country.

They were repeating the standard and very illiterate mantra that famine is a natural calamity, an act of God.

They are wrong. Those deaths can be blamed on a failure of Government. And if I had my way, some officials would be held directly responsible for causing those deaths and made to pay a very heavy penalty.

It is obvious that in this Government supposedly led by renowned economist, those given the responsibility of performing certain critical tasks are too busy engorging themselves to have read the seminal works of Amartya Sen.

Prof Sen won the Nobel Prize for economics for establishing that famine is not natural, it is man made!

Our so-called leaders obviously do not understand the difference between drought and famine. The former is the lack of rainfall. The latter is the lack of food.

It must not always mean that one follows the other.

Starving to death

Kenya, in fact, could provide a perfect laboratory for Prof Sen’s work. In one part of the country people are starving to death and in another part of the country farmers are groaning under the weight of surplus grain!

There is more that brings out our criminal incompetencies. Famine is a not a sudden and brutal calamity that’s strikes without warning. It does not hit us with the sudden and violent ferocity of a tsunami.

It comes slowly and can be predicted and averted way before the first person dies. As early as January, this year, our own weather forecasters were warning of likely drought in certain parts of the country.

Various other early warning systems foresaw the drought and gave the relevant information to the Government.

This is a Government that has an entire Minister of State in the Office of the President in charge of Special Programmes. Under his office are such units as food relief and disaster preparedness.

What he and his team were doing as the drought started biting is beyond my ken. But it is obvious that the minister who has only been in office briefly and his predecessor – who was rewarded with promotion to the Defence ministry for his gross incompetence and dereliction of duty – should both be held squarely responsible.

Kenyans are dying and those deaths cannot be attributed to natural causes. They are caused by public servants who failed to do their jobs. People get jailed for causing death by dangerous driving. There must surely be somewhere in the Penal Code an appropriate sentence for causing death by starvation.

It is that serious. This is the Government that rode to power on the buzzwords of accountability, meritocracy and all those nice sounding words and phrases.

We have already seen, of course, that merit and competence count for absolutely nothing in public service appointments. The first considerations are loyalty, sycophancy and political and family ties.

Unfortunately, for this and any government, any person appointed to high office merely because he is the loudest praise singer carries only one vote despite all those lies about "me and my people."

When that blundering fellow causes death by starvation, he loses his employer a million votes.

If only for the selfish purpose of insulating himself, President Kibaki should surely sack those ministers and other senior officials who fail to deliver.

For when the next presidential elections roll around, it will be, we presume, Mwai Kibaki’s name on the ballot paper; not Njenga Karume or John Munyes or Stanley Murage.

The buck stops with the President and it is he, and he alone, who will be called to account for the failings of his ministers and bureaucrats. He will not be able to deflect the buck downwards.

[Onyango Oloo]

www.thp.org/reports/sen/sen890.htm

[Onyango Oloo]

Famine is a phenomenon that is constantly occurring throughout the world. It affected the Romans, and it is still plaguing parts of Africa today. We seem to have learnt nothing from our history, as famine still has the devastating effects today as it did in Ancient Rome. We are more aware of the starving people of today as we sit at our laden dinner tables watching the evening news showing us images of emaciated children. We discuss how unfortunate these people are as the plates are cleared away and half a roast is tossed into the bin.



When we think of those who are affected by famine, we often find ourselves thinking of the food that we have, and the extent to which we waste it. We see newsreels of people suffering from starvation due to a lack of food. Yet we have plenty of food, and as I have already hinted at, we waste a large amount of this. If we took the waste of the Western World and gave it to those who are starving then there would be no famines. This is the Crux of Sen’s argument. Instead of accepting the traditional cause of famine, as a lack of food, or in economic terms Food Avaliability Decline (FAD), Sen argues that famine is caused by power of the individual to command food, or exchange entitlement. He argues that there is always enough food to feed the worlds population, but there are many factors that prevent some people from receiving an adequate share of this.



The reader is first introduced to the idea of poverty and entitlements. Using the current world situation, Sen shows how there is adequate food to supply the population, but those who are in abject poverty are unable to command the resources (ie money) to purchase the food. When the reader is able to grasp this concept, Sen moves onto a deeper discussion of the concepts of poverty (Chapter 2) and identification and aggregation of poverty (Chapter 3). Here we see that different groups and cultures consider poverty to occur at different levels, and these levels can determine whether or not there is a famine. An example used is that of an Indian community where there is a lack of rice. This community is affected by famine, but there is an adequate supply of potatoes, to many this would suggest that there was no famine conditions. However, because of the Indian culture, rice is an acceptable food-stuff, whereas potatoes are not, there conventional behaviour pattern provides the conditions for a famine. Turing the situation on its head, we see that the same occurs in Ireland where rice was provided as a substitute for potatoes, but there was still a famine as the poor didn’t know what to do with the rice.

After introducing the reader to the concepts of starvation and poverty as he sees them, Sen then applies this in the context of famines (Chapter 4). He separates starvation from famines, showing that starvation is a more common occurrence than famine, as it can occur even when there is enough food. He explains this by the entitlement approach (Chapter 5), where we see how an individual is, or is not able to command food. Sen then provides his reader with four case studies, three of which were not caused by a food shortage, the fourth case there was a local food shortage, but supplies were commanded, just sent to the wrong areas Chapters 6-9). In conclusion, chapter ten, reiterates the hypothesis that famines are not caused by Food Avaliability Decline, but instead an unequal distribution of food. Sen encourages his reader to look at the relationship between the people and their food in terms of entitlement relations.


Sen’s work challenges traditional economic thought on famines turning on its head the idea that famines are caused by a lack of food. Adam Smith, Karl Marx and Eric Hosbawn were all aware of the need to look at the customs of the people to determine their needs, but they looked no further than this. Sen steps back from the starving people and asks why they are unable to command food. He finds that it is not that there is a lack of food but that the people do not have adequate means of commanding it.



Although dealing with a complex economic argument, this book is approachable to the general reader as well as to an economics professor. To the historian, it is a useful overview of famine theory, and is a good starting point on the topic of famines in general. Sen is skilled at explaining complex economic theory in a very everyday sense that is accessible to all readers. He always backs up his theories with a simple case study that the reader can easily relate to. However, sometimes this is taken a little far, when he constantly re-iterates a point, leaving he reader confused. However at other times, his argument is clear and concise, for example, when he is discussing alternative theories or economic models he clearly splits them up on the page, often labelling them 1, 2, 3 which helps the reader understand each model in turn.

The conclusion is the major weakness of the book, where Sen seems to remember that the book is written for the International Labour Office, within the framework of the World Employment Programme. He loses the focus of the book, and forgets to exploit the main argument, instead, weakly advising the ILO on the measures that they should take to combat future famines. Although he reminds the reader that they should look at the relationship between people and food in terms of entitlement relations, this is said in the midst of his advice to the ILO. His argument is weakest at its most important stage.



As a challenge to complex economic theories, Poverty and Famines is off-putting to the general reader due to its very nature. However, I am glad that I persevered, Sen does not patronise those who do not understand economics, instead he explains his arguments in a clear and concise way, and he even includes a few humorous comments! For the general reader, Sen’s work is a clear and useful guide to famines as well as a good introduction to the economic theories behind them. For the economic historian it is a colourful challenge to the traditional school of thought on the causation of famines. For anybody who has an interest in famines, this book is a colourful and useful read that engages the reader with the concept and ideas at the crux of famine theory.

SOURCE:
www.swan.ac.uk/history/teaching/teaching%20resources/An%20Gorta%20Mor/Researchfolder/Secondbookreviews/beckybook%20review2.htm