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Ugandan Citizens May Soon Receive Organ Transplants Domestically

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Since Uganda’s policies prohibit transplants within its borders, citizens in desperate need of new organs often face a conundrum. Unfortunately, most patients are poor or cannot afford to travel overseas for their life-saving procedures; therefore, many lose the battle and succumb to the various organ failures they’re diagnosed with. However, legislation could change this bleak reality for many of Uganda’s patients. Parliament is considering introducing a new law that would legalise organ transplants in the country, a decision that could preserve the lives of many.

Uganda has suffered from a dangerous problem of illicit organ trading. After public protests against the trafficking of organs and tissues from involuntary donors, the Ugandan government instituted a law regulating the removal and trade of human organs like kidneys and tissues in a bid to control the growing black market. Reports state that the market tends to target Ugandan domestic workers in the Middle East. The women are often tricked into involuntarily undergoing medical procedures to remove their kidneys. Furthermore, public hospitals are also tipped to be complicit in illegally harvesting organs.

In July, a new bill was submitted to Congress which would regulate all activities related to organ and tissue donation and transplantation and also provide penalties for various violations. In addition, the bill banned commercial transactions, including selling or purchasing human organs and tissues. Those found guilty would be punished through life imprisonment or fines of up to 2 billion shillings ($535,000).

Cabinet approved the Uganda Human Organ Donation and Tissue Transplant Bill in 2020, which strived to create a legal framework for human organ, cell, and tissue transplantation within the country’s borders. Uganda’s implementation of the World Health Organisation Guiding Principles for Human Cell, Tissue, and Organ Transplantation meant that organs could only be retrieved from living donors without payment of money or other financial compensation. Additionally, the donation process and transplantation should be transparent and verifiable.

The Ministry of Health stated that the bill would help reduce the cost of referrals abroad for organ transplant surgery. This problem inhibited patients from receiving the help they needed. The ministry added that more than $70 million per month is spent in remittances out of the country as the country relies on India, the United States, and South Africa for human organ donation and tissue transplant procedures.

There has been headway in regards to and in preparation for the official passing of the bill. Organ donor banks have begun, and approximately 100 Ugandan health workers, including nurses and specialists, are already trained abroad, especially in performing kidney transplants. In addition, a major national hospital in Murago, Kampala, already has an operating room. “We are [also] thinking of corneal transplants for the eyes [and] skin banks for patients who have burns,” Dr. Fualal Jane Odubu, chairperson of the Uganda Medical Board, told BBC.

India and Turkey are currently the most popular destinations for kidney patients. However, only immediate family members can become donors, and travel must be approved by the Uganda Medical Commission to prevent organ trafficking or to force people to donate their organs.

Should Congress approve the new bill, the process could be more straightforward, with surgery and convalescent care costing about $8,000. This kind of legislation would ensure the safety of all patients and help curb the spread of illicit organ trading or abuse. The downside, however, will be the extensive waiting list that will be created. In contrast, help is undoubtedly on the horizon, but the speed at which those who require urgent care could be delayed due to the process of registering patients, finding and testing donors, etc.

“With improved public medical services, more trained specialists coupled with emergence of high-end private medical facilities, Uganda is at an advanced stage of commencing human organ donation and tissue transplant,” assured the Ministry of Health.

“Ethnic cleansing & gross violations of children’s rights in the western Tigray region of Ethiopia”

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Hundreds of thousands of Tigrayans have been silently displaced, abused and subjected to atrocious actions by the Amhara region. Children, women and men have not only lost their homes and loved ones, but also their dignity and human rights. This ethnic war has resulted in the children of West Tigray being left without education, losing their homes and suffering from malnutrition and hunger since the conflict began in November 2020.

Think Agency is working on its new research project, based on interviews and statements of international journalists. What is infodemia?, a phenomenon related to a certain type of journalism that endangers human rights, including the right to truthful and responsible freedom of information, for people all over the world.

The first episode of this investigative series is based in the Horn of Africa.

What is happening in Ethiopia

Tigray region is a state belonging to northwestern Ethiopia bordering Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Amhara region to the south and Afar region to the east and southeast. In 1990, western Tigray, bordering Sudan and Eritrea, was added to the Tigray region, which had just been constituted as a state and was a fertile territory for border and identity conflicts. This conflictual environment reached its peak when Amhara region officials allied their forces with Ethiopian federal troops to take control of western Tigray in November 2020.

Children in the Tigray region, suffering from hunger, violence, lack of health care and education, family uprooting, forced relocation and constant trauma, have been deeply affected by this conflict. In fact, more than 1.7 million children and adults have been displaced as a result of this conflict. Children have witnessed the horrific actions committed against their parents and families, and have often been the very victims who have not been spared from this barbaric ethnic cleansing.

Since the conflict began in the western Tigray region, there have been many humanitarian restrictions. The Ethiopian government suspended many aid operations, blocked humanitarian support routes and caused communications blackouts. These restrictions have led to a widespread man-made famine that is now considered one of the harshest in the world.

However, in early April 2022, humanitarian aid arrived in the Tigray area to provide food and other humanitarian supplies to the people of Tigray (United Nations, 2022). “WFP (World Food Programme) has finally been able to meet the food needs of more than 800,000 people in Tigray” (United Nations, 2022). While this represents a step forward in humanitarian aid for this region, this aid has only reached 40% of all women and children in northern Ethiopia (United Nations, 2022).

In addition, according to the organization, more than 20% of children under the age of five and half of pregnant and lactating women continue to suffer from malnutrition. Moreover, the effects of the Ukrainian war that began in early 2022 have only intensified the food crisis in western Tigray and the rest of Ethiopia, as the country pro-vides more than three-quarters of WFP and government wheat (United Nations, 2022).

At the onset of the conflicts in western Tigray, the response of the international community was described as “lukewarm” (Amnesty International, 2021). The African Union and neighbouring countries did not do enough to draw attention to the situation in the affected region. Other organisations requested, unsuccessfully, access to the Western Tigray region to verify the facts of the situation in this area that the Ethiopian government neglected.

After the outbreak of the conflict in November 2020, international media access was allowed in February 2021 and several reports began to flow documenting what was happening in the Western Tigray region.thanks to these independent investigations, allegations were confirmed and a global message was sent. Since then, international organisations have been trying their best to reach this region and provide the affected population with food and non-food items.

The international community has been urged to respond to the conflicts in this region and assist with solutions, supplies and medical aid.

In early 2022, Ethiopia decided to end the conflicts in the north of the country and move towards long-term solutions. This would allow for a better flow of humanitarian aid and overall peace in this part of Africa. To support the humanitarian truce, the Ethiopian government has invited local rebels in the Western Tigray and Amhara regions to cease attacks and withdraw their forces from the occupied areas. Their response has not yet been received.

The Ethiopian government now has the support of the US, Canada, the UK and other Western nations whose governments continue to stress the strategic importance of northern Ethiopia.

The fact that numerous organisations and the international community are drawing attention to this conflict indi-cates the gravity of the situation, which has officially violated the human rights of the population.

“FREEDOM OF INFORMATION” in Africa and specifically in Ethiopia.

Freedom of information shows different faces on the African continent, where the abundance of press in Senegal (73rd) or South Africa (35th) coexists with the deafening silence of private media in Eritrea (179th) or Djibouti (164th).

In recent years, the right to information has been further eroded by the profusion of repressive laws criminalising online journalism. In turn, the proliferation of rumours, propaganda and disinformation has weakened journalism and access to quality information.

African media, often without institutional support and still largely dependent on the editorial dictates of their owners, have great difficulty in developing sustainable and lasting models. However, the recent emergence of coalitions of investigative journalists is enabling important exposés on issues of public interest.

According to independent international bodies, press freedom in Ethiopia has deteriorated with the detention of at least 63 journalists – eight of whom are still under arrest – since the beginning of the war between the government and rebels in the northern Tigray region in November 2020, warns the Committee to Protect Journalists.

In return, there are international media outlets, such as Voice of America, that are treated favorably, in part by justifying and supporting the Ethiopian government’s actions. “The 21 months of war in Ethiopia is accelerating the deterioration of press freedom in this Horn of Africa nation.”

Although censorship and repression of journalists have been common practice in the past in Ethiopia, hostility towards reporters has increased in the last two years since the outbreak of the conflict.

Other colleagues have also suffered attacks, such as the February 2021 raid by alleged intelligence agents on the home of independent journalist Lucy Kassa – who documents human rights violations in the conflict – or the case of journalist Abebe Bayu, who was abducted and beaten.

CPJ has also recorded the murder of two Ethiopian reporters in 2021: Sisay Fida, in Oromia – whose death was attributed to the armed group Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) – and Dawit Kebede Araya, in Mekelle, the capital of Tigray.

The international press has also been in the crosshairs of the Ethiopian authorities, as evidenced by the expulsion in May 2021 of The New York Times correspondent Simon Marks and the reporter for the British weekly The Economist, Tom Gardner.

Who is Jason Patinkin?

I like to say “first the human being, then the journalist”.

He currently freelances for Reuters, Al Jazeera, Vice News, Washington Post, New York Times, AP, PBS News-hour Weekend, Foreign Policy, CSMonitor, Chicago Tribune, BBC, RFI, RTE, IRIN, BuzzFeed News, Smithsonian, Quartz, Africa Confidential, The Africa Report, Lakota Country Times, CrimeThinc. and many others.

Until May 2021, he will work as a journalist for Voice of America.

Founded in 1942, Voice of America’s mission is to serve as a “trusted and authoritative source of news,” and its digital, television and radio platforms deliver news in more than 45 languages to an estimated weekly audience of more than 278 million people. The station, which has an annual budget of $252 million, says it is committed to “telling viewers the truth.”

For Ethiopians, in a country that consistently ranks in the bottom third of the World Press Freedom Index, Voice of America is often the only independent source of news in their mother tongue.

VOA has a newsroom staffed with Ethiopian experts and foreign journalists, but so far has done very little jour-nalism on the Tigray conflict. VOA and its team of local reporters remain impassive, and many of their local colleagues, including Jason himself, have been asked to adjust their opinions and articles, and journalists from Reuters, Deutsche Welle and the BBC have also received warnings from the Ethiopian authorities for their critical reporting.

When we asked what his work at Voice of America was like, he described it as, in essence, a media outlet that investigates the news in a totally mindless way. It is a newspaper immersed in its own logic and inexorable dy-namics, which has cultivated all sorts of tendencies detrimental to journalism, almost unwittingly playing a pivotal role in issues of great relevance in different parts of the African continent.

Last April, his decision to quit my job at VOA was mainly due to its editorial line, which limited his freedom as a journalist to report what was really happening in countries like Ethiopia.

In my opinion, VOA needs to be transparent, issue corrections and be critical when things are not done well. Jason said, “It is tragic and ironic that today there is a generation of highly trained and skilled journalists, but they are often banned from doing their jobs. “

Finally, he said it took his wife, who is Ethiopian, to make him more aware of how deeply all this unfair reporting hurts the Ethiopian people. And there may be even more appalling atrocities and media silence in other areas yet to be seen.

Ugandans Raise Alarm Over Chinese Men Marrying their Women

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Ugandans are becoming increasingly concerned over the increase in the number of Chinese men marrying their women.

In recent years, Uganda has been one of the top African destinations for Chinese contractors, artisans, businessmen, and investors. In other to get a quick residency permit and, in some cases, operational licenses, Chinese nationals marry Ugandan women to gain citizenship status.

What is even more worrying for the Ugandan immigration officials is that majority of the marriages are either arranged or shady. The majority of arranged marriages leave Ugandan women at a disadvantage once the Chinese nationals receive the required operational licenses and residency status as a result of the marriages.

Within the past decade, the number of Chinese immigrants in Uganda has increased. According to the Uganda Investment Authority, China is a top investor in the east African country and accounts for as much as half of the total foreign investment it generates.

Although the government may be benefiting from the direct foreign investments which these Chinese nationals and companies offer, immigration officers, say there is a major downside. They say there is an increase in the number of Chinese men marrying Ugandan women to gain residency and continue their business interests in the country.

In November last year, immigration officials in the country told a parliamentary committee that they see more and more Chinese-Ugandan couples, often in sham unions.

The officials say that although there is a system in place to interview Ugandan women present by foreign nationals who want to apply for spousal status, it is inadequate in effectively eradicating sham marriages. They also added that a high number of Chinese men involved in sham marriages had been deported.

“But we have many who are marrying and even producing… Even our Ugandan women are accepting to [reproduce] with these men,” an official from Uganda’s directorate of citizenship and immigration control told the committee.

Major infrastructure projects like Uganda’s Mandela National Stadium, a $1.7 billion hydropower dam in western Uganda, and the highway connecting Entebbe to Kampala have all been built by Chinese companies. Attracted by Uganda’s stability and demand for cheap goods, independent traders and business people are also opening factories and retail shops selling imported Chinese goods. There are between 10,000 and 50,000 Chinese in the country.

But now, tensions appear to be rising. Ugandan authorities are conducting more raids to catch foreigners illegally living there. In July this year, 12 Chinese were arrested for violating immigration laws.

Government-to-government relations have also come under strain. Last month, Ugandan lawmakers summoned a Chinese executive of the state-owned China Communication Construction to explain the circumstances of his company’s securing a $475 million contract to build an expressway in Entebbe.

Annoyed during the briefing, Zhong Weidong, managing director of the company, told the panel, “China assists African countries to develop. If you don’t like, it can stop; we can stop.”

China’s investments and presence in Uganda have increased rapidly over the last decade, coming only second United Kingdom – which colonized the African country from 1894 to 1962. What are your thoughts?

Ibanda Embarks on Boundary Demarcation of Wetlands

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The government has embarked on boundary demarcation of Rwambu wetland in the Ibanda district in a move to conserve the marshlands, which are disappearing due to encroachment. The wetland is located in Kijongo Sub County and acts in the transboundary Ibanda and Kitagwenda districts.

The exercise involves retracing wetland boundaries and placing mark stones as well as sensitizing the residents and local leaders surrounding the wetlands on the need to urgently restore the wetlands.

The exercise will be supported by a five-year project. The five-year project of USD $4.3 million of funding, will be executed by Uganda’s Ministry of Water and Environment, with support from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

The same project is intended to improve the livelihoods of communities living within the Rwizi-Lake Mburo-Nakivale, and Enyau wetland systems, as well as the River Sironko Arua system in the Arua district.

With funding support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the objective of the project is to increase the capacity of government and local communities in Uganda to implement ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) in wetland and forest ecosystems to reduce vulnerability to climate change.

During the stakeholders meeting held at Ibanda district headquarters on Thursday, Vincent Barugahare, the assistant commissioner of wetlands in charge of enforcement in the MWO, said the threat imposed by human activities on the wetlands has forced them to demarcate its boundaries.

According to Barugahare, after getting the backing of President Museveni, the Ministry of Water and Environment is determined to restore the depleted wetlands in Uganda.

“Our environmental patrol police unit has been empowered to enforce all laws governing the environment and we promise to leave no stone unturned,” he said.

Wetland degradation has devastated the potential for storing water and filtering pollutants. This has caused natural calamities such as floods, and pollution of water bodies.

Ibanda’s status of Wetlands

Records from the Ibanda District environment department indicate that 55 percent of wetlands in the district have been degraded through human activities such as farming, house construction, and sand mining.

According to Elly Kirya the Ibanda District Natural Resources Officer,

“A large chunk of the wetlands in Ibanda have been converted into an agricultural area and we have given the encroachers an ultimatum to harvest their crops, cut down all eucalyptus trees and vacate,” Kirya told the meeting.

The wetland systems that have been affected by human activities in the district are Kaboobo, Rwambu, Kirimirire, Mpasha, Bigyera, Mpanga, and Kitoomi wetlands.

Most of these wetlands have been either degraded as a result of eucalyptus growing, sand and gold mining, charcoal burning, and farm grazing among others according to Confidence Akankwasa the senior environment officer at Ibanda district.

“Rwambu wetland-Kyarutanga in Kijongo sub-county has also been converted into farmland. The entire papyrus vegetation cover has disappeared and the buffer zones have been invaded by man, we hope the demarcation of this wetland shall go a long way to protect it from the encroachers.

Elias Tumubweine the Ibanda district vice chairperson said the district political leadership is pledging support to the boundary demarcation exercise.

“We have already started experiencing adverse weather changes and it will be a disservice to the community if we just look on as people destroy the environment,” he said.

Interventions so far

“Together with development partners, we are focusing on restoration of water resources. We have evicted many encroachers, blocked drainage channels to retain water around, and allow vegetation to grow. We have restored the Mpasha wetland, Kirimirire wetland, and Rwambu wetland, but people have continued to encroach.

Drake Mukiibi, the Ibanda Resident District Commissioner, said they are going to work with stakeholders to sensitize the communities to get out of the wetlands but also engage in livelihood support like farming and starting up other income-generating projects.

“Sustained human assault on the environment is depleting key natural resources, exposing them to glaring risk of extinction in the near future. We should all work together to save our natural endowments,” he said.

NIRA Seeks 600BN to Renew National IDs

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The National Identification and Registration Authority are seeking Shs600bn for mass renewal of the National IDs and mass enrollment of unregistered citizens, which starts in June 2023. Members of the defense and internal affairs committee of parliament have queried the exercise of renewal of national IDs as some legislators want the government to print National IDs without expiry dates.

The new IDs will include more features such as DNA, the iris, and the faces of the people.

The national IDs which were rolled out in 2014 have a life span of 10 years which is expiring soon in 2024. However, the ministry of internal affairs is grappling with the funding gap of Shs600bn that is required to roll out mass enrollment of unregistered citizens and renewal of National Identity cards that are due to expire.

Appearing before the parliamentary committee of defense and internal affairs, Officials of the ministry of internal affairs led by the line minister Gen Kahinda Ottafiire revealed that government projects to generate revenue of Shs160bn out of issuance of the IDS.

 Express First-time enrolment of ID will Cost Shs50000

 Express Renewal of national ID will cost Shs50000

 National ID Replacement to cost Shs200, 000

Change of Particulars on National IDs for Shs200, 000

However, members of parliament have challenged exorbitant for replacement of IDs and change of particulars while others are against the idea of issuing express IDs

17.2 Million are unregistered and have no IDs and the ministry hopes to cover them under this exercise that will last for 15 months. According to the ministry of internal affairs, the new NA IDs will be upgraded to a Smart Card (e-ID) and the creation of the personal Digital Identity including DNA.

However, some MPs demanded NIRA produce IDs that do not expire to save the country from wasting resources on repeating the whole process every 10 years.

We have also learned that persons enrolling for national IDs for the first time shall have their citizenship verified by police and Internal Security agencies working under Citizen verification committees to be established at parish levels.

Kenya: Maxine Wahome Named LG/SJAK Sports Personality of the Month of June

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Nairobi — Kenya’s top female driver Maxine Wahome has been named as the LG/Sports Journalists Association of Kenya (SJAK) sports personality of the month for June, following her WRC3 historic run at the WRC Safari Rally.

Wahome, 26, became the first ever woman to win a major WRC race category when she clinched the WRC3 title in the dusty terrain of Naivasha last month, cruising in the Ford Fiesta Rally 3 Car for the first time ever.

“My goal in the Safari was just to learn the car more and day by day improve on my speed and driving lines, but I am glad I delivered the all-important win incidentally on my second appearance of the iconic event,” an excited Wahome said as she received her award on Thursday morning.

She added; “Wednesday of the rally week was my first time in the car. I normally drive a Subaru Impreza N12. The only testing I got with the car was on Tarmac, which is completely different to the Safari.”

To win the monthly award, Maxine beat several other nominees including Rugby Driftwood 7s MVP Daniel Taabu and African 100m record holder Ferdinand Omanyala who timed 9.93 to win gold in the men’s 100m at the Senior Africa Athletics Championship in Reduit, Mauritius.

For her award, Wahome not only gets an engraved trophy but an LG Intelligent Washing Machine worth Sh85,000.

“It’s such a great feeling to be crowned the monthly winner more so in a field where Kenya’s long and middle distance runners have reigned supreme globally,” she said.

Kenya: Korir Praying for Repeat of Tampere Heroics at World U20 Championships in Cali

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Nairobi — Athletics Kenya (AK) youth development boss Barnaba Korir is hopeful Kenya will replicate their performance at the 2018 World Under 20 Championships at next week’s edition in Cali, Colombia.

On that occasion, Kenya amassed 11 medals – six gold, four silver and one bronze – in Tampere, Finland to top the medal standings ahead of Jamaica and the United States.

The U.S. gave the next edition – held in Nairobi last year – a wide berth due to the Covid-19 pandemic as Kenya defended its crown with a harvest of 15 medals.

Despite the presence of the Americans in Colombia, Korir believes the current crop of juniors can ward off the U.S. threat.

“In Tampere, we topped the medal standings and emerged as champions ahead of the Americans. Granted, they were not present at the last edition. However, I believe these athletes can do what their peers did in Finland even if the Americans will be in Cali, this time around,” Korir said.

The team of 28 athletes has been in residential training at Moi Stadium, Kasarani and are expected to depart for Latin America on Friday.

Commenting on the progress of the camp, Korir noted that the athletes have improved immensely under the tutelage of head coach, Robert Ngisirei.

“What we have noted is that the times for the different athletes have improved. It means they have been really working hard. Our hope is that this effort will be translated to a competition setting in Cali. Everything is okay and we are all set to go. Any issues emerging, we assure our athletes that they will be catered to,” he said.

At the same time, he spoke about AK’s renewed efforts to tap and develop talents in the sprints and field events.

“In the long-distance races, we can see that we are already doing very well. So, it is now time to pay more attention to the sprints and field events. It is beautiful that for the first time we have a field athlete who has qualified for the World Under 20 in long jump,” Korir said.

He added: “We have realised that talent development at a young age is the way to go. We would want our sprinters and field athletes to start winning medals and that is why we want to pay more attention to this area. We are also keen to ensure that all the athletes at the junior level can smoothly transition to the senior ranks.”

High cost of chicken feed is now a blessing for some Embu farmers

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Kenya Chicken

The high cost of chicken feeds has become a challenge to farmers and has seen most quit the poultry business.

However, for a group of farmers, the rise in feed prices is a blessing as they are reaping big from an on-farm chicken feed formulation venture. The group called Kathangariri Poultry CIG is located in Kirimari Ward, Embu County.

Group Secretary Pius Gathiku, says making their own feeds has also made it easy for members to rear poultry in their homes. He notes that initially, group members also struggled with buying feeds like anyone else, but not so for today after they started making their own.

“We are currently formulating chicken feeds available to our members and which we also sell to outsiders. So far, the business is good and we continue to make strides with our savings,” he said.

Despite struggling with chicken feeds, Gathiku says none of the members ever thought of starting the project, either as individuals or a group. It was until 2019 that they got linked to the National Agricultural and Rural Inclusive Growth Project (NARIGP), a government project that is implemented through the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock Fisheries and Irrigation (MoALF&I) and the State Department for Crop Development (SDCD) with funding from the World Bank.

At first, Gathiku recalls, they were mobilised and asked to form groups of up to 30 people and then register with social services. Then, NARIGP gave the group an opportunity to pick any of the four value chains including mangoes, dairy, poultry and green grams. They settled on chicken feed formulation as most of them rear the birds and had been struggling to access feeds.

They were then assigned agricultural extension officers who trained them on feed formulation.

Savings from project

The project gave the group Sh499,750 worth of equipment including a posho mill, mixer, gumboots, sacks, overalls, ear masks and ingredients such as maize, sorghum, soya, sunflower, and lime among others to start with. Now, over three years down the line, the group boasts of savings from the project.

They sell a kilo of feeds for Sh60. In a week, they produce and sell 300kg and earn Sh18,000. The availability of feeds has encouraged members to expand poultry farming and have about 500 birds, which provide eggs and meat when sold. The members are now getting loans and investing in other projects. The group now has plans to expand and register a company that would have a higher production capacity.

The chicken feed formulation venture is one of the tens of value chains NARIGP has fronted to benefit farmer groups in 21 selected counties including Turkana, Samburu, Makueni, Kitui, Embu, Meru, Kwale, Kilifi and Narok. Others are Kirinyaga, Kiambu, Murang’a, Nakuru, Bungoma, Trans Nzoia, Nandi, Vihiga, Kisii, Migori, Nyamira and Homa Bay. Agriculture is a major driver of the Kenyan economy and the dominant source of employment for roughly half of the Kenyan people.

Yet, farmers, especially smallholders still experience production challenges which in turn hurts incomes for them, a majority of whom are in rural areas. The project is therefore designed to address the main constraints facing the agricultural sector in Kenya by increasing production and productivity using community participatory and value chain approaches. NARIGP national community development coordinator Mary Maingi said they aim to increase agricultural productivity and profitability of targeted rural communities in selected counties.

The government has therefore been addressing main constraints affecting communities such as low use of agricultural inputs, frequent droughts and climate variability, poor soils, low levels of private investment in the primary production, value addition and poor rural infrastructures, such as small-scale irrigation, roads, marketing and storage.

Others are improving market access for smallholder farmers, farm inputs, technologies and agricultural extension services.

“The project is also keen on climate-driven developments. We are using climate-smart agriculture technologies to ensure that issues of climate risks that are a challenge are being dealt with,” she added.

Another group that has benefitted from the project is Kapsika Beans Production Group from Cheptais area in Mt Elgon, Bungoma County. Today, the group is one of the highest producers of beans which it sells across markets in Bungoma County. Anette Nafuna, a ward agricultural extension officer in Bungoma, said that thousands of farmers in the area lacked information on the benefits that come with proper investments in beans.

Yet, beans are the third most eaten crop in the country after maize and potatoes. It is also a relatively cheaper source of proteins for most communities.

“If farmers commercialise beans, it will earn them a lot of money. Our data shows that during the short rainy season when they plant and focus mainly on beans as pure stand, yields are higher,” explained Ms Nafuna.

Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) Director General Dr Eliud Kireger reiterated that legumes such as beans are important in bridging food and nutritional security in many households.

Bean production

He explains that the production of beans ranges from as low as 200-500 kg per acre at the farm level, despite the availability of improved KALRO varieties with a potential yield of 800-1200 kg per acre.

“In the last five years, the average bean production was 784,000 metric tonnes in about 1 million hectares. To meet the shortfall, Kenya imports about 40 per cent or 300,000 metric tonnes of yellows, red mottled and small red varieties dry beans and 40 metric tonnes of canning beans from Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia,” he said.

However, for the last two years, bean farming in Bungoma is changing for the better, and more farmers are starting to rake in thousands of shillings from the crop. Apart from funding the group with equipment and farm inputs, the project trained farmers in the best agronomical practices such as planting and managing beans and other legumes so as to have higher yields.

“The NARIGP trainee us stating with managing soils, planting, best seed varieties to plant, spacing, use of manure, weeding, harvesting and how to avoid post-harvest loses,” says Reuben Machacha, a member of the group.

He adds that, following the empowerment, farmers now harvest at least 10 bags of beans per acre in Bungoma. The project promotes improved bean varieties such as Nyota and Angaza developed by Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO). Another group that is laughing all the way to the bank is Naaro Tissue Culture Growers Banana Self-help Group located in Nagraria Ward, Murang’a County.

The group is making a kill by supplying ripe bananas to schools, hospitals and the local market.

Africa: Lavrov’s African Safari Was Not Routine

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With Russia’s foreign minister and France’s president in Africa this week, propaganda around the Ukraine war is intensifying.

Russia’s long-time Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov insisted his African safari this week was a routine visit. Western leaders and commentators believe it was a charm offensive to win support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Lavrov told the state-controlled RT television network before he left that Russia had good political and economic relations with all four countries on his itinerary – Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda and the Republic of Congo. He noted that Egypt was Russia’s ‘number one partner in Africa,’ that the two countries did US$5 billion in annual trade, and that Russia was building a nuclear power plant there and creating industrial zones.

Clearly though, his trip was also designed to sell Russia’s narrative that its Ukraine war was about countering Western global hegemony. And that sanctions against Russia – rather than Russia’s blockade of grain exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports – were causing the global food crisis being felt most acutely in Africa.

 

Indeed Lavrov was soon engaged in a virtual propaganda war with French President Emmanuel Macron, who was also on an African safari – perhaps not coincidentally — visiting Cameroon, Benin and Guinea-Bissau. Macron called Russia ‘one of the last remaining imperial, colonial powers.’

The rival visits were further evidence that Russia’s war against Ukraine was regressive – taking the world back to Cold War postures and risking making Africa a proxy battleground again. United States President Joe Biden will hold his long-awaited African leaders summit in December, and Lavrov announced in Cairo this week that the second Russia-Africa summit would be held next year.

Lavrov’s trip aimed to sell Russia’s narrative that the Ukraine war is countering Western global hegemony

Jakkie Cilliers, Head of African Futures and Innovation at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), says it’s no coincidence that Lavrov is visiting Africa soon after Russia consented to lift its blockade on Odesa and other Ukrainian Black Sea ports. The deal, brokered by United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres and Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdoğan, would allow over 20 million tons of embargoed Ukrainian grain to be exported to global markets.

The embargo and consequent grain shortage helped double grain prices and aggravated food insecurity, especially in Africa. In June, the African Union (AU) quickly dispatched its chair Macky Sall and AU Commission chair Moussa Faki Mahamat to Sochi to meet Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and plead for relief.

‘I think the whole agreement on opening up Odesa was a very strategic move by Russia,’ Cilliers says. ‘Ukraine has been smartly managing the global discourse; they’ve determined the narrative on Russia’s invasion.’

Putin tried to blame Ukraine for the grain blockade because it had mined its ports (in fact, to protect them from Russian invasion). But this Russian narrative didn’t sell well. ‘Putin senses that they are losing the propaganda struggle.’ And so lifting the grain embargo was a deliberate move to show that Russia was responsive to African pleas ‘and to get Russia off the back foot on a global narrative that has really cornered Russia.’

Steven Gruzd, Head of the Russia-Africa project at the South African Institute of International Affairs, agrees that Putin sent Lavrov to Africa partly as a propaganda move. But also ‘to counter the very effective public relations that President [Volodymyr] Zelensky has had on social media.’ Gruzd also believes the visit is a ‘deliberate ploy by Russia to show that it’s not isolated and can still get support on the international stage.’

Lavrov chose African interlocutors who weren’t very democratic and may have fallen out with the West

Africa, in that sense, was a good choice for Russia. The continent has been less critical of Russia than other regions, with 25 of 54 states abstaining or not voting to condemn Russia’s Ukraine invasion during a UN General Assembly resolution on 2 March. That was a significantly higher average than in other regions. South Africa and many others among those 25 say they will remain ‘non-aligned’ – echoing the formal position developing countries took during the Cold War.

It makes sense for African states not to become entangled in a war in distant Europe. Yet the ‘non-aligned’ stance implies that the war is an ethically equivalent conflict between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Russia, rather than unprovoked aggression by Moscow against a democratic neighbour.

So visiting Africa helps Lavrov underscore the Cold War-type narrative, as Joseph Siegle, Director of Research at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington, observes. In fact, ‘Russia is also vying to normalise an international order where might makes right,’ he writes. ‘And democracy and respect for human rights are optional.’

Siegle and others noted that Lavrov chose interlocutors who weren’t very democratic and who may have fallen out with the West for this reason. This would be consistent with the intensifying activities in the Central African Republic, Mali and Libya of the Wagner private military company, which is propping up warlords and putschists. Wagner is widely regarded as a proxy force for Putin to counter Western influence.

Siegle suggests Russia has much more to gain from better relations with Africa than African states do. Russia is already the largest arms supplier to the continent and may hope to increase this. Besides weapons, Russia is a tiny investor and trader compared to the West and China.

Egypt particularly is strategically too important to the West for Lavrov’s visit to sour relations

Africa: Secretary Blinken’s Travel to Cambodia, the Philippines, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda

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Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will travel to Cambodia, the Philippines, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda August 2-12, 2022.

Secretary Blinken will first travel to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, August 3-5 to participate in the U.S.-ASEAN Ministerial Meeting, the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, and the ASEAN Regional Forum. At each ministerial, the Secretary will emphasize the United States’ commitment to ASEAN centrality and successful implementation of the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific. He will also address the COVID-19 pandemic, economic cooperation, the fight against climate change, the crisis in Burma, and Russia’s war in Ukraine. The Secretary will meet bilaterally with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn to discuss U.S. support for ASEAN and efforts to strengthen our bilateral relationship with Cambodia. Secretary Blinken will also engage with alumni of the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative.

In Manila, the Philippines, on August 6, the Secretary will meet with President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. and Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo to discuss bilateral efforts to strengthen the U.S.-Philippines alliance, including through increased cooperation on energy, trade, and investment, advancing our shared democratic values, and pandemic recovery.

Then, Secretary Blinken will travel to South Africa August 7-9. The Secretary will launch the U.S. Strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa, which reinforces the U.S. view that African countries are geostrategic players and critical partners on the most pressing issues of our day, from promoting an open and stable international system, to tackling the effects of climate change, food insecurity and global pandemics, to shaping our technological and economic futures.

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