Day: March 24, 2023

Vihiga Governor Dr Wilber Ottichilo has appealed to residents to stop growing exotic trees in water catchment areas in order to preserve the water sources. Ottichilo lamented that the planting of the high-water-consuming eucalyptus tree species near the streams and in wetlands had made them dry up leading to environmental degradation. The county head spoke while commissioning the Gaga water project in Gisambai area in Hamisi sub county in commemoration of the World Water Day on Wednesday. The project has a production capacity of 120,000 litres per day and will serve more than 2,000 households in Gisambai and North Maragoli Wards. ‘We are encouraging the planting of indigenous trees which are environment-friendly in an effort to protect the ecosystem,’ he asserted. He reiterated his commitment to ensuring that every household has access to clean and safe water in the next five years. The county boss revealed that harnessing of solar power was on going to pump the water to overhead reservoirs as a measure to cut down on operational costs as well as conserving the environment. He also launched the works on the Emanyinya water project in the Central Bunyore location which is expected to be completed in two months. ‘The department of water is undertaking the last mile water connectivity in a bid to boost accessibility to piped water by the residents,’ he said. The Emanyinya water Project has started sinking boreholes in schools and so far, they have completed three against the target of 31 by the end of the year.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Water supplied to Eldoret Town and its environs by Eldoret Water and Sewerage Services Company, (ELDOWAS), is not the cause of cholera cases reported in the region. ELDOWAS Managing Director (MD) Mr Peter Biwott said the source of cholera might be a result of water from alternative sources that the company has no control over. ‘During the prolonged dry spell, our water dropped to a very low level which made the company resort to tight rationing forcing many residents to seek water from alternative sources that ELDOWAS has no control over, and this may be the cause of cholera,’ said Biwott. Biwott said ELDOWAS water was well treated and safe for human use, adding that ELDOWAS water therefore cannot be attributed to causing Cholera but the alternative water sources that they have no control over. The MD was responding to concerns from water users who claim that of late, there was some odour and dirt in the water they use from the company. He, however hoped that the start of the long rains will fill up the dams again, which will assure the residents of quality and safe water. To ensure quality water provision to the residents, Biwott said ELDOWAS will soon be regulating all the water vendors and therefore issue stringent requirements to be met before supplying water that will include public health certification of the suppliers. ‘As ELDOWAS, we have advocated for more dams and climate action measures. The two rivers dam has become a government priority while the ongoing Kipkaren water treatment works are being fast-tracked which will significantly increase potable water supply and we hope this can be completed soonest,’ he added. Biwott also announced that they will be starting tree planting between April and September 2023 as part of enhancing forest cover that will improve the quality and quantity of water. ‘Meanwhile the Department of Health should enhance its current programme to educate citizens on maintaining high levels of hygiene,’ he summed up.

Source: Kenya News Agency

The National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) is drafting a model Prevention of Violent Extremism Law to give county governments a legal framework to handle issues related to violent extremism, an officer has said. The NCTC’s Director in charge of Prevention and Resilience Mr. Njenga Miiri said the drafting of the model law is at an advanced stage and that the 47 county governments will be expected to customize it through their respective county assemblies for use in their respective jurisdictions. The Director said NCTC was at the final stages of drafting the model legislation that was found necessary after the organization helped Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru and Laikipia counties to develop legislation on the matter; and was using the experiences learnt to provide all counties with a model law to work with as they develop their own legislation. Miiri was speaking at a Malindi hotel during a learning event organized by the Collective Resilience Against Extremism Programme (CREATE) that sought to influence decision-makers on the need to forge a united front in preventing violent extremism in the country. He said plans were underway to incorporate Members of County Assemblies in their engagements to ensure that the violence extremism is nipped in the bud by using preventive measures rather than the reactive responses that the government and other actors had been using. ‘We have also engaged the Council of Governors and Governor Dhadho (Godhana) of Tana River, who is the chair of the security committee of the CoG has been our champion representing the governors,’ he said. ‘We have also involved the County Assemblies Forum (CAF) so that we can have better frameworks of engagement and I am sure very soon, God willing and resources permitting, we should be able to engage more with Members of the County Assemblies,’ he added. Miiri said it was imperative that Kenya finds home grown solutions to the problem of violent extremism, adding that it was not possible to perpetually continue depending on donors on the matter. ‘We cannot depend on donors perpetually. These are our problems; we must own them, and we must invest in them. We must put our resources where our issues are,’ he said. CREATE is a United Kingdom (UK)-funded Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE) programme that works across the East African Region. In Kenya, it works in the counties of Kilifi, Lamu, Mombasa, Kwale, Isiolo and Nairobi. The programme has implemented a youth centred prevention of violent extremism (PVE) programme providing foundational mentorship, trauma counselling, skills development and referral to opportunities to young people from high-risk locations, to help reduce their risks of engaging with violent extremist groups. The event brought together Kilifi and Lamu county legislators and County Executive Committee (CEC) members, the National Counter Terrorism Centre, Chief Officers, Directors, implementing partners and National Government representatives. Its aim was to influence decision makers and ensure the gains made are consolidated and sustained. According to CREATE Deputy Team Lead, Ms. Ubah Hassan, such lessons provide useful learning for county and national government to mainstream PVE actions within County Action Plans. Hassan said the programme had reached 1,363 at-risk youth who had received personalised targeted support ranging from mentorship and counselling, life skills, seed funds, business startups among others. Malindi Town MCA Mr. Rashid Odhiambo called on leaders to take personal initiatives to tackle problems affecting the youths, especially lack of employment that had made many youth idle, sentiments made by his Ganda ward counterpart, Mr. Oscar Wanje. Nominated MCA Ms. Betty Kache said she would introduce a motion in the Kilifi County Assembly to urge the County Government of Kilifi to introduce the Kazi Mitaani programme at the county level in order to provide the youth with employment opportunities.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Migori County Climate Change Actors have welcomed the move for harmonising the Climate Change Policy to effectively tackle the effects of climate change in the region. Non-Governmental Organization Devolution and Climate Change Adaption Action (Dacca) Project Officer Nancy Ng’onga applauded the move by the Lake Region Economic Block (LREB) in ratifying a resolution to harmonise the Climate change policy to help mitigate the challenges of climate change in the region. The harmonisation of the climate change policy in the legal framework of the LREB Bill 2019 has been ratified by 10 out of 14 County Assemblies and signed into law by respective governors will help to address more challenges that affect the region including the effects of climate change. The 14 LREB counties of Bomet, Kericho, Nandi, Bungoma, TransNzoia, Busia, Kakamega, Vihiga, Siaya, Homabay, Kisumu, Migori, Kisii and Nyamira have almost the same climate pattern although different counties may experience different effects of climate change. Ng’onga who spoke during an engagement session with Migori youths and climate actors in Migori town explained that it was important to have a common climate change policy that is harmonised to effectively address the effects of climate change in our region. She, however, called upon the LREB to come up with a cross-cutting strategy to inform the region on how they can pull resources towards addressing the issues of climate change that affect the Lake Region. The Dacca official also affirmed that her organisation has been supporting the establishment of the ward climate change committees to help mitigate, monitor and enhance the effects of climate change in the county. Ng’onga noted that Dacca will focus on ward areas that have not yet implemented policies according to the climate change Act. She noted that the implementation process and the monitoring aspect of the policy actions should be able to be measured in terms achievement of goals to effectively address climate change migration process. The Dacca official added that the NGO will also help to enlighten the climate change actors on how to engage the media for effective climate change messages and advocacy. She encouraged the actors to identify success stories at ward levels for effective and positive change among the public. ‘The media will help the public to understand every step the climate change actors and policymakers were implementing if success stories are aired by the media’, said Ng’onga Migori County Civil Society Vice Chairperson Titus Orwa said that the workshop will assist the Climate change actors to review some of the implementation successes the county has made. Orwa affirmed that Migori County Climate Change Policy Act and the Climate Change Fund Act had already been launched awaiting the implementation process. He urged the county government climate change committee to share the implementation plan in order for the climate change actors to track the progress of the report. Orwa also called upon the county to ensure a balanced composition of climate change committee members as per the recommendations of the Migori Climate Change and Funds Act. He applauded the Devolution and Climate Change Adaption Action for tailoring their programme at the ward levels to ensure that climate change is enacted at the lowest levels of the devolved units.

Source: Kenya News Agency

World Vision Kenya has called on the government, non-governmental organizations, microfinance facilities and water stakeholders to come up with a water financing programme where citizens can access credit to procure water storage equipment. Speaking to KNA in Maralal, the Technical Lead for Water Sanitation and Hygiene Programme for World Vision Kenya Peter Karanja said that access to credit for Kenyans to get water tanks or dig small dams will help a long way in ensuring that they have water for use in dry seasons. Karanja said harvesting runaway rain water will not only save Kenyans from water shortage but also from havoc caused by flooding especially in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) regions in the country. ‘Many people lack access to water storage equipment. The government and all stakeholders in the sector can come up with microfinance that can support people just to go and procure tanks for rain water harvesting and can use the water during dry seasons,’ Karanja said. ‘People can use the harvested water for economic development, have kitchen gardens for small scale irrigation, improve their nutrition and take the ASALs areas in the country out of water crisis and be able to sustain themselves,’ he added. The water expert further argued that there is a need to improve access to water and its quality in respect to the population by exploring ground water. ‘Rather than waiting for the rains which have not been enough for three years, how well can we do ground water exploration so Kenyans have uninterrupted access to safe water?’ he posed. ‘Not all ground water is of good quality but water technologies have been put in place to ensure that once explored and the water quality is not good enough, we can make technological interventions to convert the water for good consumption,’ he said.

Source: Kenya News Agency

The quest to provide clean, safe, and accessible water has gone a notch higher following the introduction of the use of Microplasma Technology by an environmental organization to achieve this milestone. Alex Mwaki, the County Director of the Safe Water and Aids Project (SWAP) said the new technology is economical and ecologically sound for water treatment due to its generation at atmospheric pressure and low discharge voltage. ”This new technological innovation is purely accessing safe drinking water through solar energy by the use of Microplasma Technology where we are ensuring that we do not deplete the groundwater sources, but rather we use surface water sources by using aluminum sulphate then after that the water is treated using solar energy through a process known as Ozonation,” Mwaki explained. The Ozonation exercise, Mwaki said costs Sh3million and it was carried out for community projects thus producing 10 cubic metres of water each day. Conventional water treatment technologies are using chemicals, which makes the process expensive. Ozone, which is one of the strong oxidizing agents is used to destroy pollutants that are resistant to chemical treatment. ”The technology in simple terms is converting the oxygen in the water to ozone. And in the process, if there are pathogens in water, they are denied oxygen because of the introduction of ozone and they die off,” Mwaki added during an interview at the Kajulu Catchment Area to mark World Water Day. In this way, Mwaki noted that they die off and eventually kill pathogens found in water. He noted the importance of safe drinking water for the population and Sustainable Development Goal number 6, which is accessing safe drinking water and sanitation. ”We aim to attain SDG 6 goal by 2030 through collaborative efforts with the County Government, water service providers like Kisumu Water and Sanitation Company (KIWASCO) and partners to ensure that we attain not less than 90 percent accessibility to safe drinking water,” he said. Mwaki however pointed out that these developments come with challenges because they require resources to build these infrastructures. He suggested that we can find low-cost innovations to improve water that would be more cost-effective with less capital to ensure that people have access to safe drinking water. ”SWAP also promotes other alternatives of making water safe at the point of use irrespective of the water source use, for instance, household water treatment products that we can use like Chlorine which is branded as water guard, purifiers and flocculants which purifies and disinfects your water,” Mwaki elaborated. In January this year, they won a Global Water Prize from the ‘Community-Scale Solar Innovation Project” that they jointly undertook with the County Department of Water at Chuth Ber and Ahero markets. SWAP has been contributing to safe drinking water for households, schools, and even healthcare facilities. It continues to work very closely with the County Department of Land, Water, Environment and Natural Resources, members of the WASH Network Forum together with other partners to ensure that the residents of Kisumu County have safe and clean drinking water. For those who don’t like chemical treatment, Mwaki advices that they can use Ceramic Filters for water filtration for safe drinking water. Ultimately, the award-winning organization wants to see people irrespective of the water source they use they can have safe drinking water. He cautioned that if people consume unsafe drinking water they can contribute to diarrheal diseases like the recent cholera outbreak and other diseases. ”We also ensure that the water that people consume meets the quality standards as stipulated by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) and the World Health Organization visions. We also offer water quality services like testing water for bacteria analysis within 24 hours for the requisite standards,” Mwaki said Some of the challenges they face are the management of water sources through Community Based Organizations and reiterated the need to invest a lot in them through capacity building. To address this anomaly, Mwaki said that they have developed an integrated management toolkit that can be used to do the capacities of small-scale water supply systems. ”Management has always been a challenge and once the CBOs are empowered, you build their capacities to manage the resources,” he said. Notably, SWAP uses river sources of water to improve the quality, but they also face some challenges like industrial effluents that are discharged into rivers. The effluents have chemicals that cause water pollution and it’s a big challenge to eliminate some of them with the simple technology of water treatment that is in use. ”I know we are battling with the effects of climate change for instance our environment has been depleted of trees. One of the things that we are observing today is increasing forest cover by planting trees so then we can even tap more rainwater. Similarly, we’re seeing toxic situations due to global warming and getting water from drying up river sources. And this has become a challenge to access this water,” Mwaki emphasized. He revealed plans for the future that they want to ensure that they reach the more underserved population that do not have access to water and need to accelerate this change by ensuring that more populations have access to clean drinking water. ”We want to accelerate environmental improvement by ensuring we plant more trees to conserve our environment and catchment areas to ensure we have sources of water that can be made into safe drinking water,” Mwaki concluded.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Miraa farmers and traders in Nyambene region of Meru County want the government to move swiftly in reviewing the classification of the crop as a drug in order to fetch more markets outside the country. Through their union; Miraa growers and traders’ cooperative union, the farmers said this was the only remaining stumbling block in accessing international markets for the crop also known as Khat. The Union’s Chairman Mr Moses Lichoro thanked President William Ruto for expressing his concern in the crop’s business but said this should start with declassifying it as a drug as it stands at the moment. Mr Lichoro added that the National Authority for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse (NACADA) still refers to miraa as a drug, a move that prompted a similar move by other countries including the United Kingdom, Netherlands among other major international markets who barred the use and sale of the substance. ‘We know the President is a busy man and we are therefore calling on our political leaders from this county to make a follow up and ensure a review of the crop’s classification. The ‘hard drug’ label it bears at the moment is not supported by any scientific evidence,’ said Mr Lichoro. He added that last year, the union through the efforts of the county government of Meru and the ministry of agriculture made productive trips to Djibouti and Congo where they secured a sizable market for the crop but cannot access it due to lack of a direct airline to the two countries. ‘We are pleased that Djibouti and Congo agreed to buy at least ten and five tonnes of Miraa on a daily basis but this will not happen until we get a direct airline to the country. We are therefore calling on our President to intervene by securing us an airline to make the market a reality,’ said Mr Lichoro. He also called on the President to fulfill his promise of dealing with miraa cartels who have already bedeviled the sub sector to the disadvantage of the farmers. Ms Suset Kagwiria, a member of the union thanked the Kenya Kwanza government for expressing concern on Miraa farming which she said will soon bear fruits. She called on the farmers to be prepared to venture into serious Miraa farming considering that good times lie ahead. ‘Miraa has been the backbone of our economy in this region and we are encouraging our farmers to keep on moving as plans are at an advanced stage to revive the sub-sector,’ said Ms Kagwiria.

Source: Kenya News Agency