Day: April 10, 2023

Principal Secretary for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Ms. Susan Mangeni has underscored the need to nurture sports talents among the youth.

Speaking during the Busia Border Marathon race at Busia Polytechnic on Sunday, Mangeni said that talents and sports are the new frontiers for economic development all over the world.

‘These budding athletes will be our future sportsmen,’ she said, adding that the County has produced several champions like Ferdinand Omanyala among others.

She urged the organizers of the event to ensure that the activity takes place thrice a year so that it can offer the county a comparative advantage.

‘I want the organizers of this event to register the participants in different groups so that we can train them on how to venture into business activities,’ she said.

She further stated that Sh3 billion will be set aside for establishment of Nasewa Industrial Park which will serve East and Central Africa.

Teso South MP Ms. Mary Emase pleaded with the County government to decongest Busia County Referral hospital.

Emase argued that the facility is congested because almost all patients within the County go to the hospital for treatment instead of referrals.

‘We can upgrade at least one health Centre in every Sub County with enough capacity and resources so that local residents can only be referred to Busia,’ she said.

The legislator noted that a number of health centres are not operational currently hence the need to revive them.

She urged the organizers of the Border Marathon to have the activity run at least twice a year and engage leaders early enough for its preparation by lobbying for resources.

Busia Border Marathon Vice chairperson Ms. Sarah Martha said that the event that was launched in 2018 has continued to attract an increasing number of participants.

‘We started with 50 athletes in 2018, 92 in 2019 and 136 in 2023,’ she said, expressing confidence that the number will be much bigger in 2024.

Martha explained that the first edition of the marathon in 2018 addressed teenage pregnancies, second edition addressed (2019) early marriages and this year’s event addressed health and wellness among the local residents.

‘We have decided that we will use the Marathon as an avenue to complement what our health practitioners are doing in hospitals,’ she said.

She appreciated all the partners for their support adding that the event was organized through local resource mobilization.

The official urged the County government to allocate an appropriate budget towards the event since it nurtures talents and promotes wellness among the youth.

The forum attracted adult male and female athletes who participated in 10 and 15 kilometers races alongside 5 kilometer fun race for children and other interested adults.

Participants also had a chance to access free cancer screening, blood donation, eye checkup and nutrition screening.

Source: Kenya News Agency

The Mozilla Corporation through its Mozilla Africa Mradi programme in conjunction with the Gladys Boss Foundation (GBF) has sponsored the youth in rural areas to identify community challenges in food or medicine for which they can co-create digital solutions in partnership with Mozilla.

The international corporation held a workshop for tech start-ups for students in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County to train them how to pitch their innovation ideas and ensure they have access to information and knowledge needed to establish and run profitable start-ups.

Director of Africa Innovation Mradi, Mozilla Ms. Alice Munyua pointed out that the programme is a lead Mozilla’s engagement in the African region starting in Kenya and will be used to inform its global strategy especially the global majority.

‘The idea here is not to build for you, it is to build with you and for Uasin Gishu specifically looking at the problems starting with food, medical records, tracking fleets to many other great opportunities that Mozilla is hoping to invest in,’ she said.

Munyua said Mozilla is a mission-based organization that truly believes in putting the human person first before profit, adding that they decided to go rural in Kenya and fell in love with problems and issues facing the citizenry and desired to co-create together to find lasting solutions to them.

She commended the youth for the great innovative ideas they pitched in the tech-innovation challenge that are really capable of solving real life problems. She assured them that none of them will be dropped off as a few will be chosen first, who will be immediate recipients of funding.

‘We are hopeful that once we have assisted the start-up in the early stage, Mozilla venture can take on and continue to support. We are going to continue supporting by building your capacity and skills and resources to ensure that you build businesses that are viable, scalable and that contribute to this community job opportunities and income, empowerment and inclusivity perspectives,’ said Munyua.

‘This is specifically supporting local innovation with you, for you and having you determine and tell us where we should be investing in. I would like to support everybody, all these are good ideas that solve real life problems, Mozilla does not provide solutions for your problems, but with you, co-creates the solution,’ she added.

She lauded Uasin Gishu Woman Representative Gladys Boss Shollei for her support by accepting an invitation to test the idea of an innovation week from Mozilla Corporation in the county.

Shollei praised the young innovators who turned out in hundreds to showcase their great innovation ideas.

She said the students’ enthusiasm was encouraging and noted that they will work together with the Mozilla corporation to nurture the young talents through training and also supporting them to showcase the same innovations in other countries, not just in Kenya.

‘We want to assure the young people that this is the start. This is in line with and really reaffirms the manifesto of the Kenya Kwanza government which is to monetize the ICT and the digital space because that is what will create employment and actually deal with the menace of unemployment among young people,’ said Shollei.

Shollei pointed out that the training done by Mozilla is essential as it not only trains students in improving their products but also ensuring that they patent them so that they are protected and that their intellectual property rights will not be violated.

The Women Rep. noted that some of the ideas require little resources for start-up but with amazing impacts and promised that her office will set aside some of the Affirmative Action Funds to support the programme while at the same time engaging with and seeking funding from other organizations to support the programme.

Various innovators had high expectations of success for their ideas during the Tech-Innovation challenge so as to get support to enable them to establish and run profitable start-ups to support their livelihoods.

Lilian Songok, a founder and CEO of an Eldoret-based tech start-up which seeks to address issues of malnutrition by manufacturing novel gluten free food from locally produced crops like butter nuts, cassava, pumpkin and others, said they are looking forward to going global to reap from the international market with the innovation if they get enough financial support.

‘We bring farmers on board to grow for us locally produced crops like butter nut, pumpkin, cassava and others. We bring them to our factory for processing and we do composite for the final product in order to tap into the nutritional value so that we can give back to the people what is nutrient rich. This helps solve issues of malnutrition, anaemia and those with gluten intolerances within our communities,’ said Songok.

Victor Kipkorir, one of the innovators, who made an application called M.hindi, said his application which works like the Mpesa application will serve to solve the problem of the middlemen who he claims have infiltrated the maize farmers. The application will create an interface which will link farmers directly to millers who may want to source maize from across various regions in the country.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Residents of Kapedo in Turkana East, have a reason to smile this Easter festive season as they become the first community to benefit out of the Phase II relief distribution exercise in the County.

County Executive Committee Member for Trade, Gender and Youth Affairs Ms. Elizabeth Loote who passed the Governor’s Easter Season wishes to Kapedo residents said that the Governor is passionate and caring to the Kapedo people.

She said despite the Easter Break, the Governor insisted that the Kapedo people must be the first to get relief food assistance amid several challenges affecting Kapedo/Napeitom Ward.

Loote said the Governor will endeavour to deliver the 9-point development agenda to all residents of Turkana County. In the next FY 2023/2024 Budget, the Governor said all projects enlisted for Kapedo/Napeitom Ward will be fully executed.

Loote led the distribution of 330 bags of maize(50kgs),150 jericans of cooking oil (3 litres) and 30 bales of salt (1 kg) to 350 beneficiaries.

Besides this, the CEC revealed to the Kapedo residents of the disbursement of Sh 250,000 to each of the 25 groups Countywide as Youth and Women Fund to be launched by the Governor after Easter holiday.

She clarified that the money to be released to the groups during the launch will be a revolving fund payable within two years.

Kapedo residents decried the state of insecurity in their area and asked the Governor and his Administration to ensure there is sustainable peace between Turkana and the neighbours to pave way for general development in Turkana East.

Additionally, they have asked the County Government to renovate the Kapedo Sub-County Hospital and ensure it is always stocked with adequate medical supplies for their benefit as it is the only facility within their reach.

They also requested the Governor to find time from his busy schedule to plan for a familiarization visit to Kapedo, so that they would have time to share their challenges with him.

However, they appealed to the Governor to ensure the Geothermal resource in the area is well protected as well as exploited for their benefit.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Over 250 families in Bunyala who were displaced by floods in 2020, are still living in camps fear for their safety amid the start of the rainy season, and now want the government to take urgent intervention measures.

The families have decried the high cost of living in the camp as they were hampered by floods over three years ago and now they rely on humanitarian interventions from NGOs and the government, which does not sustain them for long.

Speaking at Budalangi Primary School during the visit by Busia Women Representative Ms. Catherin Omanyo to offer second-chance bursaries to teenage mothers and less privileged in the county under NGAF, they now want the government to prioritize construction of dams in Budalangi to address perennial floods.

Led by Bunyala floods victim Mr. Godfrey Wanjala, they urged the county and national government disaster committee to avoid playing mind games during floods by providing affected families measures amounting to painkillers to flood problems instead of finding a lasting solution.

‘We only feel the presence of the government when the situation is worse, we are tired of blankets and relief food, we need a permanent solution,’ said Wanjala. ‘We moved here three years ago and it appears that we have been completely forgotten,’ he added.

His sentiments were echoed by the Omanyo who asked the government to consider constructing affordable housing in Budalangi to save the families who are struggling with hard economic times in camps for the past two years.

‘In Kenya, the right to housing is embedded in the constitution, which provides that every person has the right to accessible and adequate housing, and to reasonable standards of sanitation,’ noted Omanyo.

The lawmaker added that little attention has been given to producing affordable housing to the poor segments of the population, who form the bulk of Kenyan society at 57 percent of the population.

‘In Busia, affordable housing should be constructed in Budalangi. This will save the government billions used in disaster management yearly and also will boost the economy of this area through job creation and open up investment avenues,’ she added.

The worst hit were families from Bunyala South location and Rukala Location. Musoma primary school and Mau Mau market, who had started recovering from havoc are most likely to be overrun by floods once again.

Flood victims camps where over 250 families call home include Membee, Bunyala, Budala, Rukala, Khadundu, Igigo and Runyu.

Most families here depend 90 percent on fishing and sand harvesting, the job that has given them more life risks and challenges they face from the lake including harassment from Uganda policemen in the lake.

Source: Kenya News Agency