Category Archives: Kenya

Locusts swarm into Kenya as UN warns of ‘extreme danger’ to food supply

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Government races against time to contain threat to key food-producing regions in country still reeling from droughts and floods

The UN has warned of a “significant and extremely dangerous” escalation in the number of desert locusts descending on Kenya, as the government strives to contain the threat before it reaches the country’s food-producing regions.

The tropical grasshoppers have been wreaking havoc on Kenya’s neighbours to the north and east, devouring tens of thousands of hectares of crops in Ethiopia and Somalia since last June.

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Fraud fighters and bamboo bikes: the African innovators driving change

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Software for fighting cybercrime in Ghana and tools for speeding up cervical cancer diagnosis in Uganda are among innovations recognised by the judges of this year’s Africa prize

The Royal Academy of Engineering’s Africa prize, now in its sixth year, is the continent’s biggest award for engineering innovation. Sixteen African inventors from six countries – including, for the first time, Malawi – have been shortlisted to receive funding, training and mentoring for projects intended to revolutionise sectors ranging from agriculture and banking to women’s health. The winner will be awarded £25,000 and the three runners-up will receive £10,000 each.

This year’s inventions include facial recognition software to prevent financial fraud, a low-cost digital microscope to speed up cervical cancer diagnosis, and two separate innovations made from water hyacinth plants. Four inventors spoke to the Guardian about their innovations and their plans to change Africa for the better.

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Making waves: Dadaab refugee camp’s only female radio journalist

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Exiled Somali Kamil Ahmed says her job at Gargaar FM is more important than ever as the threat of closure hangs over the camp

Sitting in a small shipping container, Kamil Ahmed, 20, prepares to begin her live radio show.

“I feel like the whole community is waiting for me,” the only female reporter at the station says, flicking through her notebook.

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Kenya’s dispossessed seek redress for Britain’s ‘colonial injustices’

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People whose families were brutally evicted to make way for tea plantations are taking their case for restitution to the UN

The red, fertile earth glistens in the Kenyan sun. Here in the lush green of the tea plantation uplands of Kericho County are some of the most lucrative lands in Africa.

Theaceae trees with their leathery, serrated leaves stretch in every direction. They provide tea to Europeans, making millions for the multinational companies that operate in the region. Yet for 85-year-old Peter Torongei, and thousands like him, there is very little hope. His tin shack sits firmly in the area called “Squatters Land”.

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Dozens killed by floods and landslides in DRC and Kenya

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Hundreds of thousands of people in need of aid as heavy rain lashes east Africa

Dozens of people have died in flooding in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) when the Congo river and its tributaries burst their banks, a charity and media reports said on Saturday, as heavy rains also lashed east Africa.

Twenty-five people were reported to have been killed in the northwestern province of Équateur bordering Congo-Brazzaville, Congolese media reports said.

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Family planning schemes must offer options other than abortion, says US

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Campaigners urge global action on reproductive rights as US comments embolden anti-choice groups at Nairobi summit

The US will only support family planning programmes that offer alternatives to abortions, a senior policy adviser has told a conference in Nairobi.

In a statement that has emboldened anti-choice groups in the city, Valerie Huber, the US special representative for global women’s health, also told a summit on population and development that her country sought to combat gender-based violence by investing in programmes that respected the rights of women and girls, but didn’t compromise “the inherent value of every human life – born and unborn”.

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Cost of ending maternal deaths laid bare as $115bn funding shortfall revealed

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UN urges major push to meet targets as researchers at Nairobi summit also sound alarm over family planning and violence

The global push to stop mothers dying unnecessarily in childbirth, meet family planning needs and end violence against women could be undermined by a massive funding shortfall, researchers have found.

World leaders have pledged to redouble efforts to end preventable maternal death, satisfy family planning demand and stop violence and harmful practices against women and girls by 2030.

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‘They see us as slaves’: Kenyan women head for the Gulf despite abuse fears | Jillian Keenan and Njeri Rugene

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Kenyan government reforms promise to make domestic work safer in a region notorious for labour trafficking – but are they working?

In a busy recruitment agency in Nairobi’s central business district, dozens of women line the halls. All hope that today they will secure a job as a domestic worker in the Gulf states, cooking, cleaning and caring for another family thousands of miles from their own homes.

Pamela Mbogo* is one of them. The 29-year-old has found a job in Saudi Arabia starting next month. It’s not her first time as a domestic worker. On the previous occasion she lived and worked for a family in Bahrain, where she was abused and locked inside the house for days at a time. Yet, this time, Mbogo believes it will be different.

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Kenya turns to Saudi investor to make water drinkable in arid Turkana region

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Authorities seek to build desalination plant in drought-stricken area sitting on top of a vast reservoir of salty water

Authorities in Kenya’s driest region are in talks with a Saudi investor to build a desalination plant, after hopes of finding drinking water from an aquifer were dashed.

Tito Ochieng, the director of water services in Turkana, in the north of the country, said the potential investor – Saudi-owned Almar Water – has already signed a deal to build a $160m (£125m) desalination plant in Mombasa.

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Bomb kills Kenyan police near Somali border

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Jihadist group al-Shabaab suspected of placing roadside device

Several Kenyan police officers were killed on Saturday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb near the Somali border, authorities said.

“Unfortunately we lost some officers and the vehicle they were travelling in has been severely damaged,” said the Kenyan chief of police, Hilary Mutyambai, without giving an exact number of fatalities.

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Turning the tables: global poverty conference to be held in a slum

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Inaugural World Poverty Forum – dubbed ‘Davos with the poor’ – to take place in Kenya’s Kibera to ensure voices of poorest are heard

A global conference on poverty is to take place in Africa’s largest slum in an effort to make sure the poorest get a voice.

The inaugural World Poverty Forum will be announced on Wednesday in New York at the Decade of Action event taking place during UN general assembly week. It is already being dubbed as “Davos with the poor”.

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Kenyan schoolgirl, 14, kills herself after alleged period shaming by teacher

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Teenager who had her first period during school lesson was reportedly branded ‘dirty’ and expelled from classroom

A 14-year-old schoolgirl in Kenya took her own life after a teacher allegedly embarrassed her for having her period in class.

The girl’s death has prompted protests from female parliamentarians and reignited a national conversation about “period shaming” and access to menstrual products.

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Kenyans who claim UK drove them from their land seek UN inquiry

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More than 115,000 people allege they were forcibly removed by colonial-era army

Thousands of Kenyans who say they were driven from their homes and abused under British colonial rule and subsequently faced hardship and poverty have called on the UN to launch an investigation into their treatment.

British and Kenyan lawyers submitted a complaint to the UN special rapporteur on the promotion of justice, Fabián Salvioli, on behalf of more than 115,000 people originally from Kericho county, who claim they were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands by the British army.

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Malaria breakthrough as scientists find ‘highly effective’ way to kill parasite

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Drugs derived from Ivermectin, which makes human blood deadly to mosquitoes, could be available within two years

Human trials of new antimalarial drugs are in the pipeline after Kenyan scientists successfully used bacteria to kill the parasite that causes the disease.

The Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) and global health partners say the breakthrough could potentially lead to the development of a new class of drugs in less than two years.

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Kenya warms to the water hyacinth as wonder source of biofuel | Gilbert Nakweya

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This invasive plant was reviled for clogging rivers but now it’s helping provide cleaner energy and protect health

It is 9am on the shores of Lake Victoria’s Winam Gulf in Kenya’s Kisumu county. Tourists are arriving on the beach in droves, preparing to spend the day sunbathing and taking boat rides. Behind them, enormous marabou storks on spindly grey legs are pacing the beach, waiting for scraps.

Nearby, a group of women scan the horizon, looking for the fishing boats that will soon arrive with their daily catch.

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Samson Otieno: ‘Without art I don’t think I would be where I am today’

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In the final instalment of the Kibera series, the musician describes his journey from Kenya’s largest slum to London

Samson Odhiambo Otieno’s early life was never going to be easy. Born into a life of poverty in Kibera, Nairobi, at a young age he endured the death of his mother and siblings, and rejection by his new step-mother. Forced out of the only home he knew he became one of Kenya’s street children, living on the road, making his way through life the best he could.

Otieno, now 29, attended the launch of the Guardian’s Kibera: living in the slum exhibition to catch up with the life he once knew and memories he treasures dearly, through the images of his hometown – a far cry from where he is now.

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‘The people have power’: Kenya’s gang leader turned community builder

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After rising to the top of the criminal pyramid in Nairobi’s Kibera slum, George Okewa rejected violence in favour of local leadership

George Okewa once terrorised his community. Spurred on by violence, drink and drugs, he believed that one day his lifestyle would cause his death.

The day he met Kennedy Odede, that changed. Following the realisation that their most powerful weapon was not guns but communication, they now use their skills to bring peace and resources to Kibera, Africa’s largest slum.

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Joy, despair and determination: photographs from Kibera

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Despite its poverty, Kibera is a vibrant place where people survive in testing conditions, both physical and mental. These images by four photographers born and bred there capture the spirit of Africa’s largest slum.

An exhibition, ‘Kibera: Living in the slum’, is on show at the Guardian’s London offices until 31 August

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‘We won’t refuse someone in need’: the paramedics taking on Nairobi’s slum | Rod Austin

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In Kenya’s Kibera, where government ambulance teams daren’t go, a local has taken matters into her own hands

No day is the same for Evalyne Nyangweso, entrepreneur and owner of an ambulance service dedicated to an unforgiving community prone to poor health, disease and high crime rates.

Operating in Kibera, Africa’s largest slum, where traditional ambulances daren’t go and even police tread carefully, Nyangweso and her crew are the first responders to medical emergencies.

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