Friday 23 September

I met Lau Larson one of the directors of Farmers Own here in Kenya. Lau is Danish and his wife is Irish and they run a number of successful businesses here in Nairobi, some to do with food processing. He has a lot of experience recruiting and training local managers and retaining a dedicated workforce.
Jacky and I met Pastor Mwasua, at the Seventh Day Adventists, and it turned out that he is chairman of ADRA the Adventist Development and Relief Agency. The next day we saw George Baiden of ADRA and we discovered that they have food growing projects in Kericho and west, their area borders on the Kakamega area. They are interested in sustaining communities and are keen on collaboration but we need to work out how that could work, they want us to come up with some ideas for discussion.
Jacky and I met Leonard Obidha, the secretary of the Poverty Eradication Commission (PEC). I explained that word ‘Limited’ will be removed from Farmers Own as soon as the Attorney General can move the backlog of papers created by the new constitution. Leonard is very pleased about this and explained that this would allow them to move on the Memorandum of Understanding and he expected that we could benefit from funding from their side as they have a number of donors working with them. I invited him to attend the Rockefeller meeting on 30 Sept as Dr Oluoch is not available. It turns out that the PEC are travelling around the country that week to see progress on various projects they are sponsoring, however he is willing to divert to attend our meeting.
We are trying to get a meeting with Micro Enterprise Support Programme run by DANIDA but they have been very busy since returning from the summer break and the earliest we can see them is late October.
I am setting off tomorrow to go to Kakamega to meet government officials including the DC and the farmers and to set up a programme for Elly Janssen from ICCO who will visit there on 5 and 6 October. So there will be no postings till end of next week.

Weekend 16, 17, 18 September

In these notes 1000/- Kenyan shillings is about 14 dollars or about 8 pounds
Friday Night
On Friday night I was invited out to a club with the Haru family, with Guyo, Gal Galo and Asha, to a club with live music, ligala style from the Congo, (similar to Reme Ongala) and in a separate area Ethiopian style music and singing where Asha sings Ethiopian songs, very good.
Gal Galo is from Marsabit in the north of Kenya, like many family here the family is split because of work, he is married to a junior school teacher and she teaches in Marsabit while he works in the Macmillan library in Nairobi. It takes about 22 hours and costs him 2000/- to travel home in a lorry. If he is lucky he sits up front, otherwise in the back with the load. On the return journey to Nairobi this is with 18 cattle. He gets 10,000/- per month and has to spent 5000/- on lodging, often he has no money at the end of the month as food might cost 100/- per day and transport might cost 50/- per day. Often they make do with some small snacks instead of proper meals. He tries to save to send money home when he can and if he goes home he needs to take at least 2000/- with him for his 2 children.
When he got married he had to pay a dowry, in his case 3 cattle, 10 pieces of cloth and 20,000/- because his bride is considered to be educated. One cow is worth about 100 dollars. So even an educated wife is considered to be equivalent to about 600 dollars.
When a child is born there is much shouting if it is a boy but if it is a girl then there is not much celebration. When a man who owns land dies his land goes to the first born son, if no son then to the brother or nearest male relative. The daughters are never considered because it is assumed that a man will take them.
Saturday & Sunday
This weekend I spent some time in a district of Nairobi called Langata. Like many other districts there are estates with houses, the houses have small servant quarters and many people live in these as it is cheaper accommodation for the vast army of lodgers who live in Nairobi because of the job and who are sending money home to their families in the villages. There is a vast infrastructure to support these people, whole streets are lined with stalls made from wood or corrugated steel sheet or concrete blocks or in some cases metal shipping containers. The stalls sell everything you might need, all food, including packaged food and fresh food such as meat fruit and vegetables, also drink, cooking fuel charcoal and gas, clothes, hair care, phone cards and internet access. The internet access is quite good except in the evening when the network seem to get overloaded, cheap as well at 1/- per minute. The clothes are the ones you and I have taken to the charity shop back home and which are now on sale in Nairobi streets for 300/- for a Rugby World Cup t-shirt or a pullover. By the way there is a Mzungu factor in pricing which means if my African friends ask for a pullover it is 300/- but if I ask for it then the price is 600/-.
All educated people use mobile phones all the time. It has been a major revolution in the past 5 years, now you cannot do business here without one, all people in town with smart clothes have a mobile they are essential for setting up meetings with key people especially government officials.
One example of the use of mobiles is the use to warn friends of your arrival outside their house. Security is a big problem here with many robberies all the time mostly just petty theft of a mobile or a wallet. But occasionally there are more frightening experiences like the lady here that I talked to about a robbery where 2 guys cut through a hedge at 4.30am broke down the door and stole the TV. She was clearly very frightened by the experience.
So all the house are like fortresses with large steel gates which are kept locked, high garden walls, bars on all windows, hinged grills on doors. For security many people use the mobile to call those inside to let them know they are outside and this provides a means to let in only those you know.

Friday 16 September

Earlier in the week I reported that Dr Oluoch is concerned about the change of registration of Farmers Own Limited in Kenya so that it is registered as a company limited by guarantee without the word ‘Limited’. Accordingly I had a very useful meeting with the Attorney Fred Waithaka at Kaplan and Stratton.
Fred was very positive, the FO constitution (made up of memorandum and articles) defines the objectives of the company, and because these objectives are charitable Fred assured me that the Attorney General will approve the removal of the word Limited from Farmers Own Limited.
I have a copy of an extract of the companies act covering this and it says "Where it is proved to the satisfaction of the Minister that an association formed as a limited company is to be formed for promoting commerce, art, science, religion, charity or any other useful object, and intends to apply its profits in promoting its objectives and to prohibit the payment of any dividend to its members, the Minister may direct that the association may be registered as a company with limited liability without the addition of the word ‘limited’ "
The application was received in the AGs office on 11 July but the new Kenya constitution has taken precedence over everything else and so all other work has been delayed. Now that the new constitution has been published then it is expected that the approval will occur in the next few weeks.

Kenya and the Millenium Goals

There has been a lot on the BBC world news about Africa and the UN millenium goals, progress against these goals has been reviewed at the UN this week in Washington. Here in East Africa Tanzania has done well for primary education, Uganda has done well with Aids, however Kenya is struggling against these targets as it is poorer now than it was.
In Kenya the period from the 1980s to 2000 is typified by declining growth with significant losses in social welfare, notably escalating poverty, deteriorating standards of living and falling life expectancy. In real terms economic growth(GDP) averaged 8% during 1963-72, the rate declined to 4.8% during 1973-1982. It then declined to 3.5% between 1983 and 1994. Economic performance in the 1990s and beginning of 2000 continued to be very poor. It was 2.3% in 1997, 1.8% in 1998, 1.4% in 1999 and only 0.4% in 2000. This downward trend has slowly started to reverse, being 1.85 % in 2003/5 and rising to 2.4% in 2004.
As economic growth declined, development partner assistance also fell from a high of US$1.4 billion in 1990 to US$ 419 million in 2002
The gradual decline in economic growth led to increased poverty over the past two decades. The number of absolute poor (less than one US dollar a day) people increased from 3.7 million in 1973, to 11.5 million in 1994, to 12.5 million in 1997. It is estimated that Kenya’s poor exceeded 15 million in 2002 - more than 50 percent of the country’s population. In rural areas, where the majority of the population live, poverty levels rose from about 48 percent in 1990 to 53 percent in 1997. Likewise, urban poverty incidence rose from 29.4 percent in 1992 to 49.2 percent in 1997.
Talking about urban poverty, Kibira is a slum on the outskirts of Nairobi, one million people live there, many of them very young. I visited Kibira and went to the house of Fidousa and her Mother. (see photo - if I work out how to publish this). Firdousa is a high school graduate and has attended training courses in computer studies and accountancy. Like many here she cannot get a job. She spent 6 months queuing almost daily to get a passport hoping that she might get to USA, but it is almost impossible to get a visa. The homes here are built in rows with a narrow rutted mud alley between. They are made of mud on wood frames made from branches, the roofs are corrugated steel sheets and the floors are hard earth. The windows are curtains and the doors are usually wood in wooden frames. There is no running water, water is collected from standpipes in each street and toilets are pit in tiny hut near each group of houses. A web of electric wires straggle across the houses and provide one electric light in each home and power for the ubiquitous TV. Cooking is on charcole using a jika (small circular metal enclosure sitting on the floor. The women seem to spend all their time bent double as they reach down to cook. Firdousa's mother proudly made me a cup of tea. I took some photos and promised to send them.
I will publish more of these insights into Kenyan life.

Thursday 15 Sept - another interesting day

Today we had no power at Runda, I went to the village market to send e-mails, then went on the meetings in town.
In the morning I met Ivy from Action Aid, she is a Kenyan living in Nairobi but her claim to fame is that she travelled in a Matatu initially in East Africa from Malawi through Zambia, Tanzania, and Kenya to Mombasa, then the Matatu went by boat to Italy, then they went on through Germany and France to England. In London she met Tony Blair, then went on to Scotland arriving in time for the G8 march in Edinburgh, then she went to Auchterarder and met some of Dave Prentice’s friends. Through her I have found out that Action Aid have an office in Kisumu and have support projects with local people in the Kakamega area. One possibility is to utilise the Farmers Own lorry to help small farmers move their sugar crop to Kisumu. Dr Oluoch is keen to see us using our transport to help small farmers while we are waiting for bigger projects to start. I am going to find someone with transport experience to talk to.
In the afternoon Jacky and I visited ATC where we met Volken Hesse. ATC is based at Kenya Cooperative Collage, Karen
The Kenya Cooperative College and the German funding partners including DED have established a training centre called ATC, this is a business venture so that revenue covers operating costs. ATC provide training courses for farmers eg they are starting a new course in Kakamega next week. They seem to be trying to work with co-operatives. Core areas are farming as a business, business organisation, marketing, and training of trainers. Currently ATC have 26 trainers and can give courses anywhere in Kenya. They are considering setting up a training course for eurepgap (organic) certification.
ATC identify clients who pay for training and also identify partners who can join in, they are willing to consider new partners.
DED also have collaboration with KFW a German bank who are sponsoring an irrigation project for smallholders in Central Region (Embu and Meru). This programme is also looking for partners.
The partners site on the board of ATC and on the Council of the Collage, they act as technical advisors. It might be possible for Farmers Own to be one of the partners in future. They are willing to have a presentation at one of their committee meetings which take place at the college. The next meeting is 25 Oct but this is likely to be taken up with MOU matters, seems as if we should present at the next but one in December.

Wednesday 14 Sept

Suprise ! - Various people contacted us today
Ivy whom Dave Prentice met in Auchterarder during the make poverty history campaign, GTZ want us to meet them tomorrow, and then ICCO from the Netherlands who want us to take them to Kakamega to meet the farmers.
I have composed a powerpoint presentation which I have sent to the UK directors for comment.

Tuesday 13 September – a good day

This morning I had a very good meeting with Dr Oluoch, Chairman of the Poverty Eradication Commission, this morning, he is really very keen on the Farmers Own concept. He gave me some strong advice, my first priorities as far as he is concerned should be as follows:-
Talk to the lawyers about the change of registration of Farmers Own here in Kenya so that it is registered as a company limited by guarantee (ie a charity) and not as at present registered as a company limited by shares. We need this urgently to work with the Ministry and with the donors who have to know that FO is a charity according to its registered status here in Kenya.
He also wants a summary report of the ABLH/FO work in Central over the last 10 years to show successes, learning points and what finally happened to this project. What need to be done to have a sustainable project in Central ?
On a separate point he is interested in the status of the Make Poverty History campaign in UK and some information we heard on BBC world about not being able to advertise on UK TV.
This afternoon Jacky and I met Nelly and Tom at their CAFOD HQ here in Nairobi. CAFOD is a Catholic Church Aid organisation and their regional HQ covers all the East Africa community. They work with NGO’s by providing funding in agreed areas. They are keen on sustainability and interestingly they are supporting organic food production in Uganda and Tanzania and a little bit in Kenya. They recommended us to talk to Sacred Africa who are working in Bungoma on an organic farming project.
They are prepared to consider funding a small project in Western to help keep us going so Jacky, Laban and I will work on that.
They are interested in funding a project in Marsabit and strangely enough I spent the weekend with Guio who is an educated small farmer from Marsabit and who is prepared to be a leader of an Farmers Action group there.

Sunday 11 Sept

I kill a warthog
Driving from Nakuru to Naivasha on Sunday afternoon the road is very bad and the landrover is bouncing all over the place, a warthog runs from right to left right across the road then suddenly stops and then suddenly dashes back right under my wheels, - bang -and we have one dead warthog in the middle of the road lying on its back with its feet in the air. This is not a good road to stop, lots of bandits, so after a slight pause we press on but the vehicle following, a pickup with a plastic cover on the back, stops and they put the hog in the back, dreaming of roast pork I suppose. They pass us shortly after and we see the warthog with it feet stuck up in the air in the back. Unfortunately at the next police road block we see this guy pulled in by the police !!

Friday 9 Sept

Followed up e-mails sent by Mildred on 12 August

Sent e-mails Nelly Shonko, Programme Officer for Sustainable Livelihood, CAFOD
Dr. Walter Odhiambo, KIPPRA
Paul Muasya, 7th day Adventists
CARITAS Internationalis Anglophone, Africa Secretariat (CIAAS), Centenary Hse, Chiromo Rd,
The Programme Manager, CORAT Africa, Bogani East Rd, Off Langata Rd, P.O. Box 462 – 00502 Karen
The Project Manager, Baptist Regional Office, Peponi Road
The Country Representative, Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team, Mountain View Estate, Waiyaki Way
Mr. Eliud Njeru, Director of Social Services, Anglican Church , NAIROBI
Mr. Fortunatus Okwirri, Programme Officer – Opportunities, UNDP
Ms. Palleschi, EU

Week of 5 Sept

Farmers Own Weblog - week of 5 Sept

I arrived in Nairobi on 3 Sept and spent some time with a Kenyan family in Langata, part of the kenyanisation process which included getting used to the food such as ugali, very good but struggled with the sheeps guts. Started to re-aquint myself with the geography of Nairobi. I bought myself a local phone as my UK phone cost a pound a minute when here.

I met Mildred on Monday for a very useful handover meeting, she left for UK on Monday evening and I have just had an e-mail from her that she is settling into a sunny Hull.

I came to Runda on Tuesday morning and was received by Charles, Julius and Stephen who were pleased to see me. I brought some clothes for them so they were happy.
Well I quickly found the usual african problems, the pickup still had no working indicators and no fuel, the landrover would not start and the electrical power went off for several hours.

I have now got the landrover working (it needed a new battery), I have got Jacky's computer working (it had a corrupted registry - Sam came over and we downloaded a massive Norton file which took all night - this seems to have fixed it). I have set up an account for my own computer with wirless connection at the Village Market nearby as a fall back.

I have read all Mildreds files concerning contacts with the donor agencies and now starting to follow up contacts for presentations. Jacky is not back yet, I have called her mobile several times but no connection, she must be still in Uganda. I have got the DVD working which we will use for presentations.

I have been speaking to Laban in Western Province regularly and he is very cheerful.

Will keep you informed via this blog. I feel quite encouraged so far.