School fires: How safe are our schools?

Frequent fire outbreaks in schools is generating new interest in the safety of our children, especially in boarding schools, writes Otieno Amisi

How safe are our schools? is a question that nags every parent whenever a fire outbreak is reported in a school.

Fires have become a common problem in recent years. No place is safe any more; even the hallowed precincts of courts and prisons have fallen victims.

Only last week, a group of students at Naivasha Mixed Secondary school set ablaze the institution’s administration block. The disgruntled students are reported to have been targeting the deputy headmaster’s office, which keeps records of their academic performance and conduct. Property worth thousands of shillings was destroyed.

In February, warders’ houses at the Kamiti Maximum Security prison were reduced to ashes. The Nakuru court became a casualty last May. Slums, markets and hotels have fallen prey to the destructive flames.

But nowhere is the menace of fire more rampant than our learning institutions. Dormitories, offices, laboratories and other facilities have been the target of arsonists.

Every month, at least two schools suffer a fire outbreak. Though relatively few lives are lost, school fires have acquired an alarming notoriety.

Last year, there were at least 15 fire incidents in various schools.

But it would appear that after Kyanguli, school fires no longer generate any more heat.

After Prof. David Ndetei’s verbose Report On Post Trau- matic Stress Disorders and Associated Biological and Social Complications was shelved, there is little to show for our concern.

The report followed the infamous Kyanguli massacre in which 64 students died in a night inferno in March, 2001.

The Kyanguli massacre was a larger rendition of a 1998 massacre at Bombolulu Girls High school in the Coast Province, which killed several students.

Bishop Lawi Imathiu, who chaired the Commission of Inquiry that probed the Bombo- lulu disaster, proposes that school managers avoid crowding of dormitories.

In the Kyanguli case, the dormitory housed 130 students. The bishop proposes that many exit routes be created per dormitory and that hostel doors should not be locked from outside when students are inside.

But he cautions that such doors should be easily opened in case of emergency. Different prefects can keep separate keys to emergency exits.

“Of what use are doors when they are permanently locked, and the key kept in the school store?” he poses.

One would expect that with the growing frequency of school fires, head teachers would be falling over each other to install fire extinguishers in school laboratories, offices, and other fire-prone spots. It would also be expected that fire drills and first aid form part of the weekly activities in any boarding school worth its name; that fire equipment is checked for readiness in case of an emergency.

One would be forgiven for expecting that our universities, power suppliers and research institutions are working on ways to make building materials less inflammable, public buildings less fire prone, and creating awareness among the general public on fire preparedness.

Yet little has been done to prepare schools for fires. Our survey showed that only a handful of schools have fire extinguishers in offices, labora- tories, stores and kitchens, and even these were not regularly serviced.

Classrooms and dormitories had no fire extinguishers or emergency exits. Everywhere, contractors and school managers showed acute lack of interest in fire and safety measures.

In many schools, prefabricated buildings are a common sight. Most school property is combustible and is seldom subject to building and fire prevention regulations.

Furthermore, many public schools run on a shoe-string budget and cannot afford the luxury of fire fighting equipment. The slapping of a VAT on fire equipment puts the price of extinguishers way above the reach of most institutions.

School inspectors hardly perform safety assessment on during routine checks in schools.

In an ideal situation, fire fighting training, like scouting, should be an integral part of the school’s co-curricula menu. Fire fighters, like National Youth servicemen and the police, form an integral part of the national security system, helping soldiers in times of war.

Though a few schools are situated near open water sources like ponds and rivers, a majority have only a limited supply of water. There is need for public institutions to provide fire hydrants (alternative water sources) to be used in cases of emergency.

The present situation where the Ministry of Water wants the fire brigade to pay for water used in putting of emergency fires is ridiculous.

Recently, the chairman of the Kenya National Fire Brigade Association says there is no legal provision for fire fighters to draw water from fire hydrants and open sources even during an emergency.

But if our municipal authorities are themselves so ill prepared to fight even a modest house fire, what would our cash strapped schools do in the face of a disaster of the Kyanguli or Nyeri High school scale?

Local councils are themselves barely capable of handling fire emergencies. Furthermore, low public awareness of safety engineering means that there is little public support towards fire brigades.

A study of the response of local fire brigades in Kenya is like a peek at a well drafted tragi-comedy. If by chance the phones work, the lone engine will most likely be grounded.

When, in the unlikely even the truck weaves its way through the traffic jam and reaches the site, it will be discovered that there is not enough water or foam to fight the fire.

Current fire stations have exceeded their life span and badly need replacement.

As of February this year, the Nairobi fire brigade had only two foam tenders and one engine. The Ruaraka station had one engine, while Industrial Area had none.

Local Government Minister, Mr Karisa Maitha, says the fire department needs Sh 3 billion to revamp the fire sector, but he is uncertain whether the money will be forthcoming in the next Budget, due next week.

Maitha says though the country’s fire brigades in major towns are a full time professional fire fighting force, lack of facilities have continued to hamper their efforts.

Embakasi MP, Mr David Mwenje, recently decried the poor location of the Nairobi fire station. He argues that the fire fighters find it difficult to respond quickly to fires because of heavy traffic jams that block the trucks.

Mwenje wants the fire station relocated from the city centre, and its services decentralised to smaller stations on the outskirts of the city. Players in the safety industry feel it is time a fire authority was created.

National Fire Brigade Association secretary, Mr Francis Liech, even wants the government to provide for a department of fire and ambulance services.

Liech also feels that there is need to form teams of paid and volunteer firemen in every district to prevent, detect and extinguish fires, the way the ministry of agriculture has extension officers.

He also wants a central training school established to standardise fire training curriculum.

Only the Kenya Polytechnic offers a comprehensive safety training course. Most fire fighters are trained on the job, and the quality of the training is wanting.

In the meantime, the ministry should strengthen school inspection teams to check fire safety in schools.

The writer is a regular contributor to the East African Standard

My foray into literary journalism

Books

By Barrack Muluka

With such famine as there is in parts of Northern Kenya, a publication like ‘New Age’ must appear a luxury Hardly two years since its inception, the most promising literary publication in Kenya (and I dare say in East and Central Africa) is faced with the danger of going the same way all other literary and educational publications in East Africa have gone. New Age, launched in January last year, might have to fold up, unless donor support funds to the tune of Sh1.8 million are urgently secured.

The publication, the brainchild of Otieno Amisi, a young literary enthusiast, came into being with the financial support of Ananda Marga Mission, a volunteer relief mission that is involved with a wide range of educational, hunger and medical support programmes. Throughout last year, New Age won the hearts of many with scintillating literary, educational and cultural debates. The tabloid, depending largely on external writers, has attracted contributions and reactions from such scholarly and creative luminaries as Prof Chris Wanjala, Prof S. Atieno-Odhiambo, Taban Lo Liyong and Marjorie Oludhe-Macgoye. In all, 12 editions were issued last year – essentially one issue a month. It is not stretching the truth to say that the publishers of New Age have acquitted themselves with speed, spice and credence.

They have previously adroitly carried refreshing and provocative articles on such topics as the racial descent of the ancient Egyptians, based on Caetanya’s book, The Restoration of African Greatness, in which the argument has been advanced that the ancient Egyptians (and indeed others like Moses of the Old Testament and Jesus Christ) were black Africans. Also discussed in back numbers have been topics like slave trade and the decline of African civilisation, hunger in Africa, self-censorship in literature, the future of education in Kenya, the nagging problems of economic decline in Kenya, inflation, population … one could go on for ever. Then come 1992 and it soon becomes clear that all was not well. So far, only three editions of this magazine have been issued this year.

The managing editor, Otieno Amisi, explains that this is due to the partial withdrawal of Ananda Marga Mission from the project. When the publication was launched, Ananda Marga bank-rolled production fully. They also provided office space as well as financing other infra-structural needs.

But, explains Amisi: “In recent months, it has been impossible for them to continue giving us this support because of the very growing number of emergency relief and social service projects they are involved in.” With such famine as there is in parts of Northern Kenya and other neighbouring countries, a publication like New Age must appear a luxury to any donor who is himself in the first place hard-pressed for finances.

Indeed, Ananda Marga have indicated through their Mr Dada Ramaendrananda that they intend to pull out of New Age altogether. Perhaps the picture would not be so bleak if advertisers honoured their commitment and paid up in time. Amisi reports that they are owed upwards of Sh140,000 from previous advertising in the magazine. “And it is unlikely that they will all pay up at the same time.” To try to save the situation, Amisi and three others, David Njenga Muhia, Castor Kweye and Mcloud Givonda, have recently registered a new company, Creative Ventures, which will fully take over New Age. The new company, which will operate as a non-profit making organisation, will be housed in Gill House, Nairobi.

Already appeals have been sent out to individuals, foundations, and other organisations to help contribute towards the Sh1.8 million Creative Ventures would initially require to keep afloat. Whether this assistance will be forthcoming or not, only time will tell. What is clear, though, is that the hopes of many literary enthusiasts are once again hanging in the balance with New Age, as were, on the precipice.

Hope for School Theatre

Ray of Hope for School Theatre as Kasigwa is appointed principal

By Otieno Amisi

Rural teachers and their humble schools rarely get a mention in the mass media. Unless exam results are startling, or some unfortunate head teacher is being hounded out of school by irate parents for ‘failing’ those clever pupils.

But when playwright Oliver Minishi was elevated to principal of Kakamega High school recently, there was a party in town. Over at the National Theatre, Nairobi we had a quiet toast for Minishi, who has excelled severally in East Africa’s biggest theatre event with his captivating school plays and dances.

Minishi is not a playwright in the mould of Francis Imbuga, David Mulwa or Ngugi wa Thiongo — that first generation of writers who went into creative menopause some years ago.

He is perhaps the most famous in a new generation of script writers who have taken the annual schools drama movement by the horns and thrown it into the middle of next week. This cast includes Joseph Murungu, Bernard Kasigwa, Mwinyihija Yusuf, Maua Dambala, LP Barasa, Peter Akhanyalabandu, who, thanks to their ingenuity, have turned the festival into a furious competition for trophies, bewildering their pupils with their their stunts and enterprise.

But that is a story for another day. Minishi is a physics teacher and theatre artist of indisputable ability. He has provided practical help and real expressive power to so many fine actors who stride our screens today. He is a warm, gentle, compassionate facilitator at workshops, with a sense of humour and devotion to his calling. Though, theatre goers feel Minishi’s recent promotion is some sort of official recognition of the place of theatre in schools, his employer, the Teachers’ Service Commission, may not have been overtly rewarding the thespian for his stage exploits. And this is exactly where the problem begins.

All over the world, theatre practitioners and teachers believe that drama is central to children’s emotional development and is the key to the development of their confidence. But while many head teachers appreciate the role performing arts play in the life of every pupil, there is little support for the genre.

Stories abound of schools that were unable to participate at several competitions due to this bad attitude towards drama, or of students spending cold nights when funds run out during festivities. There are even more stories of bad blood between drama teachers and school heads. Back home, there are also many parents and teachers who feel that drama takes an “unnecessary” toll on pupil’s performance, that ‘bright’ students can do better if they left drama alone.

Though, most inter-school events attract considerable enthusiasm from parents and teachers alike, drama attracts mountains of negative attention, criticism and ridicule even from education officials. On their part, many teachers are often hostile towards students who excel in drama, believing they can exert undue influence on impressionable fellow students. Could this be the reason behind the huge waste of talent after school? Could this official disregard for theatre be the reason for the falling standards of theatre? Could this explain the slow acceptance of class drama as a teaching tool?

Why is there so little effort to popularise this noble genre, which is not only a multi million dollar industry but also a tool in education. Class drama is today recognised worldwide as a vital tool for democratizing learning, making it more participatory, and more enjoyable. For the 21st century language teacher, no methodology better captures the spirit of democracy and participation than class drama.

Students can dramatise comprehension passages, poetry, compositions and grammar, besides the set play itself. Classroom theatre is not limited to language teaching alone. A creative teacher of geography can take an orange to class and peel it piece by piece to illustrate the various layers under the surface of the earth. The current arrangement which delineated drama from the classroom is our undoing.

Drama should not be confined to festivals alone. Educationists already agree that many schools with a fine reputation in drama tend to do better in examinations as opposed to schools where extra curricula activities are curtailed or underdeveloped.

otienoamisi@yahoo.com

The trouble with Dominion

By Otieno Amisi

Recently, Kenya Times was an unwelcome guest at the trouble-ridden Yala Swamp. Photographer David Gichuru and I were roughed up and almost lynched by a mob who were allegedly revenging against recent ‘negative’ media reports.

We were briefly detained at the farm’s security office and our camera, press cards and mobile telephones confiscated before police came to our rescue.

The swamp, being trust land, remains public property. A road has been mercifully rehabilitated across it, and there are no notices prohibiting entry or taking of photographs.

The trouble here is purely a matter of public relations gone sour. Dominion farms Limited, a rich American company, is trying to revive a noble project that the government failed to implement through the botched up Lake Basin Development Authority, thanks to corruption and bad management.

Our investigations reveal that people and organisations with vested interests are trying to scuttle the project, spreading dangerous and malicious rumours, and creating unnecessary animosity among local people.

Dominion Farms entered an agreement with Siaya and Bondo County Councils to develop Lake Kanyaboli in Alego and Yimbo areas.

Such an interface is probably the only way for a struggling economy like Kenya’s; it will create jobs, inject much needed funds into the local economy, uplift living standards and aid in technology transfer. Even in its current infancy, it is already doing these in a region that is one of the poorest in the country.

Part of the trouble is that the people’s expectations are too high. Work had been going on until recently when NGOs, political leaders, opinion leaders and a few members of the local population have turned against the project.

What Dominion needs to do is come clear on its operations, make public the agreements between itself and the county council, painstakingly explain to the public all possible negative side effects of the project and what measures it is putting in place to forestall or curb the inevitable hazards.

The frenzied mob that attacked us at Siaya muttered things like too few development projects in Nyanza and questioned the media’s sense of patriotism.

While it is true that such bickering will definitely put off many more potential investors, it is upon Dominion to meet the people’s needs halfway by investing more visibly in social amenities like schools, roads and healthcare.

Dominion must explain away the rumours and controversies surrounding its operations. Some of these are outright lies and founded on malice, while some could have scientific basis.

But it is upon the firm to dispute them. Like the allegations concerning genetically modified organisms, the use of restricted chemicals like DDT, and the threat to rare fish, bird, plant and animal species.

Storm in Yala Swamp

The untold story of Siaya’s troubled farm project

By Otieno Amisi

Since Dominion Farms Limited first set foot in the muddy waters of Yala swamp, there has never been peace in Siaya. When the firm finally received approvals from Siaya and Bondo District Development Committees and the Siaya and Bondo County Councils, things appeared to be on track. But the firm’s plans to establish a state of the art farm in the Yala Swamp in early 2003 after completion and approval of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) by the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) suffered an immediate setback.

According to Joyce Opondo, the personal assistant to country director, who also doubles as the firms public relations office, Dominion caused an EIA Study Report to be prepared and completed sometime in April 2004 and the firm was granted a company a license. Dominion leased agricultural land from the Siaya and Bondo County Councils for a period of 25 years with an option of another 20 years in May 2004.

The amount of land leased at the time was 3,700 ha in the gazetted area and an additional area not specified in the agreement, but which would amount to 3,200 ha after gazettement. The company also signed a memorandum of understanding with Lake Basin Development Authority and the County Councils. In the MOU, the LBDA was to act as the technical arm of the government in the management of the project, while the county councils signed as trustees to the community land. Allegedly included in the MOU were various corporate social responsibilities towards the local communities surrounding the Yala Swamp. The firm planned to rehabilitate the dilapidated infrastructure at the Yala Swamp, to complete the stalled weir left behind by LBDA for use in irrigation of the land and to construct a new 1.8 km dyke upstream of the weir.

Other plans included rehabilitation of the 7.5 Km dyke downstream of the weir and extending it by 3-4 Km to reclaim part of the 4,600 ha classified as area II, rehabilitation of the Lake Kanyaboli Feeder canal and rehabilitation of the Lake Kanyaboli retention dyke. According to Dominion’s grand plan, the firm will also establish irrigation infrastructure, improve crop production and construct a spillway from Lake Kanyaboli. It would also complete the diversion of River Hwiro and its attendant civil works, including dyke construction.

The work, divided into three phases, will be completed in ten years and the swamp would produce cereal crops like rice, maize, soybean, sunflower, fisheries, cotton, soybean, paddy rice, artemisia, onions and vegetables. There will also be an improvement of beekeeping and honey production. The main crop, however, will be irrigated rice. Opondo says among other things, the MOU signed between the company and the county councils included various social responsibilities towards the local communities of both Districts. These, according to her, include the initial clearing and ploughing of 150 acres of land within the boundaries of each of the councils for local community use, rehabilitation of at two public primary schools each in Siaya and Bondo, and rehabilitation of at least two public health facilities for each of the councils.

All these would be achieved in the next ten years, Opondo says. So why is Dominion being crucified even before the first three years are over? “We want to develop a profitable business and state of the art farm for Africa, “ says Opondo. “We want to reduce poverty through provision of employment and economic development. We want to increase crop and fish production for domestic consumption and improve food security in the country as a whole. Opondo could go on and on. She says the project wants to provide sustainable livelihoods for rural households, improve socio-economic infrastructure, increase government revenue and create jobs.. Opondo claims the firm has so far completed an Environmental Impact assessment and has obtained Nema’s approval. It has also rehabilitated LBDA’s once dilapidated housing quarters at Ratuoro for accommodation of Dominion Staff and offices. At least 2,000 of the 5,700 acres for agricultural land marked as area one is already being rehabilitated, while the construction of the weir and diversion of Yala River to flow through the dyke is well under way. Opondo says the community’s expectations are too high.

“Some people here expected the company to provide employment to almost everyone, to provide social amenities too quickly. True, we made promises at inception, but these promises will certainly take time to be fulfilled. Even now, it is already a huge strain on the company, these requirements for social amenities. The company has gone out of its way to accommodate them as much as possible, but it is a Herculean task.” But the inhabitants of area are not amused. According a protest note copied to the press, they claim that when the investor was making in roads into the Yala Swamp, it was generally agreed that the local people would be given the first employment opportunity.

“The understanding was that the people of Alego, Gem and Ugenya would be give first priority. That has never been the case. The investor has been employing people from out side the district, leaving the local people to languish in abject poverty,” they say. The locals are also unhappy with the projects’ interference with traditional pastures and water points. “The main economic activity of the residents of Kadenge and Seje used to be cattle rearing, which was supported by the undisturbed swamp. There existed proper grazing fields and water points for the cattle. When the investor came, he promised to set aside land for grazing purposes and to dig dams, drill boreholes for water purposes. None of the above projects has been done, and our cattle are declining in number. Cows are out our only source of wealth. They further argue that the construction of a causeway across lake kanyaboli has divided the lake into two, and that the investor has gone ahead to illegally possess the lower part of the lake, which connects it to other water bodies like Lake Namboyo and Lake Victoria.

This, they say, has led to a decline in the number of fish on the side of the lake preserved for the locals. The water level on the other side of the lake has dropped. The investor, they claim, was only allowed to use the swamp, and not the lake. On socio corporate responsibility, the locals argue that the investor has not kept the promises to improve infrastructure and there nothing to write home about the much hyped concept of technology transfer to the locals. “So far, infrastructure in the schools within the catchment area of the swamp remain in pathetic condition, and nothing significant has been done in the hospital. The firm’s socio-corporate responsibility report card is still reading zero,” they say. Dominion has also been accused of spraying dangerous chemicals over its crops using aeroplanes, even in daylight. This, the locals argue, exposes locals, farm workers their crops and wildlife alike to serious health and environmental dangers. They further accuse Dominion of encroaching on private land, initially registered as Land parcel No. 899. This land, they claim, was properly demarcated and sub divided to the members of the community and each member has a separate parcel plot.

The investor has allegedly rendered the local people squatters in their own land, without duly compensating them, they argue. At least three local organisations and several members of parliament have since joined the fray. Patrick Ochieng, Director of Ujamaa Center and Chris Owalla of the Nyanza Social Forum say there is more than meets the eye in the Yala swamp project. “The truth is being smothered with such abandon this issue invites more questions than answers, says Owalla. At the height of the controversy, both Ujamaa and Nyanza Social Forum visited the farm with a group from Central America and spent two days with the communities of Yimbo and Alego. They concluded that Dominion must reassess its approach and involve the locals even more to harness their support. “Yala swamp is a shared wetland resource between Busia, Bondo and Siaya districts, and is by and large the property of the larger East Africa. It is also a buffer zone between the land and the lake,” says Owalla.

“It is here that the lost species of Lake Victoria are still found, and therefore, it is important for the entire region’s ecosystem” he says. Yala swamp covers approximately 17,500 and has always been targeted for reclamation since Sir Alexander Gibb and Partners made their first proposal in their study, Kenya Nile Basin Water Resources in 1954-6. Three phases of reclamation and development were identified, the first of which was completed after 2,300 ha. had been reclaimed.

The second phase was started soon after, but work stopped in 1970 due to lack of funds. By then only 7km of a diversion canal of the Yala River had been constructed and the Lake Kanyaboli retention dyke and a feeder canal had also been put up. The organisations argue that the Dominion project, because of its application of fertilizers, pesticides and invasive species, is bound to release harmful effluent onto the environment. They argue that the possible impact of effluent from proposed fish factories, noise and pungent smell and waste discharge from various machinery has not been properly addressed. Further, the groups charge that shrines, cultural sites and spiritual spots have already been shovelled aside to pave way for development without considering the people’s interests. Though Dominion has promised to put and/or upgrade health facilities within the two districts of Bono and Siaya, the groups argue, the Environmental Impact assesment undertaken by Dominion farms so far does not address the emergent health issues associated with population growth.

The report is also silent on water-borne diseases associated with rice growing and the creation of vast water reservoirs like malaria and typhoid. Both Ujamaa and Nyanza Social Forum argue that in the long term, the effects of the projects will adversely affect food security, education standards, and the general development of the community and will compromise the people potential to achieve the Education for All (EFA) and Millennium Development goals. They further claim the project will cause what they call ‘unpredictable ecological hazards.’ Some of these include the negative effects on the three lakes Kanyaboli, Sare and Nyamboyo. “Papyrus, the swamp’s most dominant plant, will disappear, the fate of the rare sitatunga buck and the goloneck, a rare bird, will be sealed forever. The filtering effect of the swamp of pollutants from Yala River before water is discharged to the lake will be lost. The breeding and nursery grounds for fish and birds will go. Rare fish species like mbiru, fulu, kamongo, okoko, nyamami, ningu, fwani, adel and ngege which are currently found in these three lakes will all disappear.” These complaints are not novel, however. As far back as the 1960s, when Dominion’s precursor, the Lake Basin Development Authority set foot in the murky waters of the swamp, ecologists and local leaders were already sharply divided over the rehabilitation proposal. A Busia politician at the time, Peter Okondo, is reported to have claimed, “as an economic unit, the swamp is useless; it is a danger to the economy and it takes away land. It is a breeding ground for mosquitoes, vermin and snails. The swamp should be drained to improve the ecology of the area.” Were Okondo to wake up from his grave, he would be shocked that Busia County Council has been excluded from the reclamation project handed over to Dominion since 2003. According to Bondo MP Oburu Odinga, Dominion has revolutionized agriculture in the area with new farming techniques, improving yields from 5 to 35 bags of maize per acre.

Opondo says a further 10 bags from each acre is being offered to locals at shs 500 a bag, a price far lower than the market rate. Like many other local politicians who were initially hostile to the project, Oburu has since softened his stand. The MPs recently accuses a leading non governmental organisations, ActionAid of inciting locals over ‘petty environmental concerns.’ NEMA it is reported to have approved the company’s first environmental impact assessment and was evaluating a second one at the time we visited the farm. Owalla and Ochieng describe Dominion’s assesment report as “an exact scandal. Dominion’s initial license issued in 2004 permitted the company to grow rice on 3,700 ha. leased from Siaya and Bondo County Councils. All of Dominion’s nine projects are lumped together in the EIA submitted to NEMA, each of which falls in the second schedule of the EMCA/58(i)4 as projects for which an independent EIA must be undertaken. The projects therefore lack the kind of detail required before implementation. For example, Dominion proposes to construct a fish processing plant, a rice mill, a feed mill, a cotton ginnery, a fuel storage and dispensing station, a dam, barrier dyke, weir and irrigation, a hydro-electric generation plant and agriculture projects for rice, maize, cotton, soya beans, sunflower artemisia and onions. All these projects need a full and independent EIA.

There is no socio-economic analysis of these activities. It is disturbing that the professionals who conducted the EIA were employees of LBDA who are themselves closely linked to Dominion. It is feared that at least 300 homesteads in Siaya and Bondo districts with a human population of more than 4,500 will be displaced by the dam/water reservoir that is being constructed by Dominion. There have also been concerns with the manner of eviction of communities from the land and alleged use of police and bribes to silence critics of the project.

The Child Parents of South Nyanza

Because of the Aids scourge, parents in South Nyanza are either teens — or over 80

By OTIENO AMISI

Somewhere in the hot, vast plains a bell rings. Hordes of children come rushing to a small, mud walled hut in the middle of the compound. It is time for the midday meal at Bala Children’s Home. Pastor Dominic Ochoo, with a wooden ladle doles out a mixture of boiled beans and maize grains.

He sighs deeply as he looks at the stretching queue of children and aged people, each eagerly clutching onto a plastic plate. Ochoo knows there will be nothing for the children tomorrow, unless someone – anyone – comes to their rescue. Leading the pack is a lanky, bow-legged teenager.

Daniel Ojwang is a 15-year-old “father” of five. His parents died three years ago. That “promoted” him to the unenviable position of sole bread winner for his three sisters and two brothers. Though the children still live in their parent’s one-roomed hut a stone’s throw away, their lives revolve around the Bala Mercy Children’s Home. On the same queue are Lilian Atieno, 10, and George Oyugi, 12. They two lost their parents to Aids late last year and are now under the care of Rosalia Awino, their 85-year-old grandmother. Trembling from rheumatism and frail with age, Rosalia balances herself on swollen legs, tightly clutching onto the bowl in her hand. She does not leave until her two “children” have received their portion of the humble meal.

Then she sits the children under the only tree as they eat their lunch. It is the first and only meal of the day, a donation from a visiting Australian pastor. This scenario, with limited variety, is repeated with monotony throughout Karachuonyo West Location, Nyanza. Several homes have been abandoned as the Aids scourge takes its deathly toll. Helpless children are left in the care of frail grandparents.

Their only hope lies in the centre, which provides free education. Lying in the low rainfall zone immediately bordering lake Victoria in South Nyanza. The lush green vegetation at this time of the year belies the sweltering scorched earth and heat-frozen stalks that will soon be the mark of these plains in a few month’s time. Despite the vast acres of fertile black cotton soil, unreliable rainfall and dwindling labour – occasioned by the high death rate – has compounded the multiplicity of woes for the residents of Rachuonyo District. When, after a long dry spell, dark clouds gather above their heads, the children smile. But the elders know it will be the same story. Like too little rainfall, too much rain is a bad omen. The farms are washed away and the roads rendered impassable. The only bridge that links the location to the rest of the world is washed away, and the villagers have to make do with logs placed across the roaring Oluch river.

Typhoid, caused by lack of safe drinking water, malaria and a host of other diseases combined killed as many as 3,340 people in the district last year. But the biggest threat is not in the unpredictable weather or the swollen rivers. The real danger is the Aids scourge, which continues to decimate the population, taking away the most energetic and productive members of the peasant community.

Pastor Ochoo, founder of Bala Mercy Children’s Centre, estimates that there are at least 500 children orphaned by Aids in the location alone. While the number of children who need shelter, food and clothing is overwhelming for the miniature centre, the aged are also in desperate need of assistance. The centre, affiliated to Faith Christian Outreach International, can barely provide a meal and basic education. There is a desperate need for food and health care. Child prostitution, drug abuse and child labour is on the rise in nearby towns like Kendu Bay, Kosele and Oyugis.

The local district education officer, Japheth Odhiambo, says eight in every 10 girls enrolled in Class One do not complete primary education. Early marriages are normal. It is not uncommon for girls as young as 13 to marry older men as a way of escaping the widespread poverty and heavy responsibility that comes with the death of parents. The number of child-headed households is fast rising. Pastor Ochoo’s programme has submitted a request for funding to the tune of Sh23 million to care for the construction of classrooms, a dormitory block, a water pump and buy a generator. He is appealing for food donations to keep the feeding programme going, and the 300 children alive.

At least until the next season. He hopes to establish a vocational centre , but that is far in the distant future. There is an urgent need to empower the local community in the fight against Aids. But it is dawning on world leaders that efforts to fight Aids must be closely linked to the fight against poverty. Aids continues to undermine food security for many households by depleting human labour. It also eats up scarce financial resources, especially for poor families. It is estimated that up to 60 per cent of household incomes are spent on medication in families where a relative is sick. Typhoid, malaria and a host of other diseases killed 3,340 people in the district last year, but the biggest threat is the Aids scourge.

World Social Forum comes to Nairobi

By Otieno Amisi

The Kenya Debt Relief Network (KENDREN) recently held a national forum on the World Bank and the international monetary fund.According to Soren Ambrose of Solidarity Africa, the two global financial institutions are responsible for World the devastation of the lives of millions of people in developing countries.Soren says Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPS), Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF), and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers forced on poor countries by the institutions have undermined the ability of governments to make meaningful social investments and degraded sovereignty.

“At their worst, the international financial institutions have undermined the very notion of state sovereignty and proven to be anti people. In September, the IMF and the World Bank held their Annual Meeting in Singapore, and civil,society groups like Kendren led vigorous campaigns on debt, economic and social justice.“We must resist the international agenda of neoliberal policies and the attendant economic domination that continues to cripple the progress of whole societies, especially in the global south,” says Soren
Kenya has been on the receiving end of such policies in both content and process. We must now join other countries of the South in both auditing and saying no to the continued domination of the World Bank and the IMF.

Kenya has severally declared its commitment to uplifting the living standards of its people, but is afraid rebut the advances of the two institutions.

The World Social Forum (WSF), whch holds its meeting early next year, is an annual meeting held by members of the anti-globalization movement to coordinate world campaigns, share and refine organizing strategies, and inform each other about movements from around the world and their issues. It tends to meet in January when its great capitalist rival, the World Economic Forum is meeting in Davos, Switzerland.The WSF has prompted the organising of many regional social forums, including the European Social Forum, the Asian Social Forum, the Mediterranean Social Forum, and many local and national social forum, such as the Italian Social Forum, Liverpool Social Forum and the Boston Social Forum. The first-ever US Social Forum will take place in Atlanta in June of 2007. In 2006, the WSF was held in different cities around the world, including Caracas, Venezuela and Bamako, Mali (both in January); and Karachi, Pakistan (March). In 2007 it will be held in Nairobi, Kenya.

The WSF has been criticised, particularly by socialist and communist left parties, for producing few practical ideas, concentrating instead on general and vague criticisms of neoliberalism and imperialism. On the other hand some, particularly anarchists, have criticised the WSF for attempting to act as a central decision making location for dissident groups, as the Communist Internationals once did. Most WSF participants would counter that the WSF is not a decision-making body, but rather a space for public deliberation.

A far more prevalent criticsm runs in the opposite direction: that the group has no established procedure for adopting consensus statements or advocacies.The WSF is also subject to the same criticisms as the anti/alternative globalization movements, namely that the globalization and capitalism they oppose are inevitable, or that globalisation and capitalism are the most effective means of addressing global poverty. WSF participants have responded that the idea of the ‘inevitability’ of globalisation is simply an ideological myth, hence their embrace of the slogan, ‘Another World is Possible’.

Right-wing opponents of the current global order have criticised the supposed pluralism of the WSF, as it only includes movements on the left (from social democrats to anarchists).Some activities by activists attending the WSF have also been criticised, such as in the WSF 2001, where activists invaded and destroyed a plantation of experimental transgenics of the Monsanto enterprise.