A little more…

Ministers Dine on 'Not So Cosmetic' Food in Kenya

By Njenga Hakeenah

A dinner setting in a Qatari Restaurant   Photo: Njenga Hakeenah

February 20^th  2013

Time check: 1900Hrs

Location: UNEP, Gigiri, Nairobi

Event: Dinner

A little more…

This brings to mind an advert on Kenyan TV a few years ago where the child would not have enough due to the deliciously made meal.

Those are the long gone memories and days.

Today however, food which is in every way healthy to consume is binned for not meeting cosmetic standards contributing to billions of tonnes of food being thrown away in the world today.

Despite the rising costs of producing the food and the ever increasing number of food needy people, this has continued unabated in the world today.

However, in what could mark a turnaround to this wastage, hundreds of ministers and high-level officials dined on perfectly good food grown by Kenyan farmers but rejected by UK supermarkets. The reason for this trashing of otherwise good food is due to due to cosmetic imperfections. 

British standards are extremely high!

This happened at the headquarters of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi to highlight a major campaign to cut massive levels of global food loss and waste. 
 
The zero-waste reception, taking place during a meeting of the first UNEP Governing Council under universal membership, was in support of Think.Eat.Save. Reduce Your Foodprint . The initiative was launched in January by UNEP, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and partners such as Feeding the 5,000 and Messe Dusseldorf. 

An African meal comprising of mashed potatoes, chicken and vegetables
Photo: Njenga Hakeenah

The campaign aims to promote actions by consumers and food retailers to dramatically cut the 1.3 billion tonnes of food lost or wasted each year – which aside from the cost implications and environmental impacts increases pressure on the already straining global food system – and help shape a sustainable future. 

UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner says, “No economic, environmental or ethical argument can be made to justify the extent of food waste and loss currently happening in the world, and at UNEP we practice what we preach”. He added, “With this dinner we are demonstrating to retailers, consumers and policymakers who can push for change that the astonishing amount of food we throw away is not just edible and nutritious, but also delicious.” 

Tristram Stuart, food waste author and founder of Feeding the 5000, a key partner organization that has organized such dinners for years, visited producers across Kenya to source around 1,600 kilogrammes of unwanted fruit and vegetables for the meal and for donation to local charities. 

The food had been grown for the export market only to be rejected – largely due to stringent standards over appearance or orders being changed after vegetables had been harvested.

Some of this unwanted produce is sold on the local market or donated, but the quantities are so large that local markets cannot handle the volume and so much of it is either left to rot or fed to livestock – prompting resentment amongst Kenyan farmers who must bear the costs themselves. 

“It’s a scandal that so much food is wasted in a country with millions of hungry people; we found one grower supplying a UK supermarket who is forced to waste up to 40 tonnes of vegetables every week, which is 40 per cent of what he grows,” said Mr. Stuart. “The waste of perfectly edible ‘ugly’ vegetables is endemic in our food production systems and symbolizes our negligence.” 

“But it is also a huge opportunity: by persuading supermarkets to change their standards, and by developing processing and other ways of marketing this produce, we can help to increase on-farm incomes and food availability where it is needed most,” he added. “This dinner, and the many Feeding the 5000 events we have run, aims to change attitudes and highlight best practices, by showing that there is absolutely nothing wrong with this food we so casually discard.” 

While UK supermarkets are in the frame here in Kenya, experts believe that similar practises are happening in respect to supermarkets in many parts of the developed, and increasingly in parts of the developing, world. 

Chef Ray Cournede, from Nairobi’s prestigious Windsor Hotel, utilized the rescued food to cook a five-course meal that included such delights as Grilled Sweet Corn Tamales, Yellow Lentil Dal with Tamarind and Mangomisu – Tiramisu with a tropical twist. Mr. Cournede also prepared mango chutney and candied fruit peels, which show ways to preserve and use fruits when in season. 

The dinner was a zero-waste event: guests were encouraged to doggy bag leftovers and many of the fruits and vegetables were donated to MCEDO, a community-based organization that runs a school with a feeding programme for 580 children in Nairobi’s Mathare informal settlement. 

The Think.Eat.Save. Reduce Your Foodprint campaign is in support of the SAVE FOOD Initiative to reduce food loss and waste along the entire chain of food production and consumption.

A bowl of dessert Photo: Njenga Hakeenah

Worldwide, at least one-third of all food produced, worth around US$1 trillion, gets lost or wasted in food production and consumption systems, according to data released by FAO. Food loss occurs mostly at the production stages – harvesting, processing and distribution – while food waste typically takes place at the retailer and consumer end of the food-supply chain. 

According to FAO roughly 95 per cent of food loss and waste in developing countries are unintentional losses at early stages of the food supply chain due to financial, managerial and technical limitations in harvesting techniques; storage and cooling facilities in difficult climatic conditions; infrastructure; packaging and marketing systems. 

However, in the developed world the end of the chain is far more significant. At the food manufacturing and retail level in the developed world, large quantities of food are wasted due to inefficient practices, quality standards that over-emphasize appearance, confusion over date labels and consumers being quick to throw away edible food due to over-buying, inappropriate storage and preparing meals that are too large. 

Per-capita waste by consumers is between 95 and 115 kg a year in Europe and North America/Oceania, while consumers in sub-Saharan Africa, south and south-eastern Asia each throw away only 6 to 11 kg a year. 

“Together, we can reverse this unacceptable trend and improve lives. In industrialized regions, almost half of the total food squandered, around 300 million tonnes annually, occurs because producers, retailers and consumers discard food that is still fit for consumption,” said José Graziano da Silva, FAO Director-General.

He adds, “This is more than the total net food production of Sub-Saharan Africa, and would be sufficient to feed the estimated 870 million people hungry in the world.” 

The Ivory Trade in Kenya

The Pachyderm Annihilation

By Njenga Hakeenah

25th January 2013

Kenya’s wildlife which is the largest foreign exchange earner is under threat.

This is from effects of climate change and poaching which is leading to the decimation of wild animals in big numbers.  

In 2012 alone, over 384 elephants were killed for their ivory and close to 20 rhinos met the same fate for their horns.

The animals which are among the big five are worth more to Kenya alive than they are dead. Unfortunately, poaching is on the increase and so far no one has been successfully prosecuted.

A rotting elephant Carcass in one of the unprotected areas in Kenya Photo: KUOPA/Sheldrick Trust

There are allegations that poaching increases where the Chinese are working. In Kenya, they are all over the road building industry and spread all over the country.

With the increase in poaching, radical measures need to be put in place including amending the law which has not been deterrent enough. The Kenya Wildlife Service KWS has just issued a report on the status of wildlife conservation in the past 2012 and the prospects for year 2013.

KWS affirms that the security of the Rhinos and Elephants is under threat as there has been a gradual escalation in their poaching since 2005. This is due to market dynamics influenced by escalation in the black market prices driven by demand in the Asian countries.

A rotting elephant Carcass
Photo: KUOPA/Sheldrick Trust

Two weeks ago, a gang of 10 poachers are believed to have slaughtered and carted off ivory from a family of elephants at the remote Bisadi area near Ithumba in north of Tsavo East National Park. Kws says that one of the discovered carcasses belongs to a juvenile elephant estimated at two months of age. All the elephant carcasses had bullet wounds.

From the incident, only one suspect has been arrested and KWS says he is assisting with ongoing investigations.

Kenya boasts the largest population of rhinos in East and Central Africa. This makes the country the main target for poachers of rhino horn. Currently, there are an estimated 1010 rhinos with 623 being black and 387 white.

The white rhino sub-species population includes four Northern White Rhinos imported from the Czech Republic in 2009 and 383 Southern White Rhinos.

Sustained pressure to combat rhino poaching within KWS managed national parks and reserves has moved the crime to areas outside the parks.

KWS says that of all the elephant poaching cases in year 2012, 300 elephants, (representing 78% of poaching cases) were poached in wildlife dispersal areas outside the parks with 22% of poaching occurring in protected areas. 12 rhinos were poached outside protected areas (representing 63% of all poaching cases) while seven rhinos were poached in the National Parks.

To respond to these challenges, KWS says it enhancing elephant and rhino security by apprehending and dismantling the poaching syndicates. KWS is also involved in stakeholder especially communities living adjacent to protected areas to win the war on poaching. Kenyans are also taking up arms to protect the elephants.

The organization also says that it has recovered firearms, ammunition, ivory, other hunting weapons and impounding of vehicles used in transporting ivory.

Ivory Seizures

KWS acknowledges that Kenya remains an important conduit to international destinations for illicit consignments of wildlife products and particularly ivory.

Some of the ivory seized in Kenya was on transit from Angola, South Sudan, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo among others. Destinations for the ivory contraband include China, Nigeria, Malaysia and Thailand. Ivory is being poached in every part of the continent and political instability in most of the countries is fuelling it.

In June 2012, 345 pieces of elephant ivory weighing 601 kg stuffed in six wooden boxes were intercepted at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. The contraband was being smuggled to Lagos, Nigeria.

In September 2012, another consignment of 62 pieces of raw elephant ivory weighing 255 kg was seized at the same Nairobi airport. The contraband, whose origins are yet to be established, was en route to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

On 15th January 2013, a 20 feet container suspected of containing ivory was subjected to verification and it turned out that it was containing elephant ivory wrapped in bundles of gunny bags and concealed by layers of slabs of local stones commonly known as Mazeras stones.

The suspicious container’s documents matched those of a container seized in Hong Kong earlier in the month. The details of the container are being used by the KWS to track down the culprits.

Several consignments of ivory have also been intercepted in other parts of the world with reports linking some of the seizures to have originated from Kenya.

KWS says investigations to establish the origin of the impounded ivory are usually conducted. The organization says it will continue working with other law enforcement agencies, especially Customs, the police, INTERPOL, the Lusaka Agreement Task Force, Kenya Airports Authority and Kenya Ports Authority, among others in ensuring that local and international laws on wildlife crimes are enforced. 

So far, 1,949 suspects have been arrested and taken to court where they were charged with various wildlife-related offences.

The Wildlife Ministry Permanent Secretary Hyslop Ipu has assured that the law governing wildlife will be amended to give deterrent sentences. He adds that a draft policy and bill are in place and will be debated once parliament constitutes after the coming elections.

Ipu adds that the funds will be used to equip game rangers to provide security to the wildlife even at night.

Former Kenya Wildlife Service Director Nehemiah Rotich says that for stern action should be taken against the poachers.  

Rotich says that the losses occasioned by poaching have negative effects beyond the tourism industry and affects 5 Kenyans not directly employed in the sector.

He however says that blame should not be pegged on under-staffing and equipping alone but on making everyone accountable.

Global Mercury Agreement

Global Mercury Agreement to Lift Health Threats from Lives of Millions World-Wide

‘Minamata’ Convention Agreed by Nations

Njenga Hakeenah

19th January 2013

Liquid Mercury (Hg) Melting Point: -38.87 °C (234.28 K, -37.966 °F)

Boiling Point: 356.58 °C (629.73 K, 673.844 °F) Photo: Credited

Governments have agreed to a global, legally-binding treaty to prevent emissions of mercury—a notorious heavy metal with significant health and environmental effects.

The International effort to address mercury release is a significant boost to controls and reductions across a range of products, processes and industries where mercury is used, released or emitted.

The Minamata Convention on Mercury—named after a city in Japan where serious health damage occurred as a result of mercury pollution in the mid-20th Century-agreed to address mercury in medical equipment such as thermometers and energy-saving light bulbs to the mining, cement and coal-fired power sectors.

The treaty also addresses the direct mining of mercury, export and import of the metal and safe storage of waste mercury.

Pinpointing populations at risk, boosting medical care and better training of health care professionals in identifying and treating mercury-related effects will also form part of the new agreement.

Mercury and its various compounds have a range of serious health impacts including brain and neurological damage especially among the young.

Others include kidney damage and damage to the digestive system. Victims can suffer memory loss and language impairment alongside many other well documented problems. More. 

Initial funding to fast track action until the new treaty comes into force in the expected three to five years’ time has been pledged by Japan, Norway and Switzerland.

Support for developing countries is also expected from the Global Environment Facility and a programme once the convention is operational.

UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Achim Steiner said, “After complex and often all night sessions here in Geneva, nations have today laid the foundations for a global response to a pollutant whose notoriety has been recognized for well over a century.”

UNEP convened the negotiations among over 140 member states in Geneva with Steiner adding that everyone in the world stands to benefit from the decisions taken in Geneva. He particularly said those would benefit the most were workers and small-scale gold miners’ families, the peoples of the Arctic and this generation of mothers and babies and the generations to come.

Steiner said he looks forward to the swift ratification of the Minamata Convention so that it comes into force as soon as possible.

Fernando Lugris, the Uruguayan chair of the negotiations praised the process saying the agreement opened a new chapter towards a sustainable future and represents an opportunity for a healthier and more sustainable century for all peoples.

Ambassador Franz Perrez of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Switzerland said the agreement will help to protect human health and the environment all over the world and is a proof that multilateralism can work when political will exists.

“This treaty will not bring immediate reductions of mercury emissions. It will need to be improved and strengthened, to make all fish safe to eat,” said David Lennett from the Natural Resources Defense Council representing the Zero Mercury Working Group a global coalition of environmental NGOs.

“Still, the treaty will phase out mercury in many products and we welcome it as a starting point.”, he concluded.

The decision to launch negotiations was taken by environment ministers at the 2009 session of the UNEP Governing Council and the final and fifth negotiation took place this week in Geneva.

The scope of the new treaty focuses on a product containing mercury including Batteries, except for ‘button cell’ batteries used in implantable medical devices, switches and relays, certain types of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), mercury in cold cathode fluorescent lamps and external electrode fluorescent lamps, soaps and cosmetics

The export and import of these products will be banned by the year 2020.

Certain kinds of non-electronic medical devices such as thermometers and blood pressure devices are also included for phase-out by 2020.

However, the Governments have approved exceptions for some large measuring devices where currently there are no mercury-free alternatives.

Vaccines where mercury is used as a preservative have also been excluded from the treaty as have products used in religious or traditional activities.

Delegates also agreed to a phase-down of the use of dental fillings using mercury amalgam among a raft of other recommendations in artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining, power generation and cement manufacturing.

The treaty has been four years in negotiation and which will be open for signature at a special meeting in Japan in October.

Dancing with hunger

Dancing with hunger

How agroforestry can be used to fight hunger, soil depletion and poverty

By Njenga Hakeenah

31^st July 2012

From a housewife depending on twenty thousand shillings a month six years ago, Mary Gichuki is now an entrepreneur making way more than she could have imagined then.

Welcome to Mary’s world of farming.

Hers however is not just the conventional farming but she has adopted agroforestry which has helped her improve not just her financial status but her whole wellbeing.

With effects of climate change continually affecting food production negatively, the situation is getting worse by the day. However, for farmers like Mary who have adopted ways of making their lands more productive, they are sustaining their livelihoods comfortably.

  

From her small farm in Githunguri, Kiambu County, Mary is now reaping the benefits. “I got into agroforestry after learning that it can help add manure to the farm, the beauty of the trees and also feeding the animals from the shrubs,” Mary says adding that the shrubs are better supplements than those from the shops.

Agroforestry is the integrated approach of combining trees and shrubs with crops and livestock. It combines agricultural and forestry technologies to create more diverse, productive, profitable, healthy, and sustainable land-use systems. 

Intercropping food crops with tree lucerne and Lupin. Photo By Njenga Hakeenah

The World Agroforestry Centre’s (ICRAF’s) extension officer Moses Mwangi says: “We’ve seen a lot of deforestation but we cannot just go out and tell farmers we have to plant a lot of trees but we have to show them the benefit of doing it.” He adds that this approach will help in mitigating against climate change effects and also filling feed gap for the animals.

Mwangi says that this is a ladder to reforesting the lands as they are intercropping food crops with the fodder crops, improving the crop cover while helping the crops due to nitrogen fixing. This is improving the soil quality which in turn is increasing the land output.

He adds that the supplementary feeds are increasing production in animals which Mary concurs with. She says she has seen an increase in milk production as well as the crops harvested from her small piece of land. She attributes this to the fertilization of the soil through the integration of the trees and farms. She also produces enough seeds which she sells and makes an extra by training other farmers on agroforestry. 

Women have always borne the brunt of the family burden as they have to cater for it. Mary says that Agroforestry lessens the burden women have to bear and also helps in saving time. “Women have been struggling to find water and firewood but with agroforestry these are within reach, we have firewood, food and manure for the land which makes us more productive,” she says. In addition she has biogas which she uses at home and which has reduced the cost of energy significantly. She says that her life has improved immensely since adopting agroforestry.

Mary (in white apron) explains on some of the seeds from her farm and which give her an extra income. Photo Njenga Hakeenah

Mary’s farming has been recognized at the Nairobi Agricultural Show. She says: “The cows we have here are a product of the money I got from the show and much more from the trees.”

She says she started on a land which was bare but now enumerates the benefits of investing in agroforestry saying that she is able to sustain her family. Other perks which come with it are hot water showers, they have workers for them and now the money is working for the family and not vice versa. The common fodder crops are calliandra, trichandra, tree Lucerne, sesbania sesban, purple vetch, lupin, double bean, Guatemala grass, edible cana and mulberry.

In contrast, Ndeiya location still in Kiambu County is one of the areas that receives food aid in times of droughts but also does well when the weather patterns are favourable for crop production. Most farmers here are subsistence and this time round, they are staring hunger in the face.

Farmers here have not yet diversified and are still growing maize and beans as the main crops.

Even though the rains have been good, the maize crop which should be flowering now dying or is not anywhere near the flowering stage and only a few centimetres from the ground. The crop planted in April is dwarfed and yellow in colour.

By adopting agroforestry, these farmers and indeed many more from around the country would become food secure and have extra for an income.

Land is scarce in Kenya and it is becoming more so every passing day. The issue of availability of land has forced farmers like Mary to maximize on the small pieces they have. Every open space is utilized to ensure maximum productivity.

Maximizing on every open space. Some fodder crops planted along the fence on Mary Gichuki's farm Photo Njenga Hakeenah

However, unregulated developments on arable lands are further compounding the food insecurity issue. Housing estates are coming up on these lands and the government has been criticized for not doing enough to protect the wellbeing of Kenyans.

Reverend Dr. Matthews Mwalw’a from the AIC Milimani feels that the government should support such small farmers who may be able to salvage the situation. “The government has to rethink its strategies and not necessarily outsourcing but look for in-house alternatives like growing other crops which would give stability to food security,” Rev. Mwalw’a says adding that research should also be in the forefront in the fight against hunger.

The Waters of death

A widow’s half a century struggle with flooding

The curse of the rains in Nyamasaria, Kisumu

24^th April 2012

By Njenga Hakeenah

For the past 50 years, Tabitha Ogollo Nyalik has always abandoned her home for at least one month every year when the gloomy rains set in.

This year may not be different. She trembles with fear as the cruel River Mahenya, just a few metres from her hut, boldly surges with a murderous thrust.

The 77-year-old widow says the long rains always bring hopelessness, anguish and agony.

Nyalik’s problems emanate from River Mahenya, a tributary of River Nyamasaria in Nyamware Sub-location, Kisumu County.

She knows it is just a matter of time before the floods – once again - force her out of her home. River Mahenya has been a source of sleepless nights for Nyalik for when the river breaks its banks, she is always on the move.

Nyalik expresses her fears as flooding looms Photo: Njenga Hakeenah

When asked if there have been any deaths caused by the river, she exclaims: "So many! Sometimes bodies are swept downstream and relatives have to come to identify the bodies.” This is mental anguish as she knows it could be her anytime the river swells and she does not evacuate in good time.

Every year when floods wreak havoc in the area, locals lose property in form of livestock, crops, housing, and invasion by snakes and in some cases human lives are lost.

However, to some, the floods are a blessing as they get means of livelihood for these waters provides some rare species of fish.

Samuel Odingo says this is a rare thing but now when the river is swollen, he is able to meet his family’s needs by selling some of the catch. He says that he is glad that now he can earn his keep.

“During the dry season, I cannot afford to have fish since I’m not employed but now I have plenty and surplus for sale.”

Odingo shows off his rare catch Photo: Njenga Hakeenah

Odingo lives upstream and only comes to this part of the river during the rainy season when these fish is available.

Ms. Emily Oginga, the Projects Coordinator of the Kisumu Green Project (KGP), says the availability of the fish at this time is due to the high temperatures which make the river water warmer than the lake’s. “The species locally known as sire, mumi, okoko, and ningu among others are not common but are now available due to climate change effects. The fish species come from the lake swimming against the flow as they seek warmer waters.”

KGP’s Emily Oginga explains the effects of siltation Photo: Njenga Hakeenah

Asked why the rivers are flooding causing all the destruction, Oginga says that silting is the major cause due to erosion of riverbanks owing to human encroachment and non-sustainable use of land.

With these activities still on-going, for those downstream like Nyalik, they have to always be on the lookout as flooding will still occur during the rainy season. For those upstream like Odingo, the benefits may be short lived as the soils become poorer and less nutritious for crop production with incessant erosion and leaching of nutrients.

The meteorological department says the rains will continue into the month of June with counties in the Lake Basin (Western and Nyanza) and in Highlands West of the Rift Valley getting more than normal averages of rainfall. This means that Nyalik and her community face the risk of flooding until the rains cease.

So far, more than 12,000 people in Nyanza are in need of medical attention due to the effects of floods that have claimed 19 lives and threatened to cause diseases resulting from poor sanitation.

The Kenya Red Cross Society assistant secretary general for the Western Kenya Region Emmanuel Owako says the floods have displaced more than 8,000 people in the last one month. "The floods have caused a record 19 deaths in the last month and displaced about 8,182 now living in various evacuation camps," he adds.

Regardless of the obvious dangers posed by the flooding, Nyalik says can never relocate from what she calls home as she does not have the means to.

Her dilapidated house, built by her brother-in-law in the 60s, is a testimony of the aftermath of the perennial floods. Whenever the rains come, the water levels rise and the walls have been falling off leaving gaping holes exposing the stone and mud structure.

In addition, flooding has also increased waterborne disease like bilharzia, cholera, dysentery and malaria among others making survival even harder for the likes of Nyalik. 

Clinical Officer Scholastica Mwajuma from Nyalenda health centre says that there are high cases of waterborne diseases during the rainy season. The government is however providing free medication to treat these diseases and the locals also get water treatment agents.

Also, the education sector is affected as children are unable to go to school during the rainy season for fear of drowning and the oblivious cases of cut off infrastructure. At the riverbank, boys in school uniform washing bicycles say they sometimes miss school because the roads are impassable and some schools submerged and some are used as evacuation centres.

To counter the aftermath of the flooding, a number of intervention approaches are being adopted by several governmental and non-governmental organisations. They include constructing gabions along riverbanks, tree planting, construction of water pans and awareness campaigns among others.

Rehabilitation of River Nyamasaria by constructed gabions Photo: Njenga Hakeenah

In as much as conservation efforts are being advocated, still more people continue with their activities along the banks like sand harvesting. It is a boon to some as others deal with the negative effects of these activities.

These activities are hampering efforts to restore the ecosystems and address the issues facing the locals adequately.

As effects of climate change continue to bite, a concerted effort by all stakeholders is the only way that there can be a reversal of the effects.

Food is becoming scarce, temperatures are rising and diseases are becoming more rampant and resistant.

Human activities are contributing to the continued cycle of erratic weather patterns which are no longer predictable and which is putting more lives at risk. With these in mind, it therefore behoves all to take the initiative to protect the vulnerable like Nyalik and Odingo.