KWALE, Kenya - Ashura Shehe Boi, 41, is struggling to take care of her seven siblings after their mother died in 2013 from a stroke she suffered when her house was razed down and the family evicted from their ancestral land.
A few kilometres away from her home, there are graves of Juma Gomba and Juma Zaidi, both who were arrested, tortured and died for opposing evictions of their families.
At another home, Hassan Salim Dongo is at a bitter man after losing his son, Feisal Hassan, who died from burns after their house was torched by goons hired by the owner of Kwale International Sugar Company (KISCOL) in Msambweni, Kwale County. This happened under the watch of security officers.
Another child agednine years is living with scars sustained when he was burnt in their house during the fateful day. A medical examination report signed by a Mr Chebii, a medical officer, on October 7, 2010 shows that Hassan suffered burnt scars on the chest, breasts, elbow and hip.
Life with evictions, arrests and threats have become the order of the day for the locals of six areas of Msambweni in Kwale.
The people here are fighting for LR. No. 5004/30/R, the 49,000 acres of land in Mabatani, Nyumba Sita, Vidziani, Gonjora, Fahamuni and Kingwede areas.
According to land records, the land was at independence registered as a trust land belonging to the Digo community which has lived there since time immemorial and have no other place to call home.
But the troubles of the families who now number to 4,000 families with an estimated population of 10, 000 began in 2008 when armed security officers supervised the burning down of their houses, cutting down of their coconuts, mangoes, maizeplants and trees and forcefully evicted them at the dead of the night.
“My mother Fatuma Shehe Boi suffered a stroke as a result of shock when she saw her house burnt. She had kept gold in our house but it was all lost. She was bedridden from 2008 and died in 2013 leaving me with the task of taking care of my seven siblings,” Ashura says.
Suleiman Bakari Shauri, 65, chairman of the Vidziani Farmers Group which the affected families formed to fight for their rights is a bitter man and accuses politicians, senior government officials and owners of the Kwale International Sugar Company Ltd (KISCOL) for their woes.
“My parents who died recently aged 80 and 61 respectively were born and lived here all their lives. It beats reason that now we are being evicted from our ancestral land. Our problems began when former president Mwai Kibaki visited here in 2007 and promised to give the owner of KISCOL 15,000 acres of land for a sugarcane nucleus estate for his factory,” Shauri says.
He says the 15,000 acres are located close to Ramisi sugar factory but the owner has now laid claim on the neighbouring 49,000 acres that are being occupied by the 40,000 families.
According to a search done at the Department of the Registrar General in Nairobi under the Companies Act (Cap 486) on June 18, 2012, KISCOL is owned by Rajesh Pabari and Kaushik Pabari. Both are directors cum shareholders with 500,000 shares each.
Investigations further reveal that the two now control 80 per cent of the shareholding and have entered into partnership with leading Mauritian sugar producers, Omnicane, who have acquired 20 per cent of the total shareholding.
KISCOL replaced the old Ramisi sugar factory which closed shop in 1989. “The old factory owner’s lease of 99 years expired in 1986 and former president Daniel Arap Moi ordered that all the land that was initially occupied by sugarcane be reverted to the community. This was minus ours that we are fighting for now,” Shauri says.
Said Omar, vice chairman of the group says the community is leaving in fear and without hope of ever getting the justice they are fighting for. He says the owner of the factory is so brutal that he does not even care about court orders.
“He colludes with security officers and hires goons who come to burn down our houses. Sudi Twabara, who offered us land to build temporary structures after we were evicted was arrested and taken to Msambweni police station. He was arrested in 2008. He came back a few days later shaken and died a few days later. We don’t know what happened to him,” Omar says.
The troubles forced Shauri, Omar, Ashura and other committee members of their group who are Kassim Ali Kama, Tsudzi Bamvua, Abdalla Reja, Bakari Ali Nguvu and Rama Mwinyi Madzumba to move to court.
The committee members together with other 61 community members have filed a petition at the High Court in Mombasa under the Constitutional and Judicial Review Division. The petition number 65 of 2011 was first heard at the Mombasa court on October 25, 2011. It was filed on behalf of the petitioners by lawyer Japheth Chidzipha.
The petitioners want KISCOL owner’s servants, agents or employees permanently stopped from evicting them from their ancestral land as continued evictions have rendered them homeless and destitute.
“Chidzipha has already pulled out of the case. We are now being represented by lawyer Christine Kipsang. The case will again be heard on 17 of this month. Though the case has dragged on now close for a decade, we are optimistic we will emerge winners, one day,” Shauri says.
Kwale County Lands and Environment County Executive Committee Member (CEC) Member Saumu Beja Mahaja who spoke on authority from area Governor Salim Mvurya said there is no way they will abandon the community.
“We are supporting the community in court and we are awaiting the ruling which we hope will give back the land the rightful owners. We welcome investors but we are not ready to let our people lose lives, land, homes and their livelihood over profit,” Mahaja said in her office in Kwale.
She said Mvurya has visited the troubled area to stop evictions and has vowed that his administration will make sure the land is returned to the locals.
“We are aware of the interest by high ranking politicians to grab land here because it is rich in minerals and is even home to the Base Titanium company and maginificent beaches that allow you to see the ocean’s blue water and the Chale Island. But investment should not be done at the expense of lives,” Mahaja says.
According to the company’s audit report the financial year ended December, 2017, KISCOL posted a Sh75 million profit. In 2016, it made a loss of Sh618 million.
The company's core activities include processing of sugarcane for the production of sugar, ethanol and electricity and record show it is a $200 million sugar processing facility, incorporating 5,500 hectares of cultivated cane, a 3,000 tonnes-crushed-per-day sugar mill and an 18 megawatt bagasse-fired power plant. It is listed as one of the largest green field projects in Africa andbegan fully operating in 2014.
Kwale County Women Representative Zulekha Juma says the land belongs to the residents and indigenous owners of the villages of Vidzaini, Fingirika, Vumbu, Nyumba Sita, Fahamuni, Mabatani, and Gonjora.
“I blame former National Lands Commission (NLC) chairman Prof Muhammad Swazuri, who ironically comes from Msambweni for authoring a letter that allowedeviction of the locals to make space for planting of sugarcane. This is inhuman and fraudulent,” Zulekha says. Swazuri has since left NLC and is in court fighting against corruption and abuse of office accusations.
The team visited former Prime Minister Raila Odinga in Nairobi to seek for assistance.
“We visited Raila on July 15 this year. He listened to us and took us to Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i. Our intention was to meet President Uhuru Kenyatta and request him to give us our land back but we missed the opportunity. Matiang’i promised to investigate the matter,” Shauri says.
The story was first published by The Standard Media Group as part of Protus Bertha Foundation 2019/2020 Fellowship.
The writer is a Bertha Fellow.
KWALE, Kenya - Ashura Shehe Boi, 41, is struggling to take care of her seven siblings after their mother died in 2013 from a stroke she suffered when her house was razed down and the family evicted from their ancestral land.
A few kilometres away from her home, there are graves of Juma Gomba and Juma Zaidi, both who were arrested, tortured and died for opposing evictions of their families.
At another home, Hassan Salim Dongo is at a bitter man after losing his son, Feisal Hassan, who died from burns after their house was torched by goons hired by the owner of Kwale International Sugar Company (KISCOL) in Msambweni, Kwale County. This happened under the watch of security officers.
Another child agednine years is living with scars sustained when he was burnt in their house during the fateful day. A medical examination report signed by a Mr Chebii, a medical officer, on October 7, 2010 shows that Hassan suffered burnt scars on the chest, breasts, elbow and hip.
Life with evictions, arrests and threats have become the order of the day for the locals of six areas of Msambweni in Kwale.
The people here are fighting for LR. No. 5004/30/R, the 49,000 acres of land in Mabatani, Nyumba Sita, Vidziani, Gonjora, Fahamuni and Kingwede areas.
According to land records, the land was at independence registered as a trust land belonging to the Digo community which has lived there since time immemorial and have no other place to call home.
But the troubles of the families who now number to 4,000 families with an estimated population of 10, 000 began in 2008 when armed security officers supervised the burning down of their houses, cutting down of their coconuts, mangoes, maizeplants and trees and forcefully evicted them at the dead of the night.
“My mother Fatuma Shehe Boi suffered a stroke as a result of shock when she saw her house burnt. She had kept gold in our house but it was all lost. She was bedridden from 2008 and died in 2013 leaving me with the task of taking care of my seven siblings,” Ashura says.
Suleiman Bakari Shauri, 65, chairman of the Vidziani Farmers Group which the affected families formed to fight for their rights is a bitter man and accuses politicians, senior government officials and owners of the Kwale International Sugar Company Ltd (KISCOL) for their woes.
“My parents who died recently aged 80 and 61 respectively were born and lived here all their lives. It beats reason that now we are being evicted from our ancestral land. Our problems began when former president Mwai Kibaki visited here in 2007 and promised to give the owner of KISCOL 15,000 acres of land for a sugarcane nucleus estate for his factory,” Shauri says.
He says the 15,000 acres are located close to Ramisi sugar factory but the owner has now laid claim on the neighbouring 49,000 acres that are being occupied by the 40,000 families.
According to a search done at the Department of the Registrar General in Nairobi under the Companies Act (Cap 486) on June 18, 2012, KISCOL is owned by Rajesh Pabari and Kaushik Pabari. Both are directors cum shareholders with 500,000 shares each.
Investigations further reveal that the two now control 80 per cent of the shareholding and have entered into partnership with leading Mauritian sugar producers, Omnicane, who have acquired 20 per cent of the total shareholding.
KISCOL replaced the old Ramisi sugar factory which closed shop in 1989. “The old factory owner’s lease of 99 years expired in 1986 and former president Daniel Arap Moi ordered that all the land that was initially occupied by sugarcane be reverted to the community. This was minus ours that we are fighting for now,” Shauri says.
Said Omar, vice chairman of the group says the community is leaving in fear and without hope of ever getting the justice they are fighting for. He says the owner of the factory is so brutal that he does not even care about court orders.
“He colludes with security officers and hires goons who come to burn down our houses. Sudi Twabara, who offered us land to build temporary structures after we were evicted was arrested and taken to Msambweni police station. He was arrested in 2008. He came back a few days later shaken and died a few days later. We don’t know what happened to him,” Omar says.
The troubles forced Shauri, Omar, Ashura and other committee members of their group who are Kassim Ali Kama, Tsudzi Bamvua, Abdalla Reja, Bakari Ali Nguvu and Rama Mwinyi Madzumba to move to court.
The committee members together with other 61 community members have filed a petition at the High Court in Mombasa under the Constitutional and Judicial Review Division. The petition number 65 of 2011 was first heard at the Mombasa court on October 25, 2011. It was filed on behalf of the petitioners by lawyer Japheth Chidzipha.
The petitioners want KISCOL owner’s servants, agents or employees permanently stopped from evicting them from their ancestral land as continued evictions have rendered them homeless and destitute.
“Chidzipha has already pulled out of the case. We are now being represented by lawyer Christine Kipsang. The case will again be heard on 17 of this month. Though the case has dragged on now close for a decade, we are optimistic we will emerge winners, one day,” Shauri says.
Kwale County Lands and Environment County Executive Committee Member (CEC) Member Saumu Beja Mahaja who spoke on authority from area Governor Salim Mvurya said there is no way they will abandon the community.
“We are supporting the community in court and we are awaiting the ruling which we hope will give back the land the rightful owners. We welcome investors but we are not ready to let our people lose lives, land, homes and their livelihood over profit,” Mahaja said in her office in Kwale.
She said Mvurya has visited the troubled area to stop evictions and has vowed that his administration will make sure the land is returned to the locals.
“We are aware of the interest by high ranking politicians to grab land here because it is rich in minerals and is even home to the Base Titanium company and maginificent beaches that allow you to see the ocean’s blue water and the Chale Island. But investment should not be done at the expense of lives,” Mahaja says.
According to the company’s audit report the financial year ended December, 2017, KISCOL posted a Sh75 million profit. In 2016, it made a loss of Sh618 million.
The company's core activities include processing of sugarcane for the production of sugar, ethanol and electricity and record show it is a $200 million sugar processing facility, incorporating 5,500 hectares of cultivated cane, a 3,000 tonnes-crushed-per-day sugar mill and an 18 megawatt bagasse-fired power plant. It is listed as one of the largest green field projects in Africa andbegan fully operating in 2014.
Kwale County Women Representative Zulekha Juma says the land belongs to the residents and indigenous owners of the villages of Vidzaini, Fingirika, Vumbu, Nyumba Sita, Fahamuni, Mabatani, and Gonjora.
“I blame former National Lands Commission (NLC) chairman Prof Muhammad Swazuri, who ironically comes from Msambweni for authoring a letter that allowedeviction of the locals to make space for planting of sugarcane. This is inhuman and fraudulent,” Zulekha says. Swazuri has since left NLC and is in court fighting against corruption and abuse of office accusations.
The team visited former Prime Minister Raila Odinga in Nairobi to seek for assistance.
“We visited Raila on July 15 this year. He listened to us and took us to Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i. Our intention was to meet President Uhuru Kenyatta and request him to give us our land back but we missed the opportunity. Matiang’i promised to investigate the matter,” Shauri says.
The story was first published by The Standard Media Group as part of Protus Bertha Foundation 2019/2020 Fellowship.
The writer is a Bertha Fellow.
Sorghum can be grown in a wide range of soils and is resistant and tolerant to salinity and poor soils where it can still produce grain.
But coming closely behind sorghum is maize, a crop that has received even more prominence with the growth in urbanization. Maize used to prepare Dura, which is cooked maize and millet, and one can enjoy it with various traditional vegetables.
As more Kenyans and Ugandans open businesses in the country, Ugali, a popular maize meal in Kenya has become an equally important meal in many homes in South Sudan. It can be eaten with roast meat, fish, chicken or vegetables.
For years, farmers in South Sudan have grown low yielding non-hybrid maize varieties whose seeds are either distributed free of charge by humanitarian organisations or imported from neigbouring countries, sometimes without doing any trials to test their (seed) adaptability to local conditions
However, this is bound to change with the release of four new hybrid varieties, which were developed by Luka Atwok Opio, a South Sudanese scientist.
Since 2017, Opio has been working on identifying, selecting and carrying out trials of maize hybrid varieties to come up with the most suitable ones for different agro-ecological zones in the country.
He received financial support of $500,000 from Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra) and the Netherlands.
Agra is a non-governmental organization collaborating with African governments to achieve a green revolution in Africa through different programmes among them improving seed systems by training local breeders and supporting countries to develop seeds locally.
A civil war that has lasted since 2013, South Sudan has remained a food deficit country. By January 2020, the World Food Programme reported that over 7.5 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance.
Opio, worked with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, to identify first hybrid maize varieties.
“We conducted experiments using proven scientific methods in different places including Yei Research Station, Palotaka Basic Seed Centre, Rajaf, Maridi, Lobone and Torit between 2017 and 2019, with focus on high yield and disease tolerant maize varieties,” said Opio.
The sites were chosen based on their climatic conditions to produce higher yields.
They later narrowed to four varieties with an average yield of between 3.96 tonnes to 4.8 tonnes per hectare, which is much higher compared to the best local non-hybrid cultivar that
yields just one tonne per hectare under the same experimental conditions.
The released hybrid varieties – PALOTAKA-2H, PALOTAKA-3H, NAMA-18H and PIITA-6H – are expected to improve yields and food security.
“Maize hybrids have a substantial economic and yield advantage over open pollinated maize varieties,” said Dr Maurice Mogga of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in South Sudan.
“With maize hybrids, farmers have the opportunity to double their yields per unit acreage and increase their incomes,” noted Dr Mogga.
For Opio, who grew up in Pajok village in the Northern Equitoria State, where his parents were smallholder farmers growing maize, sorghum, seseme (simsim), and ground nuts among other indigenous crops, these varieties re a dream come true.
He imagined a time when he would help his family – and by extension, the country - improve food productivity.
From Pajok, Opio joined Comboni Secondary School in Juba, where he learned that there were scientific ways of improving crop productivity, such as using improved seeds, use of good agronomic practices and even use of fertilizers.
“I could always think about my parents back at home, and imagine how happy they would be if their farm productivity was to be doubled,” said the scientist.
This was his motivation as he joined the University of Juba to study agricultural sciences, before going to to Makerere University for a Masters degree in plant breeding. Today, he is pursuing his PhD at the University of Ghana in Accra.
“The selection and trials of these hybrid varieties is therefore one of the biggest achievements in my life,” he told The EastAfrican. “I am sure that farmers will be overjoyed to harvest a double potion or more just by planting the improved hybrid varieties.”
However, conducting the trials was not an easy task for the scientist. After independence in 2011, the country plunged into civil turmoil after President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar and ten others of attempting a coup d'état.
This led to displacements, consigning development to the periphery.
“We have some of the poorest roads on the continent. If it were not for extremely heavy vehicles that came as part of support to this project, we were not going to achieve anything,” said Opio.
But he believes that with peace and stability, constructing road infrastructure is something the government can, and should do with time.
Now that the varieties have been released, the next step is to identify suitable cultivars - which are plants selected for desirable characteristics that are maintained during propagation
“After this, foundation seeds for the four hybrid varieties will now be distributed to seed companies for seed multiplication. Thereafter, farmers will be able to access the certified seeds in the next one or two seasons,” he said.
Foundation seeds are pure seed stocks grown by or under the supervision of a public agency for use in the production of registered and certified seed.
“We continually call on the government to consider investing at least 10 percent of the gross domestic product in agriculture,” he told The EastAfrican. “We cannot always depend on donors to fund our research. We also need cold rooms where we can store germplasm, and we need local financing to support further research activities to enable our country catch up with the rest of the world.”
He believes that this is just but the beginning. “We’ve just released four varieties with our target being high yield. In the near future, we need improved lines for drought tolerant maize, disease resistant varieties, and the same for other crops,” said the scientist.
The new varieties have been received well by seed companies, with Oryem Cosmas P'Lonam, the chief executive of Magwi Seed Company (Masco), which produces seeds for farmers in Magwi County of the Eastern Equatoria State in South Sudan, saying, “This is something we’ve really been waiting for.”
Masco has been producing seed whose parent materials particularly imported from Uganda. “Locally bred seeds are always the best because during the breeding process, trials are usually done locally to identify exact agro-ecological zones that suit them,” said P'Lonam.
“We are happy that the government has release the hybrid varieties,” said Peter Waks from Kamuli Village, Lobone Payam (Administrative division) of Torit State. “We look forward to planting them perhaps during the next planting season,” said the farmer who had taken refuge in Uganda following civil wars, but has returned to continue with his farming activities.
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SUPERIOR VARIETY
Generally, hybrid seeds are bred by crossing pollen from say, one maize variety with a different one. The resultant offspring comes with what scientists call ‘hybrid vigour,’ meaning it is superior to the parents in terms of yield, size, and even growth rate.
Plant breeders also cross varieties to take advantage of positive traits found in both parents such as early maturing, and sometimes people consider the taste and color.
To have a variety released, several germplasm is usually sourced from particular research institution. The researcher then elects to do trials of the germplasms as it is, or modify them by
crossing with different materials. Through observation with focus on the desired traits, the researcher may end up selecting just a few best performing out of say 100 germplasm for further trials. Once the best of the best selections are identified, the researcher then drafts a report which is usually presented to a committee of experts appointed by the Ministry.
The researcher defends his report and if the committee is satisfied, they present it to the minister for endorsement. It is at this point that the foundation seeds are released to seed companied for seed multiplication. Farmers can then start buying the seeds from those companies.
The original version of this article was published by The EastAfrican weekly newspaper on 7/03/2020
NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - new study has revealed that use of hand-pumped boreholes to access deeper groundwater is the most resilient way of adapting to droughts caused by climate change for rural communities in Ethiopia and other parts of Africa.
This comes amid concerns by scientists that the resource, which is hidden underground, is not well understood on the continent especially in the Sub Saharan Africa region.
According to a new study that compared performances of rural water supply techniques during drought periods in Ethiopia, scientists from the British Geological Survey (BGS) in collaboration with their colleagues from Addis Ababa University found that boreholes accessing deep (30 meters or more) groundwater were resilient to droughts.
The study, which was published in the Nature scientific Journal on March 4, further found that boreholes fitted with hand-pumps, had highest overall functionality during the monitoring period compared to motorised pumps in.
“While motorised boreholes generally also access even deeper groundwater, repairs [in rural settings] are more difficult and may take longer, resulting in lower levels of functionality as compared to hand-pumps,” explained Dr Donald John MacAllister, the lead author and a hydrogeologist from the British Geological Survey.
At the same time, the scientists observed that springs, open sources and protected wells experienced large declines in functionality, undermining, in particular, the water security of many lowland households who rely on these source types.
“By comparison, motorised, and crucially hand-pumped, boreholes which access deeper groundwater performed best during the drought,” said Seifu Kebede, a former Associate Professor of Hydrogeology for Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, and one of the researchers. Prof Kabede has since moved to the University of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa.
In collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Addis Ababa University and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), experts at the BGS examined the performance of a wide range of water source types, using a unique dataset of more than 5000 individual water points collected by UNICEF in rural Ethiopia during the 2015-16 drought.
In August last year, another study headed by scientists from the University College London (UCL) refuted earlier beliefs that groundwater was susceptible to climate change, and instead confirmed that extreme climate events characterised by floods were extremely significant in recharging groundwater aquifers in drylands across sub-Saharan Africa, making them important for climate change adaptation.
“Our study reveals, for the first time, how climate plays a dominant role in controlling the process by which groundwater is restocked,” said Richard Taylor, a Professor of Hydrogeology at the UCL.
However, experts believe that for African continent to take advantage of the groundwater resources, there is need to invest in research, in order to understand the nature of aquifers underground, how they are recharged, their sizes, their geography, how they behave in different climatic conditions, the quality of water therein, and how they can be protected.
According to Prof Daniel Olago, a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Geology, University of Nairobi, in Africa, groundwater in Africa remains a hidden resource that has not been studied exhaustively.
“When people want to access groundwater, they ask experts to go out there and do a hydro-geophysical survey basically to site a borehole without necessarily understanding the characteristics of that particular aquifer,” he said.
African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) estimates the volume of groundwater in Africa to be 0.66 million km3, which is more than 100 times the annual renewable freshwater resources. “But since it is hidden underground, it remains under-valued and underutilised,” said Dr Paul Orengoh, the Director of Programs at the council’s secretariat.
In October last year during a meeting in Nairobi, AMCOW launched an initiative that will help member states understand their groundwater resources, manage it sustainable, and use it for poverty alleviation in their respective countries.
According to Dr Orengoh, the AMCOW Pan-African Groundwater Programme (APAGroP) seeks to improve the policy and practice of groundwater in Africa for better lives and livelihoods in all the 55 member countries.
The BGS has already developed the ‘Africa Groundwater Atlas,’ which is a literature archive that avails all information about groundwater in Africa, published and unpublished (grey) on an online platform.
“Our aim is to provide a systematic summary of groundwater resources for each African country, compiled in collaboration with country hydrogeologists,” said Dr Kirsty Upton, a Hydrologist at the BGS.
So far, millions of households in Africa rely on groundwater for domestic and partly for agriculture production. However, scientists still believe that the resource is largely underutilised.
Studies have indicated that at least 320 million people in Africa lack access to safe water supplies. The problem is further exacerbated by frequent droughts caused by climate change.
“If well understood, groundwater has the potential of bridging the water scarcity gap, thus, reducing poverty on the African continent,” Prof Olago told PAMACC News.
The study in Ethiopia recommends investment in motorised boreholes and most importantly, investment in hand-pumps.
“In the face of climate change, the resilience of rural water supplies in East Africa is best achieved by prioritising access to groundwater via multiple improved sources and a portfolio of technologies, supported by on-going monitoring and responsive and proactive operation and maintenance,” said Dr MacAllister.
“What remains a major concern is lack of access to appropriate skills and expertise, spare parts and, for motorised systems the fuel, that is required to keep rural water supplies functioning, factors that are particularly challenging to ensure when demand on water sources increases during drought.”
