Young girls the new bait for fishermen - Michael Muchomba - Country Director NAYD KENYA and MT KENYA FOCUS ON HIV/AIDS EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMME (1 comment)
Dunga Beach, along the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya's western city of Kisumu, erupts into activity when the boats bring in their catch. Female fishmongers scramble along the beach to buy fish, shouting themselves hoarse to get the attention of the fishermen and middlemen, who control whether or not the women will have anything to sell that day. Mingling with the jostling fishmongers is 19-year-old Lillian Onoka; stylishly dressed and with neatly plaited hair, she is easily noticed. "I do not sell fish but my aunt does, and she brings me along with her. I just help her get the fish without her having to scramble," Onoka told IRIN/PlusNews. Her aunt brings her as an inducement to the fishermen to hand over the best of their catch. Onoka says she is not tied to one fisherman, but will sleep with whoever offers the best deal on any given day. More

Youth in bonding trip to Rift Valley - Michael Muchomba - Country Director NAYD KENYA
Nairobi, Sept. 9 - 20. Youth from Tetu Division exchanged pleasantries outside the Rift Valley PC office as they waited for the administrator to flag off the final leg of their journey for peaceand, yes,discovery. They were on their way to Marakwet East constituency in an exchangeprogramme that saw youth from Marakwet visit Nyeri for two weeks in September.Their faces were a study in excitement as they ventured into Rift Valley to interact with local communities. Most of them had neve travelled beyond Nyahururu in their two decades on earth. More

The informal sector in Kenya - Gibson Nabuteya Amenya
The informal sector is a crucial sector of most of the developing countries. The liberalisation and privatisation processes have resulted to the states’ failure to be the employer. The private sector is left to take up this role. The organised private sector has been unable to absorb the growing numbers of jobseekers, and the informal sector stepped in to fill in the gap. This indeed is the reason why informal sector should be supported and encouraged. Complete report

Are we safe by embracing Biofuels? - Gibson Nabuteya Amenya
Necessity is mother of Invention so the saying goes, but spare me to say curiosity of mankind will destroy him/her. Mankind having danced himself lame from discovery of Industrial Revolution, now man is staring at reality that all is not well –Industrialization is a gift that stings there is environmental pollution, spread of diseases, earth is heating fast, ice is melting, floods here floods there, droughts not spared. So the discovery of using crude oils to met his basic energy needs like power machines, automobiles, cooking etc was not after all a good idea but a bad idea. Noticing this man has made U-turn like Kenyans politicians and is now talking of having magic of solving his eminent extinct Is Biofuels!!!! The fuel of the future; is green, clean, easily available and cost effective.Ghosh!!!!! This madness makes me jump out of my skin. In simple terms am being told that instead of eating my maize/corn for Ugali I should sell them for fuel purposes so what will I eat wooie???This actual obscure me not to think of what are environmental implications of all this change of events that biofuels will solve all problems even though they say is only fools who do not change but I need to play foolish until am told what effects of going green are.

I will refuse such answers like using biofuel
- will reduce global pollution,
- will encourage greater utilization of land
- will create job opportunities
- will reduce global warming
- they are environment-friendly

Let me assume the following remarks recalling my high school biology lessons
Because photosynthesis performed by fuel crops removes greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and can reduce fossil fuel consumption, we are told they are green. But when the full lifecycle of biofuels is considered, from land clearing to consumption, the moderate emission savings are outweighed by far greater emissions from deforestation, burning, peat drainage, and cultivation and soil-carbon losses. Unless we create flying lands where we can plant enough soya beans, maize, corn etc I foresee the danger of damaging our land and soon food scarcity will fall on us. The land is decreasing in size, and degrading too outcome will be poverty real poverty as we know a hungry person is an angry person

During my Internship at Kenya Agricultural Research Institute-Kenya (KARI) sometimes ago I carried out an experiment of Calorific Value of Food samples such as Maize, beans, potatoes Soya beans, palm oil or groundnuts I noticed the following
-Every 1gram of palm oil generates 33 grams of carbon dioxide emissions -10 times more than petroleum!!!!
From above, if extrapolated, it simply means 100 tons of Palm oil will cause 3300 tons emission of Carbon Dioxide hence are we safe then
-And Tropical forests cleared for sugar cane plantations like Mumias Sugar belts, ethanol emit 50 percent more greenhouse gases than the production and use of the same amount of gasoline.
I hope that Managers at Mumias Sugar Company Kenya will not hear this statement.
Thanks

Condemnation of Police Brutality against Coast Civil Society Activists - Jacob Boaz Muoga (Sec. Gen.) Magak Michael (Chair) Coast Civil Society Congress
The Civil Society Fraternity at the Coast strongly condemn the barbaric brutality and arrest of 10 of its core Members, lead by Hussein Khalid of MUHURI, by the Kilifi Police. The activists had a constitutionally guaranteed right of expression and opinion. They too had a right to peacefully present their grievances and petition to the discredited Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Kenya ECK, Mr Samuel Kivuitu and his equally discredited team. The ECK cannot burry it’s had in sand and pretend that nothing happened. It was the fiasco of the ECK results of the December 2007 Elections that lead to the death of not less than 1,000 innocent Kenyans and the displacement of another 500,000. More

Was the Kenyan Peace Deal Brokered by Kofi Annan (Former UN Sec. Gen.) choreographed or was it a Kenyan Solution? - David Okwembah
This is the question exercising the minds of Kenyans, their East African neighbours and the entire African continent. The pressure from the international community and especially Americans and the European Union have left many questioning the statement made by Mr Annan on his arrival in Nairobi mid-January 2007. The former UN boss told the Kenyan population that he did not have a solution to the Kenyan problem. "The solution will come from Kenyans themselves", Mr Annan told the Kenyan population that was in the throes of a crisis. When he arrived in the country, violence was the order of the day in western parts of the country as well as the Coast. Also affected were the informal settlements (slums) around Nairobi. At the time an estimated 1,500 Kenyans had been killed in ethnic fighting while another 600,000 had been displaced from their homes and farms. More

FOCUS Twaweza campaign - report can be downloaded here

Children's profile and performance during last terms exams can be downloaded here

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Focus Wins Annual Theatre Competition 2007 - Okoth Odera (FOCUS)
The thought of FOCUS group bagging almost all of the coveted Kiambu district drama festival trophies might just have been the expected nightmare for some of the upcoming drama groups within and without the locality; and to many the hurting truth. Once again, Kiambu district hosted the 2007 annual theatre competitions sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Social Works having paid homage to the same event twice in the recent past. The relatively large region in the small country Kenya witnessed another one of its sensational and exhilarating yet educative event of the year as both experienced and amateur drama team, drawn from all over the expanse, intensely battled it out just to prove who is who in the theatrical world of art. In line with the general theme of the year, all the staged productions revolved around ‘positive change’ in the society of course with an overriding interest in reproductive health— particularly HIV/AIDS. More

Youth Tutoring!!! The Way I See It - Okoth Odera (FOCUS)
Families, Orphans and Children under Stress (FOCUS) a youth initiative founded in the year 2002 as an urgent response to the HIV/AIDS situation in Ruiru division, Thika district (Kenya). At that time, the number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS was alarmingly growing, not to mention their poor living conditions and constant exploitation of their rights by their community. Granted, these problems allied to the orphans certainly warranted intervention, hence Focus’s resolution to put up a Day Care Center that sought to counter some – if not all – of these troubles. More

NAYD Kenya - Summit report
This is the Report of Nyeri Town Youth summit which was held on 26th July 2007 in Tabby plaza, organized by NAYD Kenya and Mt.Kenya focus on HIV/AIDS empowerment programme host in Kenya. The meeting was opened by word of prayer by Joseph Otieno who also coordined the meeting. There was an opening speech from the NAYD country Director. There was introduction of various participants, their locations and their projects. We had two guests from Canada and USA who were in internship in Kenya.There was a performance by DARAJA youth group that Michael Muchomba is the coordinator and mobilizer of the group. The group uses theatre for development as a tool of education in various issues affecting the community. We had guests including the Division Youth Officer Irene Kiarie, who also became a member of NAYD from the Ministry of Youth affairs which was established last year. She encouraged the youth to join NAYD for development of Africa and our Country and also explained what Kenyan Government has for Kenyan youth and various projects that the Ministry of Youth affairs is providing. She also discussed about NAYD collaboration with Ministry of Youth affairs as we continue to establish i.e. she invited NAYD Kenya to participate in the youth week which was from 6th-12th August 2007.