Voir : http://209.85.129.104/search?q=cache:mjLvko1l8vgJ:www.natashachamberlain.co.uk/Kenyainterim.pdf+the+white+samburu&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=151


http://ethiokenya.travel.ru/en/story.html


Adornments of the Samburu in Northern Kenya:

http://areainfo.asafas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/english/areainfo/adornments_e.html

Paru dans la presse kenyane de ce jour

Time to confront this economic crisis is now

The Central Bank of Kenya should now take the lead in addressing the economic crisis facing the country. Inflation is at more than 26 per cent, the highest in many years.

The cost of food, which was never cheap in the first place, is rising at 36 per cent a year.

The accelerating erosion of the ability of the poor and the middle classes to buy food and meet everyday costs presents a considerable threat to peace.

Inflation demoralizes and destabilizes.

The cost of food is rising partly because of supply constraints. Farms in parts of the country are not producing because of the displacement of people in the political violence.

The cost of fertilizer has increased from Sh1,200 for a 50-kilo bag to Sh4,000.

The announcement by the Kenya Tea Development Agency that it will not import fertiliser for tea farmers adds another dimension to the farm input situation.

CBK and Treasury might be sitting out this economic crisis in the belief that the system will correct itself.

The facts cited earlier indicate that far from being corrected, the situation is certain to get worse.

FIRST, THE RESETTLEMENT OF farmer's is likely to take longer and, given the statements of some politicians, including Lands Minister James Orengo, to the effect that the displaced can be resettled elsewhere, the speedy resumption of agricultural production is far from assured.

Secondly, because of the high cost of inputs, many farmers will likely plant without fertiliser, an exercise in futility since yields will plummet.

Therefore, next year’s crop is endangered, and food shortages should be expected not just to persist but to get a lot worse.

It is very likely that CBK and the other authorities are keeping an eye on the underlying inflation and will base their actions on that.

For the ordinary Kenyan, when the cost of the fare from Buru Buru to the city center rises from Sh20 to Sh70, or when the basket of goods which used to cost Sh5,000 now costs Sh11,000, inflation is not the abstract figure that bureaucrats are focusing on; it is the daily draining of their pockets.

AS A START, THE GOVERNMENT should immediately put a cap on its expenditure.

Spending on new limousines for ministers, non-essential travel and other creature comforts ought to be suspended, as should pork barrel development projects and non-emergency employment.

Secondly, revenue collection should be tightened to avoid tax leakage through inefficient collection and corruption.

Third, the government should for a time suspend part of the tax on oil products, especially diesel.

This should blunt the force of economy-wide inflationary pressure by cutting the cost of production.

Fourth, the government should pull out all stops in securing next year’s crop.

To achieve this, it should ensure that all farmers are back on their farms and producing food as quickly as possible.

Additionally, it should ensure that subsidies are quickly in place to bring the cost of fertiliser down to its previous level.

The subsidies can be withdrawn slowly as supply stabilizes and international prices improve.

There is also a powerful argument, at least in the long term, to consider acquiring the capacity to manufacture our own fertilizers.

Many years ago, a parastatal was proposed to do that job.

Had it succeeded, the country would not be where it is now. Further, a careful analysis of the fertilizer distribution system is required.

It is such a critical factor in our ability to feed ourselves that it can’t be left solely to the forces of the market.

If this crisis is not confronted head on and urgently, if difficult decisions are not immediately taken, then what looks like a transient difficulty might grow into a catastrophe.

And that is why we think that the Central Bank of Kenya — whose responsibility, in any case, is the stabilization of prices — should lend its prestige, expertise and influence in beginning to confront this monster.

SIX months ago, December 2007 Kenya made the world news for all the wrong reasons. Political unrest, more clearly defined by machetes being scraped along the tarmac, brought an instant halt to the arrival of that instant money spinner, the golden rich tourist. If effect, overnight, the country was divided in two and its pot of gold at the end of the rainbow smashed to smithereens. It was during this period that granaries and farms were set alight.

During Kenya's disputed presidential elections in December 1,500 died and some 600,000 were displaced. As a result, according to BBC reports this morning, the Kenyan government has been forced to import three million bags of maize.


In a month, basically due to increased food prices, from 21.8% in March, the annual inflation rose to 26.6%.

Ultimately, political unrest has brought, in its wake, a tsunami of food riots to Kenya.

Today's news is that hungry protestors are storming the streets of Nairobi, demanding the Kenyan government cuts back the cost of basic staples like maize flour which will hardly auger well with the foreigners who were assured during February that business was "continuing as usual".

The negative impact of these food riots will surely affect Kenya's Tourism even more?

Country to Benefit From Sh6.2 Billion Food Kitty

Kenya is among the African countries set to benefit from an emergency US$100 million (Sh6.2 billion) food aid in response to the rising international prices, the Government of Japan has said.

Japanese Ambassador, Shigeo Iwatani said that due to the urgency the matter requires his government will in May contribute US$50 million.(Sh3.1 billion).


L’Allemagne accorde 48 millions $ pour le système de santé publique

L’Allemagne va aider le nouveau gouvernement de coalition avec une enveloppe de plus de 3 milliards de shillings (48 millions $) destinée à l’amélioration du système de santé publique dans les deux prochaines années.

Selon le ministre des Services médicaux, Anyang Nyong’o, plusieurs millions de citoyens « ne peuvent pas s’offrir une couverture médicale raisonnable ».

Femme Samburu

Le livre ayant pour titre "La Maasai Blanche" a eu un enorme succes aupres des lecteurs de tous pays, traduit en differentes langues et vendu a des millions d'exemplaires.
Je ne ferai pas ici de reflexions quant a la veracite des faits et ne tirerai pas de conclusions de l'experience vecue par Corinne Hofmann.
Mais la saga du business ne s'arrete pas et un autre livre vient de paraitre.
Voici quelques reflexions trouvees sur le Net au sujet de cette derniere publication.

A LIRE OU A NE PAS LIRE ??? LE LIVRE N'EST BIEN ENTENDU PAS ENCORE EN VENTE AU KENYA, je ne peux donc pas donner mon avis personnel.

EXTRAIT PUBLIE A TITRE INFORMATIF SEULEMENT !!!


Reunion in Barsaloi / Corinne Hofmann

Genre: Memoir
Main characters: Corinne Hofmann, Lketinga
Summary: This is the second sequel of a book that has kept me amazed throughout the years (I keep being amazed every time I think of it actually), called The White Massai. The hero of that book is a Swiss woman, Corinne, who is visiting Kenya with her fiance when she notices a local guy, Lketinga, a Samburu. She finds him so dashing that she instantly falls in love with him, abandoning her fiance and her life in Switzerland in order to go live with Lketinga in the bushes. The two marry and she bears him a daughter, but he starts treating her badly so after a while she takes her daughter and moves back to Switzerland. Fourteen years have passed between that moment and the beginning of this book, and Corinne has now decided to go back to Kenya to pay a visit to the African branch of her family and this book is her account of the trip.


First of all, let's get Lketinga out of the way. I have never understood how Corinne could see him so beautiful, I have always seen him as ordinary at best. Now he's fourteen years older and at times he looks like a really old man (though he's not). As for his behaviour... I have always thought of him as "stuck in the tradition". He never went to school so there are a lot of things that he doesn't understand. The word that comes through my head on thinking about him is "wariness", as one always has to be wary around him, he gets annoyed quite easily. Nevertheless he did his best to make a good impression on Corinne this time around -- but I somehow never trusted him enough not to spoil everything though (I was wrong, he behaved sort of okay until the end). A character I have really liked in both books is Lketinga's mother, Corinne 's mother-in-law. I can only imagine how surprised she had been at first on seeing that her son wanted to marry a white woman, a woman that knew nothing of the language and habits of the Samburu. Nevertheless Lketinga's mother has grown to love the stranger and she and Corinne ended up really close. It's sort of strange seeing the pictures of the woman, as she looks so... primitive -- she sure is in a lot of ways, but she does know how to love and make herself loved. Yep, I have really liked her and looked forward to each of her appearances in this book.

As for Corinne... she is now in a sort of pilgrimage to her strange past, a past that she looks back at with fond eyes though it hadn't been quite easy on her at the time. I liked her simplicity again -- the way she just told the stories without trying to over embellish them. I think of her as a very brave woman -- I heard some people referring of her as crazy, leaving Europe behind in order to go live in Africa, but I can only think about her as very brave, and I really admire her for that. Of course, the trip in this book had been nothing compared to what she did before, as she wasn't alone now and she was sort of a minor star -- I still admire her and think of her as brave, in the light of her past.

A lot of things have changed in this fourteen years. Modern life is starting to make itself felt even in the middle of the huts in Kenya (there are a lot of plastic bags everywhere now, a lot of stores, a lot of children now go to school). So much so that Corinne started feeling sorry (and I with her) that the people there are going to eventually lose all their wonderful traditions, everything that made them special (not that they have only wonderful traditions, mind you; for example they are still circumcising both boys of a certain age and girls before marriage). I know that eventually they'll be forced into civilization as there have been others before them -- and I cannot help being sorry for everything Corinne has known and found utterly beautiful all these years ago, such as the beauty of girls costumes or the impressiveness of warriors' getups. The world will probably be a little less colorful place without them.

What I liked most:
The changed way Corinne sees Barsaloi (her ex-husband's village) now. She finds it beautiful but she sees it with the eyes of an European -- this had never happened before. She had loved Lketinga so much she ended up disliking her home country and loving the dung houses village, where whole families lived in a hut no larger than a simple room. But now her love had passed and she sees everything like it is, like we the readers of her book saw it back then: different, interesting, beautiful at times but very hard to live in. And you get to realize: oh my God she really loved that guy.

What I liked least:
The fact that...well, nothing actually happens in the book. There's no intrigue, there's no tension. Sure I was curious to see how Corinne's family will treat her after all these years, but still. I would be hard pressed if I actually had to narrate the book, as it's only a string of visits to formerly known places. While we still get to find out some facts about the Masai (such as the adults are never called by their name in their presence -- after they have the first child they are called Mama name-of-child and Papa name-of-child; before that some generic words are used, "mparatut" (wife) and "lepayian" (husband)), there's nothing as fascinating as there was in the first book.

Recommend it? Only if you have read the first book.

BY : Kay's Bookshelf

Why Herders Won't Surrender Their Firearms Just Yet

Paru dans la presse kenyane de ce jour


A well-armed Samburu warrior watches as his herd of cattle grazes in Kirisia forest, 20km from Maralal Town.

When I appear in front of him, he picks up his G3 rifle that had been leaning against a tree trunk and holds it lengthwise to his chest.

I introduce myself and offer my hand in form of greeting. He stares at me with great suspicion, but shakes my hand.

He moves his feet a little, stands up and adjusts his gun, holding it tightly.

It takes many hours before the warrior finally accepts to be interviewed. He identifies himself as Wilson Lengilikwai.

We sit on the same tree trunk that his gun had been leaning.

Slowly, our conversation shift from nomadic life to cattle rustling, then to firearms. But when I ask him to talk about disarmament, Mr Lengilikwai, just like many other warriors of the north, is quite unconvinced about the whole process.

"How can the Government ask us to surrender our guns when we know very well that there is no security for us? If we give out our firearms, say today, who will protect us when the neighboring tribes strike? How about our stolen livestock? Who is going to return them to us?" Mr Lengilikwai talks with bitterness.

Like hundreds of warriors from Samburu and Pokot communities, Mr Lengilikwai views his weapon as a source of security, livelihood and a status symbol.

Cattle rustling

The availability of modern firearms among the pastoralists has led to the cattle rustling, which is largely fuelled by the fight for water and pasture. Road banditry and indiscriminate killings, even within families, is also part of the story.

According to Peter Katunoi, the divisional service officer based at Suguta Marmar centre, the illegal ownership of guns among the herding societies, especially the Samburus and the Pokots, has been strengthened by the Government's continued neglect.

"It is true that thousands of guns are in the wrong hands. But what are the pastoralists to do when the Government has failed to provide adequate protection to them and their livestock from outside attacks? Young warriors in these communities are left with little alternative but to take it upon themselves to be the protectors of the herds and their families," says Mr Katunoi.

The gun culture has become part and parcel of life among the pastoralists in the North Rift.

Most firearms owned by herders are cheap, portable, high-tech, easily obtainable, durable, need minimal maintenance and require little training to use. This means that even the youngest herdsboy can assume the status of warriorhood and join the ever-growing militia groups in the north.

The price of firearms has plummeted over the years.

According to a Pokot source, most guns are obtained in Isiolo Town. The price of a rifle is now only five cows, down from 14 in 2003. And to acquire an AK-47, one only needs two large bulls and a couple of smaller animals. A bullet goes for between Sh100 and Sh150.

Owning a gun among the pastoralists is no longer a secret. Many warriors in Laikipia and Samburu districts use the weapon to herd their cattle.

They argue that it is the only way to protect themselves from the "aggressive neighbouring tribes".

And despite abject poverty in the areas they live in, pastoralists trade off their livestock for weapons.

"I think the Government is to blame for its failure to implement serious disarming operations. Over the years, we have experienced partial disarmament, where some communities are disarmed and others are left armed. If it is disarmament, let it be done without favoritism" says Mr Samson Lekuye of Arsim village.

The level of illiteracy has also contributed to constant conflict among the pastoralists in the North Rift.

"It's very hard to convince uneducated person to stop cattle rustling. To them, it is like a hobby. They participate in the raid to achieve respect and dignity in their communities," explains Mr Joseph Lekolua, a local politician.

Some analysts believe that the disparities in sources of livelihood, as well as cultural beliefs, are also among the causes of tribal clashes in the North Rift.

Cattle rustling has also been attributed to poverty. The less privileged section of the community ekes a living out of charcoal burning, selling of firewood and sale of illicit brew.

Some high school boys from poor families are said to take part in the raids and road banditry to pay school fees.

The Government is planning to disarm pastoralists in a bid to reduce violent conflict and to restore peace. The two major hurdles that afflict Government disarmament programmes are limited budget and lack of organised cross-border disarmament programmes.

The process is also attributed to serious human rights abuses where women and girls are gang-raped and innocent children and the elderly killed in such operations.

Jeunes filles Samburus, lors des danses tradtionnelles effectuees a l'occasion d'un mariage