Kenya to Spend 24 Billion Shillings to Counter Drought Threats

Kenya announced a plan to tackle a drought which has hit food crop-growing regions, reduced hydro- electricity production and led to widespread water shortages.

The government will spend 24 billion shillings ($314 million) on “drought-crisis interventions” using contingency funds from the 2009-10 budget, borrowing and from “small” cuts to the budgets of various ministries.

“The nation is in a serious water, food and energy crisis,” Prime Minister Raila Odinga said in Parliament in Nairobi today, according to an e-mailed copy of his speech. “Thirst combined with hunger is taking a heavy toll on the lives and health of our people.”

Kenya’s corn production may fall 65 percent below consumption this year, putting 10 million Kenyans at risk of hunger or food insecurity, said Odinga.

In response, a duty waiver on imported corn was extended until June next year, from a previous end-date of mid-January. Farmers will receive free or subsidized fertilizers and seeds to boost their productivity, he said.

Armed forces and police officers will be deployed in 11 districts, which are facing imminent humanitarian disasters, to deliver emergency rations of food, water and medicine for up to three months, he said.

Drought has cut hydropower generation by 46 percent, leading to the start of scheduled power-rationing last week as generation dropped to 900 megawatts. This is 200 megawatts below peak demand, he said.

Kenya will maintain load-shedding until at least mid- October when 222 megawatts of new generating capacity will be added to the grid and the short rains start, he said.

In addition to a program of water rationing which started in May, the government is drilling more boreholes and buying 80 million liters (21 million gallons) of water every day from private owners of water resources, he said.

Most parts of Kenya have suffered from scanty rainfall since last year’s short-rain period, which normally runs from October to December, the country’s Meteorological Department said yesterday in an e-mailed response to questions from Bloomberg News.

SOURCE ;

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=al8yFTQFlI0Q


Kenya's Food Crisis Worsening

SOURCE ET ARTICLE COMPLET:

http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-08-13-voa29.cfm

POUR QUELQUES LITRES D'EAU PAR JOUR...

Travail penible, pour une survie au quotidien...

A la recherche de l'eau, pour assurer l'extreme survie au betail

PHOTO PRISE LE 09 AOUT 2009

L'ETAT SQUELETTIQUE DU BETAIL NE NECESSITE PAS DE PLUS AMPLES EXPLICATIONS...

Kenyans harvesting problems after sowing post poll chaos

Kenya is becoming a country of shortages. We started with rain shortage. Agriculture and livestock were heavily hit. Then came the maize shortage. Millions continue to be affected by severe famine.

Then came the fuel shortage and high prices. Then followed water shortage, a problem still persisting with no end in sight. And when we thought we were done with shortages, here comes the power shortage.

We also have serious shortage of good leadership, to top it all! How much more can Kenyans stomach? Whoever said that we are peculiar missed the word. We are unique.

Now, with all these shortages, coupled with increasing road accidents, crime, corruption, impunity, a disunited Cabinet, environmental degradation and other social problems, it is time we sat and pensively reflected on what has gone wrong with this beautiful country.

As a Christian, I think that all these are the fruits of our “labour”. We killed our countrymen like animals. We raped our women, young and old like beasts. We burnt innocent people in church like people gone mad. We created refugees in our own country — the list is endless.

Now, with these crimes, did we expect God to reward us with plenty of rains? I doubt. God is kind but he punishes those who do not follow His ways. As the Swahili saying goes, malipo ni hapa hapa duniani (justice is served here on earth) and we are harvesting what we planted in 2008.

The solution to this is for us to come together as a nation and pray and repent, and God will rescue us from these self-inflicted calamities. It is not too late.

The problem with our country is; who will lead the way for these national prayers. Back to leadership, or lack of it. Can someone please take charge before God unleashes further rage on us? Where are the religious leaders?

Written by : BASILIO CHABARI,Malindi


The big story in yesterday’s Nation (August 10) shows how the country is likely to go down at the merciless hands of drought, water shortage and electricity blackouts.
We have had cases of mass starvation before, and each time, the Cabinet goes for an emergency meeting to deliberate on the crisis.

The political class must understand that this mass starvation cannot wait; it requires immediate attention. The government should have started on irrigation programmes a long time ago.
We are doing too little, too late.

Please speak out and take action today. We are the change we seek. Stand up today and demand accountability from our politicians. I love my country so much I don’t want to see any more suffering.

Written by : JULIUS OJALA OJAKAA,Nairobi


SOURCE :

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Letters/-/440806/637640/-/view/DEFAULT/-/6fpr9hz/-/index.html


MY COMMENT : DON'T RELAY ON GOD'S COMPASSION TO SOLVE THE PROBLEMS OF KENYA!!!

Food: Kenya's next crisis after water and electricity

Kenya's Cabinet will meet in emergency session on Tuesday to agree on steps to prevent mass starvation across the country. The session will discuss the report of a sub-committee which paints an alarming picture of the food situation


The report was given to the President two weeks ago and partly discussed at Cabinet last Friday. The government believes more than 10 million need food aid and the committee has made proposals on what needs to be done. Compiled by a cross-section of ministries, it details the shortage of food and water for people and livestock.

SOURCE ET ARTICLE COMPLET

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/637224/-/item/0/-/e2l11m/-/index.html

POESIE DU 7 AOUT 2009

Power rationing to worsen poverty, crime and instability

The planned power rationing programme introduced in Kenya will lead to the collapse of an economy still ravaged by ethnic and political conflict. A decline in the economy will worsen rampant unemployment leading to intensified criminal activity.


Rationing of electricity begins this week for the first time in a decade.


As predicted by many but denied by the government until its subdued admission yesterday, Kenya is to be plunged into darkness by an electricity rationing programme.

Most parts of the country will be disconnected from power during the day in order to supply the capital city and manufacturing industry, according to Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi.

The official line is that a severe drought has reduced the flow of rivers into hydroelectric power stations along the River Tana. In truth, years of neglect, mismanagement of the energy sector and corruption are to blame for the current mess.

Chronic incompetence by political appointees to the two state-owned electricity firms has largely contributed to the power cuts. The Kenya Electricity Generating Company (Kengen) is unable to satisfy rising demand from industry and homes. Meanwhile, the Kenya Power and Lighting Company spends more money on administration than it does on upgrading plant and machinery. Drought should not hinder power production as the current dry spell was predicted at least a year ago.

There are fears that power rationing will add to the already severe outages to make matters very difficult for Kenya’s fledgling industry. After the previous power rationing programme in the years 1999 -2000, the economy went through three successive years of negative growth which ended in 2003. It marked the first economic contraction in Kenya’s colonial and post colonial history. From the look of things, a similar scenario is about to replay itself.

Kenyan industry already faces very high energy prices compared to competitors in Egypt, South Africa, India and China. Power cuts will drive many out of business, if the experience a decade ago is anything to go by. Companies will simply not be able to fulfil their orders, resulting in closures and layoffs. In the year 2000, for example, giant biscuit maker House of Manji went bankrupt after it was unable to deliver on a multi-million pasta contract to an international aid agency. The company had taken a loan to fulfil the order but was unable to repay since it could not manufacture the product. Power rationing was largely to blame. The company has since been revived but it is unlikely to recapture its former glory.

In his announcement yesterday, Minister for Energy Kiraitu Murungi said that Nairobi’s Central Business District will be spared the power cuts. However, the government seems to be running on an outdated principle that the suburbs are sleeping quarters for people working in the city during the day. This may have been the case twenty years ago but, today, business worth billions of shillings is taking place in the suburbs. Without electricity, small and informal business will suffer massively with major social and economic effects on society.

Cybercafes, metal workshops, secretarial bureaus, hair and beauty shops, supermarkets, schools, motor vehicle garages, hospitals as well as offices need electricity to function. Without electricity, economic activity will cease. Though some enterprises can afford generators, it will be expensive to run oil-powered generators for upto 12 hours a day. Like the case of House of Manji ten years ago, entrepreneurs who are servicing bank loans will not keep up with payments and there will be increased bankruptcies in the next one year.

All in all, layoffs and bankruptcies can only mean millions of people on the streets without a livelihood. There will be more crime, more demonstrations, more hawking and more instability. Aware that power rationing will worsen already worrying crime levels, Kiraitu announced that there will be no power cuts at night.

He also said that police stations will be spared the power cuts but did not elaborate the technical and moral challenges of supplying electricity to the security services while everybody else is in darkness. How will such a directive be enforced in small rural towns that are supplied with power by a single line hundreds of kilometres from the national power grid? Will the government build a separate power grid for police stations?

Experience from last time indicates that power rationing usually lasts longer than advertised. Therefore, places that are supposed to be in the dark for 6 hours will suffer power cuts of 8 hours and more. Indeed, in the year 2000, the situation was so bad that 24 hour power rationing became the norm. Kenyans are hoping that, this time, they do not undergo similar suffering.

SOURCE :The Nairobi Chronicle

http://nairobichronicle.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/power-rationing-to-worsen-poverty-crime-and-instability/