I Get Around

Due to the state of the roads in Kenya, getting anywhere is always a bit of an adventure. When there are no charity vehicles running to town, the quickest way of getting there is to jump into a Matatu - and I literally mean jump, as they will rarely come to a standstill, so you've got to run alongside them and fling yourself in. The drivers are usually rather crazy and overtake in ditches, in front of lorries or even around bends if it's dark.

Inside gets pretty crowded...

Matatus are basically privately owned, shared taxis that will stop or drop you off anywhere and can range from standard four-seater cars up to minibuses. Most will be decorated with some wacky interior and/or exterior designs and have RnB music playing at ear-splitting volumes; something I definitely approve of. There is one running along Ngong road called "Gucci Mania", which has the craziest, loudest music I always look out for.

The owners like to name them after famous songs or celebrities. I have taken one called "Single Ladies" (playing only Destiny's Child) and another with a massive caricature of Mariah Carey on its side. Sadly, taking pictures can be difficult as flashing a digital camera or BlackBerry around is not the best move here.

Coming back from the Rift Valley, I had to take one similar to this:

Not with quite so many people, but I did have to sit on top of a pile of logs that started falling down halfway up a hill. Who needs themeparks in Africa when you can just take a matatu?

Biogas Proposal

Dominic Wanjihia is an inventor who has designed an alternative method to traditional biogas production. It’s dubbed “Flexi Biogas” - a cheaper, more efficient, easily transportable option that looks like this, when fully installed and producing gas:




The Motive

Dominic wants to do something about the massive deforestation rates seen throughout Africa. Up to 90% of domestic fuel comes from deforestation, causing irreversible damage to large parts of the continent. The cutting down of trees, along with global warming, are both contributing significantly to desertification (the turning of fertile land to desert) in large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, which is obviously cause for major concern, considering this is an area already prone to devastating famines. Slowing down deforestation rates over the next decade will present a massive challenge for large parts of the globe, and increased Biogas production is a viable, safe, environmentally friendly option that could potentially curb the heavy over-reliance on wood.

How It Works

Biogas is the gas produced by the biological breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. The process is very simple: you add dung to water 1:1 and mix to resemble what Dominic described as a “thick soup”. The Dung will typically come from cows, but human, or any other animal waste can be used, as well as organic domestic waste. Add the mixture to the device through a pipe and simply wait for the gas to be produced.

What’s Different?

Traditional biogas producers are extremely expensive, complex and labour intensive to install. They are also slow at producing gas, as the chamber is underground. Flexi Biogas is above ground, offering higher temperatures and increased enzyme activity thus speeding up gas production from (typically) 30-90 days, to less than two weeks.

Possibilities

Early research has shown the waste from one cow (10-15kg per day) is enough to sustain a household of 4 people, meeting their domestic fuel needs for cooking. It is also possible to run a converted generator off the gas that can make electricity to power homes, schools and shops, or recharge batteries.


There are several possibilities with Flexi Biogas to involve and benefit communities: Excess gas could be sold on to or shared with neighbours; generators could convert gas to electricity which could then be sold on to power companies; the composted “dung” inside the device turns into composted manure (one of the best organic fertilisers) and could either be reused by the community, or packaged and sold on. Job creation would also be possible through installations, maintenance and in remote areas requiring the transportation of organic waste where availability is limited:




Flat-packed and ready to go!

Safety

Biogas is considered extremely safe, as non-poisonous methane gas is produced. Unlike LPG (propane and/or butane), which is heavier than air and can drip down on to cooking or electrical equipment causing fire hazards, methane is lighter than air and evaporates immediately.

Cost

The Flexi Biogas producers come in three different sizes – 6, 9 and 12 cubic metres. Prices start from KSH 30,000 (approx. £240) for the smallest size, to 43,000 (£340) for the largest. Compare this with between KSH 300,000 - 1,000,000 for the conventional ones, and you are getting pretty good value.


Opportunities with ICROSS

We are currently in the early stages of developing a proposal through New World International (the Irish charity partnering ICROSS) that could see Flexi Biogas devices installed near our clinics to power refrigerators, used to store volatile vaccinations. Due to the remoteness of some clinics, power failures (typically gas bottles running out) consequently leave communities without vaccinations for several months. Since these communities would be able to produce Flexi Biogas independently, this would no longer be a problem.

Over the coming months we are aiming to can get a couple of trial devices installed in our nearby projects, as Dominic is eager to continue testing them out in conjunction with schools, local communities and NGOs. He has many other devices/projects in development (including a "Dung Taxi" pictured above) that could potentially be of great value to many, particularly in rural locations.



Dominic: “I go to areas with issues and look at how to solve them with what they’ve got.”


… which, from my brief experience out here so far, is definitely not a lot, further highlighting the potential of Biogas.


www.newworldinternational.org
www.afrigadget.com

Female Genital Mutilation

Female genital mutilation, or female circumcision, is still widely practiced throughout Africa in at least 26 of its 43 countries. In certain rural areas dominated by tribes, more than 90% of women and girls will undergo the procedure in some way. The prevalence ranges from 98 percent in Somalia to 5 percent in Zaire. It has been illegal in Kenya since 2001 for girls under 17.

Do not be fooled into thinking this is something confined to African or Arabic countries – it is also practiced in the West, as this article in today’s Guardian highlights fresh concerns in the UK.

How

The way FGM is carried out can vary: for example, some tribes will opt for a small, symbolic cut; while others completely remove the clitoris or (external genetalia) and stitch up the open wound. Below is a map of the different procedures carried out throughout Kenya and the rates among various tribes:



Circumcisions are normally carried out without anesthetic, and can result in infection – as well as severe pain during urination, menstruation, sexual intercourse and childbirth. Girls who undergo the procedure have also been known to die from excessive bleeding and infection. Women with no medical experience often carry out procedures in unsanitized environments, which lead to many of these complications. Tin lids and pieces of broken glass are amongst the implements used in the procedure in some cases.

Why

FGM is, for many communities, a highly valued ritual and marks the transition from childhood to womanhood. Its function is to basically reduce or eliminate a woman’s sexual desire, and ensure her virginity until marriage, thus making her suitable to marry. In the more extreme procedures where stitching is required, the size of the vagina is removed in order to enhance sex for the husband.

What’s Being Done

While it has been banned in Kenya for almost ten years and many Governments along with international and local human rights’ groups have been campaigning for its abolition, it still remains prevalent, particularly in the areas I have visited so far in Ilkilorit and Inyonyori, with large Maasai populations.

The Inyonyori clinic has been open since 1986. Johnson, the community health worker who has worked there for the last 20 years, has seen a slow shift in the attitudes of Maasai people with regards to FGM. School children are now educated about its dangers, and are encouraged to report those parents advocating FGM.

“Having laws is great, but implementation is another issue entirely as this is a highly valued tradition among our people,” Johnson says. “It’s all about educating people so they realise themselves how dangerous it is.”

Local initiatives and community projects such as Ntanira na Mugambo (Circumcision Through Words) are also working to preserve the rite of passage aspect of FGM without surgery: I think this approach, combined with increased awareness through school education, will prove to be more effective in the long-term than foreigners, appearing to be ignorant and judgmental to traditions, ‘sticking their noses in’.

Kenyan Contraception Delivery

For the past week, I stayed with the family of a community health worker on the Rift Valley's floor. With no running water, electricity, meat, mattresses or toilets, things were pretty tough. But my camping 'experience' paid dividends in the end, so I did manage to survive.


During the daytime, we had to walk for over an hour each way to ICROSS's Inyonyori health clinic, where I was helping out. The views were spectacular and on one of the days, I saw a hyena crossing a path in front of me on my way back, as well as a red cobra.



Most of the patients I saw were young children coming for checkups. Wednesdays are when all the vaccinations are given out and on Fridays, those kids who have been classified as underweight drop by to pick up their weekly soy flour (mixed with vegetable oil), to hopefully get them to a healthy weight.





The funniest patient of the week, hands down, had to be a little kid who had been sent up from the local school by his elder peers with the following piece of paper:



"Pliz give this boy condoms one packet to bring for me."

Genius!

This tiny Inyonyori clinic, on average, gives away 600 condoms a week.

Ilkilorit Clinic

I visited one of our projects yesterday in the Rift Valley AKA “The Bush” for the first time with ICROSS project managers Joe Ngwiri and Saruni Nanu.

It struck me for the first time, as our pickup truck turned off the relative smooth comfort of the tar-marked roads outside of Ngong and hit the ‘road’ (that is basically a crater-ridden dust bowl running down and through the Valley), just how tough the simplest of tasks can become out here. Some parts were so bumpy that even our small, nimble 4X4 struggled to cover the terrain.

I was told the road we were on was in fact one of the better ones and LORRIES carrying construction materials had to travel the same way. A water tank was recently erected in the area where we were headed and the truck delivering bricks could not get up one of the hills, so the workers offloaded them at the bottom, carried them up by hand before reloading again once the (lighter) lorry could make it up the hill. Egyptians & Pyramids came to mind.

After a couple of hours we finally arrived at the new clinic entrance:



(Me standing with local Headmaster John Morio)

It is almost complete thanks to the hard work of Gerry Googan and Friends & ICROSS. But there is still some work to be done before completion:

Dispensary:



Staff House:



Toilets:



I spoke with some of the local workers/community leaders and visited the school to get some opinions on the project. It was quite obvious that everyone was desperate to finally see it up and running after being in construction for over two years:

“The clinic will cover a very large area, and approximately 2000 people are going to be entirely dependent upon this facility in the local area. For health facilities right now, you have to travel very far, so this clinic will be of great help and importance to us.”



Lekumokole Naikada, School Chairman and Community Leader (3rd Right)


The Headmaster of the local school, Mr John Morio, who rode down from Ngong town with us, had a lot to say about the project and ICROSS itself.

“Even those who are not eligible to be treated here will be able to get first aid assistance to help them reach hospitals many kilometres away – a large proportion would die injured along the way otherwise.” (He spoke about the cholera outbreak in January, using it as an example of what happened, as many sick people couldn’t make the painful trip across the bush to seek care.)

Mr Morio also praised the projects ran throughout Kenya by ICROSS as, in his experience, it is one of the very few NGOs that is able and willing to integrate its projects within communities – often strategically placing health clinics next to schools. “Some amazing facilities are built and will go to waste as they are either in the wrong place, or communities are not involved, making them unsustainable in the long-term.” According to Mr Morio, many NGOs he has worked with would not even consider coming to areas as remote as this one, because they are “just too far away to control”.

“ICROSS is not put off by distance and for such a facility to even reach this point of development, a lot of good work has been done.”


Solomon Sapati Kindi (Teacher and Community Health Worker) was also very eager to get the project off the ground.



“The local hospital is over a 2-hour walk from here, so people around the area are longing to see the facilities complete. It is very expensive to get to Ngong (the nearest town); there is no phone signal so getting women having trouble in childbirth there is very hard. We all hope that the clinic will be able to have maternity facilities too.”

The contractor estimates that the final work, once under way, should take about two weeks to complete. So here’s hoping we manage to secure the additional funding to complete and open the clinic. But if there is one thing I’ve learned since arriving in Kenya – things are often not that simple in Africa. 2 weeks can just as easily turn into 2 years… so my fingers are firmly crossed that this final stage manages to at least get underway before I leave by mid-August.

The local school kids were wonderful and would barely stand still for me to take a picture: