Working Through Political Interference

When I first heard about my site, I figured that I would have a predetermined workload. Unlike in Mali, I was assigned to a host organization, which has had over ten years experience in implementing a variety of projects within the community. I thought this meant I'd basically be an employee again. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The disorganization within my host organization at the moment, along with the abrupt resignation of my supervisor to pursue politics once I arrived, and the departures of my initial counterpart, whom I saw only once a month anyways, and Austin, the young man who assisted me over my first two months, has meant me being again on my own, the same way I was in Mali.

We hired Edwin, my current counterpart within my host organization, on a voluntary basis at the end of November. I really enjoy working with this guy. He is very motivated to help his community, specifically marginalized villages within the Yala Swamp near where he lives. But Edwin lives across the river from me, voluntarily teaches at a local institute each afternoon, and must often scrape together odd jobs to earn money to support himself. With all of these constraints, we are only able to truly work together a couple times a week.

In many ways, I like working this way. The situation has given me a lot of freedom to determine for myself where my time can best be utilized. I am still working hard with my host organization to build it's capacity and succeed with it's current contract on Land Rights outreach. But otherwise, I have been largely able to choose whom to work with, and what needs to focus on.

Mumbaya Youth Group members during a weekly meeting this past Sunday.

I have been very busy over the past month, specifically after finishing our visits into the swamp, in planning projects to pursue over my remaining four months and mobilizing community members to work alongside.

There is a major consideration at the moment, which may cut my time further short. Yesterday, I joined all Peace Corps Volunteers country-wide in meeting at a low-profile location to wait out the upcoming elections. During the previous election cycle, mass violence ripped through the country. The hope is that this cannot happen again, but uncertainty reigns. If all goes well, we hope to return to our villages on March 10th. But evacuation, if things go south, is a possibility.

Additionally, politics in Kenya is big business. Government ministries generally grind to a halt around elections, and public officials, such as chiefs, shy off involving themselves in any additional work because, as appointed civil servants, any misstep may lead to the new political officials replacing them. So I have found that many of my projects have hit a wall until we can move forward once new appointees are named following the elections.

The following is a description of those projects I am currently working to tackle within Bunyala District:

Life-skills Class at Two Primary Schools

At the start of the current school term in January, I began teaching weekly life-skills classes at two local primary schools. At Budalang'i Primary School, I am teaching approximately 60 Class 8 students. At New Hope Primary School, a private school catering primarily to orphaned children, I am teaching Class 4 through 8 students during one session, approximately 100 total students.

My Class 8 students at Budalang'i Primary School during our Life-skills Class on Wednesdays.

I am teaching these classes alongside a full-time teacher at each school. The hope is that, not only are those teachers with me to assist in any miscommunication on account of struggles with language (primarily my accent with speaking English - I don't often have the vocabularly in 'kiswahili' for the subject matter), but that they will also be able to carry through with these classes after I have left.

These classes are intended to give students the knowledge, self-confidence, and assertiveness required to make sound decisions outside of the classroom. Topics covered so far include values, adolescence and puberty, male and female reproductive systems, consequences of sexual activity, effective communication, and stress management. At the end of each class, students are able to write questions anonymously on paper to be answered at the beginning of class the following week. Based upon the questions we have receive, it seems that this class is serving a real need.

The curriculum is such that lectures are minimal; most learning is accomplished through active participation. Open discussion, role-plays, and games are regularly facilitated, under the premise that if students reach conclusions on their own through critical thinking, as opposed to passively listening to a teacher, they are more likely to absorb the material.

This approach is much different than the standard 'copy from the chalkboard' type of learning found in most Kenyan classes. It takes some getting used to, both for the teachers as well as the students. It has been a struggle to get the students to participate, to speak openly about their thoughts. But the public school kids in particular have really come around, and our classes have become fun and energetic. The private school kids, still working on it. I will never say that a teacher's job is easy, but generally I am having fun with it.

Dyke Management Committees

Over the past 13 years, my host organization has been integral in issuing early warnings of imminent flooding to community members, as well as coordinating community-driven dyke maintenance efforts. Following flood events, the organization has been a key player in search and rescue, and has worked with relocated people to form their own committees to facilitate the distribution of assistance and self-governance within temporary shelters following disasters.

In my view, the most vital factor to the success of these efforts was the Dyke Management Committees which my host organization had previously established. These committees mobilized members of the affected communities to take ownership of the issue, by performing regular maintenance on the dykes, monitoring the river for changes which, based upon ‘indigenous technical knowledge,’ can signify impending floods, and monitoring the dyke for weak points.

Each of the 11 sub-locations which border the dykes had their own committee. Each committee was considered to include all inhabitants of the sublocation as members, but was led by three officers, a chairman, secretary, and treasurer. A Dyke Management Monitoring Committee was made up of 11 people, which met regularly to supervise and coordinate the work of all of the committees.

Unfortunately, back in 2007, these committees failed. I have been told that this was due to a new politician coming into office, who chose his own people to perform maintenance on the dykes, for pay. This was only temporary. Once pay ended, his men stopped their work. The Dyke Management Committees, bitter over having been snubbed payment for work they had been doing for free, stopped, too.

I suggested to the John, the chairman of my host organization, that the most important thing we can do is to reactivate these committees. To maintain the organization's credibility, continuing our role in flood management is critical. This would be the most crucial step.

On January 23rd, we held a meeting at our office with select former members of the dyke management committees. Opillo, the former chairman of the Dyke Management Monitoring Team, reached out to about 10 of those people who were most active within the committees. Unfortunately, soon after the meeting began, I knew I would not be pleased.

When we began discussing how best to reestablish these committees, they made comments like ‘kitu kidogo’ (some small payment) is essential. They called on me to use my connections to get financial support. After many echoed these thoughts, Opillo summarized by saying first, my host organization must source for a sponsor.

After listening to their thoughts for awhile, I took my turn to speak. I told them financial support, donors, etc. from outside are all well and good, but it is not ‘lazima’ (a must). It should not be the foundation for reforming these committees.

'It is important that when building these committees now, the officers we choose want to do it because they want to help their community. No other reason. If people join to get something from it, I guarantee you it will fail. Donors will inevitably pull out, as Actionaid and WorldVision both did from our district, payments will stop, and then people will stop working. So we need to get people motivated to help their community. And we shouldn't have to ask for a huge commitment. If the entire community truly takes ownership of the project, thats a lot of hands. Hold regular dyke maintenance days, make it a community event. The work will go fast. It shouldn't have to depend on the officers alone.'

It quickly became clear that no one liked my stance on funding. All continued to argue that a sponsor is necessary. They began to talk about how they need money for transport, money to buy tools. One man even argued that it is necessary to provide t-shirts. When I questioned this, he said when people read 'Dyke Management Committee’ on the shirts they'll want to get involved. I said that sounds good, but is it necessary? He said yes, because you can’t work in the heat in clothes like this (pulling on his button-up shirt). What I really wanted to say to that: 'if you truly have no work clothes in this community, a community of subsistence farmers, then the last thing you need is handouts.'

So I pulled the card I thankfully have from my back pocket. For almost thirty minutes, I explained passionately my work in Mali, how because our projects were fully funded and managed internally, the work is still going on. How if I had relied upon outside funding, when the government fell and aid organizations pulled out, all of the projects would have screeched to a halt. The committees we formed would have disbanded. But because they were self-sufficient, they are still continuing. I am more proud of that than any other accomplishment in my life.

I told them that, in my opinion, if you think you need transport costs, tools, any recurring costs... you need to be thinking of ways to raise that money within the community.

I think I got through, but people sure weren’t happy. They were looking angry, miserable, staring at their feet. The same reaction I had received during similar arguments throughout my first year in Mali.

Despite that talk, three of the men still walked up to me after the meeting and asked for a little something for attending the meeting, saying they don’t have money to cross the river to get home. They assumed they would get a 'sitting allowance.'

I talked with John and Opillo after the meeting. We can't just reform the same committees. These people aren't in it for the right reasons. We must find people who are willing to volunteer for their community. And we need to include both men and women, young and old so that we can mobilize all members of the community. Every person save one in the room was male, and all were over 50.

So we decided to reach out to the Assistant Chiefs in each sub-location, hold individual meetings to select committee officers from scratch. But when John sent out requests to the Assistant Chiefs, we were told to wait after elections.

Improving Healthcare Access for Communities within Swamp

Due to the remoteness of many communities, access to healthcare is a huge issue within the swamp. The Osieko dispensary, found in the southern-most town within our district, is tasked with serving the majority of Bunyala South location.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of residents in Bunyala South live in villages within the swamp. A visit to the dispensary often entails propelling a boat for miles through canals overgrown with papyrus by using bamboo rods to reach a beach along the lake, then procuring a boat, either hand or engine-powered, to head out into Lake Victoria, before reaching the beach at Osieko.

Obtaining boats to make this journey can be both difficult and expensive, and the rough waters of Lake Victoria later on in the day, or during storms, can make the journey dangerous. Therefore, most of the residents simply do without healthcare.

When I met with the staff at the dispensary, they described this as their major challenge. While talking with John, the chairman of my host organization, I mentioned the idea of a mobile clinic, where staff could use a boat to regularly see patients at centralized locations within the swamp. The question is where could this boat come from?

Arriving at Madua Primary School using the school's motor boat, provided to them by CDF (Constituency Development Fund). Madua, along with Obaro, are the most ideally-located villages for mobile clinic outreach within the swamp.

When we traveled to Madua a couple weeks ago, we actually hired a boat owned by the primary school. This boat was purchased for them by CDF, an agency of the Government of Kenya tasked with distributing funds to local projects within the constituency. John also happens to be the current chairman of CDF, and we discussed the possibility of using that same boat, with CDF picking up additional costs of fuel and driver's salary.

Edwin and I then travelled back to Osieko Thursday, February 21, to discuss with the dispensary staff the possible implementation of these mobile clinics. They were on board, but must discuss internally how often clinics could be held and what staff would attend to best provide their services.

Also of concern: drugs are allocated to health facilities on the basis of the number of people served over the prior three months. They said that at first, they would be serving so many more people that they would not be granted the amount of drugs necessary to serve them until their numbers go up. So there would be a three-month transition period where they would need assistance above and beyond their normal allotment. That concern right there shows you the huge population currently unattended for by their own government.

So I am currently working to coordinate between the Osieko Dispensary staff and the CDF to hash out the details and gain approval to move forward with these mobile clinics. But like most things in Kenya, work at the CDF is on hold until after the current election cycle, when the newly elected member of parliament can appoint his own people to the CDF.

Mumbaya Youth Group Tree Nursery Development

Back in early September, I became a member of the Mumbaya Youth Group, and have been attending weekly meetings and group activities ever since. These people have become some of my closest friends in the community, and I have been looking for ways to assist them in their activities.

During our December In-Service Training in Nairobi, Peace Corps invited a representative from the American NGO Trees for the Future to speak with us. There, the representative handed out moringa tree seeds to all of us to plant within our communities. I decided that this would be a good opportunity for the youth group to try out a potential income-generating activity.

Members of Mumbaya Youth Group planting moringa tree seeds Sunday, February 10th.

We planted the seeds together a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, chickens ate many of the emerging seedlings. But a few of the plants did survive.

The members were excited enough about the project that when I talked with them last Sunday about available funds through Youth Service America for activities conducted during Global Youth Service Day, April 26th through the 28th, they decided that they would like to plan a project on tree planting. Since then, I helped them to plan and draft a proposal for a project involving the construction of a tree nursery (including fencing which can prevent animals from destroying the plants), as well as the planting of seeds and distribution of seedlings to people within the community.

Budalang’i Market Cleanup for Global Youth Service Day

Upon first hearing about that Global Youth Service Day grant opportunity, I immediately thought of my friend Davies. Davies works at a local cybercafé, but volunteers for a local organization coordinating youth service activities, and has successfully mobilized youth for a variety of events in the past, including USAID's 'Yes Youth Can!' initiative. He is a high energy, motivated young man well respected in the community.

I met with him this past Sunday to discuss with him the opportunity, and we bounced around potential project ideas. We settled upon a market clean-up day, where his youth group will not only clean up trash from the market, but also prepare trash pits for compostable items, and procure old oil drums to use as trash bins for non-compostable items. A committee will be formed to regularly empty these bins, with the hope that this project will result in a sustainable grassroots trash service for the market.

Before leaving for consolidation, we sat together on Wednesday to write the proposal together. Davies still has some work to do on it, but we will be corresponding over the next week to finish it before the deadline.

Kitchen Gardens and School Lunch Programs at Schools

While visiting schools throughout the district, I learned of a fantastic program run by the Ministry of Agriculture, funded by Njaa Marufuku (eradicating hunger), which assists students in preparing kitchen gardens (gardens with assorted vegetables meant for on-site consumption) at their schools to sustain school lunch programs. During the first year, the program is funded 100%, including food assistance to ensure adequate supplies for the lunch program. But the funding decreases by half each subsequent year until it is completely self-sustaining, when the garden can fully feed the students on its own.

I love this project, because it is locally-based, fully sustainable, and addresses a major need within the community. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Agriculture does not have the funding to expand this program beyond the four chosen schools.

While traveling around the district, one school in particular struck me; the primary school in Bubamba. If you recall, this is the school where most of the students must cross a large river by boat, wade through 4' deep water when the river has swollen, and cross long stretches of water by pulling two different boats from one end to the other by rope. A task all but impossible for most of these small children, unless their parents actually carry them on their backs, going and coming.

This is not a boarding school, nor does it have a school lunch program. Kids must make the long trek, which took Edwin and I close to two hours, each weekday. And once they arrive at the school, there is no food to sustain them throughout the day. Returning home for lunch, as many Kenyan students do, is not an option.

Being in the swamp, with its fertile soil ripe for agricultural productivity, alongside the huge need of these students, makes Bubamba Primary School an ideal candidate for such a kitchen garden and school lunch program. And unlike Madua Primary School, another school in the swamp, teachers and parents did not beg me for handouts. They were genuinely interested in learning what we could do together to improve their situation. They are actually willing to work. And to establish a program such as kitchen gardens, this is a necessary component for success.

PALWECO, a joint program between the Finnish and Kenyan governments, is currently funding kitchen garden demonstrations at select local homes, coordinated by the Ministry of Agriculture. These demonstrations are intended to educate local farmers on the practice and encourage them to implement their own, improving food security in the community.

A local farmer speaking about his kitchen garden during a demonstration to the local community, funded by PALWECO in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture.

This program sounded to me like a perfect match for Bubamba Primary School. Bubamba Primary School would be assisted and empowered to prepare their own kitchen gardens, which would allow them to start their own school lunch program, providing needed sustenance to the school children. PALWECO would gain a great showcase within the community to encourage more farmers to take up the practice. And if successful there, extending the program to other schools would increase the benefit for both students and the program alike.

Over the past couple of weeks, Edwin and I have been in discussions with PALWECO and the Ministry of Agriculture to make this plan a reality, and the idea has been well-received all around. We are to further discuss and plan this project at a meeting after the election period.

Yala Swamp Reclamation Lobbying

The waters of the Yala Swamp have been rising for at least twenty years naturally. But recently, over the past six years, the waters have been rising at an increased rate, causing the swamp to further encroach upon villages, homes, and farmland on small islands within the swamp. This change has been attributed by locals to be due to large-scale farming by an American developer, known as Dominion Company, within the portions of Yala Swamp located in neighboring Siaya County.

Siaya County has leased Dominion the land within their jurisdiction, but the land within Bunyala Sub-County, Busia County remains community land owned by individuals.

John, the chairman of my host organization, had asked me to help him develop a 'Yala Swamp Reclamation' report addressed to the Lake Basin Development Authority (LBDA), a board set up by the Kenyan Government to improve livelihood and development within the overall lake basin region. This report is to request LBDA to look into reclaiming historically-inhabited parts of the swamp which have now been submerged by water.

Within the report, I explain how the local population has widely observed that water runoff from lands developed by Dominion have significantly increased from pre-development levels. The increase in runoff has caused water levels within the swamp to rise, swallowing large swaths of land, including previously inhabited villages, cultivated farmland, and access paths and waterways. Additionally, the sediment carried by these waters have clogged natural drainage ways leading to Lake Victoria, preventing these waters from being properly evacuated. This has resulted in the inhabitation, farming, and transportation within the swamp becoming largely untenable.

I argued that prior to undertaking any large-scale development project, it is vital that the impact to communities downstream be properly assessed. Therefore, Dominion should be held responsible for any damages which they have caused, directly or indirectly, to the people of Bunyala Sub-County, due to poor planning and execution of their farming.

LBDA should carry out an extensive environmental study of the Yala Swamp in order to accurately gauge the extents to which the continued large-scale farming by Dominion is contributing to the encroachment of the swamp into both previously and currently inhabited areas of Bunyala Sub-County.

LBDA should also undertake a thorough survey of lands to ensure that Dominion does not encroach upon lands legally owned by residents of Bunyala.

Given that the encroachment of the swamp has adversely impacted the livelihood of thousands of inhabitants within Bunyala, LBDA should also undertake reclamation programs aimed at reestablishing traditionally inhabitable and arable land within the swamp.

Mubwayo Market Improvement

Back in September, my then counterpart Austin and I had visited Mubwayo, one of the largest markets within our district south of the River Nzoia. During our visit, locals within the market were unanimous in their complaints that the market is filthy. There was no organized trash collection or street sweeping. The two latrines, previously constructed by the County Council, were not being maintained and were overflowing with sewage. One woman, who runs a local 'hoteli' (restuarant), complained that the water table is so high that she had tried to construct a 'choo' (latrine) three different times, even trying on her neighbor's property, but each time the pit collapsed.

Market day in Mubwayo.

So when it came time to selecting projects, I suggested to Edwin that we assist the community in starting a sort of 'Chamber of Commerce,' where each shop owner could contribute a small amount of money to go towards regular cleaning of the market. And they could also pool their money together to construct better latrine facilities.

This past Wednesday, Edwin and I biked down to Mubwayo to meet with local shop owners. Turns out, since we had visited last September, they had actually formed their own market committee. They collect money from each shop owner and market seller on market days to sweep. Things have improved, but the market is still noticeably dirty, lacks proper garbage disposal and latrine facilities, and does not have a shade structure similar to the ones which the government is constructing in most other nearby markets.

They complained that the County Council comes each Tuesday to collect taxes from each seller, yet unlike other markets, that money never comes back to them in terms of improved structures and services. Mubwayo is the most remote market under their control. The County Council generally works in those markets closest to them, and more visible to the public at large. When I discussed with them the possibility of taking matters into their own hands, raising money themselves and building some of the facilities they lack, they informed me that they can't without first gaining approval from the County Council themselves.

The problem is that the market land is actually owned by the County Council. If the committee set about constructing a 'choo,' for example, the County Council might object because they may have intended that parcel to be used for another use. Even digging a compost pit for trash could raise issues with the government.

I suggested that we begin by Edwin and I accompanying a couple of their members to Busia to discuss the issue with the council. I also plan on obtaining records of tax revenue versus expenditure at each market in order to gain a factual basis for our claims.

Low-Cost Latrine Facilities in High Water Table Areas

One of the major problems throughout the district is the inability to construct adequate sanitation facilities due to either weak soil, or high water table. This problem is most pronounced in areas in and around the Yala Swamp, where hardly any households have latrines.

One part of the district, Mudembi sub-location, suffers from weak soil, but the Community Health Workers (CHWs) have recently made significant strides in increasing the number of latrines within the community. They have even reached a point to which the Ministry of Health has decided to bestow upon them the ‘Open Defecation-Free Zone’ label, where police will be allowed by law to arrest anyone not using a latrine. They have done this by educating the community on simple measures they can undertake to dig a structurally-stable pit.

CHWs in Mudembi sub-location have counseled locals on creative ways to make low-cost, stable latrines. Above, a latrine was constructed on top of a termite hill. Other possibilities include piling up a mound of dirt, allowing it to compact over time, then digging through it, or supporting the pit with a woven mesh of papyrus.

The areas of Runyu and Rukala, in and around the Yala Swamp, have especially low rates of latrine facilities. So we decided to try and link up the CHWs from this area with my friend Charles, the Community Health Extension Worker (CHEW) who oversees CHWs from Mudembi, for a tech-exchange opportunity. We are currently planning a meeting where we can hold an open discussion, sharing challenges and ideas on how best to solve the problem.

Safe Drinking Water Access

While traveling around the district, we found many communities without access to safe drinking water. This was in part due to hand pumps which were installed by international NGOs, but due to poor materials, lack of community buy-in and maintenance, have since fallen into disrepair. Additionally, many areas simply do not have pumps or wells, and drink swamp, lake, or river water straight from the source.

This hand pump was installed by World Vision in 2004. I was shocked at what poor condition it already is in.

I am currently working within my host organization to try and find sources of revenue to pursue a wider-scale pump installation project, similar to the one I undertook in Mali. After the elections, I plan to begin meeting with community members to form similar Water and Sanitation Committees, collect community contributions in the form of both labor (to dig the well) and money, which will be enhanced by outside funding. This money will not only be used to construct new pumps or repair old ones, but to also buy the tools required to maintain and repair these pumps, and provide training to members of the overseeing committees.

World Malaria Day

World Malaria Day is April 25th. Most districts throughout Kenya annually hold events to commemorate the day and educate the community on the illness, its causes, and its prevention. Bunyala District is no different, but historically these events have always been held north of the River Nzoia, in areas of higher elevation where mosquitos aren't as prevalent.

Malaria is a much bigger problem in communities south of the River Nzoia, many of which are located within the Yala Swamp. There, mosquitos are rampant. I found that during my excursions into the swamp, they were even biting with fury at mid-day. Net distributions, due to the remoteness of many villages, have been somewhat shoddy.

I have suggested to the Ministry of Health that we hold this year's event in Rukala. Rukala is a village on the edge of the Yala Swamp, but still along a main road. It is the best compromise for reaching the most affected individuals, while being accessible to district administration by vehicle. Once I return to village, we will begin planning this event in greater detail.