Category: Business

Kisumu County is set to launch a major sports talent search in November to reach out to youth at the grassroots with the focus on talent identification and development.
The programme dubbed ‘I am Kisumu Sports Talent Search’ was to be rolled out earlier this year but was shelved due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The talent search will start from the wards through to sub counties with the climax activity being a grand finale at the County level.
Area Deputy Governor, Dr Mathew Owili, made the announcement during the distribution exercise of assorted sports gear and equipment worth Sh 8.9 million to various ward based clubs on Wednesday.
“This programme will enable us to reach out to young talents down at the grassroots, therefore, ensuring none is locked out of this exercise. The identified talents are meant to be placed in our senior clubs and teams at the county, national, and international levels,” said Dr Owili.
In the 2020/2021 Financial Year, the County Department of Tourism, Sports and Culture procured the sports equipment at a cost of Sh 8.9 million to benefit 8 wards at the onset of the project.
Dr Owili said the County government is determined to upscale support for sportsmen and women to boost the standards of sporting activities in all the 35 wards in the County.
Teams from Kolwa East, Kisumu North and Chemelil wards received the donations consisting of uniforms, soccer balls, goal nets, and footwear and protection gear.
Other wards that have benefitted are Awasi/Onjiko, Nyalenda B, Muhoroni, Koru, North Nyakach and South West Kisumu.
“We no longer want to see our young talents kicking balls made of plastic papers or play barefoot. We are out to dignify sports and give our budding sportsmen and women the confidence they deserve,” said Owili, adding that Kisumu is home to prominent sports personalities in soccer, rugby, hockey and basketball.
The County Executive Committee (CEC) for Tourism, Sports and Culture, Achie Alai, said the County has also established a Sports Policy which will guide on sporting activities in the County.
Achie revealed that the policy among many things touches on the doping issue that has been impacting local players.
The Department will organize for anti-doping education awareness to enable athletes to understand the four major areas that predispose them to doping offences.
Additionally, the County Government has also given prominence to sports for persons with disabilities. Last year, the County Government and the National Council for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), to ensure improved mainstreaming of disability in sports.
The County provided space at Mama Grace Onyango social centre in Kisumu for the establishment of a sports wellness gym for persons with disabilities.

Source: Kenya News Agency

NAIROBI – The United Nations Environment Program on Monday marked the official end of toxic leaded gasoline use in vehicles worldwide. A company in Nairobi, where the UNEP is headquartered, is working on the next step — converting all buses and utility vehicles to electric power by 2030.
Lucy Mugala goes about checking on the energy levels of battery modules lined neatly on a workshop table. Mugala is an engineer at Opibus, a privately owned four-year-old Nairobi company that converts cars and public transport vehicles to run on electricity.
Today, Mugala and fellow engineer Esther Wairimu are fine-tuning plans to outfit a public transport bus with lithium batteries. Mugala said converting this bus reduces the effects of greenhouse emissions responsible for global warming.
“A lot has been done currently in terms of mitigating the effects of greenhouse gases in Kenya, but very little is being done in the electrical vehicle sector, and that is the gap we are trying to fill at Opibus. We are looking at maximizing impact by targeting the largest sector, which is the public transport sector, and with this, we will be able to step by step be able to achieve a low carbon economy in Kenya and in Africa at large,” said Mugala.
Douglas Agwata has been in the public transport industry for 15 years. On average, Agwata spends around $80 on fuel daily, a cost he’d like to see come down.
However, Agwata said that drivers like him may find it challenging to adapt to electric vehicles.
He said that converting the engines from gasoline to electric is quite costly and that one may also find that there is a scarcity of charging stations, and this may prove to be quite challenging.
Joshua Anampiu is the strategy and planning manager at the National Environment Trust Fund, or NETFUND, a state corporation that raises funds for sustainable environmental management in Kenya.
Anampiu said shifting toward clean energy requires investment from the government, but he argues that the investment will be worth it.
“No matter how costly it looks right now, we know in the long run it will be more effective towards preserving our environment, which is an existential threat right now if we do not take care of our environment. So, yes, there are areas we need to put up infrastructure. We need to change the entire mechanisms of the infrastructure, and this obviously is costly. And so, going forward, maybe invest now, put in a bit more cash, and then we’ll reap the benefits in the future,” he said.
The global end of leaded gasoline use has been lauded as a milestone by the United Nations Environment Program.
Jane Akumu is a program manager at UNEP. Akumu adds that a lot more needs to be done to ensure efficacy in abolishing the use of leaded gasoline.
“You know, we need a lot of awareness for people to be able to know why it’s important to have cleaner fuels or cleaner vehicles. Policymakers need to also come in, and especially … standards bodies. It’s important for them to set regulations in place because the industry is pushed by regulation. What we’ve noticed is that in some of the countries where there’s no regulation, poor fuel quality, poor vehicle qualities, are imported,” said Akumu.
For Mugala and other clean energy champions, the challenge will be to reduce the costs of going electric and encourage consumers to go green.

Source: Voice of America

Some 75 artistes in Bomet County have successfully completed a one-week training program at the Emkwen film hub, courtesy of the local county government in conjunction with the Kenya Film commission. This comes exactly a month after Broadcasting and Telecommunications PS Esther Koimett promised that the government will remain steadfast in its commitment to develop film industry in the country during the launch of this first film hub in Bomet County.
Kenya Film Commission recently established the state of art film hub and the only one of its kind in the lake region block.
Bomet Governor Dr. Hillary Barchok applauded the initial cohort of graduates who were taken through Film Making areas of directing, Production, Acting, Video Editing, Cinematography and Scriptwriting.
Barchok noted that the art industry provided many opportunities that need to be utilized to enable youths earn a living out of it.
“The Art sector has a huge potential for our youth with diverse skills and talents. The opportunities in the sector remain largely untapped due to lack of skills and support to potential artists in our community,” he added.
On his part, the Kenya Film Commission CEO Timothy Owase encouraged youths in Bomet to utilize the resource centre to produce authentic content.
“We are urging our youths to come up with consumable content for which we can get market. Our mandate is to provide avenues for their work to be utilized,” said Owase.
Emkwen is the second hub after the first one at the Dedan Kimathi University that was set up by the commission to provide film production service outside Nairobi.

Source: Kenya News Agency

The Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture Project (KCSAP) has supported Kajiado County agricultural extension services with 9 motorcycles, 5 Kenya Agricultural Market Information System (KAMIS) tablets and 5 KAMIS weighing scales to boost their service delivery to
farmers. KAMIS is a set of integrated coordinated processes and tools to collect and deliver agricultural and livestock market information and services to guide farmers, traders, processors, government agencies and other key players that may benefit from current market data.
According to KCSAP Director in Kajiado Julius Nyagaka, the five KAMIS tablets would ensure that the major markets of Oloitoktok, Ilbissil, Kajiado, Ngong and Kiserian were linked to the system.
“We have trained 14 market enumerators and 22,500 farmers are digitized and are ready to receive agro weather and market information as weekly data collection is going on in all the prioritized markets,” said Nyagaka. Nyagaka further said that extension officers from Rombo, Entonet, Kimana, Matapato South, Matapato North, Ildamat, Ngong, Magadi and Kiekonyokie wards have received one motorcycle each to help them easily accessing the farmers.
While speaking after flagging off the motorcycles, Kajiado Deputy Governor Martine Moshisho noted that food security is among the Big Four agenda by the President and thus the Kajiado County government is working hard to make it a reality.
He said that the motorbikes would go a long way in helping the extension officers to take services to the needy areas since mobility has been a problem for long as Kajiado County is vast.
On KAMIS, Moshisho noted that information is power and adequate reliable information would enable the farmers to make informed decisions regarding market demand, profitable markets and the appropriate time to plant specific crops.
Kajiado County Chief Executive committee Member for Agriculture Jackline Koin termed the KAMIS tablets as a breakthrough in edging out brokers of agricultural produce who have long exploited farmers.
“Middlemen have for so long been exploiting farmers due to their lack of market information thus once the farmers can access timely and accurate information on market prices and the market activities, they will not be exploited ,” stated Koin
Koin further noted that market data would serve as an early warning of food shortages and in the management of food security reserves especially during drought periods.
Silas Kipngetich who is the Ward Agricultural Extension Officer in Magadi ward was elated after receiving one of the motorbikes noting that he had a great mobility challenge as Magadi ward is vast and has rough terrain thus making access to farmers difficult.
The motorcycles which have been locally assembled by Kibo Africa are a great fit for rough terrains as they could easily be repaired since spare parts were readily available within the local towns.
Kibo Africa Sales Manager Milton Maingi stated that the officers received free training on how to use the motorbikes and would benefit from a 10,000 Kilometers and one year warranty from Kibo Africa.
He further revealed that the company has partnered with local mechanics within the wards that have benefitted from the motorcycles who would repair and service the motorbikes in time so that the officers do not have to waste time in taking the motorcycles for repair in Nairobi.
A market enumerator in Ngong, Leah Kagai notes that the KAMIS tablet would help her in providing the county with information on availability of food commodities and help her advice farmers on crop prices.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Farmers in Narok can breathe a sigh of relief after the county government, through Agriculture Sector Development Support Programme Phase Two (ASDSP II) gave them pasture seeds worth Sh1.8 million to boost livestock production in the county.
Speaking during the launch of seeds distribution at Ololulunga area, the County Chief Officer for Agriculture David Ole Letuati said the programme will increase milk and meat production in the county especially during dry seasons.
He said the seeds were purchased from Kenya Seed Company to ensure that they were quality seeds for different regions in the county.
“The Kenya Seed company officials will work closely with the farmers’ groups to train and monitor best farming practices for highest pasture production. We are sure that the seeds are the best for the region,” he said.
The County ASDSP11 Coordinator Vincent Kinyua said the pasture from the seeds will help double milk production from 5 liters per cow to 10 liters per cow per day.
“We hope that the pasture produced from the seeds will help farmers improve their production because as we speak dairy production is 5 liters per cow per day, we are now aiming at 10 liters per day so that our farmers can get huge profits,” he said.
The coordinator called on farmers around the county to join organized groups to be able to benefit from various programmes that the government offers on the ground.
One of the beneficiaries, Solomon Ole Koros lauded the government for pasture seeds saying the pasture will increase the quality and quantity of milk in the area.
“We are proud of our government because they care about the farmers. The pasture from the seeds will not only give us a lot of milk but the product will be very thick with more proteins and nutrients,” said Ole Koros.
During prolonged dry spells, the farmer lamented that they were forced to visit far off places to look for pasture for their animals, but with the introduction of the seeds, the farmers are optimistic that they will have a steady supply of food all the seasons.

Source: Kenya News Agency

The EA Customs Union operations have remained opaque to traders since its launch in 2005, claims the business community at Isebania border town.
The traders in Migori County say that the ineffectiveness results from poor understanding of its concept by the business people in the region.
Although there had been an improvement in the amount of goods traded between Kenya and Tanzania, the group points out that more efforts are still needed to make the union a success.
“Currently there are a lot of complaints from the business people that they do not understand how the union operates, and probably this has reduced the speed of the implementation of the union,” said Mr. Ibrahim Hussein, a prominent businessman in the area.
He pointed out that apart from lack of awareness, structures at the border post could not handle the movement of goods from one country to another smoothly.
The trader accused a clique of some customs staff at the post of employing double standards and called on the state to take action against them.
“We do not like the attitude of some of the staff manning the post and their behaviour contributes greatly to the poor performance of the union in the region,” added Mr. Hussein.
However, another trader John Irungu said, although there are a lot of bottlenecks hindering free trade at the border, business had increased significantly between the people from the two states.
Customs officials from both sides of the border posts however denied claims about staff being rude to traders, but confirmed that many of the business people lacked proper knowledge on the concept of the customs union.
The officials who refused to be quoted admitted however that there was urgent need to increase awareness among the business people of member states on the operations of the union to enable it to function more effectively.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Scores of residents from Kahuro sub county of Murang’a are happy lot after they got connected to clean, safe and reliable domestic water.
Government’s interventions since 2019, has seen more than 2, 000 homesteads get domestic water saving the residents from using unsafe water drawn from rivers among other sources.
Kahuti Water and Sanitation Company (KAWASCO) received a funding of about Sh. 200 million from the National Government through the Ministry of Water to support procuring and installing pipes so as to reach more homesteads in Kahuro and Kangema sub counties, which enabled it to lower the water connection fee from Sh. 2, 500 to Sh. 1, 000, a move which encouraged many locals to apply for connection hence access commodity in their homes.
The company’s Managing Director Engineer Ephantus Kamau told KNA that they are targeting to reach more than 12, 000 homesteads once the ongoing water projects are complete.
He noted that after the company got support, it opted to lower connection and customer deposit fee to Sh. 1, 000 to enable more locals to get connected to clean water.
Some of the water projects the company is running with support of the national government include, Kairi – Gitaro, Kagaa – Kiria and Mugoiri water projects.
“We are currently implementing several water projects where as a water firm we are required to do piping which will bring water close to people. The national government is also doing a major water project dubbed Rwathia -Kagaa which will increase water volume,” said Kamau.
Lucy Metumi, a resident of Mugoiri ward expressed her gratitude after she was connected with clean water at her home in March this year.
Metumi observed that before the connection, she would fetch water from rivers which was a challenge considering steep terrain in the area.
“With reduced connection fee, I applied for water and within a short period, I was drawing water at my home. Availability of the water has helped to improve sanitation and spare time to do other chores.
“The water drawn from nearby rivers is not clean and sometimes my family could get infected by water borne diseases,” said Metumi.
Another resident from Irewa village, Ernest King’ori said they used to rely on harvested rain water which could not last for long.
“During dry seasons, we were forced to travel long distances to fetch water. Parts of our sub county are hilly; thus, it is not easy to access the rivers to draw water for domestic use,” said King’ori.
He noted that 15 years ago, the area used to get tap water under a community water project but stopped after pipes among other equipment were vandalized.
The residents further said construction of roads in the area also affected implementation of the water projects as some pipes were destroyed by contractors as they worked.
“We laud the government for rescuing us from challenges of access to clean and safe water for domestic usage,” said King’ori.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Mechanization of rice farming at the Mwea Irrigation Scheme in Kirinyaga County is now a reality.
The mini combine harvesters introduced in the expansive scheme a year ago have completely revolutionized the traditional harvesting method of the crop, bringing in efficiency, time-saving and increased yields.
A farmer Peter Muchiri who owns one such combine harvester says the machine is able to harvest an acre of the grain within half an hour.
He said in a span of two hours, the machine has completed harvesting, threshing, winnowing, and packing of the crop into the bags from the four acres each farmer owns under the National Irrigation Board (NIB).
He said he decided to buy his own harvester from Japan at a cost of Sh.2.1 million which he leases to other growers at Sh5,000 per acre.
Another benefit the farmers get from the mechanized agriculture is the short time it takes to harvest an acre of paddy rice with only three people deployed to manage the machine.
“This translates to only 1.2 man-hours to harvest the four acres using the combine harvester as opposed to 80 man-hours traditional manual harvest where eight people take 10 hours to harvest an acre,” said an Area-Based Scientist Dr. Vincent Kega.
Kega said farmers have already accepted the changes and are also greatly minimizing on grain loss that occurred during the traditional harvesting, which stood at 15 per cent but currently only 3 per cent.
He however said in order for the scheme to claim full success in mechanization, rice seedling planters were urgently required.
A farmer at Thiba section where the machines are harvesting the latoon crop Joyce Wanjiru said technology has done good to the scheme.
“We used to take almost a whole month harvesting and usually left the threshed crop in our shambas at risks but today, you harvest and transport home the products within a short time, Wanjiru said.
Wanjiru like other farmers is now warming up to the day the planting machines will finally be available in the scheme to fully enjoy the mechanized rice production.
Farmers have also benefited from simple modern, efficient and cost-effective machines from a Japanese company MOL.
The machines according to the farmers are lighter as compared to others, which are stuck in clay soils while preparing the land.
A senior MOL officials speaking in Mwea during a demonstration Onitsha Oyama said his company had also produced a rice crop weeding machine which can be operated by one person.
MOLs Nairobi Head office in-charge of Logistics Srikaanth Sreenivasan who was also present said users of the machinery were guaranteed of sales and after-sales services.
The company Managing Director for the Karasawa Agricultural Machinery Services that produce the MOL equipment Mr. Takeyuki Karasawa personally carried out the mini combine harvester demonstration at the fields to the applause by the farmers present.
He also said the company’s technical division would be available to provide training to all the farmers who bought the modern machinery.
“The weeding machine for the rice fields is so simple to operate such that even young children can handle it with ease, as we move towards full mechanization of rice farming in our scheme,” a farmer said.
The scheme which started in 1956 produces about 80,000 metric tons of paddy rice and this is scheduled to be doubled once the two crops per year program are introduced at the completion of the Thiba Mega-Dam. Mechanization of the scheme will also improve on production of the grain, according to Oyama.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Livestock producers and animal feed manufacturers have raised concerns over the unprecedented increase in animal feed prices.
Through the Association of Kenya Animal Feeds Manufacturers (AKEFEMA) the producers said the increase has led to closure of both livestock farming enterprises and many feed mills which in turn has led to job losses.
Speaking in Nairobi Monday on the current state of the animal feed sector in the country, AKEFEMA Secretary General Martin Kinoti said that unless urgent measures are taken by the government, the commercial sector is facing imminent collapse.
He explained that Kenya does not produce reasonable quantities of Soya beans, sunflower or cotton whose by-products soyabean meal, sunflower and also cotton seed cake are major sources of protein in the manufacture of animal feeds.
“Kenya entirely depends on imports from Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi and Zambia for oil cakes, but due to effects of adverse weather the outbreak of COVID 19, supplies from these countries have been decreasing and the prices rising sharply,” he said.
Kinoti gave an example of the price of Soyabean meal which has increased in the last two months from Sh70 to Sh130 currently. “Similar price increases and supply shortages have also been recorded for the other oil cakes and on average a 70 kg bag of dairy meal has gone up from Sh2000 to Sh2,350 in the last two months,” he said.
As an association, Kinoti said their request to the government is to urgently review a cabinet memo of 2012 that had banned GM foods and allow importation of GM materials specifically soyabean meal, and yellow maize in order to improve the landing prices of the raw materials and a drop in the local feed prices.
Raw materials, he said, have gone up by almost 65 per cent while feed prices have also gone up by an average of 20 per cent.
“India and Madagascar have recently taken similar decisions to save their livestock sectors from similar difficulties and imminent collapse,” he said
AKEFEMA Chairman Joseph Karuri said that pig feeds have experienced a similar price hike with raw materials in the last three months going up by 65 per cent. Feed prices equally have gone up by an average of 20 per cent.
“These uneven changes are due to the fact that feed millers are not able to pass on the entire incremental cost of raw material through selling price increases to the farmers who are already getting a low price for their products such as eggs, milk and meat,” Karuri said.
The chairman said that many poultry and dairy farmers have already closed their operations until such a time when the situation improves.
“For the last two months 20 animal feed millers in Nairobi, Thika and Nakuru have already closed shop,” Karuri said
AKEFEMA has urged the government to temporarily ban exports of milling by-products including wheat bran, wheat pollard and maize germ to improve the quantities offered locally, just as Zambia has done in order to protect their livestock industry.
Since animal feeds take up to eighty per cent of the cost of production, livestock products such as eggs, milk and meat, Karuri further urged the government to remove duty and VAT on vitamin and mineral additives to help reduce the cost of animal feeds.
Dr. Sharon Tsigadi, General Manager at Farmers Choice said pig production costs have increased by 30 to 40 per cent and this has now seen higher pork price per kg but worse it has seen small scale farmers opting out of pig farming.
“The effect on the current feed raw material pricing and scarcity on the pig industry has seen feed prices increase by 20 per cent and this has seen feed producers lose 50 per cent in sales.
Raw materials of maize and soya beans, she said have increased in price by 30 per cent and 200 per cent respectively when compared to same period last year.
Dr. Tsigadi added that Sunflower meal has increased by 50 per cent while scarcity and high pricing of wheat and maize milling by products prices have increased by up to 60 per cent.
Livestock sub sector in the country has steadily been losing competitiveness to neighbouring countries such as Tanzania and Uganda mainly due to their low cost of livestock products.
The current production cost in Kenya of a tray of eggs is about Sh 260 per Kilogram compared to Uganda which is at Sh220 because the country relies on Uganda for raw materials for production of feeds.

Source: Kenya News Agency

The University of Nairobi and the Ministry of Industrialization launched the One village One product (OVOP) initiative in a post event in marking the International Youth Day 2021 celebrations.
“One Village One Product (OVOP) initiative, a development model initiated in 1979 in the rural Oita Prefecture (County) of Japan by the late Dr. Morihiko Hiramatsu when he served as the Governor of the Prefecture. The model has since been replicated in several other countries in the world with commendable results. Kenya had adopted this model in the past, but due to lack of requisite resources, the programme slowed down. Through the model, each village identifies a valuable local resource then adds value to it through either processing, sales and marketing activities.
The Concept targets to utilize the locally available resources to create jobs and wealth for the local communities across the country.”
The theme for the Friday afternoon celebration was, “Harnessing the Power of SMEs and Cottage Industries in spurring Regional Development”
In his opening remarks, the UoN Vice Chancellor, Prof. Stephen Kiama who was represented by the Associate Vice Chancellor, Research Innovation and Enterprise, Prof. Margaret Hutchinson noted that, “we together with the government and other stakeholders have found it befitting to engage the youth in conversations about the issues affecting them and how they can be part of the solutions because nobody understands the youth better than the youth themselves.
As the saying goes: “If you are not on the table, you are on the Menu”
It is imperative that we put the Youth issues on the table. We must empower the youth with skills to solve problems. We need to nurture their abundant talents and create a conducive environment for Youth innovations and entrepreneurship. Government policies should be geared towards ensuring that the youth have full access to education, healthcare, employment, financial services and that they are able to improve their wellbeing.”
The PS, State of Industrialization, Amb. Peter Kaberia underscored the importance of the triple helix partnership between academia, government and the private sector. He said, “As you may be aware, this Triple Helix of University-Industry-Government relationship is increasingly gaining prominence the world over, as the most effective, efficient and the preferred development model.
Without Academia-Industry-Government working together nothing will do, and with it everything.
Amb. Kaberia highlighted the importance of the one village one product initiative, “The OVOP model aims at achieving regional socio-economic development based on adding value to locally available resources in the country through resource identification, processing, quality control and marketing of the resulting products, “unda unachotumia, na tumia unachounda”
On his part, PS, State Department for Youth Affairs, Mr. Charles Sunkuli emphasized on the movement from the urban industrial areas to the local villages where the youth can tap into locally available resources for manufacture and supply. He said that the government has placed incentives for the youth to participate in these initiatives.
The themes of innovation, Intellectual property and access to these and other government initiatives formed part of the afternoon panel discussions and question and answer session

Source: University of Nairobi