KENYA

Deforestation and soil erosion are attributable to growing population pressure, which creates
increased demands for food production and firewood. Drought and desertification (to which 83%
of Kenya's land area is vulnerable) also threaten potential productive agricultural lands. By the
mid 1980s, Kenya had lost 70% of its original mangrove areas, with the remainder covering an
estimated 53,000–62,000 hectares. Water pollution from urban and industrial wastes poses
another environmental problem. Kenya has 20.2 cubic kilometers of renewable water resources
with 76% used in farming activity and 4% used for industrial purposes. Only about 42% of the
residents in rural areas and 88% of city dwellers have pure drinking water. In addition to
pollutants from industry, the nation's cities produce about 1.1 million tons of solid wastes. In an
effort to preserve wildlife, the government has set aside more than 3.5 million ha as national
parks and game preserves. In 2001, 6% of Kenya's total land area was protected. Game hunting
and trade in ivory and skins have been banned, but poaching threatens leopards, cheetahs, lions,
elephants, rhinoceroses, and other species. It is illegal to kill an animal even if it attacks. As of
2001, 43 species of mammals and 24 bird species were endangered and 130 plant species were
threatened with extinction. Endangered species include the Sokoke scops owl, Taita blue-banded
papilio, Tana River mangabey, Tana River red colobus, green sea turtle, and hawksbill turtle.
There are 18 extinct species, including the Kenyan rocky river frog and the Kenya oribi.

Read more: Environment - Kenya - problem, area, farming

http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Kenya-ENVIRONMENT.html#ixzz11e1QetuB

What is the problem at the Kenya ICT

Board?
By Rebecca Wanjiku
1 Feb, 2010

When the Kenya ICT Board was set up about two years ago, there was a lot of optimism in the
Business Process Outsourcing sector; the board was composed of the "dream team" and who is
who in Kenya's marketing.

The board was tasked with the sole responsibility of marketing Kenya as an outsourcing
destination; and many people in the business were hoping that their fortunes will turn around.

So, it was shocking to me when Nick Nesbitt of KenCall wrote in one of the mailinglists "I have
just spent a week in the UK meeting with some of the largest outsourcers in the world. They
have never heard of Kenya as an outsourcing destination. Very interested now, but completely
unaware. We stopped marketing Kenya as a BPO destination before we had built international
recognition and credibility, which raises questions in these prospects' minds about our
commitment as a country to making Kenya an outsourcing destination..."

Earlier, Gilda Odera, the chair of the Kenya BPO society had commented to a story I was doing
on why the industry had not snapped up a $ 7 million subsidy and said that maybe the BPO
subsidy could have been handled better.

When commenting on my questions, Gilda is very brief and its almost hard to guess the real
issue. You see once you interview many people, you can almost guess who will say what, and
what they mean when they say this. For Gilda to say that there has been no flow of information
from the board, it consoled me, it made me believe that am not the only one that the board does
not respond to.

Gilda's response also made me believe there was a problem at the board, no one wants to speak
ill about it but for people to talk about failings in marketing and the lack of information, surely
there must be something.

For instance; I wrote to the board asking for names of organizations that had benefitted from the
subsidy, I wanted to know whether the subsidy was the real problem with the sector, but no
answer. I stuck for a week, trying to convince the board to at least answer the questions, even in
part; but nothing.

In the end I had to forward the same questions to Bitange Ndemo, the PS and he answered by the
end of that day. The question I always ask; how comes Ndemo is always accessible to answer the
questions and the board does not? Ndemo is good, he is probably the only PS you can send an
email and he will respond with answers bet he needs to convert his soldiers... a song I will keep
singing.

Anyway, I also came to realize that am not the only journalist that the board does not respond to;
Michael Ouma told me that he even sends texts to the people in the board that he knows, and he
gets no responses, so am consoled.

But why would an agency, tasked with marketing, hug its data or be stingy with information?

Back to the question of BPOs, Agosta Liko responded to my article saying that maybe what the
industry needed was not subsidy, given that the cost of connectivity has come down; maybe they
needed customers. And he is right.

I bumped into Ndemo at an exhibition hall yesterday and he also commented on that piece saying
that bandwidth is the last thing on people's minds, they want to have business, because without
clients, they cant pay workers even if they had the fastest connectivity in town.

So, if Ndemo knows this, how comes the board does not know? After all, they are the marketing
experts!
Then there is the question of the digital villages, what happened after launching them with all the
pomp and color and promising to revolutinalize Kenya? Two years after, am yet to hear of
anything else apart from the one opened in Kangundo.

Anyway, I have written all that but I am still not sure what is wrong with the ICT board.

So much promise so little to show!

0--------------

Kenya: Sewage problem a weighty issue in

urban areas
Posted on May 28, 2010 by westerhof| Leave a comment

Only 32 out of Kenya’s 178 local government authorities have a sewerage system. This means
that 142 local authorities around the country lack access to any form of sewerage system and are
therefore highly exposed to diseases, according to a report on the link to health and environment.

The report on Kenya’s Situational Analysis and Needs Assessment (SANA) found that 39 per
cent of people in rural areas do not have access to proper sanitation comparable to international
standards.

Water sources

Only 58 per cent of Kenyans have access to improved water sources.

Poor sanitation and hygiene and water and air pollution, the study stated, are the major
environment factors that pose a health risk to communities. They contributed heavily to acute
respiratory infections, diarrhoea, cancer and malaria, Environment assistant minister Jackson
Kiptanui stated. He said the welfare of Kenyans depended not only on good healthcare services,
but also on the quality of the physical, social and the cultural environment they lived in.

“Improvement of the environment will ensure that incidents of disease are reduced,” the assistant
minister said.

The challenge now is for policy-makers to come up with the right policies and programmes to
deal with environmental risks in line with the Libreville Declaration.

Signatory countries
The environment and health declaration was signed in Libreville, Gabon, in August 2008, when
the signatory countries committed to deal with environment issues that lead to poor human
health. A large part of town populations in Africa has poor waste management, the report states.
Waste generation had increased over time, together with its toxic and hazardous nature due to the
fast pace of development. The document rated disease vector, drought, floods and organic
pollution of drinking water as high level risks in both rural and town settings caused by natural
and human activities. It said that there was non-coordination in linking all related health sectors
and environmental agencies in the country. The health and environmental sectors, the report
recommended, should be harmonised to include a joint plan of action.

Among the environmental risks said to cause high risk medical conditions as a result of human
activities is pollution of drinking water. This, the report indicated, caused outbreaks of cholera
and other diarrhoeal diseases in the rural areas and contaminated drinking water and food in
towns. Another factor of high risk to human health both in rural and urban areas is simple waste.
In the rural areas, simple waste improperly dumped acts as a breeding ground for disease carriers
like flies, cockroaches and rodents. Contamination of drinking water and food can be caused by
overstayed garbage. In slums, residents are at a higher risk due to the close proximity to their
homes.

Indoor air pollution is higher in rural areas than in towns while outdoor air pollution is higher in
towns. Indoor pollution is mostly caused by charcoal emissions due to poorly designed fire
places, lack of proper ventilation and use of inefficient solid fuels.

Low risks

In urban areas, this is found in factories, smoking of tobacco products and vehicular emissions
which lead to a high level of toxins in the air.

The pollen and dust people are exposed to in the rural areas contributes to low risks in human
health.

Other health risks are caused by natural calamities such as floods, land slides and earth tremors.

However, the report reveals that most risks to the human health which may vary in intensity are
caused by human activities.