State Capture: On Kenya’s Inability to Fight Corruption Article In May last year, the Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG) published State Capture – Inside Kenya’s Inability to Fight Corruption, a report that hit the country like a meteor. Perspectives spoke to Gladwell Otieno, AfriCOG’s director and long-time anti-corruption campaigner, about what motivated them to take a fresh view in the analysis of corruption, and what this means for civil-society action.
The latest Issue of Perspectives is out! New Publication This edition was compiled by Heinrich Böll Foundation’s North Africa and the Transform Africa project. It is dedicated to the emerging conversation of alternative approaches that challenge the historical bias towards the industrialisation of agriculture and the food system as the main strategy to address food insecurity while preparing for a +2°C world.
Plastic Atlas demonstrates scale of plastic pollution crisis and solutions for a zero waste future New Publication A world without plastic pollution is a vision worth fighting for. The Plastic Atlas provides facts and figures about a world full of plastics.
Pesticides in Kenya: What’s at stake? Article Agriculture accounts for about 24% of Kenya’s GDP with an estimated 75% of the population working in the sector either directly or indirectly. As an agricultural economy and while promoting mainly conventional agriculture, Kenya’s demand for pesticides is relatively high and steadily increasing. In 2018 Kenya imported 17,803 tonnes valued at 128 Mill $. These pesticides are an assortment of insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, fumigants, rodenticides, growth regulators, defoliators, proteins, surfactants and wetting agents. Of the total pesticide imports, insecticides, fungicides and herbicides account for about 87% in terms of volume and 88% of the total cost of pesticide imports.
Of Cartels, Collusion and Captive Consumers: On the State of Kenya’s Energy Sector Interview Perspectives, a publication series of the African offices of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung, spoke to Jerotich Seii of the #SwitchOffKPLC campaign to shed light on the dark side of Kenya’s power sector, which is said to be one of the most developed in sub-Saharan Africa, having undergone structural reforms and liberalisation since the 1990s.
#ToxicBusiness Twitter Chat Article Join us on Twitter (see poster for details) using #ToxicBusiness as we call on the Government to immediately withdraw pesticides containing active ingredients that are toxic to human health and the environment, and that threaten food security and food safety in the country.
Stories of small scale renewable energy entrepreneurs in Kenya New Publication “People and Power: Stories of Small Scale Renewable Energy Entrepreneurs in Kenya” documents 11 renewable energy projects that highlight how decentralised renewable energy is empowering people across the country, and especially in rural areas which rely heavily on biomass energy sources due to the lack of grid connections.
Kenya post budget review: What the FY2019/20 budget means for food security Analysis The Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury presented the FY 2019/20 Budget Statement to the National Assembly on 13 June 2019 based on the Printed Estimates of Recurrent and Development Expenditure and the Program Based Budget (PBB), finalised earlier in May. Key insights from the budget, from a food and nutrition security perspective, are described in this article. In addition, you can download the full report and analysis of the budget for more detail.
Tribunal halts construction of Amu coal power plant in Kenya Article The Government of Kenya has proposed a 1,050 Megawatt (MW) coal plant to be built in Kwasasi, Lamu County, 20km from Lamu Town. The project will be operated by Amu Power on a joint venture by two Kenyan companies, Gulf Energy and Centum. Residents of Lamu County are opposed to the power plant due to the negative economic, environmental, and health impacts it wil have on the ecosystem in Lamu. Building the plant will cause Kenya to be in violation of international treaties and impact Kenya's ability to keep its Nationally Determined Contribution to the Paris Accord.
Kenya grapples with fake news as women, politicians take the hit Article Women politicians and journalists have fallen victim of false information, most often through personal attacks meant to discourage them from politics or silence their voices in the media. Studies by AMWIK, ‘Women Journalists’ Digital Security’ in 2016 and 2017 indicate that social media has been the most used platform for attacks against female journalists, with the most common gendered attacks being cyber stalking, sexual harassment, impersonation with parody accounts, surveillance and un-authorized use and manipulation of personal information, including images, and videos. With more women in the public limelight, it is projected that more will become victims of fake news.
