Computers and micro credit

We delivered two computers to Ebusyubi primary school yesterday. I will try to post a picture with the headmaster and you can also see one of the tables that was in the container.They were very excited by the donation (we had hordes of kids peering in the windows as we demonstrated the machines.)In addition to checking out the machines & reloading the operating system I loaded one machine with learning games for elementary. The school has just received power and the teachers have been charged with learning to use the computer during the school break in December.

I was able to see the poultry project we set up a couple of years ago in this school. It has had its ups and downs but they have learned a lot and it seems to be recovering. They are now selling some eggs as well as young male birds, so are able to buy feed.
Margaret was there and repaid quite a large sum on her loan. She told us about the young cow she bought with her most recent loan. It will be serviced soon and then she will begin to make money on milk as well as selling the calf.
The two other women are both called Rose. One is in charge of the poultry and also cooks in the school. The other has undergone a transformation. When I first met her she was in rags and seemed to have some difficulty in organizing her thoughts for a business, although she was obviously very intelligent. She dropped out of the micro credit scheme for a while, but has come back in. She is on her second loan and is better dressed and looks much more confident.
I asked all the women to tell me how the business had affected their lives. They all said it had made big changes for them. Margaret is our star but the two Roses are catching up, inspired by her example. Rose the cook is dealing in maize but the margin of profit is very small at the moment. So she took an additional loan to sell telephone scratch cards. This could be quite profitable and we’ll be interested to see how it goes. The other Rose is making and selling charcoal. She is obviously skilled at this and took another small loan to expand the business by buying an additional tree. She says she can sell all she can produce.
While we were chatting, this second Rose broke in with “because of the loans I have a goat!” She said this with great pride and a big smile. Apparently she bought a good quality goat that bears two kids (indigenous goats only have one offspring at a time) She has already sold two kids and is expecting more.
It is most encouraging to see these women start to take charge of their lives and nurture ambitions they never dreamed of. To refresh your memory: I start with about $15 each and we have lost a few. The second loan is about $25 and once they have a good record of paying back I don’t expect them to have completely repaid the first loan before taking more. Margaret went through $15, $25, $80 and has repaid almost half of the $150 for her cow.

The other microcredit group is in Emuhaya. I stopped in and spoke to the chairlady of the group. She says they are doing ok but need to think of other more profitable items to sell. Some were dealing in maize and struggling. A bag of maize is wholesaling for 2,200/- (about $35) and selling for 2,340/-. So the profit right now is very small.
I have posted a picture of the microcredit ladies at Ebusyubi. Rose who sells charcoal is holding the eggs. Margaret is in the red dress.

efficiency?

Our friend Isaiah who runs the Virtues Project now phoned me last night. He had received a message from the Registrar of Societies that he wanted to meet Isaiah urgently in Nairobi. Does the man even know that Isaiah is a day's journey away? How urgent can anything be? My first reaction was to suggest a phone call, at least to find out the problem, but the Registrar ‘might not like that.’ Fairly typical of the arrogant attitude of most civil servants. So Isaiah left on the 4 a.m bus today. Although Nairobi is only 500 km away, the roads are so bad that it is likely to take twelve hours. He may have to stay over night. Have these people never heard of phones and email? A friend (a Rotarian) was complaining last week that for the past year or so everything seems to have to go to Nairobi and anyone wanting any kind of government service has to go for a face to face meeting. Is there a security reason behind this? if so, it's hard to see. We have to go personally to Nairobi for our work pemits although our identitiy cards are issued in Kisumu. But they are only good for two years and out permits for three. So we seem to be visiting government offices every few months.
We have spent most of the day loading software for the computers to go to a school tomorrow. This is a village where I also have a micro credit group, so I will be taking Magdalene with me to talk to the mamas, encourage them, take in loan repayments and hopefully give more loans.
At supper time we heard a fusillade down in the town. Our first thought, conditioned as we are by the violence earlier this year, was a gun battle. But then we remembered it is Diwali–the Hindu festival of Lights and we were hearing fireworks. A celebration of love and joy which is very welcome.

Intense debate: impunity or justice?

Everyone will remember the violence that broke out after the elections at the end of last December. Kofi Annan brokered a peace deal and the two contestants for President eventually agreed to a power sharing arrangement with Kibaki as President and Odinga as Prime Minister. Although everyone breathed a sigh of relief and most tried to pick up the pieces of their lives, there was still considerable unrest because of the unresolved lootings, burning and murder. Several thousand people are still in camps unable or unwilling to return to their homes.
But all the while two commissions were working. One, headed by Kriegler a South African, was charged with looking at the vote itself. He laid considerable blame on the Electoral Commission (ECK) whose members still refuse to resign. Kriegler stated he was unable to say there had been a clear winner because there was tampering with the vote counting on all sides.
The second commission was headed by a Kenyan Judge named Waki. He presented his report in summary to Kibaki about ten days ago. The paper has been printing harrowing stories and pictures that came out during this inquiry. There are hundreds of pages of interviews with over a thousand people, many of whom testified under witness protection. There seems to have been a lot more going on and the situation was much more dangerous than we even thought at the time.
Waki has named sitting Cabinet ministers and MPs as major instigators and direct plotters of the mayhem last January. (One of the submissions is that some meetings were held in State House itself to plan some of the ethnic reprisals) BUT these names are not in his report. They were handed in a sealed envelope to Kofi Annan to avoid the people in question from interfering with any investigation. .
What is more, all the evidence is in a safe at the UN and only Annan has the key and the combination, both of which are needed to access the material.
The terms of the report are these: Kenya has until the end of February to set up a tribunal and initiate a prosecutorial investigation. If it does not do so, the sealed envelope and the documentation will be handed to the International Criminal Court in the Hague for follow up, an indication of how serious the accusations are.
The debate is intense. Certain key politicians (who likely feel they are named) are trying very hard to discredit the report. Everyone is fearful because we all know that indictment of powerful regional leaders could trigger more violence.
The President himself at Independence Day last week seemed to hint at ‘forgiving and forgetting’. However, the tone of most articles and discussions seems to be that Kenya must end the cycle of impunity which has endured over forty years since independence.
One commentator says: "There is a real opportunity for us as a nation now to say a resounding ‘NO’ to ethnic violence by trying and punishing those who planned and perpetrated it. But the signs are not good.
Already there is political game-playing and horse-trading going on. And we are hearing the usual noises about why implementing this report would be such a bad idea.
... We are talking about people who masked themselves, formed mobs and then went out to attack others in cold blood. They hacked them like bits of meat, they raped them. They destroyed their livelihoods, they mutilated them...
Can we really look away and pretend none of this happened? It would be to our shame as a nation and would be our undoing. Justice exists for a reason, and we must exercise it to the fullest when faced with crimes of this nature. And let us detach justice from amnesty, guilt from forgiveness."
One of the delaying tactics may well be that a new Constitutional amendment will have to be passed to allow the investigation and prosecution to be conducted in Kenya. The tribunal to be formed will have Kenyans sitting but the majority will be foreigners. (Naturally there is already opposition to the concept of non-Kenyans passing judgement)
Most people seem to have reacted with incredulity when the University of Nairobi awarded Honorary doctoral degrees last week not only to Kofi Annan, but also to Kibaki and Odinga for the peace deal. Seeing that the Waki report seems to blame these two if not for instigating, at least for allowing the violence in January, they appear to be poor choices for honours.
It is most interesting to be observers at this evolution in the political structures of the country.

in the news

I am thankful not to be a newspaper editor. Our daily news has so many top stories fighting for space. There are pages devoted to the US Presidential election. The fact that Obama has Kenyan roots adds greatly to the interest. When he was elected Senator, there was jubilation in his father’s home area because in the tradition of Kenyan politics the family and clan of the incumbent receives great largesse. They were soon disabused. Nonetheless, the hope that Africa in general will figure more highly in Obama’s policies still runs strong.
Many more pages are devoted to the current political turmoil regarding the consequences of the violence earlier this year. More of that later.
Form Four high school leavers have just begun the national exams. A student’s whole future hangs on these exams which are a one shot deal for future education. We support a girl who sat last year and received an A- average. But we still don’t know if that is good enough for her to receive a government bursary for university. She has a chance of being accepted at medical school but without government subsidy the fees will be unreachable. Although she would like her second choice to be engineering, she was not allowed to put that on her bursary application, since Engineering and Medicine are separated, so has settled for Education as her second choice. She will hear in August and if successful will then scramble to register for September.
Back to this year’s exams. Just before they started there was a major announcement that all possible leaks had been sealed and there was no chance of anyone procuring the exam papers ahead of time. There were dire warnings that any papers for sale would be fakes and purchasers as well as vendors would be prosecuted. Despite this there are now many stories of real papers being leaked as well as false ones. Teachers, printers, policemen (who guard the papers during transit and invigilation) and others are all possible sources. Add to this the students who are still in IDP (internally displaced persons) camps and who have missed instruction and proper facilities. The newspapers are usually full of ‘feel good’ stories at this time of year about prisoners sitting for their certificate and other adults who have returned to school, but these are lacking this year.
The other big story is corruption in the UN in Nairobi. The Nairobi office was slated to be upgraded and expanded to be on a par with Geneva. An audit has found that some ten billion shillings (about $150 million) has been ‘lost’ in procurement and administration. The money is supected to have been stolen by employees who colluded with suppliers. Some contracts were inflated over negotiated prices. Some were awarded to employees’ family members without tender. Some were given to non-existent organizations. The current audit could scuttle the efforts to elevate the Nairobi office. At the present the UN employs about 1,660 Kenyans and nationals of other countries.

October 18

We finished checking the remains of the container and most of the electronic equipment ready for distribution.
We met Ben, a student we sponsor, who is finishing at the Medical Training Institute to be a Clinical Officer (rural doctor) There are only 2,000 medical doctors in Kenya (pop 34 million) so Clinical Officers are highly prized. Ben told us that his15 year old brother who was epileptic died suddenly in July. Epilepsy and cerebral palsy from head injuries and birth trauma are very common amongst children. Ben’s dad had to borrow money to pay for the funeral, which has stretched the family finances even more.
One of the Secondary schools in the diocese had received water from us as well as computers over a couple of years and started a rudimentary computer programme. Because of this initiative they were successful in acquiring a government grant for a new computer lab but had no furniture. On Thursday we were able to donate 12 tables (for two machines each) and some chairs as well as a filing cabinet and books from the Rotary container. They scrambled all evening to set things up for the official opening on Friday. There was a great celebration of the whole community to which we were invited and Pat did the ceremonial ribbon cutting. They hope to open the facility to former students and probbaly the whole community. It is a very nice centre with an efficient and knowledgeable teacher.
The government has produced e learning packages for the Math & Sciences curricula. We are hoping to help to supply language packages for English and Swahili. In such a rural area the students have little opportunity to practice English. They are therefore at a serious disadvantage in their school leaving exams which are all set in English.
PS I have tried several times to attach a picture to this post but without success. My connection is just too slow. I'll keep trying

October 13

Still no internet connection! Even by Kenyan standards, this is very poor service. We have decided to cancel the contract with our internet service provider & try Safaricom, the mobile phone company. Fingers crossed!
Politics here continues to be interesting with tribal squabbles still rampant. There seems to be a growing impatience with the performance of MPs (still not making the quota in the House to pass important bills) and even calls for the President to be subject to a performance contract.
There are still thousands of people in camps, displaced by the violence early this year. The genuine refugees have been joined by a host of pretenders who hope to receive the food allowances and monetary compensation yet to be finalized by the government.
Insecurity in the camps and in certain regions is very high. Both neighbours on our small lane were broken into and vandalized. Our landlord keeps dogs, so that might be a deterrent. One of the Rotarians was invaded twice in Mukumu where he occupies a house on the grounds of the Secondary School in which his wife is a teacher. Fortunately the thieves were looking only for money and electronics they can easily sell. So the couple are looking to move into Kakamega, in a more secure area.
Rod is trying to revitalize the computer school, suffering from lack of money in the town. The Virtues Project for all schools in the Province is continuing. Pat taught a full day last week to a group of guidance counselors.
We are still checking the goods and computers left from the container and hope to deliver everything by the end of the month. With extensive power failures and poor communications it is a slow job.
Reports from the micro credit groups are good and the poultry project run by a group of women now seems to be flourishing after a rocky start. The young woman looking after the groups has left for University in Nairobi at last and Pat will be setting up another girl waiting for college to take her place. It is essential to have someone who speaks the local language to talk to the women.
On Saturday we will be meeting with our well contractor and setting up visits to sites asking for water. We put in three wells in villages in Julius the jeweler’s area and they are working well. Because there is plenty of rain right now, there is ample water, but a couple may need to be deepened after Christmas in the dry season.

October 5

Oct 5
We have arrived in the short rains. "Short" usually means that rain starts in the afternoon and lasts three to four hours. However, the past couple of days and nights have been wet and overcast, and very cool. Not much different from Victoria!
While we were away a pipe burst in the roof of our apartment and flooded the bedroom and hallway. Our friends dried everything out, but we have now joined most Africans with variegated brownish stains from water damage on the ceiling. Not esthetically pleasing, but at least there is no lingering odour. Our landlord had to borrow money to fix the pipe, so we won’t hold our breath for new paint or ceiling boards. Pumping water up into our holding tanks is still an issue, but manageable as long as the city water is running. It was off for one day. We have had numerous power outages because of the weather. We are always glad to be cooking with gas.
The road from Kisumu is even worse than when we left, making the usual hour and fifteen minutes stretch to nearly two hours. Of course accident rates increase as drivers swerve to avoid the worst of the potholes. Rod had to drive into Kisumu yesterday to have some work done on the vehicle. About halfway there, he saw three geese on the roadside, one of which was swimming in a small pond made by a deep pothole in the road surface. Unfortunately he didn’t have a camera. For those who know Kakamega, you will understand where I mean when I mention the road in front of most of the stores, including Fomat. That road was very bad six months ago, but is now virtually impassible. A small lake now spreads from one side of the road to the other.
We haven’t done much since our arrival on Thursday except unpack. Virginia, the Queen of Clean, was able to come to us on Friday and Saturday and has removed most of the accumulated dust and muddy stains from the flood. Sunday we were in church and saw many old friends. This coming week we will meet the Bishop, check up on the programmes we left running, and begin to sort the computers that came in the container.
We reactivated our internet service when we arrived on Thursday, but so far (Sunday) we are still not connected. We are hoping a technician will appear on Monday. You will know if he comes, if you receive email from us or check the blog!