In Kenya, persistent drought is threatening food security for some 31.5 million people, and more than one million face imminent starvation. The United Nation’s World Food Program has requested $230 million for aid, but that seems too little, and perhaps too late for many. Kenya’s government, looking for about $525... [view entry]

Photo: Jane Some/IRIN Since the harvest from the 2006 long rains, Kenya has not had a bumper maize crop with adequate surpluses that could stabilize supplies (file photo) Following below-average harvests in 2007 and 2008, Kenya’s grain farmers need seed and fertilizer support to enable them to make use of... [view entry]

Countries tackling food insecurity and climate change adaptation can greatly benefit from agroforestry – integrating fleshy plants and trees into their farming systems, environmental specialists say. Sub-Saharan Africa has a history of food insecurity brought on by meagre rains, land degradation, declining soil fertility and bad management of resources, among... [view entry]

Kenyan communities will undertake to plant 7.6 billion trees over the next 20 years to address massive losses in forest cover. Kenya’s Minister for the Environment, John Michuki, has demanded bold steps amidst economic, social and political unrest caused by forest destruction. According to the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife,... [view entry]

What’s the real price of your bouquet? Pat Thomas dishes the dirt on cut flower production in less-industrialised countries In 2007, just in time for Valentine’s Day, then UK minister for International Development Hilary Benn told consumers to buy flowers flown in from Kenya, rather than European hothouse flowers. ‘People... [view entry]

Kenya’s Jamii Bora Trust has teamed up with an American nonprofit group to create Africa’s first ecologically friendly town built with microfinancing. Some 2,500 families are slated to live in Kaputei, near Kenya’s capital of Nairobi. The families, most of who are from slum areas of Nairobi, will be able... [view entry]

SciDev.net: The Kenyan government has identified construction sites for a nuclear power plant — potentially the first on the continent outside South Africa. Rolex Kirui, a senior engineer for the Kenyan government, says that one site has been identified near the Kenyan coast and construction is scheduled to begin once... [view entry]

Photo: UNAIDS “Your CV is great. But we need your HIV test” NAIROBI, 22 July 2009 (PlusNews) – When Doreen Aluoch*, 32, got a job as a chef at a leading hotel in Kenya four years ago, she was told she had to have a medical examination before she could... [view entry]

Photo: Wilfred Muchire/IRIN A view of the land that the government recently allocated thousands of people in Central Province NYERI, 6 July 2009 (IRIN) – After a 50-year wait, thousands of Kenyans in Central Province have received the most coveted asset in the country – a piece of land. The... [view entry]

Photo: Julius Mwelu/IRIN A nurse at work at a Kenyan hospital: Overall pandemic preparedness in East Africa and the Horn of Africa remains “relatively inactive”, according to a UN agency, as the first cases are reported in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda – file photo 2 July 2009 (IRIN) – Although... [view entry]