African states should put in place sufficient budget allocations and the right policies if the continent is to meet the global and regional health care targets that governments have committed themselves to, say campaigners. In 2000 African states, along with most of the world, agreed to meet the United Nations’... [view entry]

Photo: Keishamaza Rukikaire/IRIN Children at the Molo Street Children Project: The poject rehabilitates former street-children and was involved in re-uniting children who lost contact with their parents during the 2008 post-election violence MOLO, 24 February 2009 (IRIN) - When Sonia Donnan, originally from Jamaica, accompanied her husband to work in... [view entry]

Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN “It was not my desire to lead a life of sleeping with people to get a job” NAIROBI, (PlusNews) - Maureen Kiwinda*, 22, came to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in 2003 to stay with her brother, a casual employee in the industrial area. She has also taken... [view entry]

Photo: Glenna Gordon/IRIN So far, more than 45,000 people have been tested TURBO, 17 February 2009 (PlusNews) - Joel Kirwa, a farmer in Rift Valley Province, western Kenya, has never been tested for HIV; he is usually too busy tending his cattle and fields and rarely visits Turbo town, where... [view entry]

Photo: www.ogiek.org The Ogiek have battled eviction from their home in Mau Forest for decades MAU FOREST, 23 February 2009 (PlusNews) - One of East Africa’s last remaining hunter-gatherer communities, the Ogiek people, has largely remained separate from the rest of society, but NGOs warn that their ignorance and isolation... [view entry]

Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN The price of maize-flour more than doubled in 2008 ISIOLO, 3 March 2009 (PlusNews) - By day, Angela* does odd jobs at a primary school in Isiolo, a town in Kenya’s Eastern Province, but by night she and her two daughters rent a house in town where... [view entry]

The Mau Forest Complex forms the largest closed canopy forest ecosystem of Kenya. It is as large the forest of Aberdares and Mt Kenya combined. Being the most important water catchment in the Rift Valley and Western Kenya, it is an asset of national importance. The Mau complex helps secure... [view entry]

25th Session of the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum 16-20 February Kenya’s chances of realizing its 2030 vision will depend increasingly on the way the country manages its natural or nature-based assets, a new satellite-based atlas concludes. Many of these economic assets are coming under rising pressure: from shrinking... [view entry]

Photo: WHO Lesions, fever bouts and anaemia are characteristic of leishmaniasis ISIOLO, 9 February 2009 (IRIN) - At least 33 cases of visceral leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease also known as Kala-azar or black fever, have been reported in the past four weeks in the drought-affected north-eastern district of Isiolo. “New... [view entry]

Photo: Keishamaza Rukikaire/IRIN The Kanamker IDP camp on the outskirts of Lowdar town LODWAR, 11 February 2009 (IRIN) - A year after election-related violence rocked Kenya, hundreds of displaced families are still living in temporary shelters in small camps in Rift Valley province. The government sought to close all camps... [view entry]