BRANDING OF PARKS.

By Agwanda Jakorandoh.

THE Kenya Wildlife Service [KWS] has now embarked on a massive branding exercise of its parks within Nyanza province which is currently covered under the western Kenya tourism circuit.

A Senior KWS  Warden William Sang’ disclosed that the exercise which also  includes putting up of new offices and renovation of existing facilities  is intended to raise the current standards and make the parks more attractive  both to local and international visitors thereby earning good revenue.

Speaking to press at his Kisumu KWS station office, the Senior Warden said already about shs 35 million has been used for the ongoing program.

The funds according to the official have been spent in refurbishing Kisumu KWS station, Impala Park and Ndere Island National park where a new administration block has been built.

At the Impala Park, work is ongoing to construct six modern and spacious animal cages which will house three Lions, two Cheetahs and two Buffalos which were recently moved there from Nairobi orphanage.

According to the senior warden the renovation works began in August 2007 but were slowed down by the post poll violence which rocked the country.

 “Were it not for the post poll violence that rocked most parts of the country in early 2008 thereby hampering our work, the branding of the two parks would by now be a thing of the past,” Sang’ said.

He at the same time revealed that plans were underway to restock the parks with new animal species once constructions of the holding cages are complete.

He said bringing new animals like the Buffalos, cheetahs, and Lions to the parks will eliminate the need by visitors from western Kenya to have to travel to Nairobi or other National parks in the country where these animals are currently found.

An investor has also won a tender to put up a 30 bed capacity tented camp site which will see visitors who want to camp at the park get the opportunity to do so.

Sang’ said there were plans to construct a similar camp site at Ndere island national park to provide accommodation to park visitors in future.

Accompanied by assistant senior warden John Wambua who is supervising the improvement works, the officer called on the local community to donate land for conservancy projects noting that 75% of all the wild animals in Kenya live outside protected areas thereby exposing them to a lot of risks.
GENDER VIOLENCE STILL RAMPANT.

Meanwhile a consultant with the Ministry of Gender and Social Services Lucy Adero  says rape cases have increased by over 70 percent within a span of five years from 1675 cases in 2000 to 3509n in 2005 according to studies.

Speaking in  kisumu today , Adero added that cases of gender based violence are increasingly becoming rampant despite the efforts by the government nad gender activists to stem down the vice.

Adero who is also the provincial coordinator of gender based violence in Nyanza says that wife battery in Kenya increased from 6255 to 9169 in the same period.

According to the study, most of the sexual abuses were more on minors with 43.5 percent involving girls of below one year of age, 33.2 percent of girls aged 5-8 years.

Lowest prevalence of sexual abuse was observed in the age band of 17-18 years with 2.7 percent cases, 76.5 percent defilement cases were meted on girls between nursery and class four.She says, of all the reported cases, 74.9 cases were incest cases while that on non relatives accounted for only 22.3 percent.She says majority of the defilement cases were done by fathers 29 percent,28 uncles and 8 percent teachers.

Although the home is supposssed to be a safe haven for the minors 83 percent of the sexual abuse against the minors occurred within the home set up.

However, most of the rape and defilement cases occurred in low income areas,80 percent slums, kibera being the leading with 38.9 percent, Mathare 32.2 percent and Kawangware 28 percent, this is due to crowded nature of these neighborhoods with the whole family sharing a single tiny room.

Female genital mutilation has also been on the rise despite concerted efforts by the government and non governmental organization, NGOs.Adero  however revealed Government plans to have the vice reduced saying various measures including establishment of marriage Bill and sexual offences act have been put in place to ensure that such incidences are reduced.She blamed the rise of sexual abuses to ignorance by women and various law enforcement agencies who still don’t know the content of the act several years after it was passed.
 
She urged the police force and the judiciary to step up the war on gender based violence and violence against children in the society.

LBDA TO PLANT TREES IN MAU COMPLEX.

Elsewhere LAKE Basin Development Authority has embarked on a five year strategic plan one of which is the enhancement of protection of river banks ,water bodies and catchment areas,says the authority’s Managing Director Peter Aguko Kabok.

Addresing the press on Environmental Conservation ;Lake Basin Region Water Towers and River Systems  Kabok added that about twenty million seedlings is targetted to be produced within the five years period and planted on farms ,river banks and critical catchment areas with the critical areas including the Mau Forest Complex.

“Over the last fifteen years ,the Mau Forest complex has lost over 197,00 ha representing about 25% of the forest cover due to encroachment ,ill-planned and irregular settlement as well as illegal forest resources extraction”Kabok added.

He further added that the South West Mau Forest which is a critical  catchment of the Sondu River has lost approximately 22,700 ha of indigenous forest through the above malpractices.

He added that they had already identified a 7 acre plot in Kimukung’ Village Kimulot Division,Konoin District  where they propose to set up  amodel tree nursery  to produce an initial 2.2 milion seedlings in six months to rehabilitate  2000 hectares of forest.
GERMAN GOVERNMENT TO SET UP CENTRES OF EXCELLLENCE.

In another development the Kisumu Municipal education office is currently negotiating with the German government to set up 10 centres of excellence in the municipality.

The Kisumu municipal education officer George Omondi says the German government is willing to fund the project to a tune of 500 million shillings.

He says the funds will be used to up grade 10 schools within the municipality outside the Kisumu CBD.He says basic facilities like new libraries and modern structures will be set up to improve on the standards of education in Nyanza province. Omondi says the level of education in a number of schools in Kisumu is below the expectation due to lack of good facilities.

The MEO was addressing the press after releasing the KCPE results to the municipal schools where he confirmed that the government will employ 100 teachers within the municipality in January 2010.Omondi said he was impressed that no cases of cheating were found in the municipality and commended teachers for the discipline in schools.

Meanwhile Nyanza Provincial Director of Education Geoffrey Cherongis has dismissed reports that appeared in a section of the media that Nyanza has performed poorly in last year’s KCPE exams.

Cherongis says the general performance of the province has improved with 8 pupils from Nyanza featuring in the top 100 nationally compared to last year’s 5.

He says efforts are underway by a combined team of education officials in Nyanza to take back the province to where it’s supposed to be.

 He says the correct position of the province will be revealed after a full and comprehensive analysis is complete in 2 days time. At a press conference in his office today, Cherongis directed DEOs of the nine districts that were founded cheating to conduct a thorough investigation and establish who conspired with the pupils.

He says the results of the 316 pupils in Nyanza were nullified with Nyando district being the most affected with over 97 pupils being penalized. Other districts that were affected in Nyanza includes; Kuria west, Nyamaria, Suba, Gucha south, Gucha, Homabay and Rachuonyo.

LUO -MAASAI DISPUTE .NYANZA Provincial Commissioner Francis Mutie is saying that ten elders from the wrangling luo and Maasai communities have been tasked to ensure taht the land dispute between the two commuinties that has led to the killing of three people comes  to a stop.

Speaking in Kisumu Mutie said a joint meeting between the security committees of the two districts agreed to solve the longstanding land dispute by involving elders.

He revealed that the elders will sanction the sale or lease of land in the presence of local administrators who must insist on documents.

The meeting was called following renewed clashes between the Maasai and Luo communities in which two people were killed and a local administrator arrested over allegation that he incited his tribesmen against the other. Over 500 people from the Luo communities have been displaced and over 50 houses touched in the past three days. The PC said that more security men have been deployed along the border to avert further bloodbath as the dispute over land rages.