Skip to primary content
Skip to secondary content

AFRICOMMONS

Ken Flottman’s Blog on Democracy in Kenya, East Africa and the United States

AFRICOMMONS

Main menu

  • About
  • Publications
  • Contact
  • WAR FOR HISTORY Series – was Kenya’s 2007 election stolen?
  • FOIA Series – investigating Kenya’s election
  • 2007-08 Kenya Election bibliography
  • 2013 Kenya Election posts

Category Archives: agriculture

Post navigation

← Older posts

Happy New Year

Posted on December 31, 2019 by Ken
Reply

May all your prickly pears bloom in 2020.

Share this:

Posted in agriculture, Photographs | Tagged 2020, bloom, blossom, cactus, flower, New Year, prickly pear, succulent, yellow | Leave a reply

“Kenya: The Economic Stake of the Kenyatta Family; The Royal Family Jewels” – that CIA report after Jomo’s passing

Posted on July 29, 2017 by Ken
Reply

 

The CIA Africa Review for September 1978 at pages 12-18 covers “The Economic Stake of the Kenyatta Family”. I have embedded it below for downloading in its recently declassified form from the CIA CREST database at the Agency online FOIA reading room. This report is related to the story in The Standard noted in my post “Standard covers newly declassified CIA report on Kenyatta family wealth acquisition during Jomo’s rule”.  I thought you should read it in full for yourself:

1 Sept 78 Kenyatta wealth – The Royal Family Jewels

The report discusses the acquisition of vast acreage, in significant part grabbed through control of British funding for the buyout of former colonists, along with stakes in large Western companies in Kenya such as Lonrho and Ford Motor Company, along with mines and other enterprises. It also says that Mama Ngina and Sister Margaret were at the time probably the largest traders in charcoal and illicit ivory.

The CIA observed that Kenya appeared to be headed to balance of payments problems which would necessitate austerity measures which could trigger political instability. Resentment was already high about the cost of the Kenyatta family’s self-dealing. The risk was exacerbated by the desire of the incoming Moi faction to deal themselves in.

Share this:

Posted in African Studies, agriculture, Business/Parastatals, corruption, democracy, Justice/Impunity, Kenya, Kenya 2017 election | Tagged Beth Mugo, casinos, Central Intelligence, Daniel Arap Moi, distribution of wealth, Ford Motor Company, gemstones, Ivory, Jomo Kenyatta, land, Lohnro, Mama Ngina, Uhuru Kenyatta, unrest, wealth, White Highlands | Leave a reply

Happy International Tea Day

Posted on April 21, 2017 by Ken
Reply

politics interlude . . . (of course the image of a worker on a tea plantation can be politically freighted . . .)

Share this:

Posted in agriculture, Development in Africa, Kenya, UK | Tagged agriculture, exports, James Findlay, Kenya, Kericho, labor, tea, trade, worker | Leave a reply

“Smiling Siblings” Somaliland – let’s not let them starve

Posted on April 10, 2017 by Ken
Reply

 

Somaliland suspends development programs in face of famine Voice of America

Share this:

Posted in agriculture, Security, Somalia, Somaliland, US relations | Tagged famine, siblings, Somaliland | Leave a reply

“Let them drink bubbles . . .” The Nairobi Curse revisited in a time of hunger

Posted on March 1, 2017 by Ken
Reply

Back in March 2010–well before the last widespread famine in 2011–I wrote a piece here called “The Nairobi Curse” suggesting an analogy between the role of Nairobi in Kenya’s overall political and economic development and “the resource curse” faced by those countries prized by outsiders for oil, for example.

With famine being reprised I was reminded of the “Nairobi Curse”  when I noticed on the “KenyaBuzz” Nairobi entertainment and happenings newsletter a charming little story, “Nairobi’s Newest Wine Shop Delivers In A Different Kind Of Way”, promoting “Wine and Bubbles”, a French couples’ couple of Nairobi stores selling French wine.  The expat Nairobian explained that he had hoped to grow vineyards in Kenya but learned on moving from France that the climate was not conducive so he was selling French wine instead.

The growth market of course is introducing wine tastes to what is invariably called the “Kenyan Middle Class”–basically the third tier wealthy Kenyan of the Nairobi professional/managerial class.  The sort of people who would be upper middle class in a much more broadly and deeply prosperous country where most people had enough to eat with a per capita income several times that of Kenya’s.

Here is my original post:

This is Kenya’s version of “the oil curse” or “the resource curse”.

 

Nairobi is the place to be in Sub-Saharan Africa (and outside of South Africa) for international meetings and conferences.  It is a relatively comfortable place to live for middle class or wealthy Westerners, or young aid workers.  An international city with a certain level of cosmopolitanism, yet of manageable size and scope relative to so many burgeoning cities of the less developed “South”.  A headquarters for two UN agencies.  A diplomatic critical mass, with lots of representation from all sorts of countries around the world that have little obvious presence in Africa, but also a crossroads for representation of everyone playing for a major piece of the pie (Iran, Libya, China, India, the Gulf States–as well as obviously the US and Europe).  And you can go on business, and then take a safari on the side.

 

From the US, soldiers go to Djibouti (the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, at Camp Lemonier) while diplomats go to Nairobi.  The US runs its Somali diplomacy from the Embassy to Kenya rather than Djibouti which would be the more obvious place on paper.  Likewise, Somali politicians tend to live much of the time in Nairobi.   Nairobi is the place to invest cash generated in Somalia.

Nairobi is the “back office”, and in some cases the only office, for much of relatively huge amount of US aid-related effort for Southern Sudan, as well as that from other countries.

 

Nairobi has something like 8% of the Kenyan population, and perhaps 60% of the GDP (don’t let anyone tell you they know any of these figures too precisely).  Perhaps 50-60 percent of the population lives in informal settlements (“slums”) whereas the other half lives as “the other half”.  Most national level Kenyan politicians holding office live primarily in Nairobi (although they may have homes in a constituency they represent in Parliament as well).

 

When I was the East Africa Director, based in Nairobi, for IRI (where our much bigger Sudan program was also  headquartered) as an American I felt that my government at that time (2007-2008) was falling into the trap of recreating a Cold War paradigm for our international relations by looking around through our “War on Terrorism” telescope.  And that in Kenya there were a lot of international interests that valued stability over reforms for reasons that related more to the current role of Nairobi than the long term interests of Kenyan development.

 

Certainly Nairobi is a resource that has great value–as does oil, for instance–it’s just a question of whether Kenyans can find a way to use it to the broad advantage of the nation or whether it will continue to be exploited to disproportionately benefit the most powerful.  Including being used to help keep them in power when more Kenyans want democratic change.

 

Just this past week Kenya hosted an IGAD meeting on Sudan–and flouted its obligations as a party to the Rome Treaty on the ICC by inviting President Bashir of Sudan while under indictment.  Meanwhile the ICC is considering whether to allow formal  investigation of key Kenyan leaders for the post-election violence from 2007-08.  But Nairobi is such a great place to have these conferences . . . and Sudan is so important (Khartoum is no Nairobi, but it has oil).

Share this:

Posted in AFRICOM, agriculture, Kenya | Tagged famine, Kenya, KenyaBuzz, Nairobi, trade, wine, Wine and Bubbles | Leave a reply

Meanwhile, in the Kenyan hinterlands, the usual emergency starts again . . .

Posted on February 27, 2017 by Ken
1

The The East African reports that “Kenya saw drought coming, but did little to avert food crisis“.  None of us have any reason to be surprised–most especially when there is a re-election to run. This is what I wrote as the last famine developed in 2011:

Another drought, more famine.  One of the early and formative conversations I had shortly after arriving to work in Kenya was with a judge who encouraged me to take note of the living conditions of…

Source: Meanwhile, in the Kenyan hinterlands, the usual emergency starts again . . .

Share this:

Posted in agriculture, corruption, Development in Africa, Kenya | 1 Reply

Don’t forget to actually buy from Kenyan entrepreneurs

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Ken
Reply

Nothing against Coca-Cola and Walmart, but you can actually buy from entrepreneurs instead of their corporate descendants.

Growers Alliance: our coffees

Just follow this link to see and comment on this photo:
https://flic.kr/p/kt2ZQg

Share this:

Posted in agriculture, Kenya | Leave a reply

So what matters in Kenya? David Ndii reminds us that most Kenyans do not have enough food . . .

Posted on September 27, 2014 by Ken
Reply

Not to distract from the “news”, the big events like a second Nairobi Carrefour coming to Karen and competing with Nakumatt. . . but for anyone who is interested in Kenya and
has not actually lived there in recent years, I highly recommend David Ndii’s latest Friday column from Daily Nation, “On hunger, and a nation in need of a conscience“:

Hunger stalks this land. One third of the respondents to Ipsos Synovate’s latest opinion poll answered yes to the question whether they or other members of their households ever sleep hungry.

The facts are much worse that the poll’s finding.

The most comprehensive information on our food situation is in a report published by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics in 2008 titled Food Insecurity Assessment in Kenya.

It shows that over half of Kenyans, 51 percent, consume less than what they require on a daily basis. They consume an average of 1,261 calories per day, against a requirement of 1,683 calories — a shortfall of 422 calories or 25 percent of the daily requirement.

Simply put, half of the country suffers from chronic hunger. . . .

Share this:

Posted in African Studies, agriculture, Business/Parastatals, corruption, democracy, Development in Africa, Kenya, UN, US | Tagged agriculture, Carrefour, corruption, David Ndii, devolution, economics, food security, hunger, Karen, Kenya, land, Nairobi, Nakumatt, politics, statistics, tribalism | Leave a reply

Uhuru Kenyatta, Jendayi Frazer and Paul Kagame walk into a commodity exchange in Kigali . . .

Posted on July 16, 2014 by Ken
Reply

Swiss trader looks up and says, “You must be here to save Kenya’s small family farmers!”

Post-election IDP camp at Naivasha, Kenya, 2008

“Could Rwanda’s Kagame get thrown out of the ‘smoke filled room’?” AfriCommons, 13 March 2014

“East Africa Exchange Formally Launched” BizTech Africa, 4 July 2014

“Carter Center release; Initial observations on the ‘Frazer v. Carson’ controversy”  AfriCommons, 21 Feb. 2013

“Beth Mugo Admits Kenyatta Family Owns Huge Tracts of Land, But Defends Uhuru” Mwakilishi, 12 Feb. 2013

“How Kosgei pulled strings to block U.S. from endorsing Kibaki presidency” Daily Nation, 13 July 2012

“Kenyan PM Odinga Speaks Out on Election, ‘Dubious’ Role of Jendayi Frazer and Ambassador” AfriCommons, 4 March 2010

Part Ten–FOIA Documents from Kenya’s 2007 election–Ranneberger at ECK: “[Much caan happen between the casting of votes and the final tabulation of ballots and it did” AfriCommons, 30 April 2012

“Africa Bureau under Frazer coordinated “recharacterization” of 2007 exit poll showing Odinga win (New Documents–FOIA Series No. 12)” AfriCommons, 18 March 2013

Share this:

Posted in agriculture, Business/Parastatals, corruption, Development in Africa, Humor/Humour, Justice/Impunity, Kenya, Kenya 2013 election, Rwanda, South Sudan, US | Tagged agriculture, commodities, commodities trading, East Africa Exchange, Jendayi Frazer, Louis Dreyfus, minerals, mining, Nicolas Berggruen, Paul Kagame, Rwanda, Uhuru Kenyatta | Leave a reply

A Better Story from Kenya and the United States

Posted on March 8, 2014 by Ken
Reply

I may be overdue to write about the problems with current Standard Gauge Railroad project and the latest on the Rift Valley Railroad saga, and of course the new payments by the Kenyan government on the alleged debts from the Anglo Leasing scandal are crying out for more attention. And there is the critical issue in Kenya of the Turkana drought. But I’m more overdue to write about some good people doing good things that can actually make a positive difference and I need to gush a bit about a great experience I’ve had this week.

Since I have been involved in political controversy and deal with sensitive topics here, I avoid writing about my old friends who are working in Kenya in missionary or development work because I don’t want to unintentionally create any association with my personal political views. But this week, I have gotten a chance to meet and start to get acquainted with a Kenyan couple here in Florida who are doing exciting things in trade and business and humanitarian mission, and we connected through coffee here in the U.S., not through anything political, so I think I can give them a little plug without giving them any “guilt by association”.

I’ll just let Martin Kabaki and Purity Gikunju tell the story of starting the Growers Alliance coffee company in their own words from the website:

Growers Alliance was started by Martin and Purity who grew up on separate coffee farms in Kenya. After moving to live in the United States, they were shocked to see $4 latte cups while coffee growers back in their Kenyan village earn a meager 15 cents for a whole pound of their harvest green coffee beans. In a twist of luck and coincidence, Martin and Purity met each other for the first ever at a coffee conference in Seattle. After discovering each other’s passion (and romance ….we have a beautiful son whose name is Steve) in highlighting the plight of the poor coffee growers in Kenya, they decided to start their own coffee company that would be different from any other. They formed Growers Alliance which is perhaps the only coffee company in America that is owned by actual coffee growers and whose goal is to cut out the several unnecessary middle men and coffee cartels. This helps to empower the poor coffee growers with better prices for their coffee crop and better living standards.

They have been at this for several years now and have really made progress. The Growers Alliance Kenya coffee is sold at Whole Foods and at the major Southeastern U.S. regional supermarket chains Publix and Winn Dixie (the picture above is from the shelf at my local Winn Dixie store).

Beyond the coffee business, which seems exactly the kind of thing that Kenyans need for sustainable steady improvement in economic circumstances, Martin and Purity are engaged in charitable enterprises that have “synergies” with Growers Alliance. First, Growers Alliance drills and maintains artesian wells in areas near coffee farms in Embu to provide safe water. The second is unique and deserves some explanation.

Martin was looking at the opportunity to return ship something from the U.S. to Kenya after the import of the coffee. This ultimately turned into a dialysis clinic in Naivasha, stocked with refurbished machines donated by a foundation in the United States. Unfortunately as Martin and Purity came to learn from their close interaction with the farming communities back home, diabetes and hypertension are increasing with changes in diet and lifestyle in Kenya, not just in the cities, but in the villages as well. With lack of early diagnosis and treatment, this leads to kidney damage and a growing critical need for dialysis–outstripping the facilities available from the public health infrastructure. Martin’s parents who were living in the U.S. returned to Kenya to run the clinic.

Martin and Purity are delightful people who are making things happen. The Kenya coffee, as I can attest, is superior, very competitively priced and easily ordered online at www.growersalliance.com. And check out the gala Kenyan dinner to raise funds for the Kijiji Dialysis Center and Embu wells upcoming on May 4.

Share this:

Posted in agriculture, Business/Parastatals, Development in Africa, Kenya | Tagged coffee, development, diabetes, fair trade, Growers Alliance Coffee, health care, Kenya, Kenya coffee, mission, organic | Leave a reply

Post navigation

← Older posts

Search

Categories

RSS

 RSS - Posts

Recent Posts

  • Kenya’s election was very close – would Raila have won with Ngilu instead of Karua as running mate?
  • “A Few Thoughts on the Kenyan Election”
  • With Supreme Court ruling, I recommend Susanne Mueller’s assessment of Kenya’s voting
  • In 2007-08, I only met Moi and Ruto once each. Loose impressions:
  • Raila owes me for keeping the vote count verification Exit Poll showing him leading in 2007 from “going away”, but I did not do it for him personally

Twitter

  • #Kenya needs, as it always has, a competent and disciplined Opposition to help protect its citizens from those in p… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 6 hours ago
Follow @AfriCommons

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Photographs are republished from Flickr--all rights reserved unless otherwise stated at Flickr

BBC World News Africa

  • Kamala Harris Africa trip: Can US charm offensive woo continent from China? March 26, 2023
    US Vice-President Kamala Harris embarks on a tour of the continent amid fierce competition for influence.
  • Paul Rusesabagina: Hotel Rwanda hero set free March 25, 2023
    Paul Rusesabagina, played in the 2004 movie by Don Cheadle, was credited with saving 1,200 people.
  • Angola's 1977 massacre: Tragic twist for orphans of mass killings March 25, 2023
    The government said it had found their parents' remains but other research raised fresh questions.

Archive

AfriCommons Favorites

  • 👉🏼Are free and fair elections passe in Kenya?
  • 👉🏼Carter Center quietly publishes strikingly critical Final Report from Kenya 2013 Election Observation
  • 👉🏼Corruption and Terrorism/Security
  • 👉🏼Democracy and Competing Objectives: "We Need You to Back Us Up"
  • 👉🏼Election Observation–Diplomacy or Assistance?
  • 👉🏼It's mid-June: another month goes by without Kenya's election results while Hassan goes to Washington
  • 👉🏼New Study on Democracy Assistance in Kenya
  • 👉🏼Ocampo, the donors, and "The Presumption of Arrogance"; a story of babes in the woods of Mt. Kenya?
  • 👉🏼Political Stability, Investor Confidence and Meaningful Elections in East Africa
  • 👉🏼The Kenyan Constitution and The Rule of Law
  • 👉🏼Vote Buying and Women Candidates in Kenya
  • 👉🏼Was Kenya's "Election Observation Group" or ELOG intended to be truly independent of IEBC? Or was it to "build confidence"?
  • 👉🏼Why would we trust the Kenyan IEBC vote tally when they engaged in fraudulent procurement practices for key technology?

FOIA Cables and the 2007 Kenyan election--a series

  • a. Lessons for Kenya's 2012 election from the truth trickling out about 2007–New cables from FOIA (Part One)
  • b. Lessons from the 2007 elections and the new FOIA cables–Part Two
  • c. Lessons from the 2007 Kenyan election and the new FOIA cables–Part Three
  • d. Lessons from the 2007 elections and the new FOIA cables–Part Four
  • e. Lessons from the 2007 elections and the new FOIA cables–Part Five
  • f. Part Six–What did the U.S. Ambassador report to Washington the day after the Kenyan election?
  • g. Part Seven–One last FOIA cable on the 2007 Exit Poll
  • h. Part Eight–New Kenya FOIA documents: Diplomacy vs. Assistance Revisted; or Why Observe Elections If We Don't Tell People What We See?
  • i. Part Nine–What Narrative Was the State Department's Africa Bureau Offering the Media While Kenyans Were Still Voting? And Why?
  • j. Part Ten–FOIA documents from Kenya's 2007 election–Ranneberger at the ECK: "Much can happen between the casting of of votes and final tabulation of ballots, and it did"
  • k. Freedom of Information Series (Part 11): Better to Learn More Lessons from Kenya's Last Election After the Next One?
  • l. Africa Bureau under Frazer coordinated "recharacterization" of 2007 Kenya Exit Poll showing Odinga win (New Documents–FOIA Series No. 12)
  • m. Why is IRI’s report on the Kenya 2007 Exit Poll missing from the USAID Development Experience Clearinghouse? (FOIA Series Part 13)
  • n. The simple truth of the allegedly "contested" Kenya 2007 exit poll–what IRI reported to USAID (FOIA series part 14, War for History series part 19)

Organizations

  • ACE Electoral Knowledge Network (UNDEF)-Kenya
  • Africa Research Institute
  • African Politics Conference Group
  • AFRICOG: Africa Centre for Open Governance
  • Centre for Multiparty Democracy-Kenya
  • East Africa Initiative–Open Society
  • ELOG–Election Observation Group
  • InformAction–Kenya 2017 election reporting
  • International Center for Transitional Justice–Kenya
  • International Commission of Jurists–Kenyan Section
  • Inuka Kenya Trust
  • Kenya Human Rights Commission
  • National Council of Churches of Kenya
  • Transparency Int'l-Kenya

Studies and Reports

  • "Ballots to Bullets"–Human Rights Watch
  • "Count Down to Deception: 30 Hours that Destroyed Kenya" – Kenyans for Peace with Truth and Justice
  • "Kenya: a country fragmented" – Africa Research Institute
  • "Turning Pebbles: Evading Accountability for Post-Election Violence in Kenya"–Human Rights Watch, Dec. '11
  • Commission of Inquiry into 2007 elections (Kriegler Commssion)
  • Commission of Inquiry into Post Election Violence (Waki Report)
  • USAID–Assessment of the Pre-electoral Environment: AN EVALUATION OF SUPPORT TO THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION, AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR . . . 2007 ELECTIONS

US Government

  • Africa Center for Security Studies
  • AFRICOM–US Military Command
  • House Foreign Affairs Committee
  • Senate Foreign Relations Committee
  • State Dept. Africa Bureau
  • U.S. Senate Resolution on 2013 Kenya Election, etc. (bipartisan; unanimous consent)
  • United States Institute of Peace – Africa
  • USAID Blog
Exit mobile version
%%footer%%