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Shadows of Silence

It was on a Wednesday morning as the sun began its ascent over the horizon, casting a warm, golden glow that painted the sky in hues of orange and pink, I found myself on a journey into the heart of a backstreet joint of Majengo area in Githurai, Nairobi County. I had heard whispers of its existence and activities after one of our partners from Community Pop John, Simone Ceciliani , gave me a chilling brief, a place where the vulnerable of society met and conducted their businesses in secrecy. As Simione and I headed to ‘Kije’ place as locally branded, the narrow pathway was dimly lit, and the air thick with loud music from all directions. The tales of forgotten dreams and desperations were evident as we encountered an area of a people living in the middle of a pub zone with commercial sex workers queuing at each entrance waiting for clients. Open sewer lines welcomed us as we put our body muscles to practice through the ‘hop, skip and jump’ motion. Mixed untold smell filled the air...
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Recent posts

Covid 19- Women Enterprises Leveraging on Technology

Small and medium enterprises are some of the greatly affected due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and as a result many have been trapped and unable to sustain themselves despite the government introducing a series of stimulus measures , including reducing value-added tax and corporation tax. The pandemic is also deepening pre-existing inequalities, exposing vulnerabilities in social, political and economic systems which are in turn amplifying the impacts of the pandemic. The lock down and social distancing has so far posed economic challenges to women’s work and their business activities and exposed them to economical threats. World bank survey showed that women led business in Kenya have a bigger investment impact, supporting huge portions of household budgets and thereby confirming need for financing their enterprises . However, the pandemic has either brought most of them to a grinding halt or are immensely struggling. Felicia Muriuki, proprietor of ShereCare Life honey has had t...
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Knap II Launch

Many African states have shut their borders in the wake of Covid-19 to minimize the spread. Most flights have been cancelled with land and sea borders closed while health screening has become mandatory quarantine for those lucky to travel. Those transporting essential goods have not been spared from the tests with WHO noting the increasing incidents of cross-border transmission between countries, mainly through long-distance truck drivers. This has hampered flow of humanitarian aid and workers as organizations are forced to negotiate for humanitarian corridor to allow safe transit of aid to hard hit regions. Kenya is currently facing multiple catastrophes that may fuel the spread of Covid-19. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have since warned an alarming outbreak of another round of locusts which CNBC terms the worst infestation in Kenya for over 70 years. Heavy rains also continue to be experienced in most parts of the country causing floods to spell disaster leaving...
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Kenya Launches National Action Plan phase II on Women, Peace and Security 2020 – 2024

Many African states have shut their borders in the wake of Covid-19 to minimize the spread. Most flights have been cancelled with land and sea borders closed while health screening has become mandatory quarantine for those lucky to travel. Those transporting essential goods have not been spared from the tests with WHO noting the increasing incidents of cross-border transmission between countries, mainly through long-distance truck drivers. This has hampered flow of humanitarian aid and workers as organizations are forced to negotiate for humanitarian corridor to allow safe transit of aid to hard hit regions. Kenya is currently facing multiple catastrophes that may fuel the spread of Covid-19. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have since warned an alarming outbreak of another round of locusts which CNBC terms the worst infestation in Kenya for over 70 years. Heavy rains also continue to be experienced in most parts of the country causing floods to spell disaster l...
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Vouchers for food program helps mitigate effects of Covid-19 in the slum area

Even before COVID-19, Ruth Wanjiru and her two children knew the sound of pangs of hunger because her job as a laundry woman did not provide enough to ensure that there was enough food in the house. Now, experts fear that the partial lockdown in Kenya that restricted movement from 7pm will damn her and other poor people to starvation. The opportunity has opened for innovation in social entrepreneurship such as Voucher for Food which ensures that people make money as they solve societal problems. The Voucher for Food pays local shopkeepers in Mathari slum where local people can go pick their daily supplies. The government imposed a dawn to dusk curfew as well closure of produce markets as a means to slow down the spread of the virus but this disrupted food supply and has already threatened fragile food security situation in Kenya. This is because many people do not have work now and cannot afford food. Ms Wanjiru is a single mother who made a living from washing clothes to t...
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Covid-19 Reducing costs, maintaining jobs top priority for manufacturers

Manufacturers have cited reducing costs and maintaining jobs as top priorities during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is according to findings of a KAM, KPMG report on the impact of Covid-19 on manufacturers in Kenya. Despite fears of the impact of the pandemic on local industry, 81% of manufacturers say they are not likely to close down as a result of the impact of COVID-19. However, this number reduces to 76% for manufacturing SMEs. From the survey, 78% of manufacturers’ top priority is reducing costs, 61% are keen on job retention with 53% giving precedence to improving cash flows. On employment, 40% of surveyed manufacturers have reduced their casual employees whereas 17% have reduced the permanent workforce. On the other hand, 91% of non-essential manufacturers have seen a significant decrease in demand for their products compared to 74% of essential goods manufacturers. 42% of manufacturers are operating at less than half of their operating capacity, whereas 37% of SMEs hav...
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Disruptive Communiction

The need for information has never been more important today with the outbreak of an epidemic of global magnitude. Despite the media being at the forefront in the fight against the Covid-19 virus, it has not been spared either. From the time the first case was reported in the City of Wuhan in China towards the end of 2019, the virus has wreaked havoc across the world leading to massive financial losses. Countries have come up with a raft of measures including lockdowns to contain the highly contagious virus. Recent survey by the Kenya Private Sector Alliance on Business Perspectives on the Impact of Covid-19 on Kenya’s economy paint a gloomy picture. As reporters work diligently to give the world daily updates, they are equally mulling over the effects of the pandemic on their organizations which are dependent on advertisements. Social distancing and stay at home aspects have seen increased demand for alternative news sources with digital media filling the gap. Th...
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