WINKER

The Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), the African Regional Organization of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), has urged the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) to press its member States to urgently free all imprisoned journalists and end the use of anti-terror laws against journalists. “We urge the Commission to demand that its member States end violent repression against journalists and urgently address the deteriorating safety and security situation of journalists in the continent”, said Omar Faruk Osman, President of the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) in his address to the African Commission in Banjul, The Gambia Delegates from the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), West African Journalists Association (WAJA), Eastern Africa Journalists Association (EAJA) and USYPAC (Central Africa’s Professional Media Workers Unions) attended the 51st Ordinary Session of the African Com...

KCA JOINS THE MEDIA FRATERNITY IN MARKING WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY Kenya Correspondents Association (KCA) today joins the Kenyan media fraternity and journalists world wide in marking this year's World Press Freedom Day with a call for greater respect for journalists rights and press freedom, including guarantees on safety and security of journalists. In Kenya, the World Press Freedom Day is being marked in Nairobi at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi and which is part of a three day East Africa Journalists Convention organized by the Media Council of Kenya(MCK). KCA notes with concern that as the country moves towards the next General Elections, journalists are increasingly under threat from politicians, the business class, organized criminal gangs and militias and also the police. "We need to remember on this important day, the unresolved murder of Journalist Francis Kahinda Nyaruri about three years ago in Kisii in Western Kenya and the increasin...

http://www.newsfromafrica.org/newsfromafrica/articles/art_12484.html Thursday 14 April 2011 African women more at risk of having stillbirths. Some 2.6 million third trimester stillbirths worldwide occur every year, according to the first comprehensive set of stillbirth estimates, published today within a special series in the medical journal The Lancet. Every day more than 7,300 babies are stillborn. A death occurs just when parents expect to welcome a new life. Ninety-eight per cent of stillbirths occur in low and middle-income countries. Wealthier nations are not immune with 1 in 200 pregnancies resulting in a stillbirth - two thirds occurring in the last trimester of pregnancy, a rate that has stagnated in the last decade. The five main causes of stillbirths are childbirth complications, maternal infections in pregnancy, maternal disorders (especially pre-eclampsia and diabetes), foetal growth restriction and congenital abnormalities. The number of stillbirths worldwide has declined...

http://www.newsfromafrica.org/newsfromafrica/articles/art_12430.html Tuesday 29 March 2011 The 44 member self help group, initially presented a project on technology of up scaling on passion fruit production. MURANGA---When Hannah Wairimu 48, lost her husband in 2009, she thought the world had crumbled on her as she was left with the burden of feeding their four children and taking them to school. The family, living in Karwaya Village of Kandara district, had been dependent on coffee growing but due to poor marketing strategies of the crop, they incurred losses. Meanwhile, her income was dwindling day by day thereby making it impossible to take care of her family. The widow invested in diversifying crops on her small farm, thanks to the Agricultural Technologies Information Response Initiative (ATIRI) programme introduced by Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). Wairimu now grows passion fruits, avocadoes, bananas, and strawberry for commercial purposes thereby earning her enou...

http://www.newsfromafrica.org/newsfromafrica/articles/art_12429.htmlMonday 28 March 2011 Plant clinics are modeled on the human health advice concept, where plant ‘doctors’ provide expert advice on pests and diseases affecting their crops and provide prescriptions for affected plants. NAIROBI---As human beings visit doctors when feeling unwell, that is the same way farmers are now taking their ‘sick’ plants to clinics for information and prescription. Plant clinics are modeled on the human health advice concept, where plant ‘doctors’ provide expert advice on pests and diseases affecting their crops and provide prescriptions for affected plants. The global plant clinic concept was developed in 2003 by the Centre for Agricultural Bio-Science International (CABI) in Bolivia then piloted in Bangladesh and Nicaragua. In Kenya CABI, jointly partnered with the Ministry of Agriculture’s extension services, Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate (KEPHI...

When Hannah Wairimu 48, lost her husband in 2009, she thought the world had crumbled on her as she was left with the burden of feeding their four children and taking them to school. The family, living in Karwaya Village of Kandara district, had been dependant on coffee growing but due to poor marketing strategies of the crop, they incurred costs. Meanwhile her income was dwindling day by day thereby making it impossible to take care of her family. The widow invested in diversifying crops on her small farm, thanks to the Agricultural Technologies Information Response Initiative (ATIRI) programme introduced by Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). Wairimu now grows passion fruits, avocadoes, bananas, and strawberry for commercial purposes thereby earning her enough money to send her children to school feed them and take care of other needs. “Through this programme, I have managed to educate my four children. They had stopped schooling as I could no longer afford fees for them. T...

As human beings visit doctors when feeling unwell, that is the same way farmers are now taking their ‘sick’ plants to clinics for information and prescription. Plant clinics are modeled on the human health advice concept, where plant ‘doctors’ provide expert advice on pests and diseases affecting their crops and provide prescriptions for affected plants. The global plant clinic concept was developed in 2003 by the Centre for Agricultural Bio-Science International (CABI) in Bolivia then piloted in Bangladesh and Nicaragua. In Kenya CABI, jointly partnered with the Ministry of Agriculture’s extension services, Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate (KEPHIS) to initiate the project in October last year. Mr. Peter Karanja, a field technician at CABI says that under the programme, farmers take their affected crops to the plant clinics, normally held at public places like market centres where they are given recommendation by trained personnel referr...