Ol Pejeta Conservancy

Please excuse this rather smug post but we have just been on safari.

Allys and I have had the benefit of Allys' parents, Suzy and Bob, recently. They are spending two weeks in Kenya and it has been great seeing them (not just because they brought a suitcase of books, magazines and a bottle of whiskey, but it helped!)

We went to Naro Moru River Lodge, an idyllic setting with a series of cottages by a river in the shadow of Mount Kenya. The hotel itself is a rather odd affair: a 70's Alpine mountain lodge in Africa, with tree hyrax running about and making strange noises at night. I did get over my urge to order a raclette at dinner, which was good because they were running a buffet.

Neither of us have ever had a great urge to go on safari, and even when we found out we were moving to Kenya this was never top of our list of things to do. I cannot fathom why: perhaps it is an anti-colonial sentiment or that people are generally more talkative than animals. So, with this rather ill-formed passionless idea, we went to Ol Pejeta Conservancy with a guide, Festus, and rapidly changed our minds.

It turns out animals are pretty awesome. Our favourite character was Max, the blind white rhino. Rhinos are huge: this one was about the size of the car we were in. Festus decided to drive right up to Max so close that we could stroke his head. Max didn't seem to mind, he appeared to be a friendly rhino which was lucky given that he probably could have turned the car over quite easily.

We also met Baraka the blind black rhino (Baraka means blessings in Swahili). Black rhino can be more aggressive than white ones so he was in his own enclave at the conservancy and, like a sensible chap, was sleeping in the midday sun. Actually after about midday it seemed that all the animals were sleeping. We passed a lake with a really fat hippo sleeping on the muddy bank; three hours later he was still there (some hangover!)

We passed a couple of herds of impala, and our guide pointed out that they were acting a little strangely and looking very alert. A little further down the track we realised why: two lionesses dozing under a tree. One lioness was tagged with a collar and we were told her name was Milly, the other was blind in one-eye (no idea why all the exciting animals we saw had eye trouble - just coincidence we think!). The lions did not look in a hunting mood but were vaguely tempted, particularly as the impala were showing them a lot of 'front'; several male impala were stamping and making a lot of noise showing either bravado or distracting the lions from the main herd of females. Our guide called these show-offs the "Boys' club".

The guilty pleasure of our safari were the warthogs. Never the stars of the show, not the smartest or prettiest animal on the range, they have a certain charm. Generally, they trot about looking for food but they occasionally start running excitedly (either towards food or away from predators) but after a surprisingly short while they'll stop running as if they have forgotten why they started in the first place.

We also hiked in the foothills of Mount Kenya. We were taken to some of the caves where the Mau Mau hid. I don't usually think of myself as ignorant but I genuinely am ignorant of the Mau rebellion and while I know broadly that British colonial history has its share of atrocities, to hear our guides tell us that their fathers and grandfathers were involved not so long ago was humbling.

Kisumu II: The Implementationing

After my previous week in Kisumu helping RAFODE with some financial modeling, analysis and operational recommendations, they asked me to come back and implement my recommendations. A case of me having to put my money (or in this case, my time) where my mouth is. My work from the outset has been pushed by the VSO volunteer with them, Ricky who is implementing a sorely-needed management information system. Somehow they wanted a British banker in their midst, despite the banking crises of the last few years, and who was I to disabuse of them of the notion that I might be of some assistance.

RAFODE is a microfinance institution (MFI) about 3 years old which specialises in servicing the rural poor, who even in the current global microfinance explosion, do not have access to any financial credit. The RAFODE model is similar to many in the industry, loan officers go into the field and find people to form groups of 10 individuals or more. Once a group is formed, they start saving with the organisation and go through a 7 week training program; consisting of 1 hour per week group meeting in which the loan officer teaches them the basics of a loan and other simple business skills.

At the end of the program, the group decides who in the group is to get the 1^st loan, known in RAFODE as a stagger; in a group of 10, 4 would be in the 1^st stagger, 4 in the next and 2 in the last. Each stagger is be separated by 4-6 weeks between loan disbursment, this encourages the rest of the group to ensure the people who have loans outstanding are prompt payers. Lending at most microfinance institutions is split into cycles. As a new client to an organisation you have no payment record and with the lack of financial services in your area no credit bureau to assess payment history, so in order to build up a payment record an MFI will provide a client with a smaller loan before assessing them for the loan amount they actually wanted.

As part of implementing my recommendation we visited these rural communities. The RAFODE loan officer commented on these locations as being 'rural but not super-rural', I think this was because they could get electricity on occasion. Upon our arrival in the community, we were warned by the loan officer that the clients may start clapping and singing, luckily they did not. I tried to imagine any of my client meetings in the UK where clapping and singing could have occurred; I failed miserably.

As an unreformed cynic, 15 minutes into leaving tarmac road I doubted whether we would see any businesses with potential growth; I was pleasantly surprised. Despite the paucity of resources, we met several good businesses. One in particular was run by a retired teacher who ran a tailoring workshop with 5 employees. The workshop made school clothes for children in the local towns, the clothes were sent to town on a piki-piki. The owner of the business wanted a loan to get some new sewing machines and stock so that he could supply some more schools whose orders he could get.

A key element of implementing the operational recommendations was training the loan officers to collect the financial details of the customers' business so that they could actually assess the customer's ability to repay. The main challenge of this was the client themselves, they may not know all the information needed or, not knowing exactly what the loan officer was looking for, inflate their costs to demonstrate a need for a loan. However, having run a training session in the early part of the week, we followed the loan officers into the field, where they demonstrated the ability to ask questions from various angles to get the right information from the customers and also confirm the information that they were getting.

Once the loan officers started collecting the information, they rapidly took on the implications of assessing their clients' ability to repay. Previously, loan officers main criteria for assessing clients was character, savings and the cohesion of their group, now they could begin assessing their clients ability to repay the facilities requested. Somehow, this seemed like a quantum leap for them and it was privilege to see them take on this knowledge and use it.

From an operational point of view, the new process helped them reduce the time it took to conduct a full assessment of their clients and increase the amount of data captured in the process. On their return to the office, they used the data they collected in their credit committee process, and with a credit committee procedure checklist, we halved the time it took to discuss each credit committee case.

The credit committee procedure checklist was a very simple affair, taking the criteria the loan officers use for assessment and ensuring this was delivered in a uniform manner. The loan officers took it well, which was surprising given the Kenyan love of conversation. Also, having been reminded of some of the credit committee cases from my previous life, where words like: concise, specific and pertinent need not apply, I decided this was an instance where the UK could learn from an Kenyan institution.

It was a very encouraging week, mostly because the people working at RAFODE are so eager to improve what they do and are so receptive to any help provide, even though I felt I have given them only a very little.

Return to Kisumu

I've just returned from another week in Kisumu helping RAFODE implement some of my recommendations from my previous visit. I'll be sharing my working experience at RAFODE soon, but first a little more about Kisumu...

Compared to the traffic and hustle of Nairobi, Kisumu is a welcome change of pace, but it's not without its own issues. Recently, the town council has banned matatus from the town centre. Matatu drivers are obviously displeased and, never the most retiring of characters, have made their anger known: after a series of protests, they began to target the beneficiaries of this ban - tuk-tuks and their drivers on Wednesday. We heard about this just as we ordered dinner at a restaurant in town, and after we quickly changed our order to go, we called our friend Pascal the tuk-tuk driver.

Pascal is a famous man in Kisumu - famous to every foreigner in town anyway. He is honest, fair and usually on time, but he really made his name among the wazungu of Kisumu by helping many of the volunteers get out of the town during the Post-Election Violence of 2008. Since then he is the go-to tuk-tuk man.

The usually affable Pascal arrived at the restaurant quite shaken: he had just dropped off some wazungu in Milimani, an upmarket 'burb of Kisumu, but on his return saw an overturned tuk-tuk, people throwing rocks at other tuk-tuks and down one street two matatus taking up both lanes of the road driving straight at him. He managed his escape from a situation that would have undoubtedly meant the end of his livelihood and no small amount of physical harm by nipping down a side street at the last moment.

He got us home safely and uneventfully on this occasion, and we made sure he let us know that he got himself home safely too. Later in the week, he told us his best friend (another tuk-tuk driver) had been arrested for inciting violence, which, bearing in mind tuk-tuk drivers were the target of the violence, was hardly likely. Unfortunately, it was easier for Pascal's friend to accept the charge than to protest his innocence: he neither had the money for a lawyer nor the ability to afford the time away from his business to investigate and dismiss the charge. Suffice it to say justice for all is actually justice for all those who can pay.

The next day in Kisumu, there was no evidence of any tension between the matatus and the tuk-tuks; I guess there is only so long you can fight before it becomes too bad for business and you have to get back to earning. And matatus are still not allowed to go to the town centre.

But this was not the only civil unrest in Kisumu that week...

Later in the week we were warned not to go into town as there was some tension building due to a pending decision from Parliament. Kisumu is a predominantly Luo area and the Prime Minister Raila Odinga is a Luo (he is also MP for Kibera in Nairobi). Recently, the President nominated a new Attorney General and Chief Justice as part of the implementation of the new constitution.

Unfortunately, he did this without consulting the PM who had been sent by the President to the meeting of the African Union - seemingly for the express purpose of allowing the President to draw up his list of nominees in peace.

Upon his return the PM immediately objected to the nominees and drew up his own list of nominees, throwing these into the ring. What followed was mudslinging on both sides by their respective lieutenants, the tedium of political process and, potentially, a decision last week.

For the Luo community in Kisumu, there would be celebrations if the Luo PM's nominees were accepted and violent protest if the President's nominees were accepted.

As I watched Parliament at a stall-holder's TV set in Kisumu market, I asked what he thought of the situation. He said they didn't take it seriously enough and that Kenya's future was at stake. When I asked him what he thought about the Big Two (the collective name for the PM and President) he looked at me suspiciously but then said that Kibaki was a tribalist and that Odinga was a good man. That the Luo community were potentially going to riot if their man did not get his way struck me as a little tribalist, but what do I know?

In the end the MP's had a little chuckle and deferred their decision to this week, much to the chagrin of the would-be rioters in Kisumu.

The side story to all this is that President Kibaki's allies are some of the Ocampo Six, including Ruto and Kenyatta. Kibaki's nominees are therefore to be in place to help set up local tribunals to try Post Election Violence suspects once Kenya defers the ICC process. This would allow the local tribunals the opportunity to give our hopeful presidential hopefuls an easy ride.

The strategy is somewhat obvious but that does not discount its potential for success in, as we've already mentioned, a rather tame media. International pressure is the main driver for Kenya's continued participation in the ICC process. The flipside to this is that it allows Kenyan politicians the chance to brand the ICC a colonial relic damaging Kenya's independence. And of course Kenya's leaders know that the international community is a fickle beast: the US and UK might keep the pressure up but if they get distracted by, say, another military engagement, apocalyptic financial crisis or the hunt for some mythical terrorist then their priorities will change. Moral outrage for the victims of the Post Election Violence will turn to pragmatism to meet more short-term priorities. On top of that, Kenya's key development partner China is more than disengaged from the ICC process and China's input is rapidly becoming more important than the US or UK.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it...

The Kenyan print media is very different from what we are used to back home.

Firstly, there is no celebrity news to speak of - certainly not in the main news section; and as if to compensate, politicians are treated rather like errant celebrities of the Rooney-calibre, which leads to some interesting reporting.

Also, in the UK we are used to reading a newspaper that has an identity: it has an agenda and it represents a worldview with which its readers identify: The Guardian is the bastion of the liberal bleeding heart pinko softies with not a backbone between them; the Daily Mail is for the little Englander who masturbates singing 'God Save The Queen'. Now I have alienated at least half our UK readers and confused everyone else, I can continue...

In Kenya, the newspaper is a schizophrenic beast, the opinion of the paper at the whim of the writer. To illustrate, Saturday's Daily Nation (the leading newspaper in Kenya) had eight separate columns of editorial opinion, with at least eight different opinions. What's more, page two of the paper was dedicated to a full-page report about the abuse (sexual and physical) of girls in primary schools, with comment from the Minister of Education wringing her hands and promising swift action. So far, so gender equality on the march? Spin to the pull-out section where a double page spread is dedicated to what is wrong with women today titled: Beautiful, Available but Unlovable. This gem of lifestyle reporting would make the Daily Mail blush and breaks down into six critiques of women: Grooming (stop dressing like a slut), Money (stop chasing our money), Desperation (lower your standards if you're older than 25), Know it alls (keep your opinions to yourself), Twisted Nose (stop criticising), Emotional Wreck (stop showing emotion). Richard Keys and Andy Gray should move to Kenya: they'd fit right in.

With Kenya changing almost daily (in a crazy collage of the good, bad, ugly and plain old silly) huge stories are sometimes given only the modicum of scrutiny, and the dozens of voices in the paper offer no coherent opinion or analysis. In contrast, very detailed accounts will be given of intricate political wranglings - a bit like political Neighbours.

The biggest story of our stay so far came in December, when The International Criminal Court announced six high profile figures it considers to be 'most responsible' for the post-election violence of 2007, which killed more than a 1000 people and has left many more still living in what are effectively refugee camps in Kenya. The fighting ultimately came down to long-standing tribal grievances, which are frequently manipulated by unscrupulous politicians when it suits their whim.

One of the six suspects is Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya's first president; another is William Ruto, a Rift Valley MP, who has not been out of the papers for a week since we arrived. Formerly a minister, Ruto was suspended because of corruption allegations then reinstated by the president then suspended again by the anti-corruption commission. Even before the 'Ocampo Six' (as they're popularly known) were named he was working hard via the newspapers to try and either discredit the ICC or get Kenya to pull out of it altogether. Since the announcement he has, unabashed, continued to campaign for Kenya to pull out of the ICC so it can try the suspects at home (i.e. not bother trying them at all). The President has backed this move by allowing diplomatic missions to other African countries seeking their support for withdrawal.

To add insult to injury, Kenyatta and Ruto have now formed a political alliance commonly known as the KKK (Kalenjin, Kikuyu, Kamba) to challenge their former politcal ally PM Raila Odinga. No tribalism there then. Their key message in the media is that they are the younger generation of politicians who will take Kenya forward (to even more corruption and larger atrocities, one supposes...).

Just to reiterate, in case anyone is confused, two figures who are suspected by the Hague for crimes against humanity, one of whom has a corruption case against him in court as we speak, have formed a political party to contest the 2012 presidential elections. You've got to admire their chutzpah. More importantly this nonsense is played out in the media with (deliberately?) erratic analysis. It smacks more of a media dodging bullets than of one prepared to demonstrate los cojones.

One of Kenya's biggest challenges is combating corruption or 'graft'. Politicians have, since Kenya's birth, enjoyed a system that quietly sanctions corruption – and not just the odd back-hander, but institutionalised theft, in terms of how government contracts are awarded, the use of aid money and other funds, and a general sense of entitlement from the privileged political classes. The media in this regard is inadequate in challenging the establishment on graft, kowtowing to accused ministers who still hold office and giving free reign to politicians who accuse anti-corruption efforts for being ethnically based without a shred of evidence to back their claims. 'You have accused our man, so you must be ethnically motivated' runs the cry... and the media run the story.

Kenya ostensibly has a free press, and is certainly miles ahead of many other African countries, but it is a free press without confidence in its stance. In the Standard yesterday an editorial from the Managing Editor, titled You either or for or against impunity, provided an accurate critique of the President. The Standard however pulls its punches at the end of the piece by issuing the disclaimer that 'the opinions expressed are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Standard'. So when Kenya cannot even try drug-dealer politicians, the press do not have the power or popular support to act as an agent for change.

The effect is compounded by the powerlessness many ordinary people seem to experience. Decades of exploitation by a supposedly democratic political process has made many dismissive of politics full-stop. Most just try to live their lives in spite of their leaders rather than pushing for anything better. There are signs of hope: Kenya's New Constitution is certainly a step forward, enshrining human rights for all (unless you're gay - more on this another time - or a woman who wants an abortion). Generally it has the hit the right notes and been a cause for optimism. But without a committed government and a genuinely unfettered press, will it ever be put into action?