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Lokwamusing, a village in Turkana county of Kenya. Photo Credit/Blandina Bobson

A leaf from my diary- the 13th of February 2019

I am Lokwamusing, a village in Turkana county of Kenya. Long ago, some pastoralists came with their herds…I had abundant pasture for their cattle to graze. Some stayed back and some moved on to other places. I am known to be the notorious village, where cattle raiding causes human fatalities...

Black Gold

Black gold is such a depressing name for something considered so lucrative. A name coined for oil because of its black colour when it comes out of the ground and ‘gold’ because of the perception that it makes everyone in the oil industry rich. So much is the craze of this oil in Turkana that there...

A forgotten people on a not so forgotten land

Travails of the Turkana living with oil on their land I spent a week in Turkana. A most depressing week on the vast, parched and barren Turkana land. Arriving in Turkana, there are no illusions- it is a harsh place, intolerably hot with little vegetative cover. And yet, this land, most barren-...

Perspective!

In November 2017, Oxfam launched a study report ‘Testing Community Consent- Tullow Oil project in Kenya’. The case study was assessing the extent of Tullow Oil’s (the company currently engaged in the exploration and production of oil) compliance with the principle of Free, Prior and Informed...

Leading from the front

Oxfam in Kenya awarded the most collaborative NGO by Kenya Revenue Authority for its work on Fiscal Justice. Tax Justice has been an anchor pillar of work under the Governance and Accountability programme for Oxfam in Kenya since 2015 with the rollout of the new Country Strategy. Recognizing the...

Fatuma Juma, her husband and last born daughter outside their makeshift house. Photo credit/Jeremy Mutiso

Recovering from floods

“These toilets have helped us maintain basic hygiene and prevent diseases because before that we were helping ourselves in the nearby bush which is dehumanizing,” Fatuma Juma. ALDEF, WASDA and Oxfam, under the ADAPT Consortium, with financial support from Sweden International Development Agency (...

Children dressed as who they might like to be when they grow up take part in an Oxfam campaign to promote Sanergy Fresh Life toilets at the Reuben Baptist School, in the Mukuru informal settlement, in Nairobi, Kenya, on March 28, 2014.Photo Credit:Sam Tarling

She is where muck is!

Oxfam and Sanergy installed Fresh Life toilets in schools, replacing unsanitary pit latrines. Schools with Fresh Life toilets have seen dramatically increased attendance, particularly of female students. Today as per Sanergy’s data (from their website) they have 1691 active fresh life toilets in...

A woman uses her water credit, which is stored in a small, plastic token, to buy water from a Water ATM in Hadado, Kenya. Photo Credit: Katie Nelson

If there is a will there is a way…

The women in the rural and urban areas feel that they can access water at any point of time in the day as they have the ATM and do not have to wait for the person to give access to the water kiosk. The water kiosks are less than half a kilometre away from the households and therefore saves the time...

On going community baraza in Turkana County. Photo Credit: Jeremy Mutiso

The Early Oil Pilot Scheme: A Litmus Test of Kenya’s Oil Governance

The Early Oil Pilot Scheme (EOPS) remains an important yardstick for how the government and the project proponent manage Kenya’s precious oil resources when commercial production starts. All effort must be put towards building citizen confidence and trust in the governance of the resource.

Sunrise shot of Turkana County. Photo credit/Oxfam

What more can be done for contract disclosure

During the launch of the Oxfam Briefing Paper of May 2018 entitled "Contract Disclosure Survey 2018", key insights were shared on contract disclosure best practice by companies and governments. A focus on policy, law and corporate policies shows three broad categories of ‘enablers’ allowing for...

The power of people against poverty