Update from Kijani

Thank you for your support for Kijani Forests For Change. Your grant has given us the hope we need to keep going through a tough socio-political environment and in the midst of many challenges and obstacles. The most pressing of these challenges are the logistics with the Kenya Forest Service (KFS). In this letter we are providing an update of changes within the KFS establishment that have affected our operations and projected plans for impact in our target area in central Kenya, Marmanet. 

Recent Events

MOA with Kenya Forest Service

As you may know,  the Deputy Director of KFS had signed a lease agreement granting DOVE Christian Fellowship license to reforest 100 hectares of degraded forest in central Kenya. An NGO was formed under the umbrella of DOVE to spearhead this work and create a model of sustainable forestation through empowerment of the local community. Kijani has been working for several years to create this model, and we settled on agroforestry as our approach to working in Marmanet with the support of KFS officials on the ground. 

As this plan has been in development, DOVE's Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with KFS has been waiting for signed approval from the Director of KFS. Unfortunately, in the past 3-4 weeks it has come to our attention (through a series of calls, visits to KFS and red tape) that KFS as an institution has been under internal turmoil, resulting in a change of Directors. At one point our MOA "could not be found anymore" and in the end our MOA is still with KFS, but cannot be officially signed by the Director because of internal suspicions of KFS corruption towards certain present or would-be partners, including DOVE. 

After an extensive meeting (finally) with the Deputy Director of KFS, we have been advised that our MOA will likely not be signed for several months - at least until after the board meets in June, and that in the meantime we should halt our operations in the gazetted government forest in Marmanet for which we had partially signed the MOA for 100 hectares. 

This puts DOVE and Kijani in an interesting position as we have spent close to two years engaging the local community through tree planting academies, community forums, an extensive baseline study and most importantly through building connections and "bridges" with the local community in preparation for our planned planting and conservation farming training this month, in the context of agroforestry on the 100 hectare piece of land. 

While DOVE and Kijani do not want to compromise our relationship with the community out of problems internal to KFS, we also must respect their wishes that we not proceed with any tree-planting or community activities on the designated land. For these reasons, we felt it important to inform you of these changes in our planned engagement with the local community.  

Foundations for Farming Training

Kijani conducted a capacity building training on Foundations for Farming (also commonly known as conservation agriculture) on 26-27 April, 2016. The training was organized at Kwanjiku centre, Nyahururu town in Laikipia County. The trainers of the training were Francis Ogembo and Jesse Kilel, Moderator was Eric Ogallo and Facilitator was David Oyaga. The main target group was community forest association members.

The main purpose of the training was to equip farmers with basic technical know-how regarding how to improve soil productivity and conserve the environment. The training was also to act as a platform for conducting other trainings and give us a lee way to carry out the research on household agro-forestry.

The seminar took two days, with day one being classroom / theory and day two being the practical part. The training attracted 65 community members on day one and 25 on day two. The venue of our training was PCEA church grounds in Kwanjiku next to Marmanet Police patrol base. The day ended by a strong powerful prayer from Mama Pastor Emuri, a Turkana lady with godly principles.

Day 1 
Due to the fact that it is planting season and most people are at their farm for a good part of the day, the training started at 1 pm. With an expectation of 30 people, twice the number turned up for the meeting. By 2 pm over 65 community members had packed the church venue. Our trainers took day one to teach community members on mulching, crop rotation, manure composting, high management for higher production, timing and land preparation among other components. The trainers carried these out in shifts and also gave time for trainees to ask questions. Day one was also used as a platform for community members to share about the challenges they are experiencing on their farms. 

Day 2
This was a whole day event. We started the morning on a high note by demonstrations in plots. Mr Haman, who is a village council of elder, offered us a plot. During the demonstration, community members who had not had the opportunity to come to our training in Kwanjiku seized the opportunity by being actively involved in the demonstration processes. They stayed with us throughout the entire day. They showed a great sense of commitment and interest in the training. During the demonstrations the trainers used these platforms to reconnect class work with practical which really worked out for farmers. 

We ended day two by identifying community members who we will follow up.

General Comments
- General attendance was really good; in fact the number was twice our expectation.
- The number of women who attended the training was almost the same number as those of men, so generally the training was well balanced in terms of gender.
- 15 young people turned up for the training; this is a good start in terms of youth engagement.
- Community members said that this was a good program and it should continue in the future; this showed a sense of acceptance.
- During the conference our trainers had to answer lots of questions from our trainees; the questions showed that they were keen during the training and understood the training content.
- The Community Agricultural Extension Officer requested that we fully involve her in our next training.
- The trainers rated the training as a success.

Plans for the Future

We still aim to hold two Foundations For Farming seminars with 30 community members at the beginning of the long and short rains seasons this year. However, we will not be able to plant trees in the 100 hectares originally allocated for forestation for DOVE Christian Fellowship until the MOA is finalized. Neither will we have community members farm one acre of land in the forestation area according to conservation farming principles. Instead, community members will be trained how to apply the principles in the FfF course on their own farms, and trees from our nursery will be donated directly to local community members in order to stay true to our vision for increased tree cover leading to healthy communities. 

In addition, we are exploring other target areas that might be more "hospitable" to our work for the years 2017 and beyond. While we do not want to compromise the potential impact that an official partnership with KFS might bring, and so will keep that door open, we also recognize that other parts of Kenya might be more "yearning", in a spiritual and physical sense, for our engagement. North and North-Eastern Kenya are possibilities we feel intent on exploring. We already have a tree nursery in Garissa, Eastern Kenya and will continue to keep that door open in the event that our partnership with Bright Hope World empowers us to move our work, in whole or in part, to this region.