By NAKURU, Kenya
 

Francis Muriu (c) explains to the chief (brown checked shirt) how a resident saved him when thugs raided his home and locked him in a house. / Daniel Sitole/IPS

Daniel Sitole, Feb 2 (IPS) – Using 140 characters or less, Chief Francis Kariuki in Kenya, has tweeted his way to reducing crime in his [...]

By Andrew Green*

During the Lord's Resistance Army's insurgency in northern Uganda, John Lacambel hosted a programme on Mega FM encouraging soldiers to return home. / Will Boase/IPS

GULU, Uganda, Feb 1 (IPS) – Radio Mega FM’s transmission tower rises from the centre of Gulu town, transmitting talk shows and the latest Ugandan radio hits to listeners [...]

By Wambi Michael

Dorothy Kabajungu, 50, has started a firewood business after obtaining a loan from a women’s bank. / Wambi Michael/IPS

WAKISO, Uganda, Jan 30 (IPS) – For most Ugandan women, obtaining a commercial loan to start a business has been very difficult. Many do not have the required collateral of land title deeds [...]

By Wambi Michael

Dorothy Kabajungu, 50, has started a firewood business after obtaining a loan from a women’s bank. / Wambi Michael

WAKISO, Uganda, Jan 30 (IPS) – For most Ugandan women, obtaining a commercial loan to start a business has been very difficult. Many do not have the required collateral of land title deeds [...]

By Peter Kahare

Victor Muruga (r) and his three-year-old brother Ian Kimani (l) prepare lunch from their camp at 
Mumoi farm. / Peter Kahare/IPS

RIFT VALLEY, Kenya, Jan 24 (IPS) – Six-year-old Victor Muruga points to a hole in the bush that he calls his "bedroom". "I sleep there, under that tree and my mother sleeps [...]

By Jared Ferrie

Members of the Murle ethnic group wait to receive food aid after attacks from a rival tribe that the U.N. says affected at least 120,000 people. / Jared Ferrie/IPS

PIBOR, South Sudan, Jan 24 (IPS) – In the ward of a partially destroyed clinic, Mangiro (who did not give his last name) [...]

By Miriam Gathigah

A growing number of African countries are making significant progress towards eradicating extreme hunger and poverty. / Zahira Kharsany/IPS

NAIROBI, Jan 20 (IPS) – A growing number of African countries are making significant progress towards eradicating extreme hunger and poverty. Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and South Africa are some of [...]

By Peter Kahare

A crocodile carcass on Lake Kamnarok. In the distance cows graze on the lake bed. / Peter Kahare

RIFT VALLEY, Kenya,, Jan 17 (IPS) – Several years ago, Lakes Kamnarok and Ol Bollosat in Kenya were vibrant water bodies that supported and shaped the ecosystems around them. But today they are shells of [...]

By Protus Onyango

Water Minister Charity Ngilu was the first woman to run for the presidency in Kenya, in 1997. / Protus Onyango/IPS

NAIROBI, Jan 4 (IPS) – The August 2012 elections in Kenya will open doors to massive political participation by women for the first time ever.

The new constitution in effect since August 2010 [...]

By Miriam Gathigah

One of the many displaced families in Kenya. / Miriam Gathigah/IPS

KENYA, Jan 2 (IPS) – Kenyans entered the New Year with less pomp and colour that has characterised previous new year celebrations. Due to the harsh economic situation and the fact that it is time for most students to go back [...]

By Abdurrahman Warsameh

A Somali youngster walks past a ruined building in Hodon district in Mogadishu. / Abdurrahman Warsameh/IPS.

MOGADISHU, Dec 30 (IPS) – With vehicles and donkey carts packed with their belongings, Somalis are returning, four years after they fled, to their partially standing, bullet-scarred and mortar-shelled neighbourhoods in former Al-Shabaab controlled areas of [...]

By Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar

Girls at most schools in Somalia are ordered to wear an Islamic dress. / Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar/IPS.

MOGADISHU, Dec 26 (IPS) – Schools are beginning to re-open slowly in areas of capital Mogadishu that were until recently controlled by the militant Islamic group al-Shabaab. But an estimated 80 percent of students [...]

By Isaiah Esipisu

A pregnant woman in Kenya's North Eastern Province with one of her children. Overpopulation in the area contributes to poor maternal health. / Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

GARISSA, Kenya, Dec 19 (IPS) – The Garissa Maternal Shelter in North Eastern Province, Kenya is the only such facility in an area with the country’s highest [...]

By Jared Ferrie

The refugee camp of Yida in South Sudan is home to over 20,000 people who have fled the violence in Sudan’s South Kordofan state. / Jared Ferrie/IPS

YIDA, South Sudan, Dec 13 (IPS) – In the sprawling settlement of Yida, just south of the Sudan border, more than 20,000 people have gathered [...]

By Isaiah Esipisu*

Peter Nyaga surveys his four-year-old eucalyptus woodlot. / Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

NAIROBI, Dec 12 (IPS) – On a steep slope of land in Thangathi village in Central Province, Kenya, Peter Nyaga surveys his four-year-old eucalyptus woodlot. He calculates the value of every tree on his two-hectare piece of land at maturity in three years.

At [...]