With the agriculture sector having declined in 2019 and expected to decline further in 2020 due to locust invasions and the coronavirus pandemic, it will need all the help it can get. The National Treasury has offered the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC), the financier of the agriculture sector, Sh1.5b in the next three financial years. The corporation is expected to use the funds to further its programs, including technical assistance to clients covering agriculture, food security, credit extension and rural development. Additionally, as part of its Women Affirmative Action Window, the corporation is seeking to promote credit to female-led enterprises,…
Author: NBM CORRESPONDENT
Elite Offset Ltd has donated goods worth Sh2m to aid in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic. The goods that included 400 packs of foodstuff and 40,000 pieces of surgical masks were donated to officers manning the Athi River border point. The surgical masks will help the police officers in their interaction with drivers especially truck drivers and those classified as essential service providers while the food will help feed the police officers and their families. Speaking while receiving the donation, senior assistant to the Inspector General of Police Miriam Muli expressed her gratitude to the firm for their generosity and…
BY PATRICIA SCOTLAND There is an eerie silence across the globe today. Bustling cities have gone quiet and highways that were once jammed with bumper-to-bumper traffic are empty. In homes, thousands of families are anxiously awaiting a phone call from a hospital about their loved ones. Many have already received the devastating news that their mother, father, child, spouse, sibling or friend has died from coronavirus (COVID-19) complications – often without the comfort of someone familiar to hold their hands. And in the very trenches of the war against this new disease that changed our world with astonishing speed, are…
BY LORNAH KIPLAGAT Exercise not only keeps you fit and boosts your immune system, it gives your mind a break from the pressures we are all feeling these days. If you are already exercising, I encourage you to continue doing so! If you are just starting, approach exercise gradually. You don’t need a treadmill to “run” at home. Take the staircase, do it in your yard or practice on-the-spot running. Improvise! Just about anything in your home can be repurposed for exercise. Use your lounge for yoga. Clear your mind by clearing out your garage or shed. Then turn it…
BY JACOB OKETCH Miaha is a Dholuo word that means a newly married young woman. As used in the title of this book, it refers to the recollections of a young woman recently married to a man from the Luo community. This book is a fresh breath of air as far as memoirs are concerned. Firstly, most people who write memoirs are in the twilight of their careers and lives. This one is about a young woman who is just starting out in life. The readers will realize that there is equally a lot to talk about at this stage…
BY BRENDA VIOLA I will love you forever, or, best friends forever. If you really sit and think about the weight of the words then you’d understand how it’s all a hoax. Not intentionally uttered lies but lies all the same. And so, it became the norm. They’d always come and go after figuring out how the other was better than the present. I grew accustomed to that. Growing up, I had this friend called Rita. I loved her, granted that I only interpreted love as any child would, which in essence is the purest form. Rita and I were…
BY JACOB OKETCH Today is a Sunday and I have been thinking about the essence of service in our community. I have been thinking about the centrality of service to a recovering alcoholic. Indeed, it is humbling to see how a sense of service transforms an alcoholic into a servant whose personal interest is subservient to their vision. When you are drinking, everything you do revolve around you. You don’t care about others and every effort is geared towards achieving your one and most important goal, having fun. This, in most cases, alienates one from those close to them and…
Now that nearly three billion people around the globe are under COVID-19 lockdown, victims will be confined for longer periods of time with perpetrators, increasing the risk of harm BY DR HEATHER D. FLOWE Worldwide, one in three women suffer violence within their lifetime according to the World Health Organization. Now that nearly three billion people around the globe are under COVID-19 lockdown, victims will be confined for longer periods of time with perpetrators, increasing the risk of harm, including physical injury, emotional and verbal abuse, and even death. Social and economic inequalities magnify this vulnerability. People in low…
BY JACOB OKETCH Prof Ken Walibora was interred at his rural home in Trans Nzoia County last month after dying in the most tragic of circumstances on Nairobi’s Landhies road when he was knocked down by a speeding matatu on April 10. I have been compelled to pen a piece about him, rising from the fact that I knew him closely having been classmates at the University of Nairobi at the department of literature. I fondly remember our lecturers in those days. Our poetry classes were under the tutelage of the late Alex Okwalo Teyie. Prof. Henry Indangasi taught us…
The corporate foundation of the news and information services company has launched a virtual training, knowledge-sharing and network-building hub for journalists covering the global COVID-19 pandemic. The Hub, initially bringing together reporters from English-speaking African nations, will focus on facilitating access to accurate and trusted information through a series of online seminars and working sessions, as well as scaling professional journalism expertise through training and mentoring courses. Journalists will be equipped with the core skills and information they need to report on the global pandemic and connected with key experts and other reporters who have been covering the crisis in…