Well sue the Met, say Farmers in Kenya

Farmers are frustrated by the climate change the no longer can keeep track with what is happening with the weather patterns.. all covered in a story written by Nation media post COp 15

Mr Charles Wafula in Eldoret, stares in dismay at a weathered crop of maize a result of erratic rainfall. Farmers in the North Rift have threatened to sue the meteorological department for misleading Kenyans about the rains. Photo/JARED NYATAYA By TOM MATOKE Posted Sunday, December 20 2009 at 19:54

We will move to court and sue the meteorological department for misleading Kenyans about the rains, farmers in the North Rift have threatened.

Speaking during a farmers meeting in Kapsabet Training College last Friday, Mr Zachariah Kuto, the Kenya National Federation of Agricultural Producers national vice chairman, said it was unfortunate that farmers were struggling to repay loans they received from AFC and other financial institutions, yet their crops either withered long before the harvest or never grew.

“We expected the El Nino rains as predicted by the meteorological department to be our saviour when we invested a lot of money on agriculture. The government should compensate us, so that we prepare for next the planting season,” said Mr Joseph Korir, a farmer.

Mr Kuto appealed to the government to inject new blood into the department to improve its performance.

“The body seems to be ill-equipped and unless a radical surgery is done to rid it of sleeping employees, farmers will continue counting losses through their inaccurate information,” he said.

He also asked the department to own up and apologise to Kenyans, saying farmers who were prepared to make huge profits, had experienced a double loss, given that they hardly harvested enough from the previous season, due to the unpredictable weather and are now spending days begging financial institutions not to attach their properties over defaults in servicing loans.

The farmers, who borrowed millions of shillings from the Agricultural Finance Cooperation (AFC) and invested in farming during the expected El Nino rains, also want the government to write off the loans, saying they were misled and ventured into planting wheat, maize, beans and other fast maturing crops, in expectation of a better harvest.

On climate change, Mr Kuto said Kenyan farmers supported the government’s commitment and felling of eucalyptus tress near rivers, which have caused rivers to dry up posing danger to millions of Kenyans who depend on the water sources.

Mr Musa Barno, Kenya National Agricultural Federation of Producers (KNAFP)- Uasin Gishu branch chairman, said farmers want all wetlands protected from human encroachment.

Mr Barno led farmers in demanding that fertiliser prices be reduced further to Sh1,500 per bag to allow more farmers venture into farming and improve the country’s food security.

They also asked the government to revoke land title deeds which had been issued to individuals who live around wetlands in Kenya.

They blamed local authorities for failing to protect wetlands yet they are trustees of public land within their areas of jurisdiction.

During the meeting all KNAFP Nandi branch farmers’ representatives were re-elected to serve for another term.

http://networkedblogs.com/p21731943

Adopt some manners

What has COP done to the Kenya Youths? Interacting with International youths during the COP 15, We the Kenya youtsh are more organised while conducting our meetings.... instead of commenting on an agreed point.. which could lead to wasting time... we adopted raising our hands in a haleluya kinda motions to symbolize agreed, or a good point!!!  We also put our thumbs down if we dont agree with an idea, and thus mean we reopen the discussion. Its our new way of consensus. Is it that amazing!!

Yes we can

In this Photo meet the climate justice activist from Africa.. in Photo is Emmanuel youth from Nigeria, Winnie youth from Kenya, Abdul youth from Ghana Sylvia from Kenya... and The Pan Africa Climate Justice alliance PACJA leader Augustine Njamnshi

http://www.demotix.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/display_318xX_scaled/photos/198181.jpg

Post COP 15 Climate change impacts get severe in Kenya

Fierce winds

The sudden rains, which were accompanied by fierce winds resulting in a rainstorm, uprooted trees and billboard signs along main roads. On Thursday morning, city residents were busy repairing the damage caused.

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/830924/-/vonaw0/-/index.html

Kenyan Youth Present Gift to Obama to White House Representative

For more info check out:
 http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/12/23/american-and-kenyan-youth-deliver-environmental-messages-copenhagen

The End of the Beginning

After a rollercoaster fourteen days the Kenyan delegation is making its way home from COP15. It started so well, the loud and spontaneous outburst after the leaking of the “Danish Text” which effectively sunk it, our own success in meeting with the Kenyan Prime Minister, quickly followed by the Young and Future Generations Day; a massive display of unity and solidarity (and of course orange).

Then the news came, the UNFCCC was kicking us out; NGO delegates were to be severely limited to combat the “overcrowding” and “security issues”.  For those of us fortunate enough to be inside on the Tuesday and Wednesday, the change in atmosphere was palpable.  The bright colours were gone, and I’m pretty sure the remaining NGO’s and even a few party delegates missed us.

It was a disillusioning experience. During the first week we felt powerful; we had the media lapping up our every action, we pushed for meetings with our national delegates, we marched, we protested, we seemed to be everywhere. Then some faceless bureaucrat seemed to pick numbers out of a hat, and that was is it. Impotence and despair were closely followed by anger as one by one world leaders placed their national interests above our survival.

Or so I felt until the last 48 hours. Somehow the youth movement managed to regroup. First for a late-night vigil on Friday (in the Scandinavian cold – much worse than any of us could have imagined) to protest the sham announcement of a deal between major countries, and secondly for our final youth evaluation session on Sunday. The energy and passion was back. It was sadly (or vitally so depending on your view) very much tinged with the lessons of disappointment. I imagine few of us will be able to place nearly as much trust in our leaders or political process in the future having seen them fail so epically. But the drive was back, and the ideas and suggestions coming from the morning sessions had one clear message:

This is not the beginning of the end, this is if anything the end of the beginning.

--

The final gathering

Black curtain descends on COP 15: A bleak future

Trees sway in disjointed rhythm in the great Amboseli

The birds sing no more in the massive Mara

The crickets cry cannot be heard tonight

The lion’s roar in the Tsavo barely a murmur!

The earth watches in utter disbelief

Words frozen on their parted lips

Faces contorted in a mix of sadness and uncertainty

They buried my dream…..

Shall I dream no more?

They sounded a deathnell;

Shall I no more breathe?

Joint US-Kenya Youth Press Statement

We just sent out our joint press statement with the US youth. Here it is in full:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                            Contact:
Friday, December 18, 2009                                                               Lisa Curtis, +45 52 68 76 12

Lisa.Curtis@SustainUS.org

Maya Sikand, +45 50 37 39 29

mayasikand@gmail.com

AMERICAN AND KENYAN YOUTH EXPRESS THEIR HOPES TO OBAMA

Copenhagen, Denmark--Yesterday afternoon, young people from the United States and Kenya gathered with hundreds of letters from their respective countries expressing their hopes for President Obama’s leadership on climate change. The letters will be delivered to the president in the next few days.  

The Kenyan delegation brought children’s drawings from Barrack Obama Primary School in Kogelo, Obama’s paternal village and the American youth brought letters collected from schools in the Midwest. 

“Kenya is your ancestral land and the United States is your home,” said U.S. youth delegate Erin O’Sullivan. “We represent your past and present, and your actions shape our future.”

A Kenyan youth from the Maasai tribe, James Laiboni, said that he had lost almost half of his cattle in the last few months due to heavy floods followed by extreme heat. As the rest of the Kenyan youth delegation related, Laiboni’s story is being repeated across Africa. Climate change is already destroying livelihoods and lives.

Danielle Ostafinski from Berkley, Michigan told the story of her father, a union electrician who hasn’t been able to find work for the past two years. “There have been times when we’ve been close to losing our health care and house. My mom died a while ago, so it’s only him. He wants a green job, and he wants to keep working for his family. Passing domestic legislation would stimulate the Michigan economy, give him a job again, and give me hope.”

With this joint statement and hundreds of letters from both nations, the youth ask that President Obama use all of his power to forge a strong and just treaty in Copenhagen, get the world on track to the 350ppm of CO₂ that science demands, and ensure that developing countries like Kenya are given the support they need to face the climate crisis. 

Modrine Alumasa, a Kenyan youth delegate said, “We ask President Obama to please remember the voices of the youth, for the sake of those who wrote these letters, and for his own Sasha and Malia.”

###

Why Copenhagen hurts

Why did I come here?

Of course not to have a good time in Winter country.
It’s the worst time for an African to travel, we love our summer all year round, its very sustainable and consumes no energy
I love my land of beauty, even when its dry,you are sure that time for a great resilience is nearing.
This is the last day of the Copenhagen climate change talks, or should i say the end of the Copenhagen crap?
Is also the most important day of my life, when I would be given powers to read from my university, after four years of faithfully learning how to safe mother nature and negotiate for its survival.

Kibaki speaks at COP15

Kibaki addressed the plenary session yesterday. If you've got some time (and patience) check it out.

http://www.box.net/shared/dsg8oztixt

Intervention at Plenary..

Read the statemnet in page 9

http://www.stakeholderforum.org/fileadmin/files/Outreach_issues_2009/091211-outreach-color.pdf

Forest negotiations are making headway:

There is mounting agreement on rewarding tropical countries which slow deforestation under a new deal. This is the first issue where significant progress has been made in Copenhagen.

Rie Jerichow 15/12/2009 16:00

Negotiators in Copenhagen have made progress on two key issues for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation – also known as REDD – a forest policy group reports, according to mongabay.com.

"We needed two critical pieces of text to catapult into a world where developing nations could see real value for saving tropical forests," says John O. Niles, Director of the Tropical Forest Group.

Tea Action

Today was our last chance for a Kenyan youth action. We presented the party delegates with a small gift, a sachet with a tea bag. It had the following inscription:

Dear Delegate,

We are the Youth from Kenya. Please accept this small token of our appreciation and trust as you negotiate our future. And please don't let us down.

Tea grows in the Kenyan highlands. An increase in global temperature of 2 degrees celsius or more will render the fertile highlands of Kenya, and the valuable tea and coffee industries with them, desolate. We are already seeing these areas changing beyond belief. Please make sure this is not the last tea you see from Kenya!

Of course its about more than tea, its about our survival.

With hope,

The Youth of Kenya

"a very impressive group of youth activists"

Last week we were fortunate to have an interview with Nate Silver, an influential US blogger.

Grace, Kyle (from SustainUS) and me, sat down with him for about an hour, and discussed everything from REDD, to Obama's impact in Kenya, to the unity of the international youth movement.

We get a mention in his latest post, so check it out!

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/12/countries-most-vulnerable-to-climate.html

5 steps forward 10 steps backwards....

....What is the Prime Minister of Ethiopia doing?

Joint appeal of France and Ethiopia, representing Africa, for an ambitious Copenhagen Accord

http://www.elysee.fr/documents/index.php?lang=fr&mode=view&cat_id=1&press_id=3195

First day of NGO restrictions

The secretariat has cut down on NGO badges today. Queue's outside are apparently over five hours long, and if you still haven't been accredited the message is pretty clear - don't bother.

Is it undemocratic? Climate Justice Action is organising a walk out on Wednesday and the major NGO's (Friends of the Earth etc) are sending round a petition. Temper's are running pretty short at the moment, especially since some delegations are reporting that badges were misallocated and handed out to the wrong people, leaving entire groups without any delegates inside the Bella Centre.

10 Billion Trees for the planet

How many trees have you planted? Did you know that trees provide a cheap, politically correct, achievable solution to climate change? In our basic primary school science, our teachers told us that trees breath in carbon dioxide and breath out oxygen. Though we have deepened our scientific understanding of this process, the then amazing sounding facts remain true today as they were then.

To safeguard this significant ecologically role of the trees, our very own Nobel Laureate, Prof Wangari Maathai, joined over 400 danish school children on a winter tree planting event a couple of kilometers from the Bella Centre in Copenhagen where climate change negotiations are going on. In total, about 2,000 native tree seedling were planted.

We are the World's Hope - Scientifically! (Waiganjo meets Dr. Pachari!)

That the climate is changing is indisputable. The changes and effects thereof are projected to intensify in severity and magnitude; not withstanding that there are doubting Thomases who still hold contrary beliefs. This was shared with us by Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) when he spoke to over 100 global youth here at Bella Centre in Copenhagen Denmark.

The discussion was particularly important as it served to strengthen youth's resolve to continually urge world leaders to agree on a legally binding, fair and equitable deal despite the apparent lack of commitment from our leaders especially from the developing countries.
Dr. Pachauri reminded the youth that they are not only the world's only hope in this debate but they will be most impacted on by climate change. ' Though now a cliche, I dare say that you will be most affected by climate change as opposed to the old folks who are currently negotiating' Said Dr. Pachauri amid wild cheers from the youth.

Climate March on Saturday

On Saturday we joined 100,000 people who marched on the Bella Centre to protest the lack of action and urgency shown by the world's leaders.

We entertained the Danish crowd with our renditions of "Haki Yetu", "Jambo Bwana" and the national anthem, and did our best to fight the cold (not all of us had Ruel's sense to bring a Maasai blanket!).

The biggest success was our giant sail (see below). People really loved it, although we really did not mean that tourists should stop coming on Kenyan safaris!

Young and Future Generations Day

Members of the International Youth Movement create a storm inside Bella center using their bodies to stand in solidarity with Africa and vulnerable nations to declare: "We will not die quietly"

All over Bella Center for the Young and Future Generations Day on Thursday youth from all over the world wore orange shirts saying "How old will you be in 2050?". The shirts were a really powerful message of the solidarity and growing recognition towards the youth movement.


(Pictures courtesy of Robert vanWaarden)

African CSO meets the COP presidency.

On Saturday morning, before the climate march in the city of Copenhagen in Denmark, the African civil society had a closed door meeting with COP President.
The Africa Civil Society categorically stated to them that a political deal is unacceptable and that we would rather have no deal.

The COP presidency may not want the embarrassment of not delivering a deal...but not to the extent that it would offer a deal that would ensure the survival of the most vulnerable people.

Climate Justice FAST: Stories from the Conference of Youth last weekend

In the opening ceremony three people were introduced to us; all three of them were part of a project called ‘Climate Justice Fast’ and had been fasting since the Barcelona talks: this was their 30^th day. Later on, one of the three, Sara, was in my ‘open space’ discussion group. We asked Sara to tell her story, and despite her modest reluctance, she agreed to.

Together with a few other people Sara had travelled overland from the TUNZA conference in South Korea in August to the intercessional talks in Bangkok in September. From Bangkok they travelled over land to the next intercessional talks in Barcelona by November, where she started her fast, and finally travelled here to Copenhagen. It took a lot of time, but all along the way they met with youth activists, sharing stories and inspiration. Sara is continuing to fast now and today is her 35th day of fasting. The fast will end on the last day of the Copenhagen talks.

Later on, to finalise the session, we went around the circle of ten or so people, and each person shared a few words on why they were here, and what inspired them in their work. There were a few that were particularly memorable, such as Sara's. She talked about her childhood; how she had been raised to always be very appreciative of nature and would make jam from wild berries, collect mushrooms…she got so much from nature. One day when she was five it was snowing and she made a snowball. She wanted to eat it, and was putting it to her mouth when her aunt stopped her and threw the snowball onto the ground. They had just learned in school that snow was only very cold water, so she was confused about why she couldn’t eat the snow. Her aunt explained that it was because all the cars nearby made it poisonous to eat. So she decided to work to change things so that one day it would be safe for her own children to eat snow. As the years went by she realised there might not even be any snow left for her children to eat.

The Fourteen Days of Copenhagen

The youth forest group brought some much needed Christmas cheer to the REDD negotiations.

I'll spare you the first 13 stanzas, but sing it to the tune of "12 Days of Christmas"...

On the LAST day in Denmark

the UN gave to me

Pathetic little targets

No demand side measures

Ecosystems crashing

Palm-oil a-flowing

Emissions a-leaping

No Indigenous rights

Peat lands a-draining

Endangered species

Forests converted ... [pause]

Craaaap MRV

Too much fossil fuels

Trees chain sawed

No strings attached

And a big fat logging subsidy!

Modrine gets exclusive on German TV

Modrine, one of our Kenyan delegates had a German TV crew shadow his day!

Watch at:

http://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/video/video618394-interactive.html

Its about 1:23 minutes in.

A Kenyan Youth (Ruel) at the Civil Society Protest March inside Bella Centre

Kenyan Youth meet their Prime Minister on Climate Change

The Kenyan Youth today met the Kenyan Prime Minister during the Kenyan Delegation Meeting where Kenyans attending the climate talks were all gathered. We had an opportunity to pose for photographs at the end of the meeting and tell him what the youth we were doing her. He promised to support our actions and our push to have a fair and legally binding deal.

Nate Silver from FiveThirtyEight on the Africa Action!

To all our american readers:

"Yesterday, there was an "action" -- a vocal protest in the convention hall itself -- organized by a loosely-knit coalition of African states, youth groups, and NGOs. The protest was centered around the idea that a carbon target which permits the earth's temperature to rise by 2 degrees Celsius -- the figure that the developed nations are expected to converge upon -- would be insufficient to meet Africa's concerns. Today, there was a similar action oriented around the tiny, low-lying island nation of Tuvalu, whose very survival may depend on more ambitious temperature targets. Further actions and protests, particularly as organized by youth groups, are planned for days ahead -- and others will follow spontaneously."

Read the full article:

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/12/despite-protests-some-reasons-for.html

P.s. meeting him in person was awesome!

Road to Copenhagen Youth action in preparation to deliver petions to embasy

This is of Kenya youth action on route to copenhagen...... preparing to deliver petitions to six embassies in Kenya.. the USA, Sweden, Denmark, Algeria, Libya, Ethiopia..

The action was a success .... Kenya youths are amazing click here to see the video link.... the music is amazing done by jhikko..

Getting hot and bothered about REDD

Its only the third day of the negotiations and we're already at D-Day for a critical policy within the negotiating text. REDD: Reducing Emmissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries, is important because it is one of the few texts that we think may actually get passed into something substantive before the end of the two weeks. What exactly in the text will be passed remains to be seen after today. The chief negotiators went into a closed meeting room today at 3pm, and this is what we as the youth hope they will make sure is included in the REDD text:

REDD must:

• Protect intact natural forests
• Restore degraded natural forests
• Support indigenous peoples and local communities 
• Work through a fair and substantial funding mechanism.

Maasai Jump action during the COY

This is a solidarity jump by Kenyan youth in Copenhagen... although its actually a Mexican youth doing the jump real good and high

Working together...

Just a quick snapshot on the daily meetings we have as the African Youth. It truly is a tremendous thing to have over 60 youth from across the continent with the representation that we have: Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Nigeria, South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, Ghana, Togo, Burundi, Sudan, Algeria, Morocco....the list continues. So many youth, from so many different countries. This voice, when united, is very powerful, and an important one to be heard. Let us an inherit an Africa and an Earth that will be liveable.

HAKI YETU in Copenhagen

For those who want more information on the dramatic action of the African youth and civil society yesterday, check out these links:

The now infamous Danish text: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/08/copenhagen-climate-change

Photos: http://www.demotix.com/news/protestors-storm-cop15-hall-protest-leaked-demo

350.org's African Media Coordinator on the action: http://adamwelz.wordpress.com/

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a21iY_PCiQE

More commentary from 350, and a short video: http://www.350.org/about/blogs/african-leaders-shed-tears-and-protest-political-deal

Video of yesterday's protest

"One Africa. One Degree!" Spontaneous action takes delegates by storm

"One Africa. One Degree"

Speaking truth to power!

Update: Looks like we managed some press coverage!

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30341_Page2.html

South-South, COY 5 and a whole bunch of Kenyans!

Karibuni, Welcome, Everybody to the blog for the Kenyan youth team in Copenhagen this December! Please read on for a quick update on how the negotiations are going for us so far…

Well, after many months of hard work, fundraising and preparing for this big event, here we are! We already have a large team of Kenyans, the largest of any African country, and more still to come. From just 4 youth from all of Africa last year at Poznan, its great to already have twelve youth just from Kenya. Here in Copenhagen at the moment we have Ruel, Winnie, Papa, Waiganjo, Megh, Modrine, Bruno, Stephen, Grace, Kevin, Sylvia and Maya (with several more friends still to come!)

We started off on Friday the 3rd with the Conference of Youth from the Global South. It was great to finally meet all our Latin American, Asian and African counterparts for the first time after so many months of organisation and communication over skype and email. An important part of the day´s discussions was trust-building and strategy, both necessary if we are to successfully take the interests of the youth of the south to higher platforms.

On Saturday and Sunday many of us attended the 5th Conference of Youth. This was a momentous occasion, the largest Conference of Youth on climate so far, with over 1000 youth. So much was gained from the exchange and networking that this conference brough: more stories from the weekend to come! (watch this space)

And now we’re on the second day of negotiations. There is a huge amount of ground-breaking stuff going on so please visit this site again, we’ll be giving regular updates!