Friday, March 19, 2010
Friday, October 24, 2008
Marigat Community Information Volunteer
Hi People,
Welcome to Marigat Community Knowledge Centre(CKC).Iam at the CKC to assist you.I love working with the community and will be always there at your service.We facilitate and provide information on livelihood issues and train on use of various ICTs and provide free internet.
COME ALL!
Welcome to Marigat Community Knowledge Centre(CKC).Iam at the CKC to assist you.I love working with the community and will be always there at your service.We facilitate and provide information on livelihood issues and train on use of various ICTs and provide free internet.
COME ALL!
Marigat Connected!
Marigat Community enjoy using ICTs after ALIN established a Community Knowledge Center in February 07 which is fully equipped with ICTs,Internet and information materials.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Marigat CKC Profile
Marigat is a divisional headquarters within Baringo district of Rift valley province. It is situated 100km north of Nakuru and it is bordering East pokot district to the north, Koibatek District to the south, Mochongoi division to the east, Kabarnet division to the west and Mukutani division to the northeast. The division covers approximately 1244 km2.
Administratively the division is divided into 11 locations with a total of 25 sub locations. The population of Marigat is approximately 54,000 people.
Socio-cultural and political environment of region surrounding CKCs
The Marigat community
Marigat is inhabited mainly by agro-pastoralists who include the Tugens, Pokots, Turkanas and the Njemps community who occupy an island in Lake Baringo.
Religious believes and practices.
Religion is appreciated as a source of strength and provides direction and care givers in bringing up children. The dominant religion is Christianity and this is evidence by the dominant protestant and catholic churches in the area. Islam is also present in the peri-urban.
Traditional values and believes
Female circumcision has been practiced for many years as a rite of passage by different communities in the area. The age brackets for circumcision vary from community to another one. In others it is done as young as 9year while in others it is done at12 years and above.
Children are supposed to obey the adults in both positive and negative, as it provides some social sanctions that guides the relationship of the two age divides, however some adults have misused this to their advantage and ended up being abusive.
The gender role
Each community has defined role that boys and girls, men and women, are required to perform. However girls and women have more roles than boys and men.
Literacy and education of region surrounding CKCs
There are 6 secondary schools and about 40 primary schools in the two divisions of Marigat and mukutani. All the secondary schools admit both boys and girls. There is one primary school with both facilities for the blind and sighted children. A big population in the area is either illiterate or semi literate especially in the age set of 40 years and above. Those below the age of 30 have at least attained primary school level education. However many girls drop out of school because of the cultural believes and practice like FGM and early marriages. Those who have attained university education are countable.
Economic environment of surrounding area
Socio- economics:
Semi-nomadic livestock rearing is the main economic activity of the community, though there is an increasing interest in crop production to augment the family food supply.
The rangelands on which the livestock and the community depend are denuded and seriously eroded.
In many years the region has been unable to support adequately the livestock population; thus the existing livestock population however is unable to meet the full subsistence needs of the people. The situation has in the recent past been exacerbated by the invasion of a tree species called Prosopis juliflora in the area. This is an exotic tree shrub that was introduced as a conservation measure to roll back land degradation. The area is characterized with the few wealthy households controlling the highest percentage of recourses. In areas with irrigation schemes, more wealthy households have access to the largest plots.
Technological environment of area surrounding CKC
The area is served with grid electricity supply and telephone lines. In terms of mobile phone networks, Marigat enjoys both safaricom and celtel wireless networks. There is no Internet center in the area except in Nakuru or Kabarnet (100 km and 40km respectively). ALIN has come in handy to improve the level of technological awareness and easy of communication by the use of wireless network to access the internet.
Marigat community receives a wide range of radio stations and fewer television channels as shown below.
Name of Station Television Radio Comments
1 Kenya Broadcasting Station (KBC) X X Very clear
2 Citizen X X Very clear
3 KASS FM - X Clear and very popular
4 Chamgei FM - X -
5 Jesus is Lord FM - X -
6 British Broadcasting Corporation X X -
Marigat receives the two major daily news papers: Nation and The Standard. The Marigat postal office is operational and equipped with a V-SAT and two computers, but the internet services are no longer in use due to some technical problems.
Safaricom has introduced the wireless money transfer and banking system popularly known as M-Pesa. This has greatly made it easy for people to send and receive money as well as providing other communication services.
Demographic profile region/ province of CKCs
Population:
The population density is low, about 28 persons per sq.m with a total population of 34,433 persons (1999 census).
Soils:
Mainly clay loams with alluvial deposits in the irrigation schemes; sometimes deep and poorly drained. Also despicable are surface stones, boulders, and stratification near the escarpments and hilly areas. The Njemps flats and other low marshy areas soils with sodium content above the tolerant level which may cause the soils to disperse upon wetting thereby imbedding infiltration and percolation.
Generally, these soils are well supplied with bases like potassium, magnesium, and calcium with available phosphorus ranging from very high to deficient. Organic carbon is very low and so total nitrogen is also low to deficient.
The geographical/physical location of CKCs
In rift valley there are some spectacular features like hills, lakes and valleys. Marigat is famous for the hot springs and flamingoes of Lake Bogoria and the lake Baringo famous for bird watching, water surfing crocodiles and hippos.
Climate
In general, this area is hot and dry in most of the years. However in a good year it is wet and warm in April and May. However the dry conditions of June coincide with the harvesting of short season crops.
July-August experience mild wet and warm conditions with recurring hot and dry period between the months of September to mid March.
Temperatures
Temperatures vary from 30oC to 35oC and can rise to 37oC in some months. The monthly mean maximum temperature is usually 30oC; with mean minimum varying from 16- 18oC.
Rainfall/vegetation
Rainfall varies from one year to the other. But average annual rainfall is 650mm.
The vegetation and level of production are considerably poorer than would be expected from an area receiving an average rainfall of 650 mm. This phenomenon was quite feasible in the past than in the present. Though poor distribution rainfall and flush floods is partly the cause, these constraints are exacerbated by poor land management and excessive exploitation of natural resources leading to soil erosion, land denudation and further drop in productivity.
Altitude
Marigat, ranges from 1000m to over 1200m with Marigat town standing on 1065m above the sea level.
Administratively the division is divided into 11 locations with a total of 25 sub locations. The population of Marigat is approximately 54,000 people.
Socio-cultural and political environment of region surrounding CKCs
The Marigat community
Marigat is inhabited mainly by agro-pastoralists who include the Tugens, Pokots, Turkanas and the Njemps community who occupy an island in Lake Baringo.
Religious believes and practices.
Religion is appreciated as a source of strength and provides direction and care givers in bringing up children. The dominant religion is Christianity and this is evidence by the dominant protestant and catholic churches in the area. Islam is also present in the peri-urban.
Traditional values and believes
Female circumcision has been practiced for many years as a rite of passage by different communities in the area. The age brackets for circumcision vary from community to another one. In others it is done as young as 9year while in others it is done at12 years and above.
Children are supposed to obey the adults in both positive and negative, as it provides some social sanctions that guides the relationship of the two age divides, however some adults have misused this to their advantage and ended up being abusive.
The gender role
Each community has defined role that boys and girls, men and women, are required to perform. However girls and women have more roles than boys and men.
Literacy and education of region surrounding CKCs
There are 6 secondary schools and about 40 primary schools in the two divisions of Marigat and mukutani. All the secondary schools admit both boys and girls. There is one primary school with both facilities for the blind and sighted children. A big population in the area is either illiterate or semi literate especially in the age set of 40 years and above. Those below the age of 30 have at least attained primary school level education. However many girls drop out of school because of the cultural believes and practice like FGM and early marriages. Those who have attained university education are countable.
Economic environment of surrounding area
Socio- economics:
Semi-nomadic livestock rearing is the main economic activity of the community, though there is an increasing interest in crop production to augment the family food supply.
The rangelands on which the livestock and the community depend are denuded and seriously eroded.
In many years the region has been unable to support adequately the livestock population; thus the existing livestock population however is unable to meet the full subsistence needs of the people. The situation has in the recent past been exacerbated by the invasion of a tree species called Prosopis juliflora in the area. This is an exotic tree shrub that was introduced as a conservation measure to roll back land degradation. The area is characterized with the few wealthy households controlling the highest percentage of recourses. In areas with irrigation schemes, more wealthy households have access to the largest plots.
Technological environment of area surrounding CKC
The area is served with grid electricity supply and telephone lines. In terms of mobile phone networks, Marigat enjoys both safaricom and celtel wireless networks. There is no Internet center in the area except in Nakuru or Kabarnet (100 km and 40km respectively). ALIN has come in handy to improve the level of technological awareness and easy of communication by the use of wireless network to access the internet.
Marigat community receives a wide range of radio stations and fewer television channels as shown below.
Name of Station Television Radio Comments
1 Kenya Broadcasting Station (KBC) X X Very clear
2 Citizen X X Very clear
3 KASS FM - X Clear and very popular
4 Chamgei FM - X -
5 Jesus is Lord FM - X -
6 British Broadcasting Corporation X X -
Marigat receives the two major daily news papers: Nation and The Standard. The Marigat postal office is operational and equipped with a V-SAT and two computers, but the internet services are no longer in use due to some technical problems.
Safaricom has introduced the wireless money transfer and banking system popularly known as M-Pesa. This has greatly made it easy for people to send and receive money as well as providing other communication services.
Demographic profile region/ province of CKCs
Population:
The population density is low, about 28 persons per sq.m with a total population of 34,433 persons (1999 census).
Soils:
Mainly clay loams with alluvial deposits in the irrigation schemes; sometimes deep and poorly drained. Also despicable are surface stones, boulders, and stratification near the escarpments and hilly areas. The Njemps flats and other low marshy areas soils with sodium content above the tolerant level which may cause the soils to disperse upon wetting thereby imbedding infiltration and percolation.
Generally, these soils are well supplied with bases like potassium, magnesium, and calcium with available phosphorus ranging from very high to deficient. Organic carbon is very low and so total nitrogen is also low to deficient.
The geographical/physical location of CKCs
In rift valley there are some spectacular features like hills, lakes and valleys. Marigat is famous for the hot springs and flamingoes of Lake Bogoria and the lake Baringo famous for bird watching, water surfing crocodiles and hippos.
Climate
In general, this area is hot and dry in most of the years. However in a good year it is wet and warm in April and May. However the dry conditions of June coincide with the harvesting of short season crops.
July-August experience mild wet and warm conditions with recurring hot and dry period between the months of September to mid March.
Temperatures
Temperatures vary from 30oC to 35oC and can rise to 37oC in some months. The monthly mean maximum temperature is usually 30oC; with mean minimum varying from 16- 18oC.
Rainfall/vegetation
Rainfall varies from one year to the other. But average annual rainfall is 650mm.
The vegetation and level of production are considerably poorer than would be expected from an area receiving an average rainfall of 650 mm. This phenomenon was quite feasible in the past than in the present. Though poor distribution rainfall and flush floods is partly the cause, these constraints are exacerbated by poor land management and excessive exploitation of natural resources leading to soil erosion, land denudation and further drop in productivity.
Altitude
Marigat, ranges from 1000m to over 1200m with Marigat town standing on 1065m above the sea level.
ALIN established Marigat Community Knowledge Centrein February 2007.The centre was set up for local content generation, access of information on livelihood and use of ICTs. A Community information volunteer is based at Marigat and supports in content generation and dissemination. Marigat has a Community Information Volunteer and two Community Knowledge Facilitators and is fully equipped with ICTs and internet connectivity. Among the services offered at the CKC include;
• Information support on livelihood issues (Agriculture, Markets, Environment and HIV &AIDS.)
• Training on use of ICTs and Computers
• Internet services
• Printing services
• Photocopying services
• Scanning.
• Capacity building on documenting development approaches.
The area is arid thus pastoralism is the main source of livelihood. However, some locals practice farming through irrigation. The community has information gaps on market information for their livestock, information on environmental conservation and management and markets.
• Information support on livelihood issues (Agriculture, Markets, Environment and HIV &AIDS.)
• Training on use of ICTs and Computers
• Internet services
• Printing services
• Photocopying services
• Scanning.
• Capacity building on documenting development approaches.
The area is arid thus pastoralism is the main source of livelihood. However, some locals practice farming through irrigation. The community has information gaps on market information for their livestock, information on environmental conservation and management and markets.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)