Photo: Magical Kenya

 

Kenya celebrated the upcoming marriage of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, who became engaged at a lodge near Mount Kenya in October last year, with gifts of Kenyan roses for London commuters on Friday.

In anticipation of the April 29 royal wedding, a group of Maasai warriors – members of one of Kenya’s most well-known tribes – donned traditional dress to hand out 13,000 hand-picked roses from Flamingo Farm in Naivasha, Kenya to commuters at several London underground stations.

Kenya Tourist Board partnered with the Kenya Flower Council and the Maasai Arts Organization to organize the surprise event. Kenya Tourist Board’s regional marketing manager, Jacinta Nzioka, said, “We are delighted to bring a taste of Kenya to London commuters and brighten their day with a Kenyan rose.”

“Kenya Tourist Board would also like to wish Prince William and his future royal bride the very best for their special day,” Nzioka added.

By Anjali Reddy – This material is distributed by Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter & Associates on behalf of the Office of the President of the Republic of Kenya.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Community-based adaptation in action

Photo: Peter Murimi/IRIN

Sujit Kumar Mondal and his wife Rupashi Mondal of Gopalgonj district in southern Bangladesh working in their floating garden

JOHANNESBURG, 26 April 2011 (IRIN) –  Nepal has become one of the first countries to consider scaling up community-based adaptation (CBA) to climate change and making it part of national development policy.

Nepal is vulnerable to rising global temperatures and has already been dealing with the impact of erratic rainfall, frequent droughts and floods, which have been affecting food security. In response the country decided to experiment with a bottom-up approach using Local Adaptation Plans of Action, or LAPAs, in 10 districts across the country in 2010.

In a joint paper on local adaptation plans, Bimal Raj Regmi, a researcher, and Gyanendra Karki, a government official, said the idea of drawing up LAPAs came out of the National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPA) process.

They noted that Nepal, as one of the last of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to develop its NAPA, was able to incorporate elements omitted from the adaptation plans of other countries.

These include better links to climate change planning processes and mainstreaming national adaptation goals down to the local level, so that the NAPA process moved beyond regional and national consultation to include the input of vulnerable communities in the LAPAs.

The LAPAs are developed by people from various sectors in a village or district who identify local climate risks, vulnerability and needs, and focus on increasing resilience based on the geographical location and assessments made by the community using their knowledge of the local environment.

“This is particularly critical because if communities are unable to distinguish climate change risks from other risks they face, then efforts to develop adaptive capacity might become unfocused or ineffective,” said Regmi and Karki.

Nepal’s approach and pilot programme were cited at the recent fifth International Conference on Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change in Bangladesh, which discussed scaling up CBA.

Two ways to scale-up

Saleemul Huq, a senior fellow of the International Institute for Environment and Development, a UK-based policy think-tank, which organized the conference, said there were two ways to scale-up: vertical – up the policy chain from the community level to higher levels of decision-making as in the case of Nepal; and horizontal – by replicating projects or initiatives thousands or even hundreds of thousands of times.

Communities have been adapting to climate variability for centuries, sometimes using home-grown and sustainable methods. These measures are known as “autonomous adaptation”.

In flood-prone southern Bangladesh, communities grow food on floating islands made of paddy straw and water hyacinth in the waterlogged fields.

On the edge of the Sahara, people bury staple grains in storage pits in the ground to eat in times of drought, while in other areas traditionally nomadic pastoralists are adopting a partially sedentary lifestyle as the spreading desert wipes out grassland.

NGOs have developed a number of CBA initiatives, all still in the pilot phase, but Huq noted that “quite a few NGOs like Oxfam have begun to scale up their pilots”.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has launched pilot CBA projects in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.

Huq, who is part of the academic team working on the Fifth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said inputs from the conference would inform the adaptation chapters of the assessment to be published in 2014.

African countries focused on bottom-up approaches and scaling up community-led responses to adaptation at the recent AfricaAdapt symposium held in Ethiopia.

“With up to 40 million pastoralists across the African region, each pastoralist has to be an innovator to some degree to adapt to climate variability,” Fatema Rajabali, the climate editor of Eldis, an online knowledge service provided by the Sussex-based Institute of Development Studies, reported.

At the symposium, Yohannes GebreMichael of the Addis Ababa University “asserted that local innovation needs to be recognized, as it provides an entry point for communities with a bottom-up approach to support climate change adaptation, starting with local capacities and ideas”.

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If not, then he should not stay in Kenya a minute longer, after he is replaced as ambassador in the coming days.

Mr Ranneberger, the outgoing US ambassador to Kenya has been quoted by the Kenyan Media stating his strongest wish to remain in Kenya after he is removed as the Ambassador in the coming days. He does not want to go back home to his country.

This man is unwanted by many Kenyan leaders. He has banned many Kenyans from entering the US by denying them visas and now he wants to stay in Kenya longer than he is supposed to. What a shame! Banning many Kenyan leaders from entering his country was something he enjoyed while playing a small God in the country.

Now the same man does not even love his own country and wants to stay in Kenya? It is disgusting! He should pack his suitcases and leave immediately his term is over in the coming days.

Kenyan leaders should not forget the leaked cables that this man has been writing – writing bad things about the leaders and sending to the US.

It is a known fact that he is a miserable man now because he wanted to remain as ambassador until President Obama visits Kenya. If Obama visits Kenya in the future, this man wants to be seen with him, a thing that he now wants to do through the back door, by retiring and remaining in the country.

He knows that when he now returns to the US, he will no longer fool anybody. In Kenya, he has been running around the country dancing and acting like a senior chief addressing his people.

He has been highlighted by Kenyan media in everything he does in the country. He knows when he returns to the US, that it is the end of his media limelight. He will not even be noticed by his countrymen/women when he works on the streets in his country.

Or does he want to remain as a CIA agent in Kenya, while fooling the Kenyans that he is in retirement?

Kenyans should celebrate his exit.

By Korir, Chief editor, API

Analysis: Conflict leads to Afghan displacement, but which side most to blame?

Photo: ISAF Media/Flickr

US forces in Afghanistan – “tactical victories may prove to be strategic setbacks”

KABUL, 21 April 2011 (IRIN) – One irony of the current security situation in Afghanistan is that foreign forces, whose ostensible aim is to protect civilians while fighting the Taliban, may be responsible – directly or indirectly – for the bulk of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the country, whose number is rising.

About 400 individuals were displaced each day in 2006-2010 – 730,000 in total – mostly due to military operations by US/NATO forces, according to the Oslo-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC), an affiliate of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

The so-called “surge” in US/NATO troops and increased counterinsurgency operations in 2010 resulted in the displacement of about 85,000 people in the volatile south of the country alone. About 10,000 were also displaced by anti-insurgent offensives in the north, IDMC said.

“The US and ISAF [NATO-led International Security Assistance Force] currently lack an understanding of internal displacement in the context of their operations,” Jacob Rothing, an IDMC country analyst, told IRIN, adding that their own standard operating procedures to minimize civilian displacement were not developed and used by US/NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Furthermore, local militias hired by the government and its US/NATO allies for counterinsurgency purposes, were extorting communities and grabbing land, resulting in further internal displacements, Rothing alleged.

ISAF said it could not “agree or disagree” with the allegation that forces under its command were responsible for most of the civilian displacements in Afghanistan.

“We have not seen the means by which the causes of conflict-related displacements are assigned,” said John L. Dorrian, an ISAF spokesman.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said it was not in a position to say which warring party was most to blame for most internal displacement.

“We can certainly say that people are mostly displaced by conflict – all fighting parties have to be blamed,” said Nader Farhad, a UNHCR spokesman in Kabul.

ISAF, meanwhile, said that its counterinsurgency (COIN) campaign was focused on the protection of civilians.

Casualties

“The clear principle that Gen David Petraeus [commander of all US/NATO forces in Afghanistan] has conveyed to ISAF troops is that civilian casualties and collateral damage are detrimental to ISAF’s cause,” John L. Dorrian, a NATO/ISAF spokesman in Kabul, told IRIN, adding that if troops operated contrary to the COIN principles “tactical victories may prove to be strategic setbacks”.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) reported in March that civilian casualties attributed to foreign forces dropped by 26 percent in 2010 compared to the previous year, but the number of noncombatants killed and wounded by armed opposition groups increased by 28 percent in the same period. Over 2,770 Afghan civilians were killed in 2010, UNAMA said.

While US and ISAF forces made successful efforts in 2010 to minimize civilian casualties and loss of life, they have not made equivalent efforts to reduce the scale of forced internal displacement, despite its scale and the demonstrated impact of displacement on support for international forces

However, the Taliban rejected UNAMA’s report, calling it “biased”.

“While US and ISAF forces made successful efforts in 2010 to minimize civilian casualties and loss of life, they have not made equivalent efforts to reduce the scale of forced internal displacement, despite its scale and the demonstrated impact of displacement on support for international forces,” said an IDMC report released on 11 April.

Government’s weak capacity

Over one million people were displaced in 2002 after the Taliban regime was toppled by a US-led military intervention. Most of the Pashtun IDPs who had left their homes in the north of the country in 2001-2002 have either returned to their home areas or have been integrated elsewhere in the country, according to aid agencies.

However, with the intensification of conflict over the past five years, tens of thousands of people, mostly in the volatile south, have been forced out of their homes.

While international aid agencies have responded to some of the immediate needs of IDPs (mostly food and non-food aid items), the government has been criticized for its ineffectiveness in solving problems associated with displacement.

“The Afghan government is generally unable or unwilling to assist IDPs,” said the IDMC report.

Islamudin Jurat, a spokesman for the Ministry of Refugee and Returnee Affairs (MoRRA), agreed there was a lack of institutional capacity to provide long-term solutions to the growing internal displacement.

“MoRRA is part of the government and there are capacity weaknesses all across government. We don’t overlook this but we are committed to building and improving our capacity,” said Jurat.

More IDPs in 2011

More than 390,000 IDPs are currently scattered across the country, mostly in makeshift camps and informal settlements, according to UNHCR, which also says the real number of IDPs could be significantly higher as it does not have access to all of them.

About 49 percent of IDPs are female and 51 percent are male. Fifty-four percent are under 18 and fewer than 2 percent are over 60, according to IDMC.

Despite the unprecedented US/NATO military presence (over 150,000 soldiers), insecurity is widely anticipated to exacerbate in 2011 with more tragic consequences for civilians.

“The IDMC expects displacements to rise in 2011 in comparison to 2010,” said Jacob Rothing, adding that 78,000 people were displaced between September 2010 and January 2011 compared to only 18,000 in the five preceding months.

“Displacement is already increasing in the north,” he said.

Other humanitarian agencies such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have also warned that the security situation has become “untenable” for civilians.

“The first two months of 2011 have seen a dramatic deterioration in the security situation for ordinary Afghans,” ICRC said on 15 March.

To reduce civilian displacements, IDMC said, US/NATO forces should abide by their own standard operating procedures to protect civilians “before, during and after” military operations and develop appropriate monitoring and reporting mechanisms on forced displacements.

“We would strongly encourage the military leadership to develop such guidelines in consultation with UNHCR, IDPs and other competent organizations,” said IDMC’s Rothing.

NATO/ISAF said it was providing “an enormous amount of humanitarian aid” to Afghans – almost 500,000 beneficiaries in the first quarter of 2011.

Aid agencies, however, contend that in terms of humanitarian response they come first, and that NATO/ISAF’s best help would be to avoid or at least minimize civilian displacements as a result of their military activities.

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FOOD: Home-grown nutrition research for Africa

Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN

A more suitable choice of nutrition intervention in the offing?

JOHANNESBURG, 21 April 2011 (IRIN) – A group of international academic institutions and an NGO backed by the European Union (EU) have launched Sustainable Nutrition Research for Africa in the Years to come, or SUNRAY, to develop a nutrition agenda for Africa, with specific emphasis on the 34 sub-Saharan countries.

“We want to make sure nutrition interventions in the next 10-15 years – when Africa faces potential environmental changes which will impact on nutrition – are sustainable, driven by African countries, and their priorities are not pre-defined by donors,” said Carl Lachat, a researcher at the Belgium-based Institute for Tropical Medicine, one of the participating institutions.

A recent study by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), a US-based think-tank, found that in another two decades the effect of climate change on food production could drive child malnutrition up by 20 percent.

The two-year SUNRAY project has invited proposals for working papers from African researchers to review the relationship between nutrition and climate change; the influence of rising food prices; the future availability of water; social dynamics in households, and the effect of rapid urbanization, among other themes in order to identify the specific research needs for nutrition in these areas.

Research in Africa

Proposals for working papers will be assessed by academics at four universities in sub-Saharan Africa: North-West University in South Africa; Sokoine University in Tanzania; the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin; and Makerere University in Uganda.

“South Africa plays in a different league in terms of research when compared to the rest of Africa, but our research is more influenced by Western concepts, so if you are to look at good home-grown research pertaining to local foodstuffs, Nigeria and Kenya are a lot more advanced,” said Prof Annamarie Kruger, director of the Africa Unit for Transdisciplinary Health Research at North-West University.

We now have an opportunity to develop interventions suited for African conditions and we have a say in our agenda … it is not like we are doing research for European driven projects

“This project is very attractive in the sense that we now have an opportunity to develop interventions suited for African conditions and we have a say in our agenda; we also know the gaps that need to be addressed – it is not like we are doing research for European driven projects.”

Lachat pointed out that the backing of the EU meant rich countries are calling for African involvement in setting the priorities for nutrition research and funding.

Proposals for the project are being accepted by 22 April, with the first of a series of workshops with the authors being held later in 2011.

Ahead of the workshops, the collaborating institutions intend holding discussions with nutritionists, researchers, businesspeople in the food sector, and policy makers in seven African countries – Benin, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, Togo and Tanzania.

Lachat said they realized that political backing was critical to ensure the research made the journey from paper to the real world, so “we are involving African political leaders in the initiative.”

The project will produce a roadmap document summarising research priorities, strengths and gaps, resource requirements, opportunities for linkage and support between African and Northern institutions, or synergies between existing initiatives and research in other sectors.

Only nine of the 46 countries in sub-Saharan Africa are on track to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goal to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.

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EASTERN AFRICA: Consumers, traders feel the burn as prices skyrocket

Photo: Philippa Croome/IRIN

A man rushes a baby away from teargas in Kasangati, a suburb of Kampala, Uganda during “Walk to Work” protests over the high cost of living

NAIROBI, 21 April 2011 (IRIN) – Low- and middle-income earners across eastern and central Africa are reeling from the mounting cost of living brought on by a sharp increase in commodity prices in the past few months.

Protests and demonstrations against the rising cost of food and fuel have swept across several towns in Kenya and Uganda; violent clashes between demonstrators and security forces have been reported on several occasions in Uganda. At least four Ugandans have been killed in countrywide demonstrations, while hundreds have been arrested and several hospitalized with gunshot wounds and the effects of teargas.

On 21 April, IRIN interviewed a cross-section of citizens in six countries in the Horn of Africa, East Africa and Great Lakes regions about the impact of the price increases on their lives.

Uganda

Robinnah Nakuya, a charcoal vendor in a Kampala market, said: “A bag of charcoal, which I used to buy at 15,000 shillings [about US$6], is now 30,000 shillings [$12]. I am a single mother of three children and I must feed them. Let the government reduce prices so that we can afford them. We cannot afford salt and soap because prices have gone up.”

According to a recent World Bank report, the wholesale price of maize in Uganda has risen by 114 percent over the past year.

On 21 April, former Ugandan presidential candidate Kizza Besigye was arrested for a “walk to work” protest against high prices, having been shot in the hand on 14 April after a standoff with police and the army, surrounded by hundreds of protesters.

The Ugandan government has banned the demonstrations, with President Yoweri Museveni saying drought and external oil prices were beyond government control and that rising food prices were good for farmers as they could earn more.

Kenya

In Kenya, despite an announcement by Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta on 18 April that the government had reduced taxes on diesel and kerosene, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of several major towns on 19 April.

Earnest Mogire, a trader at Wakulima wholesale market in Nakuru, a large town in the Rift Valley province, told IRIN his customers were reluctant to buy the cabbages he had just offloaded because of the new high prices.

“Transporting the produce from farms has become too expensive, forcing me to adjust my selling prices,” Mogire said. “In January, it used to cost me between KSh12,000 [$150] and KSh13,000 [$163] to transport the produce from Nyeri [in central Kenya], my main source. But the price has since risen to between KSh17,000 [$213) and KSh18,000 [$225], forcing me to pass on the burden to my customers.”

Mary Karanja, a resident of Kaptembwa slums near Nakuru town, told IRIN she no longer used public transport to commute from the slum to Nakuru town where she works as an office cleaner.

“In November 2010, the fare to the office was KSh20 [$0.16] but it has since escalated to KSh30 [$0.38] which I find too expensive,” Karanja said. “I earn 4,000 shillings [$50] per month and KSh1,560 [$19.50] would be too much for transport yet I still have to pay rent and feed my two children.”

In the coastal town of Mombasa, retailers have raised the prices of many commodities, especially foodstuffs such as maize flour, cooking oil and vegetables.

Goods in many shops and markets have gone up by at least KSh10 [$0.10] in the past week. A 2kg packet of maize flour, for instance, sold for KSh80 [$0.96] last week but is now KSh90 [$1.08].

Transport firms in most parts of Coast Province have also doubled their prices, with owners blaming the government for the high costs of fuel.

“Fuel is a big expenditure in the transport sector and as such, any increase in the price, even if it goes up by a shilling, really affects us,” Ahmed Bwanamaka, who operates a three-wheeler taxi, known as a tuk-tuk, said. “The current situation has slashed our revenue by half; we now spend more on fuel than before.”

The executive director of the Federation of Kenya Employers, Jacqueline Mugo, said: “Skyrocketing fuel and food prices have made Kenyans suffer; urgent measures need to be taken to avoid social unrest.

“We plead with the government to take action to be able to stop the escalating prices. The uprising in the Middle East should not be used as a tool to increase the pump prices.”

Somalia

In Somalia, consumers say the price of food is rising by the day.

Abdiwahiid, a retail trader at Bakara market in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, told IRIN food prices had drastically risen in the past two weeks and were still going up.

“Two weeks ago, I was selling 1kg of sugar at 27,000 Somali shillings [$0.90]; today I am selling it for 32,000 [$1.06].”

He said 1kg of rice was selling for 17,000 shillings [$0.56] two weeks ago but was now 24,000 [$0.80], while a litre of cooking oil had risen from 36,000 shillings [$1.20] to 50,000 shillings [$1.66].

“Everything seems to be going up,” Abdiwahiid said. “I have fewer customers than I used to and they are buying less because they cannot afford it.”

Abdillahi Omar, a taxi driver in Hargeisa, capital of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland in Somalia’s northwest, said fuel prices were way out of reach for many people.

“I used to buy 20 litres of fuel for $15 a week ago, today I paid $18.50,” Omar said, adding that the price went up three days ago.

However, taxis in the city had not increased their rates. “We are waiting for the co-operative to discuss and give us guidance.”

Photo: Zahra Moloo/IRIN

A man carries a spoon during protests in Nairobi against rising food and fuel prices

Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, memories of 2008, when the country’s cost of living was second only to then hyper-inflated Zimbabwe, are returning to many residents of the capital, Addis Ababa.

Headlines of local newspapers at the weekend all had a common theme: rising inflation.

“The things we pay for daily, like sugar, [cooking] oil and transportation costs have increased dramatically in the last two, three months; I don’t know how we will be able to survive if it keeps this way,” Etifwork Nigatu, a city resident, who makes 570 Ethiopian birr a month [$34], said.

Etifwork, a mother of one, told IRIN she and her husband, who makes 2,000 birr [$120] a month, spend half their income on food while 600 birr [$36] goes to house rent. The money they spend on food has increased, leaving them short of money for other expenses, such as water and energy for cooking.

“The prices of other commodities have skyrocketed; for example, edible oil used to be 28 birr [$1.67] a litre two months ago, now you only find it for double that price,” Etifwork said.

According to the 6 April consumer price indices of Ethiopia’s Central Statistical Agency (CSA), the country’s overall inflation rate stood at 25 percent in March, up from 16.5 percent in the same month in 2010.

The CSA said while non-food inflation rose to 24.3 percent from 22.0 percent in the same period last year, the food inflation rate showed the largest jump in more than two years, to 25.5 percent in March from 12.8 percent in February. 

To attract exports, Ethiopia devalued its currency in September 2010 by almost 17 percent, leading to a sharp increase in the price of imported goods, particularly fuel.

In an attempt to pre-empt increasing costs, Ethiopia’s trade ministry has, since 6 January, put price controls on various items, including major foodstuffs. However, analysts say the move has proved ineffective; since the beginning of April, state enterprises have started to import food items such as sugar, cooking oil and flour for citizens who can be seen queuing outside shops.

Burundi

In Burundi, fuel and food prices have nearly doubled in the past three months.

Jamila Manirambona, who lives in Buterere – one of the poorer suburbs of Bujumbura, the capital – hawks pancakes at a market in the city centre. She walks around the shops and stalls selling the pancakes to traders for 200 Burundian francs [$0.16] in a bid to feed, clothe and educate her two children.

“Previously, I could easily sell 150 pancakes per day and would return home as early as midday having sold all I had. Nowadays, even when I have only 75 pancakes, they rarely sell out,” Manirambona told IRIN. “I spend the whole day going around the stalls. Some customers tell me to give them the pancakes on credit and that they will pay later. At the end of the day, I end up with nothing, sometimes with 7,000 francs [$5.80].”

Photo: UNDP

The Horn of Africa is experiencing severe drought

Manirambona blames the poor purchasing power of her customers, aggravated by high food prices.

“In March, I could buy maize flour for 1,100 francs [$0.90] per kilo, now I need 1,500 [$1.23] francs to buy the same amount of maize flour. There is no other way out except to increase the price of my pancakes but I wonder who will buy them from me?”

Ngendakumana Nunu, who sells rice and beans in Bujumbura’s main market, said if the prices continued to rise she would have to close shop.

Rice imported from Tanzania was sold in March for 1,200 francs [$1] but is now trading at Fr1,400 [$1.15]. A local rice variety sold at Fr1,200 [$1] in March but is now Fr1,300 [$1.07].

Drought and the impact of the La Niña weather phenomenon have adversely affected Burundi’s food security, leading to shortages of foodstuffs such as bananas, the country’s staple.

Also affected is the country’s transport sector. Olivier Ndayishimiye, a taxi driver in Bujumbura, told IRIN he was getting into disagreements more often with his boss over what he makes daily.

“In the evening, I bring him only 7,000 [$5.80] or 8,000 [$6.60], instead of the previous 15,000 [$12.40] but I see that he does not believe me; if he sees me circulating the whole day, he suspects me of cheating him out of the day’s earnings,” Ndayishimiye said. “Customers walk or take the bus when I tell them the taxi fare; others call us names, saying we are thieves trying to con them. Nowadays I spend most of the day just chatting with fellow taxi-drivers.”

Rwanda

Fidèle Karinijabo, a motorcycle taxi-driver in the capital, Kigali, told IRIN his client base had shrunk in the two weeks since the sharp increase in fuel prices.

“We are wondering why the government is so slow in revising prices for transportation,” Karinijabo said.

Agnes Mukanyarwaya, who sells farm produce in Nyabugogo market in a Kigali suburb said the price of many goods had almost doubled.

“There is a need to consider complaints from both consumers and sellers as most of the basic commodities such as cooking oil, sugar and rice are no longer affordable, compared to two months ago,” she said. “We now prefer to sell most commodities outside the market as street vendors, because there has not been any action from government to revise fuel prices downwards.”

Skyrocketing fuel and food prices have made Kenyans suffer; urgent measures need to be taken to avoid social unrest

The key, she said, was to come up with a compromise between the interests of vendors and consumers.

Rwanda’s National Institute of Statistics reported in April that prices for domestic products such as bread, cereals, vegetables and transport had gone up by an annual 4.11 percent in March, against 2.56 percent in February.

Consumers in Rwanda are grouped in different associations and, although they have managed to come together to some extent in specific advocacy, they are far from achieving a united front.

“We only blame these [consumer] associations for not being able to defend the interests of the general public when looking at the extent to which prices are being distorted by business operators at the market,” Sylvestre Ntakiyimana, a rice grower from Gasabo, a district of Kigali, said.

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