"At least 71 people have been confirmed dead and 110 people are in hospital following #floods near the town of Mai Mahiu in Kenya’s north-western Nakuru county.
#Kenya has grappled with weeks of heavy rains and devastating flash floods. "
Residents sift through the rubble as they recover their belongings after the Nairobi river burst its banks and destroyed their homes within the Mathare Valley settlement in Nairobi, Kenya April 25, 2024. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi
In the last two decades alone, the African lion population is estimated to have decreased by over 40% and now occupies approximately 17% of its historical range.
However, in the Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem in Kenya, the story is different, with lions are roaring back thanks to unified efforts led by local communities, conservation organizations, and the Kenya Wildlife Service.
The African Baobab is a multipurpose, drought resistant, wild fruit tree, endemic to arid and semi-arid lands of Sub-Saharan Africa. Baobab populations have been showing a lack of regeneration, and therefore causes concern for the species survival.
The tree’s pulp has more protein than breast milk, more vitamin C than oranges, more magnesium than spinach, more iron than red meat and more potassium than a banana. It has become a popular additive in reinforced foods.
Researchers believe baobab has the potential to become a major regional export commodity, with Southern and Eastern African regions capable of supplying 700,000 metric tonnes of baobab fruit a year.
Newborn calves remain hidden in vegetation for the first few weeks while being nursed occasionally by the mother before joining the main herd. Older calves are held in the centre of the herd for safety.
The maternal bond between mother and calf lasts longer than in most bovines. However, when a new calf is born, the bonding ends and the mother keeps her previous offspring at bay with horn jabs. Nevertheless, the yearling follows its mother for another year or so. Males leave their mothers when they are two years old and join the bachelor groups.
For a bookgroup I've been reading James Fox's #truecrime account of the murder of Josslyn Hay in #Kenya in 1941, White Mischief (1982). Frankly I didn't enjoy it, mostly because the white colonialists in the first half C20th spark no empathy at all. However, what is interesting is Fox's account of investigative #journalism before the Internet changed research forever, notably its doggedness & the time required to track down information. @bookstodon
"An estimated 90,000 Kenyans were slaughtered in the Kikuyu uprising while just over a thousand were hanged on a portable gibbet. Some 160,000 were detained in internment camps where torture was routine.
"One of Britain’s victims was US President Barack Obama’s paternal grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, who was arrested in 1949, and tortured by having pins inserted under his fingernails."
Kitson brought to Belfast his experiences in Kenya, fighting the Kikuyu Land and Freedom Army (exotically dubbed the “Mau Mau” by the British) in the early 1950s where he honed a practice of using “turned” or “converted” rebels into “counter-gangs”.
The Women Who Rode Miles on Horseback to Deliver Library Books
Librarians are amazing.
They were known as the “book women.” They would saddle up, usually at dawn, to pick their way along snowy hillsides and through muddy creeks with a simple goal: to deliver reading material to Kentucky’s isolated mountain communities.
The Camel Mobile Library Service lends more than 7,000 books to nomads in Kenya's impoverished North East Province, often because camels are the only means of crossing the inhospitable terrain. Many of the books are supplied by Book Aid International.
what the fuck do we do. theyve destroyed communication in gaza. they keep bombing. we don't even know how bad it is. if it was that bad when the world was watching. Jesus.
"Kakuma refugee camp has more than 1000 queer assylum seekers and refugees of which 99% of us fled away from uganda and the 1% from congo, Burundi, Rwanda and somalia in fear of persecution, torture and discrimination of all sorts. I pass on this message seeking for support and advocacy creating awareness of what i and my fellow LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers and refugees under the umbrella of QUEER INNITIATIVE KAKUMA are currently facing and going through."