Otherwise?

We hear a lot about fake news, but that is a very broad and misleading term. According to the Ethical Journalism Network, "fake news is information deliberately fabricated and published with the intention to deceive and mislead others into believing falsehoods or doubting verifiable facts." This term conflates three types of information disorder: misinformation, disinformation and malinformation.

In the spirit of International Fact Checking Day, celebrated annually on April 2nd, we're joined by Eric Mugendi, Managing Editor of Pesacheck, to discuss fact checking in general, and within the Kenyan context. What exactly is fact checking, and why is it important, especially in this digital age? What establishes something as a "fact" vis a vis an opinion? What exactly is information disorder? And what is the difference between these three types of disorder? What kinds of challenges do misinformation, disinformation and malinformation pose to modern day journalism? What is the role of media organizations when it comes to fact checking? Press play to find out!

Resources

Journalism, 'Fake News' and Disinformation: A Handbook for Journalism Education and Training

Thinking about 'Information Disorder': Formats of Misinformation, Disinformation and Mal-Information

INFORMATION DISORDER: Toward an interdisciplinary framework for research and policy making

Understanding and Addressing the Disinformation Ecosystem

Improving Media's Ability To Check The Facts: We Need A Media Culture That Double Checks Numbers

How to Fact Check: Tips and Advice

Africa Check: Sorting Fact from Fiction

The Reality of Fake News in Kenya

Information Disorder, Part 1: The Essential Glossary

Information Disorder, Part 2: Mapping the Landscape

Information Disorder, Part 3: Useful Graphics

10 questions to ask before covering mis- and dis-information

Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online

Image credit: VOA News

On Tuesday the 26th of March 2019, the Standard reported that a three judge bench at the Court of Appeal, constituted by Justices Roselyn Nambuye, Daniel Musinga and Patrick Kiage, proposed that the age of consent be lowered to 16 by amending the Sexual Offences Act, citing lengthy jail terms imposed on young men convicted of defilement.

We're joined by Judy Gitau, the Africa Regional Co-ordinator of Equality Now to discuss consent, the age of consent, its importance, and the potential impact of lowering it.

Resources

Criminal Appeal 102 of 2016 [The Ruling that proposed the lowering of the age of consent]

Court proposes lowering sex consent age to 16 years

Sexual Offences Act (2006)

What is sexual consent?

Why the age of sexual consent continues to be a worldwide challenge

Close in Age Exemptions / Romeo and Juliet Laws

What are the Romeo and Juliet Laws

Episode 81: Abortion and Reproductive Healthcare

Episode 88: Human Trafficking in Kenya

Image Credit: Social Documentary Centre

Much of the conversation about global warming and climate change focuses on the Earth's poles and the areas outside the tropics. We understand that ice caps and glaciers are melting. However, it is urgent that we understand the effects of global warming in the tropics in general, and at the equator in particular. Normal temperature ranges in the tropics fall within a narrower range than those outside them, so any change will have more significant effects.

We're joined by Jessica Mukiri, an Environmental Modeler at the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, to discuss global warming at the equator, with a focus on Kenya. Which human activities make us more vulnerable to climate change? What are its effects in this region? And, how can we mitigate it? Press play to find out!

Resources

Effects of global warming

Special Report: Global Warming of 1.5 ºC

Climate Change: Why the Tropical Poor Will Suffer Most

Why Africa is particularly vulnerable to climate change

Vulnerability to Climate Change in Africa: Challenges and Recommendations for Africa

Africa is particularly vulnerable to the expected impacts of global warming

Global warming: Why Kenya is among countries at crossroads

Climate Risks, Vulnerability and Governance in Kenya: A review

Modeling Kenya's Vulnerability to Climate Change – A Multifactor Approach

Climate change making storms like Idai more severe, say experts

Cyclone Idai reveals the fundamental injustice at the heart of climate change

Analysis of Climate Change and Variability Risks in the Smallholder Sector

Climate Change and Health in Africa: Issues and Options

Climate Change Deadly Health Risk and Global Health Opportunity – Lancet Commission

Climate drivers of vector-borne diseases in Africa and their relevance to control programmes

Climate change and population health in Africa: where are the scientists?

Herders: Why we invade Laikipia ranches

Are Kenya ranch invasions driven by drought or politics?

Rapid Range Shifts of Species Associated with High Levels of Climate Warming

Climate change could force huge migrations for people and animals living near the equator

Global warming, elevational ranges and the vulnerability of tropical biota

Migration and Climate Change

UN compact recognizes climate change as driver of migration for first time

Study finds that global warming exacerbates refugee crises

Seeds of war: Global warming helped trigger Syria's bloody civil war

Climate change and the Syrian civil war revisited

Making the Links: Refugees, Climate Change, and Poverty

Who takes responsibility for the climate refugees?

Climate Justice for a Changing Planet: A Primer for Policy Makers and NGOs

Image Credit: Ventures Africa

According to Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and National Treasury reports in 2016, it was estimated that a third of Kenya's national budget was lost through corrupt dealings annually. That would mean that in 2018/19, we can reasonably expect to lose KES 1 trillion, if not more, to corruption. Much of this money ends up in offshore accounts in countries that are tax havens. As at 2007, economists at the American research firm National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) estimated that about 70% of Kenya's GDP (KES 1.83 trillion in 2007) was stashed abroad, while the think-tank Global Financial Integrity (GFI) estimated in an October 2018 report that Kenya loses about 8% of government revenues annually (above USD 907 million, or KES 78.41 billion, based on the historical exchange rate) to trade misinvoicing by multinationals.

We're joined by Will Fitzgibbon, an investigative journalist at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), who has worked on the Panama Papers, Paradise Papers and Swiss Leaks, to talk about where our stolen money goes. Press play!

Resources

The Panama Papers - Exposing the Rogue Offshore Finance Industry

The Panama Papers - Power Players

Paradise Papers - Secrets of the Global Elite

Swiss Leaks - Murky Cash Sheltered By Bank Secrecy

Swiss Leaks - Kenya Country Profile

Offshore Leaks Database: Kenya

What are the 'Paradise Papers' and why should you care?

Paradise papers: a special investigation

HSBC files

Kenya: Potential Revenue Losses Associated with Trade Misinvoicing

Wealthy Kenyans hiding Sh5trn in foreign banks

Concern as wealthy Kenyans stash their riches in tax havens

Leaks reveal Kenyan judge a director of multiple offshore companies

More Kenyans on Panama Papers list

What leaked Paradise Papers mean for Kenya

Inside the havens, where super rich people hide their billions

Third of Kenyan budget lost to corruption: anti-graft chief

Understanding the economic cost of corruption in Kenya

Experts: Theft, waste likely to silence calls for austerity

Episode 54: The Cost of Corruption

Episode 62: Tax Justice in Kenya

Image Credit: ICIJ

As part of its Big Four Agenda, the Jubilee government aims to focus on the provision of affordable housing units to be bought on mortgage by formally employed Kenyans. In the 2018/2019 budget, affordable housing received a provision KES 6.5 billion. By 2022, the government aims to have constructed 500,000 affordable housing units, with four types being available. The housing projects have been divided into five lots, with one lot covered in each financial year. Each lot is then broken down into flagship projects, flagship social housing projects, counties and towns and Nairobi County projects.

We're joined by Njeri Cerere, a Planning, Development and Environmental Consultant, and the co-convenor of Naipolitans, to discuss a roadmap to affordable housing in Kenya. Press play!

Resources

Kenya economic update : housing - unavailable and unaffordable

Kenya 1999 Population and Housing Census: Analytical Report On Housing Conditions and Social Amenities - Volume X

Road To Affordable Housing Agenda, Health For All, Now Clear

State of Housing in Kenya: Will Government Strategy Deliver on Social Housing

How feasible is the Housing component of Kenya's Big Four Agenda?

The Home Ownership Survey - January 2015

The KPDA Affordable Housing Report, June 2018

The 500, 000 Affordable Housing Program – Project Delivery and Finance Framework, May 2018

Kenya Affordable Housing Programme – Development Framework Guidelines – Release Version, Oct 2018

Housing Policy as an Agenda for Elections 2017

Nairobi 1948 Master Plan "A Plan for a Colonial Capital"

Nairobi Metropolitan Growth Strategy (1973 Plan)

The Project on Integrated Urban Development Master Plan for the City of Nairobi in the Republic of Kenya

Housing levy with lots of grey areas

How the National Housing Development Fund affects you

NDEMO: Africa's Poverty Contradictions and Dead Capital

Kenya's mortgage rate 6 times more than rent compared to S.Africa's 1:1 ratio

Why the proposed 10pc roof on mortgage is still too high for Kenyan buyers

Number of mortgage accounts declines for first time in decade

Trouble brewing in Kenya's house loans market

Kenyans shun mortgages, prefer building own homes

Some buildings in Nairobi have not been occupied more than a year after completion.

Episode 60: Nai Ni Who?

Episode 62: Tax Justice in Kenya

Episode 70: Financing the Kenyan Government

Episode 72: The Impact of Interest Rate Capping

Episode 77: The Problem With Our Roads

Episode 88: Human Trafficking in Kenya

Image Credit: Baraka Mwau

Caroline Mwatha. Sharon Otieno. Mercy Keino. Fiona Kasuya. Mary Wambui. Beryl Adhiambo. These are some of the women we have lost to Kenya's femicide crisis, wither due to their work, or men in their lives. This week, we're joined by Rachael Mwikali, the convenor of the Coalition for Grassroots Human Rights Defenders to discuss the work of human rights defenders in Kenya, with a focus on women, as well as Kenya's femicide crisis.

Resources

#TotalShutdownKE

#SayHerNameKE

Missing Voices Kenya

Hounded to the point of exile, human rights activists now appreciated

KNCHR And Human Rights Defenders Work (HRD's)

Defend Defenders: Kenya Country Profile

Body of missing Dandora activist Caroline Mwatha found at City Mortuary

Haki Africa demands quick probe on missing activist Caroline Mwatha

Police on the spot over missing Dandora activist

Police link Caroline Mwathe's death to 'botched abortion'

Five horrific cases of domestic violence against women in Kenya in the past three months

Man stabs girlfriend to death, attempts suicide

Rongai woman dies after husband tortures, sets her ablaze

Lucy Njambi's killers forced her to swallow acid

Former city MCA plotted attack on slain wife, court told

Man brutally kills wife, stuffs body parts into a drum

Man accused of beating wife to death in Kahawa Sukari, Nairobi

Migori man kills sister-in-law over his wife's alleged cheating

Prevalence Data on Different Forms of Violence against Women

Episode 5: Why Do We Hate Our Women?

Episode 56: Women's Lives Matter

Episode 61: Stop Killing Us

Episode 68: Women and the 2017 Elections

Episode 73: When Technology Meets Violence

Image Credit: Vice News

In Kenya, according to the 2018 Economic Survey by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), diseases of the respiratory system are the leading cause of morbidity, followed by malaria. They accounted for 34% of all incidences in 2017, compared to malaria's 18.7%. Kenya experiences 19,112 deaths annually because of air pollution, and of these, 6,672 are children. These are diseases such as pneumonia, tuberculosis and lung cancer, among others.

The 2017 survey estimated that 19.9 million Kenyans suffer from respiratory ailments that are exacerbated by poor air quality. We're joined by Dr. Kanyiva Muindi of the Africa Population Health Research Centre (APHRC) to talk about air quality in Kenya at large, and Nairobi in particular. Press play!

Resources

Economic Survey 2018 - Kenya National Bureau of Statistics

Air Quality Regulations (2014)

Environmental Management and Coordination Act (1999)

(Amended) Environmental Management and Coordination Act (2015)

Air Pollution in Nairobi Slums: Sources, Levels and Lay Perceptions

Invisible and ignored: air pollution inside the homes of Nairobi's residents

There is no escape: Nairobi's air pollution sparks Africa health warning

EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE: Who is monitoring air quality in Kenya?

Why Nairobi's air pollution is deadly

Nairobi Air Quality Monitoring Sensor Network Report - April 2017

The Air Pollution in Nairobi, Kenya

Measuring Nairobi's air quality using locally assembled low-cost sensors

WHO Guidelines for indoor air quality - household fuel combustion (2014)

WHO Guidelines for indoor air quality - selected pollutants (2010)

WHO Air quality guidelines for particulate matter, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide - Global update 2005

9 out of 10 people worldwide breathe polluted air, but more countries are taking action

Image Credit: Environmental Justice Atlas

Kenya is flagged as a source, transit, and destination country for persons subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking in East Africa by the Trafficking in Persons Report of 2018. We continue to host illegal recruiters who maintain networks in Uganda and Ethiopia. They recruit Kenyan, Rwandan, Ethiopian and Ugandan workers through fraudulent offers of employment in the Middle East and Asia. This happens despite a directive by the government to register all agencies linking Kenyans to employment opportunities overseas.

This week, we're joined by Sophie Otiende of HAART Kenya (Awareness Against Human Trafficking) to talk about how human trafficking manifests in Kenya, and how to combat it. Press play!

Resources

Trafficking in Persons Report - June 2018

Kenya - Trafficking in Persons Report 2018

Human Trafficking in Kenya - National Crime Research Centre

Assessment Report On The Human Trafficking Situation In The Coastal Region of Kenya

Why human trafficking is still rife in Kenya

Human trafficking probe: CS Echesa on spot over Pakistani girls

Exposed: Serial paedophile who ran an 'orphanage'

Image Credit: Matilde Simas

Kenya is set to begin open field trials of GMO cotton in March 2019, following the approval for national performance trials by the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) in 2018. [In June 2018, it was reported that Kenya would start growing GMO cotton on a commercial basis in 2019.]

This would make us the first in East Africa to grow GMOs in open fields, and fourth in Africa after South Africa, Burkina Faso and Sudan. BT cotton is among six crops that have been under confined field trials. The others are drought-tolerant maize, biofortified sorghum, viral resistant cassava, nutritionally enhanced cassava and gypsophila paniculata cut flowers. We're joined by Anne Maina, co-ordinator of the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition, to discuss GMOs and food safety.

Resources

Kenya gears up for GMO cotton from next year

Biotech maize field trials fail to get crop agency green light

US seeks to push Kenya, other African countries to adopt GM crops

Genetically modified Bt cotton not worth the hype

Kenya soon to lift ban on production of genetically modified cotton, maize

The future of cotton is not in genetically modified version

Kenya rules out open trials on genetically modified crops

Scientists say growing genetically-modified crop will revive local textile sector

Why lifting GMO ban remains contentious despite attempts to introduce it in Kenya

Feeding 9 Billion

The biggest hurdle genetically engineered food faces isn't science—it's us

Genetically Modified Foods: Breeding Uncertainty

The Monsanto GMO Story: Adding a Fish Gene Into Tomatoes

The GE Process

Republished study: long-term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize

Cytotoxicity on human cells of Cry1Ab and Cry1Ac Bt insecticidal toxins alone or with a glyphosate-based herbicide

Genetically modified crops safety assessments: present limits and possible improvements

Resource Guide to Organic Insect and Disease Management

Kenya Apparel and Textile Industry: Diagnosis, Strategy and Action Plan

How Monsanto's GM cotton sowed trouble in Africa

Burkina Faso calls time on Monsanto's GM cotton, demands $280m damages

The Environmental Costs of Fast Fashion

Fast fashion: Inside the fight to end the silence on waste

Fast Fashion Is Killing People (Seriously!)

Monsanto ordered to pay $289m as jury rules weedkiller caused man's cancer

'The world is against them': new era of cancer lawsuits threaten Monsanto

The man who beat Monsanto: 'They have to pay for not being honest'

Roundup weed killer lawsuit hits a snag, but Monsanto is not off the hook

Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

How to practice Integrated Pest Management?

Biodiversity and Its Importance

Episode 66: The Politics of Food in Nairobi

Episode 78: Public Finance and the Right to Food [Part 1]

Episode 79: Public Finance and the Right to Food [Part 2]

Image Credit: Cornell Alliance for Science

After 32 years of the 8-4-4 curriculum, the new 2-6-3-3-3 curriculum rolled out early in January 2019. Its goal is to provide quality education and training policies for all. It aims to improve access, quality, relevance and equity in line with international, regional and national policies, as well as legal commitments, and move us closer towards our education for all goals. It also aims to ensure that all learners acquire competencies and qualifications capable of promoting national values, inspiring individual innovation and life-long learning; and that learners are not unnecessarily delayed at any level of education.

The curriculum hopes to fix the gaps left by 8-4-4 according to the team, and put more emphasis on practical and vocational education, nurturing of talents, inclusion of critical life skills and de-emphasize the focus on the cognitive domain. We're joined by Angela Kabari, co-founder of the life skills program School Series, to discuss the curriculum and its implementation. Press play!

Resources

Curriculum Reform Policy

Basic Education Curriculum Framework

Curriculum Designs

SNE Competency Based Curriculum Support Materials

Basic Education Statistical Booklet

Curriculum Development Cycle

Addendum to the Orange Book on Competency Based Curriculum

Episode 45: Reforming Kenya's Education System

Episode 74: Exam Cheating

Image Credit: Aga Khan Development Network