I run a non profit organization called Amsha Africa Foundation (www.amshaafrica.org) that helps impoverished communities lift themselves out of poverty by funding sustainable projects.
I'm writing this email because I believe this may be a good story to cover in your daily news since many non profit organizations (NGO's) that my organization has partnered with that have good intentions are getting frustrated and giving up working with rural communities in Kenya because of corruption, intimidation, vandalism, and just lack of common sense by the local communities.
My organization and EABL Foundation are jointly funding a water project in the Majengo area in Mwatate, Coast province and we have been having serious setbacks working with the local community in this area.
During the initial project evaluation in 2009-2010, we partnered with a group called Mwamuko Mashinani -a Community based group working hand in hand with other C.B.Os in Taita Taveta County. We held several meetings with their leadership team, identified their needs - water being the crucial need - and came up with a budget that we would fund to build a solar powered bore hole complete with storage tanks and rain water collection devices.
When the project kicked off in February 2011, our field project lead (Robert Mwakio) visited Mwatate and was surprised to be told by some members of the Mwamuko Mashinani group led by a man called Mnjala Mwaluma who is the coordinator of this organization, that we should stop any work related to the project with no logical reason or explanation (See Mwamuko_Mashinani_Letter).
Requests for meetings and follow-up phone calls to find the root cause that prompted Mwamuko Mashinani to write the letter were not answered. Some members of the group, including its chairman, said that they had no problem working with the NGO on the project but it seems that there was some in-fighting within this group and after some additional fact finding, it dawned to us that some members of this group were looking for kick backs (bribes) in order to let the project start.
When they realized that they will not be receiving any kickbacks, they went around the community and spread malicious rumors about the project and told the local youth to jeopardise the project by issuing threats to our project teams, workers, and hiring youths to vandalize installed and stored equipment.
We had a crisis meeting and our field project team met with local authorities and moved to another project location, working with a different group of people. We hoped that this second location in Mwatate would not be affected by the issues we had at the previous location but we were wrong.
We were given land by a local owner (Mkawughanga Maganga) to get the bore hole project started, did a second expensive geological survey, and drilled a small test hole to the aquifer to sample the water and see if it was fit for human consumption and got approval from the Government after tests of the water samples in Mombasa to conduct the drilling.
When all was said and done and our teams were getting ready for the actual drilling, the same group and their affiliates that had stopped our drilling efforts in the original project location started issuing threats to the land owner (Mkawughanga Maganga) and demanded that he stops working with our NGO. He wrote a letter telling the NGO to vacate his land claiming that their is a case being resolved - see attachment (See Mkawughanga_Maganga_Letter). ;Local youths were hired to stop any work and now we are forced to look for other alternatives. . We are still wondering why he volunteered to give his land in the first place and change his mind since this project would have been equally beneficial to him and the community around him
My question is - When will Kenyans living in poverty ever use their common sense and see that there are people and organizations that are willing to help them live better and healthy lives without having to always offer kickbacks? When will communities just come together and think of their common good and work towards it?
As the founder of this organization, I have worked with many communities and my organization has funded several successful projects, however, I find it very frustrating when a few corrupt members of a community try to jeopardize projects that are only meant to help them.
I strongly believe that we should educate communities of the importance of community projects and how vital they are in alleviating poverty among them.
Development has to be demand-driven rather than supply-driven. Secondly, development is an ongoing relationship that has to be nurtured over time. The NGO in question should find out where things went wrong and what can be done to avoid similar situation in future.
ReplyDeleteI have read both Mwamuko Mashinani's objection and Mkawughanga's [land owner] letters. Bwana Abuta makes no mention of the 2009 talent show or a pending court case [over the land in question?],issues which might have a bearing on the community's objections. My advice as someone with two decades experience in community water projects is let the NGO redefine the parameters of its entry into the community, sustain that entry by placing a constant finger on the pulse of that community [what makes them tick, what pisses them off] then start the project with them at every step of the way. Moving to another community and making the same mistakes is like repeating everything and expecting different results-wont work.
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