Rescuing Roi ~ Orphan Masai Mara Elephant Calf

NatGeo's Paul Steyn shares story of rescuing Roi...

"One day last October, a mother elephant and her ten month old calf were seen playing together on the plains of the Masai Mara National Reserve when a passing tourist photographed the tranquil scene. Twenty-four hours later, on October 22, the young calf was spotted again -- this time standing over her mother's poisoned carcass, seemingly reluctant to leave her side. [...] Deprived of sustenance, the young elephant would soon weaken in the heat of the day, fall behind the herd, and likely die on the plains. [...] After carefully maneuvering [...] they isolated [and] wrapped the traumatized baby in warm blankets and hoisted her into the bed of the four-by-four and rushed her to the Mara airstrip. [...] Ensuring that the orphans feel like part of a herd -- a family -- is extremely important, along with constant touch and attention from the keepers who feed and nurse them on their road to recovery. [Roi] was immediately comfortable and content among the older orphans, who gave her the attention and love she needed. [She] will live among the Nairobi herd until the age of three, when she'll be moved to one of the [rehab] centers in the Tsavo national parks. There, she'll be weaned off milk and reintroduced to wild elephants in the area. It can take as long as ten years for an orphan to choose to leave her adopted family and rejoin a wild herd."

Fowl Factories? ~ Yes, Amazing Food Production!

It's fantastic to see the efficiency and scale of chicken-related agribusiness, from hatching to slaughtering, egg sorting through consumption. First, an overview of industrial farming in the German context, including the perspective of both producer and protestor... Hatching Chicks... Processing Eggs... The amazing "Long Egg" process!-) Slaughtering Chickens... Processing Chickens... Serving it up at KFC... Next, check out this piece from Westgate Integrity in Kenya showing how that market is beginning the process of modernizing towards the global state-of-the-art in chicken care and egg production... Finally, be aware that there's a counter-movement to all this efficiency-orientation. Generously speaking, the "free-ranger" assert greater quality of overall product and spin the benefits of so-called "organic" production. And it's certainly believable that factors such as stress and feed indeed make a difference to ultimate meat-taste, so there's room for improvement in the factory approach. On the other end of the spectrum, however, we have criminal "animal liberators" run amok as revealed in this Australian 60 Minutes piece...

East African Railway ~ Kenya Starts Building...

The BBC writes Kenya launches new railway to reach South Sudan and Burundi...

"Kenya has formally launched a new, Chinese-financed railway which should extend across East Africa to reach South Sudan, DR Congo and Burundi. The first section will link the Kenyan port of Mombasa to the capital, Nairobi, reducing the journey time from 15 hours to about four. It is said to be the country's biggest infrastructure project since independence 50 years ago. The cost of the railway will be $5.2bn (£3.2bn) -- mostly funded by China. Some Kenyans have complained that the contract was given to the Chinese state-owned China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) without going to tender."

GrassRootsMobile ~ Pay-Per-Use Electricity...

MIT Media Lab's Pragun Goyal is in Nairobi, Kenya prototyping his GrassRootsMobile powerstrip that turns electricity on (or off) with the messaging of M-Pesa currency on pay-per-use basis...

Right to Stay ~ Fighting Kenyan Slum Evictions...

MIT Urban Africa's Ben Bradlow spots The Right to Stay...

Ranging Beyond Reserves ~ Elephant Tracked...

NYTimes infographic shows Even on Reserves, Scant Protection for Elephants...

"Like so many of Africa’s wilderness areas, the Buffalo Springs and Samburu reserves in Kenya are too cramped -- smaller than the city of Detroit -- for the majestic inhabitants they are supposed to protect. Every savannah elephant that dwells in these reserves also roams far beyond the invisible boundaries, along the well-worn paths of its ancestors in search of food and water. These routines take elephants through unpatrolled regions that are hunting grounds for poachers. Lately, nowhere is safe: killings are rising inside the reserves."

Konza ~ Kenya's Silicon Savannah Technopolis...

The BBC spotlights Kenya begins construction of 'silicon' city Konza...

"Kenya's president has launched a $14.5bn (£9.1bn) project to build a new city intended to be an IT business hub and dubbed "Africa's Silicon Savannah". It will take 20 years to build Konza Technology City about 60km (37 miles) from the capital, Nairobi. [...] Konza is part of the government's ambitious Vision 2030 initiative to improve much-neglected infrastructure over the next 18 years. [...] The 5,000-acre (2,011-hectare) site was a ranch to the south-east of Nairobi on the way to the port city of Mombasa. [...] The city wants to attract business process outsourcing, software development, data centres, disaster recovery centres, call centres and light assembly manufacturing industries. A university campus focused on research and technology as well as hotels, residential areas, schools and hospitals will also be built. The government has appointed the Konza Technopolis Development Authority to oversee the building of the IT hub, which will be built in four phases -- starting with the technology centres first."

And Okuttah Mark writes in Business Daily that Konza technopolis launch set to boost Kenya profile...

"The groundbreaking of the Konza Technopolis Park on Wednesday is set to boost the profile of Kenya as a regional business hub with more than 250 foreign and local firms already lined up to invest in the $10 billion (Sh840 billion) project. [...] Among the 18 firms that want to invest immediately are the leading mobile phone firm Safaricom, which intends to put up a data centre, Samsung Electronics which he said will put up an assembly plant, and Huawei of China. The multi-billion-shilling ICT Park is hinged on a private-public partnership financing model where the government has offered land and is building infrastructure such as electricity, water rail and roads. The private sector on the other hand is expected to put up investments in various industries such as in business process outsourcing (BPO) ventures, a science park, shopping malls, hotels, international schools and health facilities."

Conservation Militias ~ Stop Elephant Holocaust...

Jeffrey Gentleman writes in the NYTimes that To Save Wildlife, and Tourism, Kenyans Take Up Arms...

"...destitute villagers have seized upon an unconventional solution that, if replicated elsewhere, could be the key to saving thousands of elephants across Africa, conservationists say. In a growing number of communities here, people are so eager, even desperate, to protect their wildlife that civilians with no military experience are banding together [...] risking their lives to confront heavily armed poaching gangs. It is essentially a militarized neighborhood watch [...] These citizen-rangers are not doing this out of altruism or some undying love for pachyderms. They do it because in Kenya, perhaps more than just about anywhere else, wildlife means tourists, and tourists mean dollars -- a lot of dollars."

See also photoessay by Tyler Hicks. And illegal trade infographic...

Qumquat Killed ~ Poachers Slaughter Elephants

NYTimes DotEarthling Andrew Revkin shares the sad news that Africa’s Ivory-Driven Elephant Slaughter Continues -- A Family Falls...

"Qumquat, one of the best-known matriarchs in the elephant population of the Amboseli ecosystem on the Kenya-Tanzania border, was photographed with her family on October 27 by Nick Brandt. Just 24 hours later, the old female and most of the others were gunned down by poachers."

Diverse Mombasa ~ Mwachiro on Kenyan Portcity

The BBC's Kevin Mwachiro's report on Mombasa: One Square Mile of Kenya spotlights the historic waves and current diversity of culture and connectedness in this key East African portcity...

"... there are challenges -- modernity, commerce, and the politics of Kenya and neighbouring countries -- all lapping at the shores of this island city. Portugal, Oman, India and Britain all left their mark in the past. Today, Somalia is very much part of the cultural mix. Mombasa is now a safe haven for many Somalis leaving behind decades of fighting in their native land. [But one example of the positives is gathering in] a funfair in the centre of the city to celebrate the end of Ramadan. The place was full of families -- Muslim, Christian and Hindum -- all having fun together. That is the picture of Mombasa that sticks in my mind. A bustling place, a bit ramshackle in parts, with the beautifully restored areas of the Old Town, and others in dire need of a good spring clean. Most importantly, a place marked by the tolerance of its people, and a strong sense of what it means to be from here."

Local Food Growing ~ Kibera Sack Gardens...

The French NGO Solidarités works in Nairobi's Kibera, Mathare and Mukuru with its garden in a sack project...

Lion Economies ~ Key East African Advantages...

In a recent piece in The East African, Dimitri Stoelinga and Sachin Gathani assert that Lion economies of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania will grow fastest in the world citing work on Economic Complexity by Harvard and MIT colleagues...

"Hausmann and Hidalgo’s research reveals that -- just like China and Taiwan 25 years ago -- East Africa’s productive structure has the potential to quickly diversify and increasingly move towards more sophisticated products, thereby stimulating growth. Also, just like China and Taiwan, East African countries are not really “poor” from a capabilities perspective. 25 years ago China and Taiwan already had the capabilities to develop the diverse range of products that they produce today; it is in large part these same capabilities that have led them to their current income levels. It’s just that 25 years ago, “the cheque was in the mail.” East African countries have a similar potential today..."

Kadogo Economy ~ CNN & NTV on Small Goods

Small is beautiful: Slum traders spark big business trend reports CNN's Lillian Leposo, on the retail goods transformation in Kenya, the rest of Africa, and emerging economies generally...

"A common factor in these goods is that they are sold in small packages, weighing from 45 grams to just four grams, and costing from as little as half a cent. Though now all her goods are sold in branded packaging, [shopkeeper Anna] Wanjiru has been selling the same items in similar small portions for decades to the low-income market. "My customers are poor and were locked out of the supermarkets where everyday things were packaged in large quantities, making them unaffordable," said Wanjiru. "So I decided to buy the big packs and then resell in small portions to my customers." The ingenuity of Wanjiru and other shopkeepers who serve people in low-income areas gave rise to Kenya's "Kadogo economy," which loosely means low-unit economy. Progressively, big consumer goods companies noticed the profits and decided to cash in as well by repackaging their products."

And here's a Kenyan NTV report on the Kadogo economy...

Kenya's Middle Class ~ Rising Prosperity...

Spotlight by WorldFocus correspondent Martin Seemungal and producer Yuval Lion on middle class Kenyans...

"Downtown Nairobi is in stark contrast to the images of famine and war that often represent coverage of Africa. Kenya's middle class has grown to 10 percent of the urban population -- or 1.5 million people -- making Kenya home to one of the largest middle class populations in sub-Saharan Africa. Government deregulation stimulated economic growth and turned Nairobbery -- a former nickname for the city -- into a booming economic center. Nairobi reflects this trend with multinational businesses, towering office buildings and a growing middle class [...] who are educated, optimistic and upwardly mobile."

Kenya Vision 2030 ~ Competitive & Prosperous

Thanks to Martin Mbaya of Nairobi Capital for spotlighting this Kenyan Vision 2030 country development plan towards achieving global competitiveness and prosperity and generally Transforming Kenya. Three Pillars of development include:

• Economic ~ To maintain a sustained economic growth of 10% p.a. over the next 25 years
• Social ~ A just and cohesive society enjoying equitable social development in a clean and secure environment
• Political ~ An issue-based, people-centered, result-oriented, and accountable democratic political system.

I especially like the Flagship Projects section and map...

Inside the Pride ~ Auto-Cameras Snap Lion Life

Here are just two of the great images captured by Kenyan-Indian wildlife photographers, Anup and Manoj Shah, and posted in the Lions of the Masai Mara photogallery of the Telegraph. With remote control cameras hidden in grass and dung, they capture life inside the pride...