Destination AWC Feature Services

My transition from 21 years at Nation Media Group (NMG) to African Woman and Child Feature Service, in 2009 was not only seamless but godsend. NMG is a leading multi-media house in the country and East and Central Africa, while AWC is a media-gender Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO).

That move 12 years ago was thanks to my wife, Rosemary, one of the founding directors of AWC who also gave me the opportunity to do consultancy work for World Food Programme (WFP) in three counties in Coast region on their Farmers Field School Programme. The 30-day consultancy which culminated in a national conference at Sarova Stanley in Nairobi, was in four counties; namely Mombasa, Kilifi, Kwale and Taita Taveta.

I worked closely with the WFP Coast representative as I moved from one hotel to another and we crisscrossed the beautiful coastal towns and trading centres meeting and following up selected farmers who WFP had trained on latest technologies to boost the value added and food chain.

Soft Landing

During our Kwale field trip, I took an afternoon off to tour the world famous Shimba Hills National Reserve, which is one of the largest coastal forests in East Africa rich in flora and fauna and hosts the highest density of African elephants in Kenya. We crowned it with a sundowner drinks and sumptuous early dinner at the Shimba Hills Lodge, designed and built on trees like the famous Tree Top Lodge in Aberdares National Park near Nyeri in Mount Kenya region.

Since then, I have toured most of the 47 counties in the country thanks to the national and regional projects by AWC and other donors and partners. The major ones were Ford Foundation’s gender and media programme; United Nations Women (UNWomen’s) women, peace and security programme; Peace Initiative Kenya (PIK’s) anti-sexual gender based violence programme; Women@Work Campaign under Hivos East Africa on flower farms and rights of workers and the environment; Jamii Thabiiti Programme on improving the community’s safety and security; finally we produced content for a book project, 50 Journeys, supported by UNWomen which sought to increase visibility of women’s value, voice and role in political leadership using media platforms.

My first county visit was under the Ford Foundation media programme support and promote gender agenda in the media, anti-Gender Based Violence reporting, and empowering women leaders by sensitising them on role of media and how they can use it to be effective leaders and promote their NGOs among others.

AWC team visited several towns and counties; these were Kitale in Trans Nzoia, Makutano in West Pokot, Eldoret in Uasin Gishu, Isiolo in Isiolo County, Meru in Meru County, Muranga in Muranga County, Busia in Busia County and Kwale in Kwale County.

One of the most hilarious quotable quote from some of the participants in West Pokot was by an elder man who asked the facilitators: “Who is more educated, the person who blows his or her nose into the wind and wipes his hands on a tree trunk, or one who removes a handkerchief and then blows his or her nose then folds it and keeps it in the pocket?”

By the end of that Ford Foundation project the chairman of the Kenya Correspondents Association (KCA), William Oloo Janak, co-opted me to lead a team of researchers and writers to come up with a booklet on Guidebook for Journalists to Cover Devolution.

Author of booklet

KCA is a partner of AWC, and had organised several sensitization forums, which I attended, for journalists and opinion leaders in Mombasa, Nairobi, Eldoret, Nyeri and Kisumu. Janak was both a friend and former colleague at Nation Kisumu Bureau when I served as his boss.

Another book project was as a co-author of Beyond the Shadows of My Dream, a biography of former Kenya Commercial Bank Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Martin Oduor-Otieno. My co-authors were Barak Muluka and Rosemary Okello Orlale.

Back to the Kisumu event; indeed it was an anti-climax after I blundered when I arrived at Kisumu International Airport at 3pm. for return trip at 5pm. flight, just to be shocked and embarrassed by the attendants who told me with a braid smile: “You are in time but at the wrong airport! Your ticket shows your flight was from Nairobi to Eldoret and back to Nairobi!”

I felt like a lion that has been rained on! I picked my ticket and hand luggage and headed straight to the bus park where I took the fastest shuttle (van) to the capital city after telling off the travel agent and a colleague who failed to follow my instructions to the letter!

Foreign trips

I arrived in Nairobi at midnight instead of at 6pm! But it was a big lesson learnt: don’t always assume, always read and study your ticket before departure. We also had foreign trips thanks to AWC whose directors decided to venture into South Sudan, by then the latest nation in Africa and the world after gaining independence of the Arab-dominated North Sudan after over two decades of civil war.

AWC opened a small office in Juba that was manned by Paul Jimbo and Bernard Okello with support from Rev Basil Buga, a Southern Sudanese national as was required under the law. Most traumatic experience was when Jimbo warned us to avoid taking any photos outside the hotel lest we be arrested and harassed by the Sudanese security and/or their Ugandan counterparts. We followed the instructions to the letter and survived to tell the tale.

For two years, AWC team from Nairobi flew to Juba to team up with the two to conduct media, gender and governance-related training for journalists, women leaders and civil society officials under an UNWomen project on the eve of their first elections. I managed to make three trips and took a while to sleep in refurbished containers converted into hotel rooms; while other colleagues had earlier been sleeping in tents.

Later, when Covid-19 came calling, we had virtual meetings with our Ethiopian, Tanzanian and Rwandan partners in the Women@Work Campaign without setting foot in Addis Ababa, Arusha and Kigali.

Bomas Conference

Locally, AWC participated in the historic National Constitutional Review Conference, better known as Bomas Conference, and was partnered with donors and published a weekly magazine, Yote Yawezekana, that documented and summarised the highlights of the main issues discussed and adopted.

The conference was chaired by Prof Yash Pal Ghai with Dr P.L.O. Lumumba as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and was followed by two referendums which led to the promulgation of the 2010 Constitution by President Mwai Kibaki at a colourful ceremony at Uhuru Park in Nairobi.

Gender agenda

Under Jamii Thabiti project we crisscrossed the country for three years from eve of 2016 polls, literally 'preaching peace journalism' to journalists, leaders and civil society officials in eight of the 47 counties.

We also built capacity for police officers on protection and response to causes of sexual and gender based violence (SGBV), The eight pilot projects were in Nyanza, Western, Coast and North Eastern regions that a survey had identified as the hot spots and leading in Gender Based Violence, community violence and in particular, Violence Against Women and Girls, to use Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) language.

The eight were Bungoma, Kisumu, Nakuru, Baringo, Kwale, Kilifi, Wajir and Mandera. Among the towns we visited were Musikoma and Nzoia, Bungoma, Kisumu, Maseno, Ahero, Muhoroni, Nakuru, Elementaita, Baringo, Kilifi, Malindi, Wajir and Mandera

The Jamii Thabiti project coincided with the 2013 and 2017 General Elections and the 2017 one with the focus on promoting peace and reducing incidents of electoral violence on female candidates who were identified as marginalised and most vulnerable.

Electoral violence

But for those who were unaware, some mistook me for having political interests and campaigning for one of the six elective seats. The eight were: presidential, deputy president, Governor, Deputy Governor, Senator, Women Representative, Member of Parliament and/or Member of the County Assembly (MCA).

But that was far from the truth, AWC, the outfit that I worked for, had signed a contract with Jamii Thabiti and Department for International Development (DFID) under the United Kingdom government to be its media partner in the project.

So from then on, we were frequently on the road or air with our boss, Arthur Okwemba, and fellow colleagues Jane Godia, Ruth Omukhango, Faith Muiruri, Joyce Chimbi, Carol Oyugi and George Ngesa visiting the counties to train journalists, civil society officials and leaders in the area on gender sensitive reporting, how to use the media to promote peace, and special focus on anti-GBV campaigns.

Other colleagues at AWC who have since left are former founder directors Rose Lukalo Owino, Juliana Omale Atemi and Beatrice Mategwa. The former colleagues are Dancun Mboya, Florence Sipalla, Wilson Ugangu, Judy Waguma, Alex Mugao, Ibrahim Oruko, Omwa Ombara, Mercy Mumo, Njeru Wangethi, Wambui Gicheru and Abjata Khalif, Musa Radoli among others.

Veteran editors and journalists also gave AWC a boost as consultants; they were the late Bob Robert Okoth, Lucy Orian’g, Dorothy Kweyu, Frank Ojiambo, Caleb Atemi, Pamela Makotsi Sitoni, Otula Owuor, Mary Wasike, Andrew Kuria and Joseph Ngala (who also doubled as one of the AWC Board Members) among others.

Other current and past AWC Board Members are Mary Ann Burris, Colleen Lowe Morna, Tom Onyango, Prof. Wambui Kiai and Prof Patricia Mbote and Arthur Okwemba, as secretary.

Several journalists have also benefited from AWC’s mentorship and internship programmes and have moved on locally and internationally to work for mainstream media and other organisations.

Those were the good old days before Coronavirus came calling in March 2019 when money talked; not Ministry of Health, World Health Organisation and President of the Republic of Kenya dictating on social distancing, mandatory wearing of face masks, sanitizing of hands and restrictions on movements in and out of the country, ban on public gatherings and imposing a night curfew.

The AWC team was split into three groups with some traveling by road to the counties while others flew to far flung areas like Wajir, Mandera, Kilifi, Kwale and Kisumu. But teams to Nakuru, Baringo and Bungoma would always use the office car to hold the sensitisation forums and carry out the trainings.

Good old days before Covid-19

The trips were frequent and a week would not pass without one of the teams collecting an imprest and heading to one of the eight destinations to carry out the programmes; return and write reports with photos of the sessions for the donors, as was mandatory.

While in the office, off Ngong Road, next to Day Star University, we would enjoy cooked ugali and meat or chicken by Janet Mumoji, as part of our staff Happy Hour, every Fridays to unwind from the week’s hectic schedule.

Some of the issues raised at the closed-door sessions would be reproduced and highlighted in our two online magazines, African Woman and Reject for distribution to our donors and partners.

The Jamii Thabiti Project was in partnership with National Police Service and had the blessings of Inspector General all the way down to the Gender Desk officers across the country.

For once in my working life, I was very close to the police during trainings, sensitisation and helping them strengthen the Community Policing Committees (CPC) to fight GBV at the grassroots.

AWC teamed up with the Head of the Directorate of Community Policing, Gender and Child Protection, Wilkista Vera, and her team to carry out the programme at the counties. Some of the other high profile visits were to Kisumu, Bungoma, Kilifi and Wajir with a high-powered team of very senior police officers to sensitise County Police Commanders, their deputies, Officers Commanding Divisions and Officers Commanding Station plus Gender Desk officers on GBV and violence against women and girls, among others.

I recall an incident in Kisumu where I acted as the unofficial liaison officer of Jamii Thabiti and AWC by linking them with local media for coverage. Those who remember my earlier job as Nation Bureau Chief for seven years could not believe their eyes seeing me not only mixing with the cops, but even being driven back left in their official police vehicles to tour neighbouring stations like Maseno and Ahero as traffic police along the way saluted at their boss's car.

Former Nation Kisumu Bureau Chief

In Kilifi, we had a fire scare at Mnarani Club in one of the sessions when one of the hotel waiters inadvertently allowed the gas cooker to catch the makuti roof next to our meeting hall.

Before I knew what was going on, some of the police and Community Policing Committee (CPC) participants panicked and screamed as the ladies fled out of the one-door room as the men, led by the OCS, armed with his pistol on his holster, used the nearest window to bolt off.

I followed them armed with my office camera as I took the action photos! The hotel manager dashed to the scene with a fire extinguisher on hearing the screams and helped put it off as the participants cheered him along. The waiter escaped with slight burns and was rushed to the nearest clinic for first aid.

In Ahero and Muhoroni towns in Kisumu County, we held our sensitization and formation of Violence Against Women and Girls sub-committee meetings with CPC members in staff canteens on the eve of the 2017 polls, exposing us to danger of attacks by irate opposition supporters who accused us of supporting the Jubilee Government and Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to carry our civic education.

At one point, a colleague who had been accompanied by a senior police officer from the Directorate of Gender and Youth and Community Policing was forced to abandon the Muhoroni forum and flee to a nearby house where she hid under a bed with the woman who had acted as our mobiliser as our driver entered the vehicle and sped off to avoid the mob from setting it ablaze.

FGM in North Eastern

Meanwhile, the police officer, who was to be the facilitator, vanished from the scene only to resurface 30 minutes later after the dust had settled the mission had been abandoned. The three entered the office car and headed back to the capital city after reporting the explosive environment to our boss, Arthur Okwemba, in in our Nairobi office.

In Wajir town, we flew with senior police officers and trained CPC and civil society officials on SGBV issues for two days. The major issues there were the many cases of FGM that were never reported to the authorities because of the code of silence by the predominantly Muslim community who have embraced it as a culture and part of their religion.

Another challenge in Wajir, was fear of the Al Shabab attacking from neighbouring Somalia, and the area being blacklisted by police officers, especially the female ones who are given Gender Desk assignments, from “down country” who fear being targeted by the militants.

AWC also had a two-year regional project with HIVOs East Africa on flower farm workers focusing on workers’ rights and sexual gender based violence (SGBV) issues. But because of the sensitivity of the floriculture sub sector, we made very few trips to the flower farms in Naivasha in Nakuru County and Thika in Kiambu County and Nanyuki in Laikipia County. We made up by holding and supporting sensitisation and training for journalists covering the farms, the trade union officials and other NGOs like Kenya Human Rights Commission involved.

But since Covid-19 came calling, all the programmes have been put on hold, so no trips, training and sensitization programmes for the past two years as we work at home on articles for our two online magazines, Reject and Kenya Woman, among others thanks to zoom meetings and activities.

We cannot wait for the virus to vanish and for life to resume as near normal.