The earliest recorded desert locust invasions in Kenya were in the years 1928, 1931 and 1932. That record suggests that the magnitude of the invasions in 2020 is unprecedented in regard to duration, the magnitude of the swarms and the spatial coverage. The risk of invasion occurred in 2007 but was contained before it became severe. Kenya is a member of the Desert Locust Control Organization for Eastern Africa, which was formed in 1962 after the 1961 and 1941 invasions that were both catastrophic characterized by severe hunger and drought.
After 12 years, the desert locusts are back in Kenya and have been detected in 14 counties by the first week of February 2020. These swarms have now started to breed, owing to the favourable conditions that obtain in eastern Africa after abundant rains during the last quarter of 2019. All this had been foreseen when on the 8th of November 2019, the UN had issued a warning to Kenya, Sudan and Eritrea on a probable locust invasion if the infestation isn’t managed whilst still in Ethiopia. (BBC News, 2019) It is estimated by FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization) that the locusts were eating 1.8 million tonnes of vegetation a day across 350 sq. km in Ethiopia.
The daily newspapers in Kenya have reported that due to inadequate action by the government to control these pests, residents of the 14 counties have resorted to using ineffective methods to chase them away. These methods include saying prayers, beating drums, whistles and shouting.
Desert locusts are known to live alone for most of their lives but occasionally move in swarms when conditions for reproduction become highly favourable. Desert locusts are not destructive as solitary insects but their abundance leads to the destruction of vegetation in a quick fashion that requires movement to find some more vegetation. This behavioural characteristic of mobility has implications for their control and for the economic damage that they can inflict.
Once the locusts congregate into swarms, they are often identified in 3 colours, the brown when living in solitude, and the pink when ready to mate and lay eggs and assume the bright yellow when they reach maturity. According to FAO, desert locusts can spread to more than 29 million square kilometres from their breeding sites during plagues. In a day, a swarm of desert locusts then travels a distance of between 5 to 130 kilometres or more at an average speed of 17 kilometres per hour of flight.
They devour every green food and non-food matter in their path and migrate when their food is exhausted in that specific area. They are known to turn into cannibals when the food in the area is exhausted. While they create the danger of food and farm losses, they constitute no direct danger to domestic animals or to humans.
Direct Economic Costs of the desert locust invasion
• Agriculture Output
Invasion of swarms of the Desert Locusts creates an immediate agricultural shock through complete or substantial devastation of food and non-food vegetation. They are a direct threat to food production because their vast numbers and consumption rates per day eventually lead to a decrease in the supply of food and possibly to reduced harvest which upset food supplies and inevitably cause increases in the price of agricultural produce. This is a double economic shock from the suppression of supply and the vicarious causation of price increases that subsistence farmers are most susceptible to.
Their average life span of the desert locust is three to five months, depending on the environmental conditions. The FAO estimates that a desert locust adult is known to consume roughly its own weight of two grams in fresh vegetation daily. Using this as a basis it means that one locust would end up consuming 60gms in a period of a month and 300gms during a lifespan of 5 months. A very small part of an average swarm (or about one tonne of locusts) eats the same amount of food in one day as about 10 elephants or 2,500 people. (FAO, 2004) A tonne of locusts consumes two tonnes of green matter per day. Considering an average lifespan of 5 months, one swarm shall have consumed 300 tonnes. The country has dozen of these swarms meaning that the damage is immense.
• Loss of income
According to FAO, more than 70% of Kenyans rely on agriculture as a source of living. Abundance in harvests leads to a sense of financial and food security for these families. This is also reflected in the fact that agriculture is the largest sectoral contributor to Kenya’s GDP.
Scenario:
In the table below, we explore the possible effects on harvest for two crops that are affected by the swarms that have passed over 14 counties by February 2020. It describes the average invasion losses per 70,000 hectares of land.
In December 2019, FAO estimated that the locusts had destroyed 70,000 hectares of farmland in Somalia and Ethiopia. In 2011, the average land under Miraa farming in Kenya was estimated to be around 70,000 hectares. In 2018, the average local price of a kg of Miraa stood at 500kshs per kg while that of export was Kshs1600. It is estimated that an average of a Miraa farmer in Kenya may get about Kshs.50, 000 a month from a one and a half acres holding of the mature crops. (Nation, 2016) This implies that farmers could lose Kshs.5.8 billion per 70,000 hectares of miraa. When examining the loss to the farmers, one must also consider the sunk costs which are initial costs such as ploughing the land, paying of labourers that the farmer will not recover due to lack of sales.
The Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) estimates that the national mean yield of maize is 2 metric tons per hectare. An average of 22bags per hectare. Average production of 1.54 million bags of maize on 70,000 acres. The average price of a bag of maize in Kenya is 2800shs denoting a value loss of about 4.3billion in sales.
Therefore inferring that the average damage of the locust invasion would most likely fall between Ksh4.3 billion and Ksh5.8 billion or more.
Indirect Implications
Locusts not only feed on food crops but also non-food crops that serve as pasture for animals. Pastoralists are mainly found in arid and semi-arid areas which are also the areas that the locusts have majorly attacked. Loss of pasture for animal keepers could cause the death of animals and deliver another shock to incomes and food availability. Over time other factors that start coming into play are such as soil erosion due to the destruction of vegetation in this areas-desertification. In a bid to control this new invasion in Kenya, the national treasury allocated Ksh.30 million in January. The money will be used mostly in aerial pesticide spraying. Caution is being taken to use the insecticides sparingly in order to reduce any harmful effects on human beings.
The FY 2019/20 has seen government fail to meet its targets in regards to revenue collections, a situation that has led to constraints on spending. This, in turn, will affect its flexibility in addressing emergencies of this kind. Even in the event of food assistance, it may be unable to provide full relief for affected citizens. To add to that, in the previous FY 2019/2020 there were several shocks in the economy from drought to floods. As a result, the government spent resources to curb these effects. With another shock of a similar manner, it will have to borrow money to mitigate this further leading to a contraction of the fiscal space in Kenya.
Long term effects
A study done by the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) in 2012 correlates school attendance with the availability of food in Mali and Niger. A majority of breadwinners in these countries are in the agricultural sector. Loss of income as a result of locust invasions led to them excluding their children from school. On the same breath, with a decline in the availability of food, children themselves are too weak to concentrate in class and thus end up dropping out on their own volition.
Pregnant mothers and children who need proper nutrition for suitable future growth and development are an affected group. This ends up interfering with the quality of human resources available in the long run. There are similarly long term health complications, mortality and retarded growth for the children. According to research done by Kenya Medical Research Institute in 2019, malnutrition is considered a leading factor in child mortality.
Economics of desert locust control and policies to mitigate the effects of the desert attacks.
Unlike other pest controls that are often left to the farmers or landholders to deal with on their own, locusts are treated as a national, regional and global responsibility. Locust’s control is considered a public good, denoting that it has negative externalities in other countries. A public good is a product in which an individual can consume without reducing its availability to others and of which no one is inhibited from using it. In this case an invasion in one country has negative externalities in other countries if it is not controlled.
The challenges in locust control stem from:
• The speed at which these locusts migrate and reproduce.
• Weak state capability in neighbouring countries
• Lack of funding for pest control
• Difficult in monitoring the remote and sparsely populated areas where locusts often breed (MIERS, 2002).
• Changing climatic conditions that create uncertainty about future changes in the behavior of the desert locust
Pest control requires the use of scarce resources and this constraint must inform the decision that they must be allocated efficiently. The important questions to consider in determining which method is best when allocating these resources to controlling desert locusts are:
• Should we offer preventive measures?
• Should we respond with control measures?
• Should governments offer a market-based solution such as crop insurance?
• Or should citizens sit it out and let it be in order to determine if the costs are greater than the benefits or vice versa.
At the core of these questions is the stage at which a country is in, in regards to the life cycle of the locusts while bearing in mind that they are mobile and cross borders easily. For that reason, the invasion stages may vary for neighbouring countries on the same date. The invasion could be largely dissipated in one country and yet another neighbour would be in the midst of rapid reproduction and movement of the swarms. It is also essential to note that every succeeding generation is estimated to be 20 times as large as its predecessor.
The table below depicts the Invasion stages and how it varies in countries in East Africa in February 2020.
At the breeding stage, the proper control would be to offer preventive measures such as monitoring and controlling the breeding grounds to prevent an outbreak and to contain them in the area. Terminating them at this point is important due to their life span and the fact that they breed at such a fast rate. It is efficient to control their growth at this point. However, according to FAO’s director Keith Cressman, prevention seems not to attract a lot of funding as most governments respond too late and are activated to funding elimination after big outbreaks. (Anon., 2020)
At the early stage, the most efficient method to adopt in the event of an outbreak requires measures such as aerial spraying or provision of food assistance to those areas. However, governments are also quite slow in their execution of this. Today there is hardly any data to show the relationship between the reductions of desert locust populations by control measures against the resources used. Subsistence agriculture is the main practiced form of agriculture in these countries also takes into consideration that a lot of the farmers are not insured.
When the warnings were being issued to Kenya in November 2019, the country did not respond but committed Kshs.30 million three months later. With hindsight, this amount would have probably been enough if it helped Ethiopia in the early stages of invasion before the locusts developed another generation of offspring. In February 2020, it is estimated that Kshs.7 billion is needed by the East African countries to manage this crisis and so far only the United Nations has offered Kshs.1 billion to assist in aerial spraying. (African, 2020).
Similarly, the late response from Kenya means that the invasion will probably reach Uganda within a couple of months. If Uganda would take anything home it would be to chip through a coordinated regional initiative and help Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia to suppress and manage these swarms so as to prevent them from spreading in the country and cause uncontrollable damage. It is recorded that in favourable conditions each generation of locusts will be about 20 to 25 times larger than the last. (Anon., 2020)
What is apparent then is, the economic approach to the control of locust invasion is dependent on where along the cycle a country lies. The fact is that the probability and damages of locust invasions happening from time to time is high, therefore countries must come together to control the locusts. The invasion and speed of the reproduction of the pests confirm that locust control is a public good.
Conclusion
Recent conversations concentrated on the movements of the locusts and what the government is doing or has done so far. It would be proper to examine further the direct and indirect implications of this invasion owing to the known fact that it could be the most devastating in Kenya’s history. There is no doubt that the scale of the locust invasion makes its control a public good that requires careful assessment of the stage of invasion and application of the most efficient remedy. The discussions on insects being introduced as a source of food have been an ongoing discussion in the past few years. Locusts can be considered as a cheap source of food as they are rich in proteins. Today, they are a delicacy for various people in different parts of the world including some individuals in Kenya.
The primary issue now is to prevent further escalation in their reproduction through dedicated spraying and thereafter a proper early warning system for the region.
References
(IRD), I. d. R. p. l. D., 2012. Invasion of locusts: A lasting Impact., Marseille France: Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD).
African, T. E., 2020. The East African. [Online]
Available at: https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/ea/UN-releases-fund-aerial-spraying-against-east-africa-locusts/4552908-5430094-2t7lif/index.html
[Accessed 04 February 2020].
Anon., 2020. Locust in Africa, Severe Swarms. The Economist, Issue Into the Unknown, p. 46.
BBC news, 2019. BBC news. [Online]
Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-50345204
[Accessed 3 February 2020].
Media, S., 2017. Standard Media. [Online]
Available at: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001235798/for-the-love-of-khat-70-000-hectares-devoted-to-growing-this-plant
[Accessed 16 January 2020].
Nation, D., 2016. Daily Nation. [Online]
Available at: https://www.nation.co.ke/business/seedsofgold/Forget-Meru-I-grow-miraa-in-Homa-Bay/2301238-3036522-6032uuz/index.html
[Accessed 22 January 2020].
Organization, F. a. A., 2004. Food and Agriculture Organization. [Online]
Available at: http://www.fao.org/ag/locusts/oldsite/LOCFAQ.htm#q9
[Accessed 14 January 2020].
Project, T. B., 2018. The Borgen Project. [Online]
Available at: https://borgenproject.org/top-10-facts-about-hunger-in-kenya/
[Accessed 22 January 2020].
Statistics, K. N. B. o., 2019. Economic Survey 2019, Nairobi: Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.
http://www.fao.org/ag/locusts/oldsite/LOCFAQ.htm#q7
https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001235798/for-the-love-of-khat-70-000-hectares-devoted-to-growing-this-plant
http://www.kalro.org/node/248
https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001356601/treasury-releases-sh30-million-to-fight-desert-locust
Case Adjournments is one of the key issues that contributes to case backlogs because it reduces the efficiency of courts. An adjournment in a legal setting involves pausing or temporally stopping ongoing proceedings to be continued at a later time, date, or location. It may also indicate the end of the day’s proceedings. Parties involved […]
Introduction In February 2023, the Kenyan government announced its intention to establish a framework that will enable Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (SACCOs) to extend loans to each other. This inter-Sacco lending framework shall be set up by the Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA) and was anticipated to be in effect from August 2023. This […]
While Kenya has long implemented the NHIF (National Hospital Insurance Fund) whose core mandate is to provide medical insurance coverage to all its members and their declared dependants and also to make medical care affordable, enrolment rates, particularly in the voluntary and informal sectors, remain low. Yet, NHIF is the most common type of health […]
Introduction According to the United Nations, Double Taxation Agreements (DTAs) are “bilateral agreements between two countries which allocate taxing rights over income between those two countries thereby preventing double taxation of income. The main objective of DTAs therefore, is to prevent and or eliminate avoidance and evasion of taxes on income and capital by both […]
Courts as Monopolies Access to justice is fundamental in any democratic society, ensuring individuals can pursue their legal rights and seek redress for grievances. However, when courts operate as monopolies, it can have implications for access to justice. Monopolies have exclusive control or dominance over a particular market or industry. Courts are monopolies because they […]
Post date: Wed, Feb 12, 2020 |
Category: Economic Policy |
By: Fiona Okadia, |
The earliest recorded desert locust invasions in Kenya were in the years 1928, 1931 and 1932. That record suggests that the magnitude of the invasions in 2020 is unprecedented in regard to duration, the magnitude of the swarms and the spatial coverage. The risk of invasion occurred in 2007 but was contained before it became severe. Kenya is a member of the Desert Locust Control Organization for Eastern Africa, which was formed in 1962 after the 1961 and 1941 invasions that were both catastrophic characterized by severe hunger and drought.
After 12 years, the desert locusts are back in Kenya and have been detected in 14 counties by the first week of February 2020. These swarms have now started to breed, owing to the favourable conditions that obtain in eastern Africa after abundant rains during the last quarter of 2019. All this had been foreseen when on the 8th of November 2019, the UN had issued a warning to Kenya, Sudan and Eritrea on a probable locust invasion if the infestation isn’t managed whilst still in Ethiopia. (BBC News, 2019) It is estimated by FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization) that the locusts were eating 1.8 million tonnes of vegetation a day across 350 sq. km in Ethiopia.
The daily newspapers in Kenya have reported that due to inadequate action by the government to control these pests, residents of the 14 counties have resorted to using ineffective methods to chase them away. These methods include saying prayers, beating drums, whistles and shouting.
Desert locusts are known to live alone for most of their lives but occasionally move in swarms when conditions for reproduction become highly favourable. Desert locusts are not destructive as solitary insects but their abundance leads to the destruction of vegetation in a quick fashion that requires movement to find some more vegetation. This behavioural characteristic of mobility has implications for their control and for the economic damage that they can inflict.
Once the locusts congregate into swarms, they are often identified in 3 colours, the brown when living in solitude, and the pink when ready to mate and lay eggs and assume the bright yellow when they reach maturity. According to FAO, desert locusts can spread to more than 29 million square kilometres from their breeding sites during plagues. In a day, a swarm of desert locusts then travels a distance of between 5 to 130 kilometres or more at an average speed of 17 kilometres per hour of flight.
They devour every green food and non-food matter in their path and migrate when their food is exhausted in that specific area. They are known to turn into cannibals when the food in the area is exhausted. While they create the danger of food and farm losses, they constitute no direct danger to domestic animals or to humans.
Direct Economic Costs of the desert locust invasion
• Agriculture Output
Invasion of swarms of the Desert Locusts creates an immediate agricultural shock through complete or substantial devastation of food and non-food vegetation. They are a direct threat to food production because their vast numbers and consumption rates per day eventually lead to a decrease in the supply of food and possibly to reduced harvest which upset food supplies and inevitably cause increases in the price of agricultural produce. This is a double economic shock from the suppression of supply and the vicarious causation of price increases that subsistence farmers are most susceptible to.
Their average life span of the desert locust is three to five months, depending on the environmental conditions. The FAO estimates that a desert locust adult is known to consume roughly its own weight of two grams in fresh vegetation daily. Using this as a basis it means that one locust would end up consuming 60gms in a period of a month and 300gms during a lifespan of 5 months. A very small part of an average swarm (or about one tonne of locusts) eats the same amount of food in one day as about 10 elephants or 2,500 people. (FAO, 2004) A tonne of locusts consumes two tonnes of green matter per day. Considering an average lifespan of 5 months, one swarm shall have consumed 300 tonnes. The country has dozen of these swarms meaning that the damage is immense.
• Loss of income
According to FAO, more than 70% of Kenyans rely on agriculture as a source of living. Abundance in harvests leads to a sense of financial and food security for these families. This is also reflected in the fact that agriculture is the largest sectoral contributor to Kenya’s GDP.
Scenario:
In the table below, we explore the possible effects on harvest for two crops that are affected by the swarms that have passed over 14 counties by February 2020. It describes the average invasion losses per 70,000 hectares of land.
In December 2019, FAO estimated that the locusts had destroyed 70,000 hectares of farmland in Somalia and Ethiopia. In 2011, the average land under Miraa farming in Kenya was estimated to be around 70,000 hectares. In 2018, the average local price of a kg of Miraa stood at 500kshs per kg while that of export was Kshs1600. It is estimated that an average of a Miraa farmer in Kenya may get about Kshs.50, 000 a month from a one and a half acres holding of the mature crops. (Nation, 2016) This implies that farmers could lose Kshs.5.8 billion per 70,000 hectares of miraa. When examining the loss to the farmers, one must also consider the sunk costs which are initial costs such as ploughing the land, paying of labourers that the farmer will not recover due to lack of sales.
The Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) estimates that the national mean yield of maize is 2 metric tons per hectare. An average of 22bags per hectare. Average production of 1.54 million bags of maize on 70,000 acres. The average price of a bag of maize in Kenya is 2800shs denoting a value loss of about 4.3billion in sales.
Therefore inferring that the average damage of the locust invasion would most likely fall between Ksh4.3 billion and Ksh5.8 billion or more.
Indirect Implications
Locusts not only feed on food crops but also non-food crops that serve as pasture for animals. Pastoralists are mainly found in arid and semi-arid areas which are also the areas that the locusts have majorly attacked. Loss of pasture for animal keepers could cause the death of animals and deliver another shock to incomes and food availability. Over time other factors that start coming into play are such as soil erosion due to the destruction of vegetation in this areas-desertification. In a bid to control this new invasion in Kenya, the national treasury allocated Ksh.30 million in January. The money will be used mostly in aerial pesticide spraying. Caution is being taken to use the insecticides sparingly in order to reduce any harmful effects on human beings.
The FY 2019/20 has seen government fail to meet its targets in regards to revenue collections, a situation that has led to constraints on spending. This, in turn, will affect its flexibility in addressing emergencies of this kind. Even in the event of food assistance, it may be unable to provide full relief for affected citizens. To add to that, in the previous FY 2019/2020 there were several shocks in the economy from drought to floods. As a result, the government spent resources to curb these effects. With another shock of a similar manner, it will have to borrow money to mitigate this further leading to a contraction of the fiscal space in Kenya.
Long term effects
A study done by the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) in 2012 correlates school attendance with the availability of food in Mali and Niger. A majority of breadwinners in these countries are in the agricultural sector. Loss of income as a result of locust invasions led to them excluding their children from school. On the same breath, with a decline in the availability of food, children themselves are too weak to concentrate in class and thus end up dropping out on their own volition.
Pregnant mothers and children who need proper nutrition for suitable future growth and development are an affected group. This ends up interfering with the quality of human resources available in the long run. There are similarly long term health complications, mortality and retarded growth for the children. According to research done by Kenya Medical Research Institute in 2019, malnutrition is considered a leading factor in child mortality.
Economics of desert locust control and policies to mitigate the effects of the desert attacks.
Unlike other pest controls that are often left to the farmers or landholders to deal with on their own, locusts are treated as a national, regional and global responsibility. Locust’s control is considered a public good, denoting that it has negative externalities in other countries. A public good is a product in which an individual can consume without reducing its availability to others and of which no one is inhibited from using it. In this case an invasion in one country has negative externalities in other countries if it is not controlled.
The challenges in locust control stem from:
• The speed at which these locusts migrate and reproduce.
• Weak state capability in neighbouring countries
• Lack of funding for pest control
• Difficult in monitoring the remote and sparsely populated areas where locusts often breed (MIERS, 2002).
• Changing climatic conditions that create uncertainty about future changes in the behavior of the desert locust
Pest control requires the use of scarce resources and this constraint must inform the decision that they must be allocated efficiently. The important questions to consider in determining which method is best when allocating these resources to controlling desert locusts are:
• Should we offer preventive measures?
• Should we respond with control measures?
• Should governments offer a market-based solution such as crop insurance?
• Or should citizens sit it out and let it be in order to determine if the costs are greater than the benefits or vice versa.
At the core of these questions is the stage at which a country is in, in regards to the life cycle of the locusts while bearing in mind that they are mobile and cross borders easily. For that reason, the invasion stages may vary for neighbouring countries on the same date. The invasion could be largely dissipated in one country and yet another neighbour would be in the midst of rapid reproduction and movement of the swarms. It is also essential to note that every succeeding generation is estimated to be 20 times as large as its predecessor.
The table below depicts the Invasion stages and how it varies in countries in East Africa in February 2020.
At the breeding stage, the proper control would be to offer preventive measures such as monitoring and controlling the breeding grounds to prevent an outbreak and to contain them in the area. Terminating them at this point is important due to their life span and the fact that they breed at such a fast rate. It is efficient to control their growth at this point. However, according to FAO’s director Keith Cressman, prevention seems not to attract a lot of funding as most governments respond too late and are activated to funding elimination after big outbreaks. (Anon., 2020)
At the early stage, the most efficient method to adopt in the event of an outbreak requires measures such as aerial spraying or provision of food assistance to those areas. However, governments are also quite slow in their execution of this. Today there is hardly any data to show the relationship between the reductions of desert locust populations by control measures against the resources used. Subsistence agriculture is the main practiced form of agriculture in these countries also takes into consideration that a lot of the farmers are not insured.
When the warnings were being issued to Kenya in November 2019, the country did not respond but committed Kshs.30 million three months later. With hindsight, this amount would have probably been enough if it helped Ethiopia in the early stages of invasion before the locusts developed another generation of offspring. In February 2020, it is estimated that Kshs.7 billion is needed by the East African countries to manage this crisis and so far only the United Nations has offered Kshs.1 billion to assist in aerial spraying. (African, 2020).
Similarly, the late response from Kenya means that the invasion will probably reach Uganda within a couple of months. If Uganda would take anything home it would be to chip through a coordinated regional initiative and help Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia to suppress and manage these swarms so as to prevent them from spreading in the country and cause uncontrollable damage. It is recorded that in favourable conditions each generation of locusts will be about 20 to 25 times larger than the last. (Anon., 2020)
What is apparent then is, the economic approach to the control of locust invasion is dependent on where along the cycle a country lies. The fact is that the probability and damages of locust invasions happening from time to time is high, therefore countries must come together to control the locusts. The invasion and speed of the reproduction of the pests confirm that locust control is a public good.
Conclusion
Recent conversations concentrated on the movements of the locusts and what the government is doing or has done so far. It would be proper to examine further the direct and indirect implications of this invasion owing to the known fact that it could be the most devastating in Kenya’s history. There is no doubt that the scale of the locust invasion makes its control a public good that requires careful assessment of the stage of invasion and application of the most efficient remedy. The discussions on insects being introduced as a source of food have been an ongoing discussion in the past few years. Locusts can be considered as a cheap source of food as they are rich in proteins. Today, they are a delicacy for various people in different parts of the world including some individuals in Kenya.
The primary issue now is to prevent further escalation in their reproduction through dedicated spraying and thereafter a proper early warning system for the region.
References
(IRD), I. d. R. p. l. D., 2012. Invasion of locusts: A lasting Impact., Marseille France: Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD).
African, T. E., 2020. The East African. [Online]
Available at: https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/ea/UN-releases-fund-aerial-spraying-against-east-africa-locusts/4552908-5430094-2t7lif/index.html
[Accessed 04 February 2020].
Anon., 2020. Locust in Africa, Severe Swarms. The Economist, Issue Into the Unknown, p. 46.
BBC news, 2019. BBC news. [Online]
Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-50345204
[Accessed 3 February 2020].
Media, S., 2017. Standard Media. [Online]
Available at: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001235798/for-the-love-of-khat-70-000-hectares-devoted-to-growing-this-plant
[Accessed 16 January 2020].
Nation, D., 2016. Daily Nation. [Online]
Available at: https://www.nation.co.ke/business/seedsofgold/Forget-Meru-I-grow-miraa-in-Homa-Bay/2301238-3036522-6032uuz/index.html
[Accessed 22 January 2020].
Organization, F. a. A., 2004. Food and Agriculture Organization. [Online]
Available at: http://www.fao.org/ag/locusts/oldsite/LOCFAQ.htm#q9
[Accessed 14 January 2020].
Project, T. B., 2018. The Borgen Project. [Online]
Available at: https://borgenproject.org/top-10-facts-about-hunger-in-kenya/
[Accessed 22 January 2020].
Statistics, K. N. B. o., 2019. Economic Survey 2019, Nairobi: Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.
http://www.fao.org/ag/locusts/oldsite/LOCFAQ.htm#q7
https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001235798/for-the-love-of-khat-70-000-hectares-devoted-to-growing-this-plant
http://www.kalro.org/node/248
https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001356601/treasury-releases-sh30-million-to-fight-desert-locust
Case Adjournments is one of the key issues that contributes to case backlogs because it reduces the efficiency of courts. An adjournment in a legal setting involves pausing or temporally stopping ongoing proceedings to be continued at a later time, date, or location. It may also indicate the end of the day’s proceedings. Parties involved […]
Introduction In February 2023, the Kenyan government announced its intention to establish a framework that will enable Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (SACCOs) to extend loans to each other. This inter-Sacco lending framework shall be set up by the Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA) and was anticipated to be in effect from August 2023. This […]
While Kenya has long implemented the NHIF (National Hospital Insurance Fund) whose core mandate is to provide medical insurance coverage to all its members and their declared dependants and also to make medical care affordable, enrolment rates, particularly in the voluntary and informal sectors, remain low. Yet, NHIF is the most common type of health […]
Introduction According to the United Nations, Double Taxation Agreements (DTAs) are “bilateral agreements between two countries which allocate taxing rights over income between those two countries thereby preventing double taxation of income. The main objective of DTAs therefore, is to prevent and or eliminate avoidance and evasion of taxes on income and capital by both […]
Courts as Monopolies Access to justice is fundamental in any democratic society, ensuring individuals can pursue their legal rights and seek redress for grievances. However, when courts operate as monopolies, it can have implications for access to justice. Monopolies have exclusive control or dominance over a particular market or industry. Courts are monopolies because they […]