Pursuant to our previous post, we have decided to move the entire Green Kenya initiative from GOOD to GREAT. That calls for site-wide changes, in order to attain our stated objectives.

Well, all through this month,  we are incorporating Green Kenya into the larger Complit Communications, to better accommodate many of our green initiatives.

As a first step, we have moved the blog to this new address.

Please update your bookmarks and RSS readers to ensure you never miss a thing.

We shall keep you posted on the other developments as they are implemented.

Straight from the Heart, Straight to the Point

Well, this is a quick blog post that carries so much weight, it’ll be replicated on the Walkabout as well as Complit Design.

Beginning July 6, I took time off because I saw the need to take a completely new approach to running things at Complit Communications. Much of this was partly inspired by the knowledge that The End of Something inevitably means the Beginning of Everything… if one takes the necessary steps to make that happen.

Good to Great

A more compelling reason to repurpose and refocus was reading ‘Good to Great’ by Jim Collins. I haven’t read the entire book, but its basic premise is that the curse of competence makes many people settle for just being good. That is essentially why many never become great – they are just content being good.

Additionally, I have been reminded that greatness is not a function of circumstance but a matter of conscious choice. That said, a great vision without great people is irrelevant. In line with this, I had to take time so as to decide on what needs to be done to realize greatness.

Less is More

According to Nido Qubein, “Nothing can add more power to one’s life than concentrating all their energies on a limited set of targets.”

For this reason, I’ve had to drop some projects. I need to concentrate more on that which makes more sense, matters most and I can be passionate about.

Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

Being in the creative field, I believe that David Ogilvy’s advertising mantra pretty sums up what I have in mind:

Research: coming, as he did, from a background in research, he never underestimated its importance in advertising. In fact, in 1952, when he opened his own agency, he billed himself as research director.

Professional discipline: “I prefer the discipline of knowledge to the anarchy of ignorance.” He codified knowledge into slide and film presentations he called Magic Lanterns. He also instituted several training programs for young advertising professionals.

Creative brilliance: had a strong emphasis on the “BIG IDEA.”

Results for clients: “In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.”

Back to Basics

In the realms of greatness, I am keen not to lose sight of the fact that “the only way to remain great is to keep applying the fundamental principles that made me great.”

In days to come, we shall have posts that will add more value and which reflect this new purpose.

Thank you for your support, looking forward to your comments, suggestions and sharing.

To Learn and Share

When we started Green Kenya, our core mission was to highlight, discuss and share information on issues touching on how we interact with our environment, manage natural resources and lead healthy lives.

Times have changed, but we have not deviated from our stated objective. We continue to steadfastly lobby for increased use of renewable energy, water conservation, better management of waste disposal, healthy living and other ethical and sustainable practices.

Sustainable Initiatives

In line with this objective, we have written about green houses, biogas plants, photovoltaic installations, wind energy, seedlings, tree planting and other initiatives.

These posts have continually elicited enquiries both in the comments sections and via Email, from potential customers who would like to either get professional advise on how to set up a green house, plant trees, install a solar power or water heating system or generate biogas in their farms.

Connect with Highly Targeted and Qualified Customers

At Green Kenya, we strongly believe in learning and sharing. To this end, we  are setting up a directory of Agribusiness service providers, consultants and individuals or companies who do renewable energy installations. In addition, we shall frequently profile these service providers, for our readers to gain a better understanding of what services and/or products are offered.

Green Kenya prides itself in having a targeted global audience that is actively seeking, and intend to share useful information. Our readers also seek to make positive change in their lives by implementing some of the Green Kenya initiatives.

We are offering you a valuable opportunity to showcase your products and services globally, and to connect with this highly targeted audience.

Introductory Offer

Throughout July, we shall list all agribusiness service providers and consultants in the Green Kenya  “Service Providers” directory at absolutely no cost.

Additionally, we shall profile these service providers on the Green Kenya site.

Limited Time Offer

This free publicity is for a limited time only, contact us for more details:

Green Kenya
Complit Communications
Email: info@complitcommunications.com
Cell: +254-725122450, +254735122450

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Leaving the City

When I left Nairobi for shagz [rural home] in late 2007, I never knew just how much I’d enjoy living away from the hustle and bustle of the big city. Suddenly, life was very affordable, simple and much better in innumerable ways.

Much of what happens on this blog is a direct consequence of leaving the city. Otherwise, I was happily paying my electricity bills, using LPG gas and quite content with the single tree that I only saw within our plot while I took my clothes out to dry. In fact, I never once sat under that tree.

Open Spaces, Expanded Horizons

It is a fact that the rural areas actually sustain the cities. Food is delivered every day to the cities, from both small and large scale farms in the rural areas.

People who live in the rural areas would be more interested in green houses, biogas installations, tree planting among other initiatives. This is largely because they do have the farms to do these things or are forced owing to the absence of the conventional utilities such as electricity from the grid.

Personally, I have opted to use a combination of solar, wind and biogas energy because I am persuaded that it is the right thing to do. Electricity is less than 100m from where I live, but I still opt to make the investments into the aforementioned energy sources for ethical reasons. Having an advantage of time, I hope to live long enough for these investments to pay back… but I digress.

Living far from the cities accords those who are interested, a rare opportunity to actually try out all the things one can possibly do to live a simple, albeit self sustaining life. It is for this reason that we feel that there is need to look at the development of rural areas as a direct result of these initiatives.

Rural Development

I have always maintained that a very effective way to reduce poverty and empower young persons is making it possible for them to earn without necessarily working in towns and big cities. Let me give one example that has worked really well.

The rural electrification project that was started in 2003 in Kenya has really localized development in the country. Young men can now engage in gainful self employment such as kinyozis, welding, selling and repairing electronics, rearing chicken, and many other activities that are primarily driven by electricity.

In Finland, it became a legal right for every citizen to access broadband internet beginning last week. This essentially means that those who live in the rural areas can get things done online without expensive and time consuming commute to the cities where speeds are obviously higher.

The Neglected Masses

The majority of any country’s population live in the rural areas. These are the guys who work behind the scene and make the cities and those who live in them carry on in life.

This series of posts focusing on rural development will  highlight the gains made so far in developing our rural areas, as well as mentions of what needs to be done.

We look forward to your thoughts.

The UNESCO MAB Programme

The UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme, seeks to improve people’s relationship with the environment throughout the world. It was launched in 1970.

This is achieved through establishment of protected areas that represent main ecosystems of the planet in which genetic resources can be protected, with research and monitoring being carried out.

The George Wright Society web site has full details on the UNESCO MAB Programme.

The 2010 Laureates

At a meeting held in Paris from 31 May to 4 June, the laureates for the 2010 Young Scientist awards and the Michel Batisse award were announced by the International Coordinating Council of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere programme (MAB).

They are:

Maria Jose Lopez (Argentina): Attitudes of the population towards environmental conservation in the Parque Atlantico Mar Chiquito Biosphere Reserve;

G. Fifanou Vodouhe (Benin): relations between tourism and biodiversity conservation in the Pendjari biosphere reserve;

HaiQian Li (China): A model of sustainable economic development involving different stakeholders: a comparative study of the Lake Heilongjiang Xingkai biosphere reserve and the Miyun water resource reserve in Beijing;

Fiby Adib (Egypt): a comparative economic assessment of two Ramsar (international Convention on wetlands) sites and the Omayed biosphere reserve;

Amélie Le Ster (France/Argentina): participatory management of a biosphere reserve, pilot study in the Yungas biosphere reserve (Argentina);

Alex Asase (Ghana): Impact of land use change on plant diversity and carbon storage in the Bia Biosphere Reserve;

Ari Kurnia (Indonesia/Malaysia): contribution of the Tasik Chini biosphere reserve to the development of the local economy;

Joachim Makori (Kenya): impact of climate change on the Malindi-Watamu biosphere reserve;

Salama El Fatehi (Morocco): evaluation of the genetic resources of a threatened legume species (Vesce vicia ervilia) in the Mediterranean Intercontinental biosphere reserve (Morocco-Andalusia/Spain);

Llewellyn Foxcroft (South Africa): Non-native species as a driver of global change: unravelling the dynamics and risks of plant invasions using molecular techniques.

Green Kenya takes this opportunity to congratulate the above laureates, as well as wish them well in their future endeavor at making the world we live in a better place.

We do make special mention of Joachim Makori, who is both personally known to this writer as well as a fellow Kenyan. You can connect with Joachim on Facebook.

Playing our Part

We all need to play our role in conserving the environment and making the planet more sustainable.

Such simple acts as using renewable energy, planting more trees, conserving energy and better use of natural resources all go a long way towards this end.

If we each do a little more, we all do a lot more.

“Men who consume 2-3 servings of cooked tomatoes per week

I recently watched the following TED talk by William Li.

It is an insightful talk that emphasizes the need to look at the food we eat as chemotherapy, taken three times a day.

Watch the talk, read reviews or download the video on the TED web site.

Following are some highlights:

• Angiogenesis is the process of building blood vessels, by our bodies
• Abnormal angiogenesis is a common factor in over 70 diseases, be it excessive or insufficient angiogenesis
• Cancers start out as small microscopic tumors whose growth is limited to 0.5cubic mm. These cells are harmless and do exist in 100% of the population.
• Cancer cells grow when they get both nutrients and oxygen from the blood.
• Angiogenesis is the tipping point between harmless cancer and deadly cancer.

Causes of Cancer

Tobacco 25-30%

Infections 15-20%

Obesity 10-20%

Alcohol 4-6%

Diet 30-35%

Genes 5-10%

Others 10-15%

Can we eat to starve Cancer?

There are many foods that contain anti-angiogenetic components. Surprisingly, many are fruits, veggies and berries.

Examples: Red wine, soy beans, strawberries, grapefruit, lemons, apples, pineapple, kale, olive oil, tomatoes, garlic, lavender, pumpkins etc

It is worth noting that taken in significant amounts and in combination, these foods do have an effect that is far more effective than the sum of its parts, thanks to food synergy.

My take

You may be asking yourself why food is becoming such an important way of overcoming disease. The answer is actually in making the right choices about what one eats. Just consider the following:

“Discovery consists of seeing what everyone has seen,

and thinking what no one has thought.”

- Albert Szent-Gyorgi [1937 Nobel Laureate]

Back in the Day

As a kid, I was totally fascinated by the fact that bicycles fitted with dynamos would produce light at night as the owners rode along. Growing up, I remember reading many Science books, and gaining priceless knowledge that has largely influenced my lobbying for widespread use of renewable energy sources.

Connecting People… on the move

This week, the company that connects people has come up with hardware localizations for the African market. These are:

1. The unveiling of low-priced dual SIM Nokia [C class] handsets
2. The Nokia bicycle charger

Nokia has finally made an announcement that got me really excited, inasmuch as I nowadays charge my cellphones with solar-generated electricity.

The Nokia Bicycle Charger

The new bicycle charger is powered by a dynamo that is secured on the bicycle front wheel, as shown below:

Your handset rests in a holder that is secured on the bike’s handlebars. The charger will generate power to charge your cellphone using a 2mm charging jack.

The decision to come up with this new charging method was informed by the popularity of bicycles as a means on transportation and commute in many markets.

Following is a pic of the entire bicycle charger kit setup:

Read more details on the bicycle charger and dual SIM handsets in this Nokia Press Release.

Having mentioned privacy above, a hedge ensures no one can see through while beautifying your compound at the same time. Well trimmed cypress hedges, and many other varieties that have bright flowers really brighten one’s compound. The leafy, albeit thorny kei apple hedge presents thye best of both worlds – privacy and security.

More on this later on, let’s first look at the entire process:

Getting the Kei apple seeds

These are collected from the existing kei apple hedges. The key thing is to collect the already very ripe fruits, which have a deep yellow color. The intention here is to plant the seeds on the hedge-line itself and therefore eliminate nurseries and transplanting. Here are the seeds:

kei apple seeds

Once you have a substantial number of fruits, you have to extract the seeds by simply squeezing the ripe fruit. This can be a messy affair, as depicted in the following photo:

Squeezing the kei apple fruits to extract seeds

Preparing the hedge-line groove

The intention here is to plant these seeds where they’ll grow and mature into a hedge. The soil has to be soft and aerated.

To ensure that all is in a straight line, use a garden line as well.

Next, make a groove in the ground along a straight line, as shown below:

Sowing the seeds

You now have the option of separating the seeds from the fruity paste as shown below or just pouring the entire mixture in the groove.

I prefer to pour the mixture, the fleshy parts of the fruits and the peels just become some sort of nourishment for the germinating seeds. This is how everything looks like at this stage:

Covering the seeds… and some complementary hedge

The seeds should be covered with minimal soil for two reasons:

1. So that the the sun maintains warmth, a key requirement for quick germination
2. To ward off termites, that like to eat seeds that are too deeply sown, seeds that take long to germinate.

The following photo shows the final hedge.

The cuttings I added are of a different variety that bears no thorns, but often flowers. It is largely for aesthetic reasons, plus the fact that this other hedge matures much faster than the kei apple hedge.

Advantages of Hedges

So why my preference for, and insistence on hedges over fences?

1. Costs – Hedges cost much less than fences. Once you plant them, all you’ll need to do is prune them occasionally. Most hedges are drought resistant, so there’s usually no need to water them, save for the early stages before the cuttings produce leaves.
2. Privacy – Hedges are particularly leafy and can become really thick. A well trimmed hedge can be so dense that one cannot see the other side. That is why they are ideal in instances where you don’t want every passersby to see what is happening in your compound.
3. Bees and Flowers – At a time when the bee population is shrinking globally owing to destruction of their natural habitat, planting a hedge that will occasionally produce flowers that attract some worker bees in a noble effort toward ensuring there in more honey being produced by the bees.
4. Aesthetics – The leaves and flowers on most hedges do brighten one’s homestead or compound. As mentioned above, the same flowers are especially important to bees and birds that thrive on nectar.
5. Animal Control – In farms, straying animals can be a bother as well as a threat to you, your neighbors and your crops.
6. More Green – Hedges are yet another very welcome addition to the vegetation that is needed to consume atmospheric carbon dioxide and produce the oxygen that animals need to survive.

The above listing is in no way exhaustive. It however is a viable presentation of my case for hedges.

Are you in a position to plant a hedge somewhere? The time is now.

It is the green way to secure your compound or homestead. A green way to reduce your carbon footprint.

My Green Energy Dream

For a many years, I was unrelenting on my quest to use solar energy for both my lighting and computing needs. My plan has always been to complement this with some wind energy and ultimately, cook using biogas.

Having been away from the farm where I wanted to set all this up, the aforementioned remained a lofty dream… until now.

Necessity

For starters, living in houses which were already connected to the grid made me complacent. With time however, I started getting very frustrated by frequent power outages, very high energy bills, the occasional shortage of LPG gas and erratic power supply [read upsurges] which at one time fried my laptop charger.

Recently, I started setting up my Walden in a small farm on a hill. The place is relatively windy, and the sun shines nearly every day… except when it is raining or on cloudy days.

The Project Components

I have since acquired a solar panel, a power inverter, a lead-acid battery and done the necessary wiring in my cabin in readiness for this noble initiative.

Following are some pics:

All that remains is a charge controller, and the eventual mounting of the solar panel on the roof.

The Next Big Thing!

Soon after fully setting up the solar power project, I’ll make the wind turbine and thereafter, embark on a biogas project for heating and cooking.

Green is the way to go, despite the initial investment, life cannot be any better

KenGen harnesses Wind Power

For several months now, the Kenya Electricity Generating Company [KenGen] has been running a successful wind power generating station on Ngong Hills, Kenya. The station comprises six wind turbines and is rated 5MW.

This is a step in the right direction, a very commendable green effort in Kenya.

Several similar initiatives are being set up in Northern Kenya too, this will significantly contribute to the electrical power availed ton the grid.

The Mathematics of Wind Power

As a member of the Africa Wind Energy Association [AfriWEA], I have taken time to read about the viability of wind energy. This had led me to reading some valuable books and other online sources.

Today, I’ll share with you how to determine the amount of wind power you can generate from any one wind turbine. This both depends on where the turbine is located, and its size as well.

The information below is obtained from Alternative Energy Vol 3, published by Thomson Gale. You can get more information about this eBook at the Worldcat web site.

The wind energy transferrable to a wind turbine is detrmined by 3 factors:

1. Air Density – heavy air contains more energy than light air
2. Area of the rotor – the increase in the area a rotor covers increases with the square of the diameter
3. Speed of Wind – relationship between wind energy and wind speed is cubic

The Mathematics:

P = 0.5 r v3 p r2

where P equals power measured in watts; r or the Greek letter rho (ROH), equals the density of dry air in kilograms per cubic meter (1.225); v equals the speed of the wind measured in meters per second; p, or the Greek letter pi (PYE), equals 3.14159; and r equals the radius, or half the diameter, of the rotor in meters.

I long for the day when the arid Kenyan landscape will be put to good use like they have done in the USA:

Have a windy, productive day!