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Helen Muga, Ahero, western Kenya

Helen Muga, Kenyan business woman and politician.My name is Helen Muga, I am a businesswoman and politician.

I lead women in political matters, so that we … can ensure the politicians know where they have not served us well.
I also farm maize, beans and rice, but nowadays the harvest is not very good at all.
A few years ago, we used to get good harvest but recently there has been a lot of heat and whenever you plant within a short time the crops begin to dry up; when it rains the floods soak the crops and they become unhealthy as well.
Some time back we had a lot of trees but they were cut down by people so we no longer get adequate rain. Whenever you plant, the crops start well but after about two months it begins to wilt so we don’t get enough food. Also here in Kano plains (western Kenya), our soil is not fertile because when there is heavy rain the rainwater washes away all the top soil and sometimes even the crops so the land has become very unproductive.
Also the sun heats up our soil very fast. Like now when it is raining, the soil is okay but if it doesn’t rain for just two weeks, the ground will have so many cracks and all the crops dry up. So we should like to get fast maturing crops which can be ready in two months so that we could be able to harvest even with our little rain and benefit a bit.
In the past it was so good, there were many trees, the air was fresh and even the environment here was very nice but the way people have cut down trees so much and other people just leave their cattle to graze anywhere even on people’s farms, we don’t profit at all.
In this area we use water for irrigation and at one time the government stopped helping us in this irrigation programme so for some time in fact we had stopped planting rice, people lacked food and there was serious famine. Thank God this year we have seen the project restarted by our Member of Parliament and we had a wonderful harvest last season.
Irrigation is very important for rice farming. In fact we would like it more. In fact I would urge every person in this area to embrace it because irrigation is the only way to farm if you are to get anything. You cannot rely on rain alone in this area.
You know when people cut down trees, we can never have rain. Since time immemorial, it’s the trees that brought rain but recently people have invaded this area with their power saws and they fell down all trees until our land has remained naked, we are no different from a desert.
I try to make sure i plant as many trees as possible so that rain does not continue disappearing. There is another thing i am forgetting that is giving us problems, you see these sugar factories around here [Muhoroni, Kibos, Chemelil], there is so much smoke they are letting into the air and even the sewage that they let into our local River Nyando is becoming another serious problem to our lives.
They are dumping all their waste in the Nyando, and this is the water that we use for our domestic needs. I am telling you during the dry season you cannot use that water because it is very dirty. It is water you can’t use since you may be very sick, you know those are bad chemicals.
Translated from Swahili and Luo by Sam Otieno.