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Fuelwood Crisis in Molo, Kenya by Fredrick Kabare
[top] [end]A Consumers Point of ViewTo get to Molo, one has got to travel about 40km west of Nakuru. It is part of the highlands of the great Rift Valley. Before Kenya became independent, the British settlers lived and owned large scale farms in Molo. The settlers had cattle for milk, sheep and pigs for meat and there was a lot of wheat and pyrethrum.Soon after independence, the British settlers moved out and the farms were sold to indigenous people (Kenyans). The people formed Cooperative Societies, bought and then divided the farms among the members. The farms were subdivided into small plots of one acre or two although some people got more than that according to the shares one had bought. The new families moved in to start a new generation of peasants (you can call them small farmers). One such farm is Mong Farm about 10 km from Molo. Mr Fredrick and his family of six come from this village. His wife Mrs Alice Kabare stays in the village together with their five children. Mr Kabare is a driver. He works in Nairobi about two hundred kilometres from Molo. He joins his family once every two weeks. Mrs Kabare is a housewife up there in Molo. She takes care of the children and one cow that they have kept in their one acre plot. The cow is on what they call Zero grazing. In her shamba Mrs Kabare plants potatoes and maize, but to keep the cow feeding she has to look for some other means of getting food for it. But one big problem for Mrs Kabare is that of getting firewood for cooking. The only place that one can get firewood is in the Government forest. The forest is about 9 km from Molo village. And so Mrs Kabare, in the company of other women, sets off very early in the morning to go to the forest. They get in the forest before 7 am in the morning. They must carry with them the licence to allow them to pick dry and fallen bits of firewood. The forest ranger is always checking and they can be arrested if they are found not to have the licence. After roaming in the forest for more than three hours they have the firewood on their backs and - the journey back home starts. Molo is part of the highlands and the journey back is not a joke especially if you have been carrying the wood since childhood. Mrs Kabare has hurt her back early last year. Some women from the village have had even worse experiences. A few of them had to spend months in the hospitals with injured spines. In fact when you talk to them you hear of more such cases. The firewood obtained from the forest will last for a few days. The three stone fireplace takes all the firewood, because it's cold the people still find it better for keeping them warm as they cook. For that reason, Mrs Kabare goes to pick firewood twice in a week. Do not be surprised because to cook a meal of the local food "Irio" that is maize and beans, you need a lot of firewood. The only hope now, is the introduction of energy saving wood burning Jikos. It is not easy to use the available charcoal burning stove. The reason is that Molo is densely populated and it is not possible to get a bag of charcoal, so as the population continues to swell the struggle for firewood continues. [top] [end]Contents: Boiling Point 16: Muds, Clays and Metals for Stove Making
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Page created:
27 August 2008; Last edited:
27 August 2008; Version: 0 | |||||||||
Pagename: BP16:FuelwoodCrisisInMoloKenya @HEDON: UENA | |||||||||
