JAMUHURI MEDIA

                   Waa Ng’ombeni public participation By Caroline Katana Kwale County is set to make fresh spending decisions after Sh804 million in mining royalties became available outside its approved 2026/2027 budget, with residents pushing for the windfall to address pressing needs in their communities. The additional revenue, which includes the county’s share of royalties from Base Titanium, has prompted the county government to prepare a supplementary budget and seek residents’ views on how the money should be allocated. Speaking during a public participation forum at Kombani, County Attorney Salim Gombeni said the additional funds became available after the main county budget had already been approved. “We have Sh804 million that the County Government of Kwale received to supplement our budget through royalties from Base Titanium,” Gombeni said. At Waa Ng’ombeni Ward, residents presented proposals largely focused on ...

By Caroline Katana Kwale County has proposed the purchase of two fire engines among the projects to be considered in its supplementary budget, as public participation on the additional allocation continued in Tsimba-Golini Ward on Tuesday. County Attorney Salim Gombeni said the fire engines were among the county’s proposed priorities as residents were given an opportunity to identify projects they wanted considered in the supplementary budget. The county is seeking to allocate an additional Sh804 million in mining royalty revenue, with public participation providing communities with an opportunity to put forward their own development priorities. In Tsimba-Golini, residents from different village units identified roads, water and emergency medical services among the projects they want prioritised. In Golini, residents proposed the rehabilitation of a borehole at Golini Primary School, which they said broke down shortly after it was drilled and has since remained unusable. Sa...

  Customer Service Week launch at Kenya power office Diani  By Caroline Katan Kwale County is set to make fresh spending decisions after Sh804 million in mining royalties became available outside its approved 2026/2027 budget, with residents pushing for the windfall to address pressing needs in their communities. The additional revenue, which includes the county’s share of royalties from Base Titanium, has prompted the county government to prepare a supplementary budget and seek residents’ views on how the money should be allocated. Speaking during the launch at the Kenya Power Diani office, Kwale County Business Manager Eric Momanyi said customer cooperation had also contributed to the protection of the company’s infrastructure.            Kwale County Business Manager Eric Momanyi He said Kwale had not recorded any cases of cable or transformer theft so far this year, attributing the achievement partly to residents who report sus...

             Kwale County budget champions By Caroline Katana  Questions over county funding and gaps in the inclusion of persons with disabilities have emerged from a review of the Auditor-General’s report on Kwale County, prompting calls for stronger accountability and closer citizen scrutiny of public resources. Budget champions, civil society representatives, county officials and other stakeholders who met to examine the audit report said citizens should not limit their participation to public hearings but should also follow what happens to their proposals, county allocations and expenditure through implementation and audit. Patricia Kamende, a Budget Champion with the Coast Region Budget Hub, said the review had identified several issues requiring follow-up, including unresolved matters from previous audit reports. She said the discussion also raised questions over the amount of money expected by the county, the funds received and...

By Caroline Katana  Women and youth could play a bigger role in Africa’s growing fisheries economy if barriers to markets, finance, information and cross-border trade are addressed, according to stakeholders implementing a regional programme targeting more than 242,000 work opportunities. The African fisheries market is currently valued at about $22 billion annually and is projected to nearly double by 2030.  Yet women and youth, who account for about 70 per cent of employment in the sector, remain largely concentrated in lower-value activities such as fish processing and informal cross-border trade. Antony Mugambi, Kenya Country Team Leader at Kilimo Trust, said the gap between participation and economic benefit is one of the reasons the Women and Youth Economic Empowerment in Fisheries through Inclusive Market Access (WiFEMa) programme is focusing on women and young people across the fisheries value chain. “Women and youth in the value chain of fisheries are inv...

By Caroline Katana   Chamambo Mangale Ngati 57 year old has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of defilement in a case heard before Kwale resident Magistrate Joy Mutimba. The sentence was delivered on Thursday after the court considered the circumstances of the offence, the accused’s mitigation and a pre-sentence report. Ngati had been charged with defilement contrary to Section 8(1) as read with Section 8(3) of the Sexual Offences Act.  The charge particulars read in court stated that the offence occurred on October 9, 2025, in the Madingo area of Diani Location, Kwale County, involving a 13-year-old child. The court convicted Ngati on the charge before proceeding to consider the appropriate sentence. The prosecution told the court that Ngati had no previous criminal record and was a first offender. In his mitigation, Ngati told the court that he was the breadwinner for his family and was responsible for purchasing medica...

By Caroline Katana The income that once seemed out of reach for members of Okoa Bahari Self Help Group is now helping some of them keep their children in school. For years, the group raised mangrove seedlings but struggled to find someone to buy them.  Support under Plan International Kenya’s EcoSmart project, implemented under the wider COSME project, has since helped the members turn their conservation work into an income-generating activity, while beekeeping and village savings are giving families additional ways to meet their needs. Mataka Rajab, the group’s chairman, remembers how difficult it was for members to move their mangrove nursery work forward. They could plant and raise the seedlings, but finding a buyer or financial support to purchase them remained a challenge. “Whenever we established a nursery, it was difficult to find someone or a donor to help us buy the mangrove seedlings,” Rajab said. The situation changed in 2024 when Plan International Kenya beg...

               GMO community awareness walk By Caroline Katana  For years, genetically modified organisms (GMO) have been surrounded by questions, suspicion and competing claims in Kenya. In Kwale, a new conversation is taking shape—one that is shifting attention from rumours about genetically modified food to a more practical question: Can biotechnology help farmers produce more food in the face of pests, changing weather and declining yields? That question brought officials from the National Biosafety Authority (NBA), agricultural technology practitioners and community leaders to Kinondo for a public awareness campaign aimed at giving residents information about GMO technology. NBA Chairman David Wamati said biotechnology should be viewed as one of several tools Kenya can use to strengthen food security rather than as a replacement for traditional farming methods. He pointed to indigenous crops, irrigation, better roads and mark...

            Health stakeholders By Caroline Katana The growing burden of non-communicable diseases is putting pressure on Kenya’s health system and households, with stakeholders in Kwale calling for earlier screening, better access to medicines and stronger investment in services closer to patients. The concerns emerged in Diani during a health stakeholders’ meeting that brought together members of the Kwale County Assembly’s health and budget committees, the Kwale NCD Advocacy Group and NCD Alliance Kenya to discuss the rising burden of diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cancer and sickle cell disease. National Ministry of Health statistics presented during the meeting show that non-communicable diseases account for 74 per cent of deaths globally, 37 per cent of deaths in Africa and 43 per cent of deaths in Kenya.  More than half of hospital admissions are also attributed to NCDs. The national figures identify cardiovascular dis...

             Msambweni COSME  beneficiaries By Caroline Katana. When a development project ends, communities are often left with the difficult question of what happens next. For coastal women who have spent years farming seaweed and participating in conservation, the answer is beginning to take shape before the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Coastal and Marine Ecosystems (COSME) project closes. Funded by Global Affairs Canada and implemented by Plan International, the project was launched in 2023 and expected to end March 2027 is to  strengthen climate resilience through nature-based solutions while improving women’s economic empowerment and participation in decision-making in coastal communities in Kwale and Kilifi. As implementation winds down, women farmers and community organisations said  the project has left them with more than equipment.  They have gained skills, infrastructure, stronger community stru...