Social economic context
- Culture
Kenya is a country with many small communities with different cultures and traditions. It is a tribal country, where the biggest part is catholic.
- Politics
It is a democratic republic, with Uhuru Kenyatta as president. He was elected in 2013, but there has been criticism on several laws he signed, which seemed to infringe on democratic freedom. The country is quite stable.
The borderparts with Somalia are coloured red in the advise from the foreign relations ministry. This is a "don't travel" advise. Bondo, where we will be staying, is coloured yellow. This means some attention is needed but it is okay to travel there.
- Social economical situation
In central and east Africa, Kenya has the highest GDP. However, the Human Development Index is very low. The HDI is a statistic of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators. The agricultural sector is very big but inefficient. Kenya has a market-based economy.
- Climate condition
Kenya lies on the equator, where there is a warm and humid tropical climate. Bondo is close to the Lake Victoria, where the climate is mostly humid.
- Language
Swahili is used as the national language of Kenya along with English, the official language.
- Health
There is a lot of malaria. 16 % of the adults are HIV-infected. Health standards in Kenya are different than what we're used to. Some attention is needed to prevent food poisoning e.d.
Current situation
At the University of Bondo, the current situation is not really stable. Students have been rioting and the University was closed. The students were rioting because of the contested position of the Students’ association Secretary General in the elections that had taken a tribal dimension. Slowly the students are allowed to return in school. Half of November all the students will be joining classes again.
Although the value agriculture adds to the GDP has been increased over the past few years, agriculture is still one of the main incomes in Siaya County.
Previous Projects
Laurens Matla and two other TU Delft students have been in Nairobi before to write their business proposal about greenhouse farming. In short follows their idea. ‘A plot of land will be leased, on which seven 8mx30m greenhouses will be constructed and made available for renting. Upon renting for a fixed monthly price, the smallholders will be provided with the necessities for running a greenhouse, support in exploiting a greenhouse and management of finances. In the end, they will be sufficiently trained, have adequate experience and will have been able to build up enough capital to buy a greenhouse. They will then be able to buy and run their own greenhouse, making place for new renters,’ (Laurens, Arwen, Marc, 2014). Their project was the base of this project, so our team is going to use as much information from their research as we can get.