A Nairobi court this week temporarily suspended a Kenyan government plan to deploy 1,000 police officers to Haiti. The case was brought to court by three petitioners, including opposition politician and constitutional lawyer Ekuru Aukot, who told VOA the proposed deployment was unconstitutional. Analysts say there may be a way for the government to argue its case.

The ruling by the High Court of Kenya puts a hold on the deployment of police officers to Haiti or any other country, pending another hearing scheduled for October 24th. 

This will allow government officials to respond to the arguments made against them in the petition, the ruling shared with VOA says. 

The petitioners include opposition politician and constitutional lawyer Ekuru Aukot. The politician told VOA that although he cannot really discuss a matter that is actively in court, he maintains that the government’s plan to send 1,000 of its police to Haiti is not in line with the constitution.

“The whole thing is very un-procedural,” said Aukot. “It is unconstitutional. And for me, as a person who sat on the committee of experts and as a CEO to direct the writing of our current constitution, it behooves me to be able to point out an unconstitutional decision.”   

The U.N. Security Council last week approved a Kenya-led multinational security force aimed at helping the troubled Caribbean nation.

While many in Kenya question their country’s lead role in this mission, some have been supportive of President William Ruto. He says, “It’s a mission for humanity and … is of special significance and critical urgency” for Kenyans.

A representative from the Ruto government told us on Tuesday that the government will argue its case and abide by the court’s decision. 

Meanwhile, in the petition shared with VOA, Aukot cites two articles in the Kenyan constitution. They say that only Kenya Defense Forces can be deployed to another country and that the National Police Service will only function throughout Kenya. But…  “There is an inkling in Section 107 and 108 of the National Police Service Act, and it says the National Police may, it’s very discretionary, may be deployed but it has to be upon a request from a reciprocating government,” said Aukot. “And that’s one of the gists of the question we are raising, which I don’t want to discuss in detail because it’s a matter for determination.”

Haiti did ask for help but didn’t ask Kenya specifically and there is no reciprocal agreement between the two governments, Francis Khayundi, assistant professor of international law at the United States International University – Africa, told VOA. 

Khayundi says the court’s decision is in line with the petitioners’ argument on what processes had not been followed.

“For me looking at the petition and looking at what the laws provide, it makes sense because as it is, procedure was not followed or better yet, not all information is being given that would make us know why Kenya is getting involved,” said Khayundi.

But Khayundi notes there may be a way for the government to make its case. 

“Actually, there’s provision for the police to be deployed outside the country; however, this is a decision that has to be taken by the National Security Council; it’s informed by Article 240 of the Kenyan constitution. So far, we have not heard of any decisions being taken by the National Security Council to deploy the police, so I think that is where the issue is,” said Khayundi.

He says the NSC is a body established by the constitution that includes the president, his deputy, a few Cabinet secretaries, the attorney general, the director general of the national intelligence service, and the inspector general of the National Police Service. And so far, they’ve only mostly heard from the president and a few Cabinet secretaries making the case for deployment. 

 
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Packaging producers in Kenya have begun a campaign to collect each day 1,500 tonnes of empty beverage cartons and turn them into new products. Officials say the cartons account for 30 percent of the liquid packaging board produced in Kenya. Victoria Amunga reports from Thika, Kenya. Camera and edit: Jimmy Makhulo
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Niger’s junta has demanded that the top United Nations official there leave the country within 72 hours over accusations that Niger was excluded from the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders in New York last month.

Niger military officers ousted President Mohamed Bazoum in July, suspending the constitution, dissolving all former institutions and declaring General Abdourahamane Tiani as the West African country’s new head of state.

In a statement dated Oct. 10, Niger’s foreign ministry accused the U.N. of using “underhanded maneuvers” instigated by France to prevent its full participation in the high-level U.N. General Assembly meeting last month and in subsequent meetings of U.N. agencies that were held in Vienna and in Riyadh.

As a consequence, the government has ordered U.N. resident coordinator Louise Aubin to leave, said the statement.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres deeply regrets the move, said his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, reiterating “the unwavering commitment of the United Nations to stay and deliver for the people of Niger.”

“The decision … hampers the ability of the Organization to effectively carry out its mandates and disrupts the essential work we do for the people of Niger, where 4.3 million are in need of humanitarian assistance, mostly women and children,” Dujarric said.

No one from Niger addressed the gathering of world leaders in New York last month after competing claims were made by the junta and Bazoum’s government for the country’s U.N. seat.

U.N. accreditation issues are dealt with by a nine-member committee, whose members include the United States, China and Russia. The committee is not due to meet until October or November, when it will make a decision.

The French mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the accusation by the junta.

The junta is following a pattern seen in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, which also grew hostile to the U.N. and former colonial ruler France after their militaries seized power. Niger has already kicked out French troops and the French ambassador.

Burkina Faso expelled its U.N. resident coordinator last year and Mali ended a U.N. peacekeeping mission that had been there for a decade.

All three countries are struggling with an Islamist insurgency that has spiraled in recent years, prompting power grabs by army officers who promised to improve security.

The coups have been accompanied by accusations that France exerts too much influence in its former colonies, and a shift toward Russia as a strategic partner instead. France has denied exercising undue influence. 
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The head of the African Union Mission in Somalia has called for international support for Somali government forces who are battling the al-Shabab militant group on multiple fronts in the country.     

Mohamed El-Amine Souef says the Somali army needs not just training but weapons, equipment and skills for the officers, and lifting the arms embargo so that the country can buy weapons.   

In an interview with VOA Somali, Souef said Somalia has a “young force” and there is a responsibility on the international community to support not only force generation but also weapons and ammunition, and skills.   

“You saw what happened in Israel, the issue between Hamas and Israel, immediately their partners, including the United States, they immediately took [a] decision to support Israel in terms of weapons and ammunition,” he said, citing the Israel-Hamas war, which triggered the U.S. sending emergency military aid within a matter of days.

“I think the Somalis are now struggling with embargo … that embargo should be lifted.”     

Souef said some of the countries that sent troops to Somalia have agreed they will donate equipment, vehicles, and guns to the Somali army when they withdraw by December next year.    

He confirmed that the Africa Union Peace and Security Council has approved Somalia’s request for a three-month pause of the withdrawal of 3,000 peacekeepers. “It has been delayed officially for three months.”    

Asked if the Somali government is underestimating the magnitude of the task in taking over responsibilities from the AU and fighting al-Shabab, Souef said there is a “political will” in Somalia to take over security responsibilities from the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia.   

“The most important is the political will,” he said. “The political will is there, and then the Somalis don’t want to be assisted forever. They want to take their ownership. They are working very hard.”    

On Wednesday, a senior Somali government official welcomed the pause of the troops drawdown but expressed confidence the government will have enough troops in the coming months to resume responsibilities.     

Kamal Dahir Hassan Gutale, national security adviser to Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre, said the government has trained 9,700 soldiers since taking office in May 2022, and had an additional 3,000 troops trained in Eritrea.

He said there are more troops still being trained abroad.  

Gutale said the government is confident Somali troops will assume responsibility after the 90-day pause, and after completion of the next drawdown scheduled for June 2024, when 5,000 AU troops will be leaving.   

“It is something we are taking very seriously, and now it is our responsibility to fill the gap,” he said.   

Gutale said Somali forces have been shouldering double tasks — fighting al-Shabab and capturing large territories, while also training new forces.   

“SNA [Somali National Army] has liberated large territories from Mogadishu all the way to Harardhere, which is a tremendous and uphill task,” he said.      

Souef warned against underestimating al-Shabab, which he said conducts extensive training, and attempts to “dominate the terrain.”     

He said the group is getting weapons and are “very well-equipped.”   

“No, we are not underestimating al-Shabab, and nobody can underestimate al-Shabab,” he said. “I spoke with you earlier about what happened two days ago — Hamas is just such an armed group, movement, and you saw the damage they caused in Israel, while Israel is one of the most well-organized countries, well-equipped militaries and in terms of intelligence.”     

Souef said the AU troops are waiting for helicopters to arrive from Burundi, subject to clearance from the Somali government, to add to the two helicopters they already received from Uganda.   

“The helicopters will be here maybe within two or three weeks,” he said. “Once we have the helicopters, we will have the possibility to generate QRF [Quick Reaction Forces] and then we will be more mobile, agile and follow the SNA wherever they are fighting and to support them.”  
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Oliver Lutaaya, a food vendor and single mother of two, is one of 28 members of Uganda’s opposition National Unity Platform who have been arrested and accused of treachery and possession of ammunition following the country’s last general elections in 2021.

Human Rights Watch has said the vote, which President Yoweri Museveni won, was characterized by widespread violence and human rights abuses.

The 28 opposition members will appear before an army court-martial on Monday. It will be Lutaaya’s 24th time before the court-martial.

Lutaaya disappeared on May 8, 2021, after she received a call from an unknown person saying that her mobile number had been used in the theft of a motorcycle. She locked up her two children in their one-room house and went to meet the caller at the nearest police station.

Sarah Nambi, Lutaaya’s aunt, said she became concerned when she did not hear from her niece after that. Nambi said that three months later, she learned Lutaaya was being held at the Kigo government prison.

Later, when Lutaaya was moved to the Luzira Maximum Security Prison, Nambi went to visit her niece and learned more about the incarceration, she said.

Nambi said that Lutaaya told her she was accused of having an improvised explosive device, which she denied.

Lutaaya has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which carry the death sentence. A trial date has never been set because the prosecution says it is not ready to start the proceedings.

Meanwhile, Uganda celebrated its 61st Independence Day on October 9 under the theme, “Sustaining a united and progressive nation: Taking charge of our future as a free nation.”

Nambi scoffed at the theme. 

“It is a day of independence,” she said, “yet I have someone who isn’t independent. No.”

Nicholas Opio, a human rights lawyer, said that for those who have been subjected to alleged human rights violations, the independence slogan and celebrations mean nothing.

“Unless there is accountability … [for the] innocent people who are disappeared, who are tortured, who are extrajudicially killed by the state in the past elections … their families will continue to express discontent,” he said. “And I think in the future it will be bad for this country.”

Government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said those facing court-martial have similar rights as those before civil courts, including access to bail, lawyers, family members and an open trial, unless they haven’t called for one.

Opondo said that if the relatives choose, they can seek redress if they feel their loved ones are being treated unfairly.

Nambi said she hopes that she lives to see her niece free and reunited with Lutaaya’s 7- and-12-year-old children.
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The Rwandan government is trying to silence critics and dissidents living overseas through extrajudicial killings, kidnappings and intimidation, according to a report from Human Rights Watch.

The investigation, titled “Join Us or Die: Rwanda’s Extraterritorial Repression,” includes interviews with more than 150 people in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uganda and Zambia, and others related to them in Rwanda.

“It is a relentless attack on individuals using a multiplicity of tools and tactics to try and keep people silent,” report co-author Yasmine Ahmed told VOA.

Rwandan Patriotic Front

The report notes that Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and his ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front, or RPF, are often credited with rebuilding and reuniting the country after the 1994 genocide.

“However, the RPF, since it came to power in 1994, has also responded forcefully and often violently to criticism, deploying a range of measures to deal with real or suspected opponents, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, political prosecutions, and unlawful detention, as well as threats, intimidation, harassment, and physical surveillance. Such measures are not limited to critics and opponents within the country,” the report said.

“The control, surveillance, and intimidation of Rwandan refugee and diaspora communities and others abroad can be attributed in part to the authorities’ desire to quash dissent and maintain control,” it added.

Fleeing Rwanda

Human Rights Watch interviewed Noël Zihabamwe, a prominent member of the Rwandan community in Australia. He was a young boy at the time of the 1994 genocide, and saw family and friends killed in the violence.

Ten years later, in 2004, he fled the country after refusing to join Kagame’s ruling party, the RPF.

“I know many people have refused to become members [of the ruling party] and end up being jailed or disappearing. So that’s how I left Rwanda,” Zihabamwe told Human Rights Watch.

After he left, Zihabamwe says his two brothers and his nephew were arrested in Rwanda.

“They put them in the jail and then they tortured them. [My brothers] were with my brother’s first son, who was 19. So while they were in that jail they were asking them, “What kind of conversation do you have with Noël? What does Noël do for you? What does Noël tell you? What do you tell him? Tell me if there’s any plan that he has for you.” So they were pushing them, torturing them to make them to make a false statement,” Zihabamwe said.

The two brothers were released but then arrested again in 2019. Zihabamwe has not heard from them since. “There’s many, many, many thousands of people who have been disappeared. And they are still missing as we speak today,” he said.

Rwanda response

Yolande Makolo, a spokesperson for the Rwandan government, said in a statement:

“Human Rights Watch continues to present a distorted picture of Rwanda that only exists in their imagination.”

“Any balanced assessment of Rwanda’s record in advancing the rights, wellbeing, and dignity of Rwandans over the past 29 years would recognise remarkable, transformational progress. Rwanda will not be deterred from this work by bad-faith actors advancing a politicised agenda,” the statement read.

Global reach

Many of the Rwandan exiles targeted by the government are living elsewhere in Africa, according to the HRW report.

“Human Rights Watch documented five cases of killings, three kidnappings and attempted kidnappings, and at least six cases of physical assaults and beatings – some of which appeared to be attempted killings – of Rwandan permanent residents, refugees, and asylum seekers in Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda.”

“In some cases, the perpetrators spoke Kinyarwanda, Rwanda’s national language, or were suspected of working for the Rwandan government. Some of the victims were told they would be handed over to Rwanda or were accused of working against the Rwandan government,” the report said.

The targeting of critics is not limited to the African continent, says report co-author Yasmine Ahmed.

“We also see it in Europe, where we’ve seen that there have been threats to life warnings against individuals in the United Kingdom. We’ve seen individuals who’ve also had their family members targeted. We’ve had individuals who’ve been subject to the misuse of international law enforcement mechanisms,” Ahmed told VOA.

Interpol ‘Red Notice’

Human Rights Watch accuses Rwanda of abusing Interpol’s ‘Red Notice’ system of international arrest warrants.

The report highlights the case of Eugene Gasana, a former senior RPF official who was part of Kagame’s government and Rwanda’s permanent representative to the United Nations from 2009 until 2016. Gasana reportedly fell out with President Kagame over Kagame’s decision to amend the constitution and run for a third term in the 2017 election.

“[Gasana] was removed from his position as ambassador and summoned back to Kigali. He refused to return and applied for permanent resident status in the U.S. His application was approved on October 4, 2018,” the report notes.

Gasana was then accused of rape and sexual harassment by a former employee at the U.N. mission. A criminal investigation was launched by the New York County District Attorney’s Office but no charges were brought. A civil lawsuit against Gasana is ongoing.

In 2020, Rwanda’s prosecutor general issued an international arrest warrant. “An Interpol Red Notice was issued on August 14, 2020, which Gasana challenged,” the Human Rights Watch report noted.

“On June 29, 2021, an Interpol commission reviewed Gasana’s request and concluded that “there is a predominant political dimension to this case.” The commission ordered his files deleted from Interpol’s database, the Human Rights Watch report said.

‘Development darling’

Rwanda is seen as a key partner by many Western nations. President Kagame has overseen one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies, with annual economic growth averaging between 7 and 8 percent over the past two decades.

The international community has willfully ignored human rights abuses, says Ahmed.

“Rwanda can no longer be viewed as a development darling, as a star in Africa. Rwanda needs to be seen as is for what it is: a government that’s wholly repressive, particularly in relation to individuals that have expressed any form of dissent or even suspected of that dissent.”

“The time is now, if ever, that the governments across the world must stand up to this repression. Essentially what we’re seeing is because of the failure of governments – for their own interests – in standing up to Rwanda, we’ve seen Rwanda’s extensive abuses now being carried out globally,” she told VOA.
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Liberians went to the polls Tuesday to choose their next president, as well as 73 legislators and 15 senators.

Thousands of voters queued up at polling stations despite delays and procedural issues in Liberia’s fourth national election since the end of the civil war in 2003.

Campaigning for the election has been marred by political violence, leaving many people injured and at least two dead. However, one observer said the initial processes on election day have been peaceful.

Abdulai Masiyambay Bangurah, an observer for the Group of Seven Plus, an organization of 20 nations that are facing conflict or have done so recently, said that voting began on time at the four polling stations he visited.

“All of the places we have been, it has been very peaceful, and the voters have been very orderly,” he said.

But there were exceptions.

At the Monrovia Open Standard Church School polling center, tempers flared as voters argued with polling officers. The voters said a directive prohibiting the use of mobile phones in polling stations had not been communicated to them.

At the FMCA School polling station in Monrovia, about a thousand people stood in long queues for more than six hours after voting commenced.

Despite the long wait, voters said they were eager to make their voices heard through the ballot.

“I want to vote. I am feeling tired now, but I won’t go home,” said Albertah Toh. “I am going to vote because Liberia is all we have.”

The National Elections Commission said it will make sure all voters get to cast their ballots, even if it means keeping polling centers open past closing time.

“We will still run the process,” said Davidetta Browne-Lansanah, chairperson of the elections commission. “They just need to ensure that they are in the queue before the official voting time ends, which is at 6 o’clock, and all of those who are in the queue will get the chance to exercise their franchise.”

About 2.5 million Liberians were registered to vote in Tuesday’s elections.

The elections commission has urged voters to remain calm after voting and wait for official results to prevent disturbances.
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Plastic pollution is one of the major environmental problems facing the world today, with less than 9% of plastic waste getting recycled. To help cut plastic pollution, a Kenyan entrepreneur is upcycling plastic bottles to build benches and create sitting areas in schools. Juma Majanga reports from Ongata Rongai, Kenya.
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At least 27 people were killed, and more than 50 others were injured after floods devastated the Cameroonian capital of Yaounde and some surrounding neighborhoods Sunday. 

Heavy rains unleashed flooding in the district of Yaounde 2 near the capital, sweeping away buildings in a torrent of water and mud, reducing many to chunks of rubble. 

Adding to the disaster, the rising floodwater overwhelmed a dike built in the colonial era, and it gave way, releasing a manmade lake which swept several structures down a hill Sunday, according to Assola Joseph, a local leader in the Mbankolo neighborhood. 

The flood destroyed many buildings in the district and washed away at least 30 houses in the Mbankolo neighborhood, causing others to collapse with residents inside.

The search and rescue mission began Monday, with authorities still looking through the rubble “with the hope of saving lives,” said Daouda Ousmanou, the top government official in the district.

The bodies of flood victims have been laid out in a morgue, awaiting identification — while those injured were rushed to nearby hospitals, including Yaounde General Hospital which said it received 12 injured people, including a 7-year-old girl.

All those injured will be treated for free, according to Cameroon Territorial Administration Minister Paul Atanga Ngi. “I have come to extend the condolences of Cameroon President Paul Biya to the bereaved families,” he said Monday.

Flooding is common in Cameroon, especially in recent years, according to experts who point to the effects of climate change as the reason. Destruction from the flooding was exacerbated by low quality construction that circumvents local regulations. 

Cameroonian authorities have been demolishing houses and buildings recently in areas that are at high risk to flooding. Many of those that were destroyed in Sunday’s flooding had been marked for demolition.

Some information in this report was taken from The Associated Press and Reuters. 
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Less than a two-hour drive from where families sleep in tents and earthquake rubble remain in piles, the world’s most powerful financial institutions are gathering for a week of discussions on economic challenges during times of war, inequality and climate change.   

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank decided in 2018 to host their annual meeting in Marrakech, Morocco, bringing the affair to the African continent for the first time in 50 years.   

Their original timeline was delayed by the pandemic, but the meeting beginning Monday arrives at an apropos time. After a devastating earthquake last month killed nearly 3,000 and wreaked $11.7 billion in damages, both officials and civil society groups are eagerly anticipating discussions about how to promote economic resiliency in light of natural disaster.   

“In no other area is the need for international cooperation as evident as in addressing the existential threat of climate change. The world has a responsibility to stand with vulnerable countries as they deal with shocks they have not caused,” Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director said in a speech on Thursday.   

Often lenders of last resort, the IMF and the World Bank use billions in loans and assistance to buoy struggling economies and encourage countries operating in deficit to implement reforms they say promote stability and growth.   

Still, they’ve been criticized for excluding the neediest nations from their governance and decision-making process, demanding painful spending cuts.   

“It’s a time of multiple crises, particularly for Arab and African countries who’ve been hit by various exogenous shocks not of their making,” said Iskander Erzini Vernoit, the director of the Morocco-based Imal Initiative for Climate & Development. “’There’s this massive financing gap on the order of trillions for developing countries and also the key question of how affordable the financing can be.”   

Those shocks include the pandemic and rising energy and food costs spurred by the war in Ukraine. Those challenges are particularly pronounced in Africa, where many countries spend more on debt than health care and education combined. Critics say the terms of many loans offered force governments from Egypt to Zambia to choose between paying debt or implementing unpopular spending cuts.   

In the aftermath of the earthquake, the IMF approved a $1.3 billion loan to “help strengthen its preparedness and resilience against natural disasters” in Morocco — a longtime borrower who has used loans and credit to weather economic downturns, including most recently when the pandemic hit tourism and exports particularly hard. The institution has pushed Morocco to balance its budget and continue raising interest rates.   

In mountain villages far from the city’s swanky hotels, midrise apartments and billboards advertising new construction, roads remain unpaved, water can be scarce and jobs hard to come by. The earthquake, residents say, exacerbated disparities plaguing rural areas and compounded struggles facing already-impoverished communities.   

Signs of the country’s rapid economic development will be on display in Marrakech, where streets have been swept and damaged landmarks.   

But laid-off miner Brahim Ait Brahim — who lives in Anerni, a mountain village near the quake’s epicenter — said he’s still waiting for emergency financial and housing assistance one month after his house was destroyed in the earthquake.   

“That’s Marrakech. It’s the capital for tourism,” Ait Brahim said, describing it as the face of Morocco. “Here’s it’s hidden behind.” 

 
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A decapitated banana plant is almost useless, an inconvenience to the farmer who must then uproot it and lay its dismembered parts as mulch.

But can such stems somehow be returned to life? Yes, according to a Ugandan company that’s buying banana stems in a business that turns fiber into attractive handicrafts.

The idea is innovative as well as sustainable in the East African country. Uganda has the highest banana consumption rate in the world and is Africa’s top producer of the crop. Especially in rural areas, bananas can contribute up to 25% of the daily calorie intake, according to figures from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

In Uganda, eating bananas is in many ways embedded in local customs and tradition; for many a meal is incomplete without a serving of matooke, the local word for the starchy boiled mush made from banana cultivars harvested and cooked raw.

To harvest the crop, the stem must be decapitated, and in the largest plantations the scene can seem violent after a bumper harvest. The stems inevitably rot in open fields.

But local startup TEXFAD, which describes itself as a waste management group, is now taking advantage of this abundance of rotting stems to extract banana fiber that’s turned into items that would include hair extensions for women.

John Baptist Okello, TEXFAD’s business manager, told The Associated Press that the business made sense in a country where farmers “are struggling a lot” with millions of tons of banana-related waste. The company, which collaborates with seven different farmers’ groups in western Uganda, pays $2.70 for a kilogram of dried fiber.

David Bangirana, the leader of one such group in the western Ugandan district of Sheema, said only a small part of the inner stem of a decapitated plant is harvested for fiber. And the “residue is returned after machine work to the farmer for use as manure,” he said.

His group is working to build capacity to make finished products, he said.

TEXFAD also takes material from a third party, Tupande Holdings Ltd., whose trucks deliver banana stems from farmers in central Uganda. Tupande’s workers sort through the stems, looking for desirable ones. Machines then turn the fiber into tiny threads.

Aggrey Muganga, the team leader at Tupande Holdings Ltd., said his company deals with more than 60 farmers who continuously supply abundant raw material.

That number is only a small fraction of what’s available in a country where more than a million hectares are planted with bananas. Banana production has been rising steadily over the years, growing from 6.5 tons in 2018 to 8.3 tons in 2019, according to figures from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics.

“We extract fiber threads from the sheaths of the stem … So our contribution in the value chain is that we put extra income in the hands of the farmer. We turn this waste into something valuable that we sell to our partners who also make things,” Muganga said.

At a plant in a village just outside Kampala, the Ugandan capital, TEXFAD employs more than 30 people who use their hands to make unique and often attractive items from banana fiber. The rugs and lampshades they produce are especially attractive to customers, with the company now exporting some products to Europe.

Such items are possible because “banana fiber can be softened to the level of cotton,” Okello said.

Working with researchers, TEXFAD is now experimenting with possible fabric from banana fiber. While it is now possible to make paper towels and sanitary pads from banana fiber, the company doesn’t yet have the technology to make clothing, he said.

The company also is designing hair extension products it believes will help rid the market of synthetic products seen as harmful to the environment.

All products by TEXFAD are biodegradable, said Faith Kabahuma of the company’s banana hair development program, describing hair extensions that have done well in tests and soon will be available on the market.

“The problem with synthetic fiber, they do so much clogging like everywhere you go; even if you go to dig in the gardens right now you will find synthetic fiber around,” she said.

 
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In Nigeria, public affairs experts are concerned that poverty among older adults could worsen in a few years if the government does not address pension coverage issues. Statistics from the Nigerian pension regulator show that only a small fraction of workers in the West African country are subscribed to pension plans. Gibson Emeka has this story from Abuja, Nigeria, narrated by Vincent Makori. Video editing by Betsy Ayoub.
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