Description of Ikisaya village: The local, socio-cultural context for the project

A description of the village where the electricity project was developed and implemented is important in order to understand the process of socio-technical change that took place (dimension B of the case study framework). The team’s understanding of Ikisaya, the village selected for the pilot project, played an important role for how the solar power model was designed and also for the way it changed after start-up. For an outsider to a community with the kinds of extreme and complex challenges that characterize Kenya’s arid and semi-arid lands, it is probably not possible to fully comprehend people’s situation. However, in addition to the understanding achieved through the initial research, a gradually deeper understanding was obtained through applying the research findings in practice through cooperation with the community over several years.

Ikisaya is a small, remote village located in Kitui County in the Eastern Province of Kenya, near Endau Hill. The distance from Nairobi is 250 km eastwards, and the travel time by car from Nairobi to Ikisaya is 6-7 hours. The population in Ikisaya is 283 households, 1.634 people.⁵³ The homes are far from the roads and hidden by bush. Figure 11 below shows Ikisaya, or Syou sub-location, and five other villages in the area, which will be mentioned in Chapter 8. The market area in Ikisaya includes 10-12 shops and offices and a number of small kiosks (where people sell tea, chapatti, fruit, etc.), the Ikisaya primary school and the main water point. Administratively, Ikisaya is a sub-location in Malalani location and the sub-chief is the administrative leader.

53 The total number of households in the whole of Malalani location is 1270 (Republic of Kenya 2010).

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Figure 11. Map of Ikisaya and surrounding area. The Endau Hill can be seen in the middle of the map, and the gray spots are farms. Source: Google Earth.

7.1.1. Economic activities and livelihoods in Ikisaya

The majority of the inhabitants in Ikisaya are agro-pastoralists, as in most of the rural areas of Kitui County. Subsistence farming, livestock keeping and charcoal production are the main sources of livelihoods. The climate is hot and the rates of evaporation are high. The people in Ikisaya rely on the two annual seasons for their rain-fed agriculture. The crops that are commonly grown are green grams, cow peas, sorghum, millet and maize. The population is highly dependent on the land, the animals, the rainy seasons and sufficient time and ability to work on the land, graze and water the animals, invest in seeds and livestock and utilize other natural resources. The ownership of farm land and livestock is highly unequal between the community members. As a result of frequent droughts, agriculture is often insufficient to sustain a living. The rate of crop failure is as high as for the rest of the semi-arid and arid eastern Kenya. For instance, in 2010 and 2011, the area experienced four successive growing seasons that failed due to short or lacking rainy seasons, resulting in 80-90% crop failure in the driest areas and 50-60% in the less dry areas of Eastern Kenya (Recha et al. 2012). In Ikisaya, several rainy seasons failed or partly failed during the period from October 2010 until February 2014. Moreover, heavy downpours and flooding are common during the rainy season, and these also sometimes damage crops and property as well as roads. Food aid is sometimes provided, but the aid is normally only enough for a few extra days of food consumption.

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Cash income is difficult to obtain in the area. Of the population in Kitui County (1,012,709 people)⁵⁴ a portion of 63,5% was estimated to live below the poverty line in 2005/2006.⁵⁵ This is rank 35 out of Kenya’s 47 counties. A range of problems occur because of lack of money, including difficulties to purchase enough food for the family and pay school fees for the children, especially at the secondary school level. In Ikisaya, only a small number of people have a regular, stable income, and very few jobs are available. Only the teachers and the local administration have a formal employment, and only 10-12 other people have shops or other small businesses that give income around the year. Most of the population depends on agriculture, casual work for larger farmers, remittances from relatives and a diversity of other strategies for obtaining income and food.

People are actively maneuvering in a struggle for coping with a difficult situation.

Within a narrow space they are trying to utilize the very few options available to cope with or escape from a situation of poverty and vulnerability. One strategy for securing material means for survival is to form relations among individuals, politicians, customary institutions, and government administration. This is also a strategy for influencing collective decision making (Eriksen and Lind 2009). Various livelihood groups exist, such as goat groups, farming groups and a soap production group. Some of these have been started by NGOs, while others have been started by community members.

7.1.2. Dealing with lack of infrastructure

A typical feature of villages in Kenya’s arid and semi-arid lands, in addition to the high level of poverty and vulnerability, is the low level of access to basic services, such as access to clean water, roads, public transport, education, health facilities and access to energy (Republic of Kenya 2012a). For example, many people in Ikisaya as well as in surrounding villages walk very long distances in order to fetch water – up to 6-8 km each way. After arriving at the water point near Ikisaya, there is often several hours to wait in a queue before getting water, which is tapped into plastic cans one by one from a small tap. Fetching water is mostly done by women. For many of them, almost a whole day is spent on fetching water, normally done every second day. This reduces the time available for all the other responsibilities of the women. During the rains, water is collected and stored by those who can afford to invest in tanks and barrels, and in earth or sand dams dug with support from the government at the county level. A pipeline from Endau Hill was installed in the 1970’s by an NGO, and the community has managed to sustain this infrastructure since that time, while similar installations in neighboring villages have broken down.

The water supply in the village demonstrates community organization of local infrastructure. A committee appointed by the sub-chief manages the water supply through monthly meetings. A water attendant is employed in order to take care of the delivery of water, which is often rationed during the long dry seasons. He or she also collects the payment for the water. The price for the water was 2 Ksh per 20 liter plastic can in 2014. The salary for the water attendant is paid from the revenue generated, while the rest is used for

54 Kenya Population Census data 2009 (Republic of Kenya 2010)

55 Kenya County Fact Sheets, Commission on Revenue Allocation 2011

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sitting allowances for the water committee and saved for maintenance of the pipeline to stop leaks of water. It is difficult to raise enough money for larger maintenance such as replacement of the old pipes.

Ikisaya sub-location has two public primary schools⁵⁶ – Ikisaya and Ndovoini, 10 km apart. At the time of the survey in 2010, they had a combined total enrolment of about 500;

70% of the boys in the sub location and 60% of the girls. As with adult literacy, enrolment at the primary school level is skewed in favor of males in Ikisaya. The nearest secondary schools are in Endau and Malalani, 9-10 km away. Primary education is free in public schools. This means that there are no statutory fees that parents are required to pay, but the parents have to pay some contributions towards specific projects in the schools. There is no health clinic in Ikisaya, only 10 km southwards (in Endau town).

Most of the mobility in Ikisaya and between villages is walking. It is common for children to walk 6-8 km to reach school. Donkeys are used for carrying water and goods. It is possible to hire a lift with people who have a motorbike, but this is expensive. Nobody in Ikisaya owns a car (as per January 2014). There is no public transport that connects different parts of the sub-location, and there is little public transport to other villages or towns. The only bus leaves at 3:30 a.m. for Kitui, arriving at 7 a.m. and returning to Ikisaya in the late evening. The road standard from Ikisaya to Kitui is very poor.

Kitui is a town with 109,568 inhabitants⁵⁷, located 90 km away, which has larger hospitals and medical expertise, various banks and modern shops selling IT-equipment and accessories, like toner for photocopy machines. Later, this appeared to be important for the project in Ikisaya. The bus drivers often bring goods and parcels for people and drop them at the various bus stops. Communication through mobile phone and financial transactions by M-pesa⁵⁸ help carry out important errands. However, the poor phone network in the area is a problem, and many people have to walk far even to make a phone call.

7.1.3. Energy use relevant for electricity provision in Ikisaya

Small amounts of electricity were used in Ikisaya before the solar project was implemented, as shown by the survey carried out in 2010. Some phone charging was provided by small businesses using small solar PV systems. About half of the families were found to own a mobile phone. The average expenditure on phone charging was 115 Ksh per month (1 €), according to the household survey. The portion of survey respondents reporting that they use kerosene for lighting was 92%. Torches and radios run on dry cell batteries were also widespread, used by 93%. A solar home system (described in Chapter 1) was used by, but not necessarily owned by, 6%.

The survey showed an average lighting expenditure, i.e. expenditure on kerosene and dry cell batteries of 350 Ksh per month (3 €), (11.66 Ksh per day). There were large differences between the households. 40 of the 73 household spent less than average, and the

56 40% of respondents to the survey conducted in 2010 - both male and female – reported to have no formal education. The number of respondents were 70.

57 Population Census data 2009 (Republic of Kenya 2010).

58 M-Pesa means mobile money, and is a system for doing cash transfer and banking through mobile phones.

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median expenditure was 160 Ksh (5.30 Ksh per day), meaning that 50% of the respondents spent this amount or less. Some people used no other means of light than firewood, because kerosene or other alternatives were not affordable to them, and some used very small amounts of kerosene. Studies elsewhere in Kenya had earlier indicated that it was normal to spend around 10 Ksh per day per family on kerosene, according to team members, but in Ikisaya, most of the households spent less. Data from a comprehensive survey in Kenya in 2005/06⁵⁹ shows that median household expenditure on lighting was 191 Ksh per month (6.5 Ksh per day). Of this, the kerosene portion was 156 Ksh and the portion for dry cell batteries for torches was 35 Ksh.