Connecting Scotland and Kenya Smart Village Models

Victor Ngama, a 58 year old man in Tana River County is making waves in the county's telecommunication industry having set up a mobile radio station, which he broadcasts off his boda boda. In the past, he has captured the former President Moi's attention  when he invented a water-powered clock in the 1990s.

Watch this story here

 On 21st September 2019, 12 women from theMaasai Community beat all odds and  graduated as wildlife rangers at Segera Conservancy after six months of extensive training in different wildlife reserves. According to the Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala,  the team will be the first only-female rangers in Kenya and East Africa in this male-dominated career.

Read more about this story here

In the 1960's , Tumbe village was home to thousands of lepers who sought refuge and treatment from a medical centre that was trying to eradicate the disease. Sadly today, nearly all of the village's residents are disfigured, elderly, living with disability and burdened by biting poverty and lingering discrimination.

Read more about this story here

Mohamed Noor Jimale, a standard eight pupil at Furaha Pri School in Kenya's border town of Wajir is attracting the attention of people in his village after he invented an electronic toy plane. He has a passion for making electronic toys and he hopes to become an engineer in the future.

Watch his story here

In Kegogi village, Centre for Community Mobilization and Empowerment (CECOME) engaged men to be integral partners in Ending Sexual and Gender Based Violence Campaign in the communities.The root causes of gender-based violence lies in unequal power relations between women and men. Variety of factors on the individual level, the family level and at the level of the community and society, often combine to raise the likelihood of violence occurring.

A group of pupils at Lunza Primary School in Butere, Kakamega County, are keen on setting a good example to villagers on the diverse crops they can grow in an area dominated by sugar cane and maize. The 4K Club members have planted tomatoes in a greenhouse where they are flourishing, giving residents a glimpse of how the crop can perform. And in an open field, maize, orange-flesh sweet potatoes, sunflower, Nerica (upland) rice, sorghum, fodder and indigenous vegetables are flourishing.

Read more about this story here

At Kaksingri Village in Mbita, the Development Knowledge Link Africa- DEVLINK is at the forfront of transformation and empowerment of women in the community. The women are involved in African Design bags and clothes among other artistic works and enterpreneurial activities.

Thingira village in Kirinyaga County is a multicultural home of living memories and traditional lifestyles of the communities living around Mt.Kenya region

On 4th Sept 2019, Multi-agency Security Officers operating in Boni Forest, Lamu County conducted a medical outreach at Basuba village in Lamu County following local leadership request for medical aid to an ailing child. The medical outreach offered preventive and curative drugs.

Residents of Kibera decided to to pave a long road with the hope that it will help fire fighters in the future. This was after the latest fire accident.

From experimenting with bicycle dynamo while in primary school, to eventually using  a generator to produce 240 volts, John Magiro is a celebrated individual in Mihuti Village,Murang'a County  who lit up the village long before Kenya Power came.

Read more about John Magiro here

Traffic in Nairobi is so bad that most road users have accepted it. Depending on where you live, if you want to get to the Central Business District (CBD) by 8am, you need to live the house at around 6.30am. This mostly applies to residents of Nairobi’s Eastlands area (Umoja, Buruburu, Donholm, Komarock).

One Kenyan only identified as Mwangi, devised a way to help matatu drivers beat the morning traffic and maximize on sales. At a fee of Sh100 per vehicle, Mwangi helps to guide drivers in the morning by giving them a heads-up on the least congested route which saves them lots of time.

Read more about Mwangi here

This is Not Singapore! This is in Barki Village, Raya Location in Garissa County, 15 Kilometers away from Garissa Town.Here, you will find the biggest solar farm in Eastern and Central Africa. The 55MW solar plant sits on 85 hectares in the Village. It is fully operational and already connected to the national grid.

At the ‘singing wells of Namunyak’ , Kenya’s Samburu hersdsmen sing love songs to their cows, discuss village matters, and dance with their partners.

Read more about these heardsmen here

The traditional dhow is made from wood, but an ambitious new project is making waves in the waters of East Africa.

Dubbed the FlipFlopi Project, the rainbow-colored dhow, is 9 meters long and made from discarded plastics picked up during regular clean-ups of the ocean. The boat was built on Lamu island in its entirety by Ali Skanda, the chief boat builder who also works as a project leader alongside Pabari, and a crew of volunteer crew members.

According to Pabari, the FlipFlopi Project aims to engage and raise awareness to local communities along the route on the dangers of single-use plastics and to teach them how to recycle their plastic

Read more about the FlipFlopi Project here

Umoja village in Kenya consists of only women who are ex-victims of child marriage, abuse, domestic violence and more. The village was started in 1990 by 15 women who became stigmatized in their communities after they were raped by British soldiers from a base at nearby Archer's Post, a trading center bordering Samburu and Isiolo.

Read more about this village here

Nicholas Muchami, a 45-year-old man from Kaganda village in Kiharu Constituency, Murang’a County has earned himself the tittle of “village hero” after he volunteered to singlehandedly turn a bushy, hilly area into a one-kilometre road. This was in a bid to  connect the locals to Kaganda shopping centre after the one they were using was blocked by the land owner who said they were trespassing on his farm and threatened to take an unspecified action if the locals continued passing through his property. 

Read more about this story here

In Thumaita Village Kirinyaga county sits water well with soda-like taste called "Munyu". The villagers say "Munyu" can cure some diseases.

Located on the Mau escarpment, Njoro River Cave was first excavated in 1938 by Mary Leakey and her husband Dr Louis Leakey, who unearthed a mass cremation site for settling pastoralist communities during the Neolithic period Historic. Now the place has been established as a Pilgrimage Site. The land where the cave is located belonged to the Dorobo, a hunter-gatherer community.

Read more bout this historical site here

In Nderi village, Kikuyu constituency, a Devolved Village Film Concept epitomizes the importance of vibrant film industry in Kenya. This can translate to more job opportunities and revenue for the youth.

Basuba ward residents have reason to be happy after the opening of a Sh7 million health centre at Kiangwe village six years since terrorists torched their dispensaries. The residents have been without a medical facility since 2014 when al Shabaab militants looted, vandalised and torched their dispensaries.

The health centre will serve the over 3,000 residents from the Boni villages of Kiangwe, Basuba, Mangai, Mararani and Milimani.