Kitale Diary

17th August 2011
When we left for Kitale I knew I was going to meet my old acquaintances and friends and even probably share in their excitement since the last time I had met them. The road from Kisumu is remarkably improved. The distance seems to have been reduced because they are done well. The towns along the road are well serviced and I was not disappointed. However, during the two-and-a-half hour drive, it was the good thoughts of the people I had spent time with in Kitale that were flowing through my mind and neither the landscape nor smooth roads. I knew we had started a good thing with this community and I was certain that they had flown with it.
Practical Action had worked with communities to help them develop Strategic Ward Action Plans, a process that had integrated participation at its core. This would assist communities in identifying where to source for resources and be at the fore front of their own development. This would include direct and decentralised government and international development funds and resources. We helped communities to choose the right technologies in order to develop infrastructure that is both well sustained and managed. In the end we envisaged reaching about 60,000 residents in Kitale through providing adequate water and sanitation facilities, waste generation and recycling technologies and identification of economic opportunities.
I was certain that if this was true, then the new on-going project People’s Plans in to Practice (PPP) would definitely be scaling up a good thing. I was anxious throughout the journey to the agricultural town of Kitale. What would I see the following day?