24 April 2003
To: Okeyo Benards, EEIU Kenya/Mombasa Chair, Kenya
From: Mary Batson, EEIU Coordinator, Headquarters, Germany
Good morning Okeyo,
A quick email to check in and say hello and see how things are going in Mombasa. All settled in the new offices yet? Sounds encouraging, you must have quite some growth going on! Excellent.
Good to hear you may be going to the Ghana opening — the decision was made just this week that Prof. Kinne and I will also be in attendance. Now in the planning stage with Denis to see how we can assist. It sounds as if it will be quite a week. I am looking forward to seeing a bit of Ghana, my first visit there. A good friend visited last year for some weeks, she loved the country and guarantees that I will too. I do hope you will also be able to attend, as you say, a perfect place to meet! I don't know if any from the Cameroon or South African Chapters will be able to attend, if so it might be a nice start for your plans of an EEIU Africa summit.
I hope this finds you well and look forward to hearing from you.
All the best,
Mary
11 April 2003
To: Mary Batson, EEIU Coordinator, Headquarters, Germany
From: Okeyo Benards, EEIU Kenya/Mombasa Chair, Kenya
Dear Mary,
I am overwhelmed by the increasing number of EEIU Chapters worldwide and the sudden rise in ESEP. That is really great!
Yes, I am thinking of attending Aheto's (EEIU-Ghana-REDEF) opening in November. I am really interested in the creation of an African network of EEIU, which could act as a better forum for tackling the myriad African ecological and environmental problems, besides bringing various African scholars together. Will you be there? That could be another better place to meet!
We moved to a new, more spacious office in Mombasa, but our contacts remain the same. This is to take care of our increased responsibility and volunteer activities and also improve our office coordination roles.
Mary, a nice weekend and best of regards,
Okeyo
21 October 2001
To: Okeyo Benards, EEIU Kenya/Mombasa Chair, Kenya
From: Prof. Dr. Otto Kinne, EEIU President, Headquarters, Germany
Congratulations!
The contract between the EEIU Chapter Kenya/Mombasa and the Lighthouse Foundation, Hamburg, Germany, will greatly assist you and the members of your chapter to translate EEIU concepts and theses into practical achievements — for the benefit of Kenya and the two contract parties involved.
Investigations of fishing traditions, taboos and culture on the Kenyan coasts is a significant and noble subject. And the annual support of Euro 51.130,00 to be provided by the Lighthouse Foundation impresses me as a very adequate sum to get the Kenya Chapter started.
I am most grateful to the Lighthouse Foundation and I am certain that they will be satisfied with the activities of your chapter.
5 March 2001
To: Prof. Dr. Otto Kinne, EEIU President, Headquarters, Germany
From: Okeyo Benards, EEIU Kenya/Mombasa Chair, Kenya
RE: Funding for Office Equipment
Lots of greetings from the EEIU Sare Chapter in Kenya.
I am pleased to confirm that we received from Inter-Research the DM 4500,00 sent to us for purchasing our office computer and printer. We acquired very good machines. The Chapter's steering committee will now arrange the installation of the telephone line, and have the e-mail services running. I suggested to them to offer e-mail services to the interested public at a small fee to help cater for the monthly costs of telephone expenses and other pressing office overhead costs.
As concerns the use of the letter of authority sent to us by EEIU Headquarters, I presented the same to the relevant bodies. The Awendo Town Council confirmed to us in writing (I will forward a copy to you) that they alocated to us a total of 0.2 acres of land for the development of our office space.
This was good news to our members and a good indication that the people had lots of appreciation and hope about our activities. I take it as a big challenge. My next task is to work out means and ways of putting up some structures in the space allocated. Compared to other EEIU chapters, we could then be the first chapter to have in place our own offices and independent grounds for taking up and co-ordinating chapter activities.
Thanks for your unfailing support and cooperation, and warm regards.
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Reply
Congratulations! The allocation to your Chapter of a total of 0.2 acres of land by the Awendo Town Council is a major step forward. I am sure the Council will be pleased with the performance of the EEIU Sare Chapter and with the resulting benefits for Kenya.
Please convey my sincere gratitude to the Council and my best wishes to the members of your Chapter.
31 January 2001
To: Prof. Dr. Otto Kinne, EEIU President, Headquarters, Germany
From: Okeyo Benards, EEIU Sare Chair, Kenya
As I have hinted in my previous e-mails and letters, our Sare EEIU Chapter
activities are becoming 'commonplace' in Kenya. We are receiving publicity
much more than I had anticipated. Believe me I am overjoyed, more so because the benefit goes directly to them, my fellow Kenyans here.
15 November 2000
To: Prof. Dr. Otto Kinne, EEIU President, Headquarters, Germany
From: Okeyo Benards, EEIU Sare Chair, Kenya
This is to inform you that we are now fully established as a chapter in Kenya. We have approached the registration offices and we have been granted the authority to commence our activities as we wait for the official registration papers.
In one of our meetings, we had the opportunity to meet with two members of parliament, Hon. Ochilo Ayako and Hon. Odhiambo Omamba. They both agreed that it would be better for such an organization (EEIU Sare Chapter) to lead the way forward in environmental issues, and to enlighten the youth.
The conditions for our registration were:
1) Election of office bearer viz: Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary, Vice Secretary, Treasurer
2) Opening of a bank account; all the office bearers agreed to contribute Kshs. 300/= each. The Treasurer is collecting this money, and by the end of this week the account should be active.
3) Registration fee at the district level is ca. Kshs. 10.000/=, to be collected from the registered members; the above-mentioned members of parliament have donated half this amount; the rest should come from our members.
4) Registration at the national level: International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGO's) are registered at a fee of Kshs. 50.000/= or ca. 1.500 DM, this is the amount we may request from the EEIU headquarters for registration.
We are also in negotiation with the Awendo town council for a piece of land for development of our office space. Things are advancing rapidly and Hon. Ochilo Ayako has shown immense support for these activities.
29 September 2000
From: Prof. Gennady Polikarpov, EEIU Vice President, General Office, Ukraine
To: Okeyo Benards, EEIU Sare Chair, Kenya
I appreciate your firm intention greatly!
From my side, I am beginning to try to find and supply you with all possible
info from many EEIU Chapters: from Ukraine, Russia, Georgia. Kyrghyzstan is new, but very enthusiastic in eco-ethics especially re Issyk-Kul Lake.
In anticipation of your forthcoming contacts from Kenya and wishing you a happy flight home.
28 September 2000
From: Okeyo Benards, EEIU Sare Chair, Kenya
To: Prof. Gennady Polikarpov, EEIU Vice President, General Office, Ukraine
...thanks so much for the polite and nice email. I am out to do my best within the guiding principles of eco-ethics, and I am strongly convinced that our country, Kenya, is in dire need of such persuasion.
I have alot in my hands now, I have to clear somethings before 2/10/2000, when I travel back to Kenya for 5 months. Please, I will get back to you when things are settled and especially when I am back in kenya, probably
when tackling some of the issues in real.
Otherwise, I am very happy that you and Kinne are really out for such a great calling.
To: Prof. Dr. Otto Kinne, EEIU President, Headquarters, Germany
From: Okeyo Benards, EEIU Sare Chair, Kenya
I am in receipt of your email authorizing the formation of the Kenya chapter and bestowing on me the chance to serve as its chairman. I have contacted several friends and colleagues in Kenya about the same and the response has been overwhelming. We have all agreed to look for offices and to establish an official communication link.
We are of the opinion that our chapter should be a body made up not only of youth groups but also of a group of ecology professionals who have the capacity to carry out detailed environmental assessment studies and make concrete contributions to the negative impacts which largely continue unabated. This could be done at the request of the local people, interested individuals, and even companies.
A second activity would be to carry out detailed ecological research, about the endangered species, which though our country is known for them, are disappearing at an alarming rate. This issue is becoming more complicated daily as a result of the population explosion and the pressure placed in the present conservation areas. There is need to quantify this impact, develop systems of overcoming this conflict in a manner most acceptable ecologically.
Another area of great current interest would be to document the ethnobiological importance of the common biological resources which could be build upon as ethics of conservation in this region of the world. While we have scheduled a meeting in September 2000 focussing on these objectives and plan to officially commence daunting tasks, we suggest that these objectives are printed on the EEIU website under our chapter name.
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REPLY
We are pleased about your plans and fully support them. Success for you and your Chapter members!
Please continue to keep us informed about your important activities.
This page was last updated on 7 June 2004.
