KEEP - History

The history of KEEP

The Kakamega Forest has been used by the local community for generations as a source of both timber and non-timber products. However, the very existence of the forest is now threatened by an unsustainable utilization.

Some conservation activists within the larger community saw the limitations of protecting the forest’s unique biodiversity by the use of security patrols alone, and understood the need to conserve it through environmental education. In 1995, a few of the forest guides, lead by Wilberforce Okeka, began to share their knowledge of the forest not only with the tourists and researchers but also with the local school children. This small team began by teaching fifteen pupils from the three local primary schools of Isecheno, Muleche and Kisaina. The program involved teaching the natural history of the forest, how the forest is useful to humans and how it can be conserved. The children were also actively involved in establishing tree nurseries at the forest and in their schools, and were encouraged to plant trees at their own homes.

The tree nursery

Selecting seedlings

Pupils in the forest

Churches and the general community and their leaders were also targeted through church gatherings and chief’s meetings. This broad program of conservation education was highly appreciated by the forester of Kakamega, the district forest officer, the provincial forest officer, and the senior warden of Kakamega district (KWS), all of whom were very cooperative and have assisted greatly over the years.

In mid 1996, the group was donated some teaching aids and materials by Mrs. Pheroza Sethina of UNIASC who was visiting the forest from Nairobi. In March 1998, a visiting American geneticist, Cathy Lehn, together with Prof. Marina Cords of Columbia University, secured one year’s funding for the education program from the Old World Monkey Advisory Board, the Bronx Zoo, and the Columbus Zoo in the USA. They initiated a fund called the Wilberforce Fund for this purpose, later to be renamed ‘KEEP’, Kakamega Environmental Education Program. Initially some keep members made visits to schools twice a week and on Saturdays the local children would gather at Wilberforce’s house to receive tuition there.

Wilberforce teaching pupils about the forest

Gaining ever-increasing interest from people throughout the world, KEEP was able to secure funds from various parties including the Japanese Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS), the MacArthur Foundation, the American Ambassador’s Self-Help Fund, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Conservation Society (USA), and the Toyota Foundation, with many donations from generous individuals. However, since the year 2000 the daily running of the organization has been financed substantially by the membership fee of both local and international members.

Through Prof. Marina Cords of Columbia University, several institutions in the US have provided funds towards the education programme and through them a Resource Center with educational equipment was built in Isecheno in the year 2000. A second resource was finsihed in Buyangu in 2002. The number of children who have received environmental education from KEEP has now reached more than 10,000, extending across more than sixty schools. In addition, many schools and learning institutions from outside Kakamega district visit the resource center where they receive conservation education from KEEP members and are able to watch environmental videos.

The resource center in Isecheno under construction

The resource center in Isecheno today

KEEP members in the new resource center

Although KEEP started as a purely educational programme it has now developed to incorporate many practical conservation measures and income generating projects.