DESMOND TIRO

Workers pick roses at Isinya Roses Limited - Porini Flower farm in Kajiado County, Kenya Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)
Thorny problems with Valentine’s roses: Invasive bugs and toxic pesticides hurt Kenya’s exports
This Valentine’s Day Kenya’s flower industry is being ravaged by pests, leading some flower farmers to rely more heavily on toxic pesticides.
 
Evans Munzaa, 30 years, left, and his coach Kennedy Murimi demonstrate a stance of kung fu, a Chinese martial art, at a training school in Kabiria on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Henry Naminde)
Some young Kenyans turn to kung fu for self-improvement in difficult times
A growing number of young people in Kenya see kung fu as a path toward future employment. Kung fu has emerged as an alternative to the more popular martial art of taekwondo.
 
Jenerica Namoru, 29, poses for a photo with her five-year old daughter Nicole, in Nanyuki, Laikipia county, Kenya, Sunday, July 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Desmond Tiro)
Left behind in Kenya, children of British soldiers struggle to find their identity
The biracial children of Kenyan women and visiting British soldiers have long lived uncomfortable lives in Kenya.
 
Drought forces Kenya’s Maasai and other cattle herders to consider fish and camels
The blood, milk and meat of cattle have long been the staple foods for Maasai pastoralists in Kenya, perhaps the country’s most recognizable community. But climate change is forcing the Maasai to contemplate a very different dish: fish.
 
Robotic waiter serves customers at a Robot Cafe in Nairobi, Kenya Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. The three robots, christened Claire, R24 and Nadia, are not programmed to have a full conversation with customers, but they can say "Your order is ready, Welcome" then people have to press an exit button after picking up their food from the tray. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
Robot waiters in Kenya create a buzz. But there are concerns about what it means for human labor
The Robot Cafe in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, is creating a buzz by using preprogrammed robots to deliver food to customers. The restaurant owner sees the venture as entertainment and one that draws more customers to his business.
 
62-year old farmer Martha Waema, in her three-acre farm that was submerged by weeks of rainfall in Machakos, Kenya, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. According to Kenya's interior ministry, the heavy rains affected 400,000 people across the country and killed 289. Crops on approximately 168,092 acres of land have been destroyed, posing a threat to food security. This represents 0.24 percent of Kenya's based on World Bank Data that shows 48% of Kenya's land is agricultural. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)
Kenya’s dramatic flooding sweeps away a central part of the economy: Its farms
Kenyan farmers’ financial security and optimism have been shaken by recent flooding. The government calls it “a clear manifestation of the erratic weather patterns caused by climate change.”
 
Farmers sort out climate-smart beans in Machakos, Kenya, Monday, March 18, 2024. From ancient fertilizer methods in Zimbabwe to new greenhouse technology in Somalia, farmers across the heavily agriculture-reliant African continent are looking both to the past and future to respond to climate change. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)
African farmers look to the past and the future to address climate change
From ancient fertilizer methods in Zimbabwe to new greenhouse technology in Somalia, farmers across the heavily agriculture-reliant African continent are looking both to the past and future to respond to climate change.
 
Friends and family lower the casket of Rose Bella Awuor, 31 years, after a funeral service at her home in Awendo, Migori County, Kenya Thursday, April. 11, 2024. Awuor fell ill in December and lost her five-month pregnancy before succumbing to malaria. It was the latest of five deaths in this family attributed to malaria. The disease is endemic to Kenya and is preventable and curable, but poverty makes it deadly for those who can't afford treatment. (AP Photo/Brian Ongoro)
Malaria is still killing people in Kenya, but a vaccine and local drug production may help
Malaria is still a significant public health challenge in Kenya, but an important pilot of the world’s first malaria vaccine may help. The disease is preventable and curable, but poverty makes it deadly for those who can’t afford treatment.
 
FILE- A black rhino, on the Red List of Threatened Species according to IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), eats grass at Nairobi National Park, on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya, on Jan. 31, 2024. Conservationists in Kenya are celebrating as rhinos returned to a grassy plateau that hasn't seen them in decades. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)
Rhinos are returned to a plateau in central Kenya, decades after poachers wiped them out
Conservationists in Kenya are celebrating as rhinos were returned to a grassy plateau that hasn’t seen them in decades.
 
LGBT refugees allege harassment in Kenya, a rare safe haven
LGBT refugees allege they have been harassed by police in recent weeks in Kenya. The country is a rare regional haven for the gay community and yet maintains that gay sex is illegal.
 
Some Kenyan farmers turn to silk production for cash
A growing number of Kenyan farmers are turning to silk production, in a move away from traditional cash crops such as coffee, maize, sugarcane and cotton.