KENYA: Despised tree finds new life as woodfuel

Residents of Baringo County are rising up to make commercial sense of a plant introduced in the area 20 years ago to fight desertification but which has since turned their lives into a sea of misery.

Mathenge, whose scientific name is prosopis juriflora, has hindered economic activities in the dry lands with its fast growth and poisonous emissions claiming the lives of livestock and plants alike.

Resigned to the fact that efforts to eradicate Mathenge are far from yielding fruits going by experiences in other countries, the residents are now exploiting it for social and economic use as a source of animal feeds and wood fuel.

The Baringo residents are burning the tree in kilns — to avoid contact with its poison— and selling it as wood fuel since it is cheap, economic and readily available. Read more.