Mutomo District is an arid and semi arid area in Kitui County which is frequently faced by long spells of drought. Residents of the district rely mainly on small scale farming and keeping of drought resistant domestic animals. As such residents are oftenly faced with food shortages and mostly rely on food aid
Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN) in partnership with the Communication of Kenya and the Mutomo Mission Hospital established Mutomo Maarifa Centre on October 2008 to provide the community with information on climate change adaptation, natural resources management, small-scale sustainable agriculture and other livelihood issues.
Mutomo Maarifa Centre is hosted by the Mutomo Mission Hospital and all the services are free of cost
Services Offered
· Internet access
· e-Government services e.g KRA pin registration,Examination results etc
· Publications
· Multi-media content e.g. ipods,CD-ROMS etc
· Online Market Information
· Advisory services
· ICT training.
Richard Kasikali is a community worker with the Catholic Diocese of Kitui and is based at Mutha Division in Mutomo District. He works as a community mobilizer in the Diocese’s project dubbed as ‘Food for Work’ where poor households work in community development projects and are rewarded with food rations. His work usually requires him to send weekly and monthly reports to the head office.
“The Maarifa Centre has enabled me to consistently send these reports” says Kasikali who adds although he is not very conversant with ICT; the Field Officer helps him in compiling and sending the reports.
He also adds that he uses free internet at the Maarifa Centre to access information for disseminating to the community.
Of the same sentiments is Gerrald Mbaya, a Ministry of Agriculture staff who has been getting publications and other reading material from the Maarifa Centre
“The library is stocked with a lot of relevant extension materials which are important to an extension officer like me” he says adding that he has been borrowing books and other reading material and this has helped him in acquiring vital information to disseminate to the community.
The Maarifa Centre has also enabled many youth in improving their ICT skills and social networking. Priscillah Mulwa,a Youth Peer Educator has been able to download and successfully apply for a course at the Mombasa Polytechnic University College.
“I have also been able to keep in touch with my friends on face book social network” adds the 21 year old.
