Kilifi DA takes CLTS approach Forward, a move that has been greatly
appreciated by the community.
How it all began…
Community Lead Total Sanitation concept was first introduced to the Kilifi staff
by the WATSAN Advisor (Martin Hinga) after attending a workshop in Tanzania.
This was later followed by an email sent by the County Director Plan Kenya to
all staff about the direction the organization is taking in the area of Sanitation.
Further Information and documentation on this approach has been shared to all
staff by the AM via email to facilitate further internalization of the concept. The
DA has held a number of brainstorming sessions at the Area Programme
Meeting (APM) which are held bi-monthly and this was followed up by a
detailed presentation by Kilifi DA WATSAN Advisor (Martin Hinga) to all Kilifi
staff during the Child Rights Programming workshop. The approach, which
majority of the staff felt was low cost, high impact was immediately accepted by
all staff and all were prepared to swing into action. The team came up with an
action plan which proposed that a pilot be done for two villages namely Jaribuni
and Mwapula. This would later scale up to the rest of the villages where plan
operates.
The Role of the working ‘technical’ teams at the DA
The DA team looked at how staff can contribute ideas, skills and knowledge in
their different technical expertise and wealthy backgrounds that each individual
staff has.
The team also felt that, it also important for staff to individually
move an extra mile by doing something more to the children and communities
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for their own professional growth. The DA went further to form the following
working “technical teams” spearheading different assignment and resource
mobilization at the DA. These are

Health, Water and Sanitation – spearheading CLTS and water ‘witching’
technology

Micro Finance – Spearheading VS&LA

ICT – spearheading Community ICT and the Radios came in handy

HIV/AIDS – spearheading support to PLWHA and scale up of PD hearth to
PLWHA

SIP/Learning – spearheading safer schools

Livelihood and Natural resource management – spearheading scale up of
Gunny bags technology and issues of Global warming

Girl/Women empowerment – spearheading issues of support to girls in
need of care and protection

Child Protection – spearheading support to Children’s department and
strengthening of Area Advisory Council (AAC)

Editorial – spearheading the DA to have a recognized voice and news
update to staff
Water and Sanitation Technical Team (WSTT).
The Water and sanitation technical team comprises of 7 staff members from the
DA team. This particular team was formed to look into water and sanitation
issues in Kilifi spearheading proposal writing, concept papers development and
implementing various projects which touch on water and sanitation. The DA’s
WATSAN advisor chairing the team took lead in planning for the roll out of this
approach. After numerous planning meetings and brainstorming session on
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how to handle the session at the community, the team took up the challenge to
go ahead and “just do it” even as WATSAN Advisor for the DA, who has been the
team leader and a great facilitator, was away in Nairobi for the TA meeting. The
team agreed to have the first community sessions on 17/07/07 at Jaribuni
polytechnic.
Community mobilization.
CLTS pilot target population was Jaribuni and Mwapula villages. The target
participants were the critical mass comprising of the Jaribuni dispensary health
committee, village health committee, community health workers, pupils from
Jaribuni
primary
school,
Nagoni
CBO
members,
some
members
from
Mwambamima CBO and the administration office. This was done through
community meeting with the above mentioned groups and individuals. Later
invitation letters were written and distributed the chair persons of the same
community groups. The letters invited the participants to take part in a one day
workshop to discuss issues concerning health and sanitation in general. It is in
this workshop that strategies for community mobilization, venue and date to
discuss issues around sanitation at the village were agreed upon.
Actual discussions on the ground
a) Introduction of CLTS
The first proposed village was Jaribuni which was the most central in both
Kauma and Jaribuni locations. The team from Kilifi comprised of four members
(Mwazala-PF, Ireri-CBF, Mativo-ICT and Chege-PF). The session began at
around 11a.m. Total number of participants were 14 women, 11 girls, 12 boys
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and 18 men (55 participants).
This group was comprised of representation of
the following groups of people (CHWs, DHC, Public Health Technicians, Area
Assistant Chief, Village elders, Opinion leaders, Parents and Children)
The meeting was officially opened by the Area Assistant chief Mr. Nathaniel
Kulumba who called upon a volunteer to open with a word of prayer. He
requested all participants to be calm and orderly for effective sharing and
learning. He later called upon each participant to introduce themselves based
on group of affiliation and role. Ireri then took over and welcomed Mativo to
give a brief over view about Plan Kilifi. This was followed by Ireri introducing
the concept of health and community lead total sanitation. This was taken
further by Mwazala who expounded more on the CLTS concept.
Community members actively listening during a session
b) Resource mapping
The participants were divided into two main groups of children and adults. Each
group had two facilitators (Mwazala and Ireri facilitated the adults while Mativo
and Chege facilitated the school children). This particular activity was
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conducted outside in the open as shown below. It involved drawing Jaribuni
resource map which comprised of different features such as forests, rivers,
bushes, main roads, homestead, water sources and open defecation sites.
Jaribuni primary school pupils drawing a resource map on the ground
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Pupils setting up the features-shoes describe homesteads and buildings, leaves describe
forests and bushes and small pieces of paper describe specific features such as roads and
rivers
The adult group drawing a resource map on the ground
The two groups first drew the maps on the ground and brainstormed on them.
Later they chose representatives to transfer them on manila papers for
presentations during the plenary sessions.
c) Transect walk
After the resource mapping session participants chose one of the participants
from Jaribuni village who is a CBO member to conduct this exercise. The main
objective was to visit the open defecation sites and trigger more disgust and
shame. The walk was a quarter kilometer one way. The participants expressed
their uttermost shame of open defecation as they came across heaps of “shit”.
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Community members at an open defecation site
A community leader showing the way to a near by open defecation site
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A mound of “shit”
d) Group presentations
I. Adults group presentation
This was done by the Nagoni CBO chairlady. She took the participants
through showing the features and homesteads with latrines and those
practicing open defecation.
The Nagoni CBO chairlady presenting a community resource map for Jaribuni
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One interesting thing came up in the discussion.

The defecation site is a site for many people or a particular
homestead (which may have up to 10 houses). When a man goes out
there to defecate, he ensures that no one gets close. To do that,
when he notices that someone is approaching, he starts making
some small “noise” to alert the person approaching who responds
with a corresponding noise. For the women, they will sing some
traditional song to alert other people approaching the defecation site.
II. Children group presentation
The presentation was well done by a young class seven girl called Santa. She
clearly articulated the features describing area of open defecation and flow
of rain water.
A pupil (Santa) presenting on behalf of the children
e) Arising issues and comments
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
Participants expressed their fear of sinking ground since the area
topography has weak soils.
This is the reason they gave for not
constructing toilets.

Participants described the flow of rain water from the defecation sites to
the rivers which are the main sources of water for domestic use.

The school girl expressed concerned of water shortage in the school
which forces them to fetch the “shit” contaminated river water to be used
in cooking school meals for both teachers and pupils.

Participants expressed their concern about household poultry (ducks and
chicken) and dogs contaminating their food with “shit”. When the above
mentioned animals go out to the defecation sites in search of food they
unknowingly carry “shit” with their mouths and beaks back home. As a
result they end up contaminating the homestead food especially for
young children.

The flies visit the open defecation sites and bring back the “shit” to the
homesteads.

Participants agreed that diarrhea was most prevalent disease and its
cause was through consuming contaminated water and food. This leads
to a high rate of mortality and morbidity rates.

During the presentations the children identified 2 latrines in the whole
village while the adults gave 7. This showed that the adults felt ashamed
hence gave addition latrines which were not in use or none existent.

The entire Jaribuni village population is Approximately 650 people with a
total of 40 homesteads
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f) Agreed Way forward
All participants agreed that they have been drinking and eating each others
“shit”. To illustrate this further Mativo made a demonstration where by he called
upon a volunteer to assist him. He put clean drinking water in a glass and asked
him to drink. He did it with out any resentment. Later he took the same water
and poured it in to the same glass and added soil resembling “shit” and asked
him to drink. He quickly refused saying “how can I drink shit”.
Chege took participants through the last session. The participants unanimously
agreed as follows:

Each homestead to have a toilet by October 2007 (Time range was 14
days to 3months as from August).

The participants agreed to start by digging pits and using locally available
materials for construction (slabbing, walling and roofing) which include
logs, grass, palm leaves strong natural rope from tree barks and stone
blocks.

Participants agreed to educate other community members on importance
of homestead latrines and dangers of open defecation.

The Area Assistant Chief urged the participants to use the already
existing care groups in assisting one another in digging pits for the
latrines.
Here, the existence of the “miji” (about 10 houses make a
homestead) and the already strong care groups was said to be a plus in
terms of making things move faster though collective responsibility.

Community members who defy the agreed resolution will be charged by
the Area Assistant Chief through the public health act on sanitation.
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
The Area Assistant chief was mandated by the participants not only to
read names of homesteads with toilets and those without during public
“barazas” but also to stress the importance of having proper sanitation
facilities and stopping open defecation.

It was proposed that a list of shame be made after the grace period has
elapsed nd put up at the health center, CBO office, schools and chief’s
office.

It was agreed that the concept will be scaled up to the rest of the villages
as soon as possible with the help of the facilitators.

It was also agreed that the 55 participants have a responsibility of
sharing what they learnt today so as to reach all the 40 homesteads

All participants agreed that “prevention is better than cure” and it’s their
own problem hence they have to amicably resolve it with minimal
external help.
Community members raising their hands in agreement of the way forward
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g) Conclusion
The area assistant chief thanked the participants and facilitators for the well
done job. He emphasized on the implementation as agreed. He then called
upon a volunteer to close with a word of prayer. The community session ended
at 3.30pm.
Report compiled by Kenneth Chege and Mwazala Maghanga
PFs, Kilifi DA , 18th July 2007
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