RE: Forgive me God, but I refuse to be civil when my Luo people are being killed.

Calvin Burgess wrote:

Francis,

I accept your apology for the offensive language and for your uncharacteristic behavior over the past few days. Francis I know you as a kind and caring person trying to do the best for his people. Now that I have been able to check out your allegations I have the following comments:

First of all our spray plane has be in the repair shop waiting for parts for the last six weeks, so all of the spraying on our property has been accomplished by outside companies, licensed by the Government of Kenya, to apply only those chemicals approved by the stringent regulations of the Government of Kenya. Often the regulations of Kenya are far more restrictive than those from other parts of the world. When our aircraft was operating it has always been operated by outside companies licensed to do this work in Kenya, Uganda, and other countries of East Africa. These same people work for all the Tea Estates, the wheat farmers around Nakuru, and Tilda Rice farms in Uganda.

The vast majority of the product being applied by aircraft is fertilizer, and perhaps as much as 90% of what we do is fertilizer, a product called Urea, utilized everywhere in the World and even by the local farmers in the area. It is high in Nitrogen and helps crops grow to the levels of a commercially viable farm, for both ourselves and all the other farms of the world that utilize it. It is necessary to fertilize utilizing aircraft because the rice paddies are around 75 acres or 30 hectares in size and are flooded with water so ground application is not possible. The other aerial spray applications are for herbicides, which selectively kill grasses in the first stages of planting the rice, and emerge about the same time as the rice comes out of the ground. These chemicals kill the weeds but have no effect on the rice, or animals including human beings. They do not have effect on other plants except for the specific form of grass they are designed to eliminate. These chemicals are purchased in Kenya, regulated by Kenya, and applied by licensed applicators in Kenya.

Two other forms of pesticides are known as fungicides, and insecticides, neither of which we have a need for on our farm. Insecticides are utilized to control pests like locust, Qualia, ants, mosquitoes, and various other pesky little critters. We do not have the equipment for this nor do we need to have this type of a product. The obligation to control these forms of problems has been assumed by the United Nations in conjunction with the developing Nations of the World. In East Africa there is a division of the UN working on the problems there, complete with a suitable aircraft, and the correct equipment. It takes a special spray apparatus called a micron-air atomizer to do this work, which we do not have and would not know how to utilize. The aircraft is a Dehaviland Beaver and for the past couple of weeks it has been operating in the Siaya/Bondo area for the control of Qualia. It moves all over East Africa on a regular basis and provides a very essential service to all of the people of the areas. Without the help they provide many people would go hungry.

Unfortunately, what people see is not always what is happening, and what they report is not always backed up by the facts. The process of education is a slow one with many bits of miss-information along the way. Given time and patience these things will be overcome, and prosperity will result, if those who love the land will work together to bring positive change, and not jump to un-substantiated conclusions.

Francis, you do have my telephone numbers and next time you have a concern, please give me a call before jumping to conclusions. As you have told me before, just because it says something in the newspapers of Kenya, it is not necessarily true.

Have a very Merry Christmas, and may God truly bring his blessings to you and your family in the New Year.

Calvin Burgess