One police officer was killed and another injured following a clash with Somalia's National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA).

According to a police report seen by The Standard, five officers who were manning the Kenyan border were caught unaware and attacked by group of Somalia NISA officers. 

"One of the officers was fatally shot in the stomach and another on the left upper hand during the attack from Somalia's NISA forces that ensued on March 14, 2025."  The police report reads in part.

The report added some assorted firearms belonging to the deceased officer and a national police reservist respectively are also missing and allegedly in the hands of the Somalia forces. The officer who was injured was rushed to Mandera referral hospital for treatment.

"The Somalia Nisa officers also robbed one G3 gun that carries 60 rounds and an AK 47 rifle with 30 rounds of ammunition." Added the report

It is suspected that the attack was a revenge of a previous arrest of terror suspects who were charged with planning to abduct Chinese workers in Mandera 

"The attack was co-ordinated by a brother of one of the suspects who is a Nisa officer as per the information from Somalia authorities." said the police. By Ibrahim Adan Ali, The Standard

Police officers in Nairobi tracked down and arrested Christ Impact Church preacher, known as Peter K, who has been on the run since he was accused of sodomy in 2022.

Peter K's arrest was confirmed by Nakuru East Police Commander Sheila Kegode and will be placed in police custody as investigations continue into the incident before he is charged.  

The preacher whose church was raided by members of the public two weeks ago amid accusations of sodomy has been on the run for more than two years and has been on the radar of the police in Nakuru.

This follows fresh calls and pleas raised by the members of the family of one of his victims which was followed by a warrant of arrest issued against him. 

The preacher was arrested alongside an ally in Nairobi before being transferred to Nakuru Police Station for processing. 

According to the victim, the preacher lured him into drinking alcohol one night before preying on him to commit the indecent act.  

At the time, the victim was a TukTuk driver in Nakuru and the preacher approached him to transport him to an event before offering to buy him drinks.

According to the victim, Peter K convinced him to get into his car after managing to convince him to be his driver for a church function. The driver alleged that at the time of the incident, he was in the company of the pastor inside a vehicle.

The vehicle did not have back seats and after the drinking spree, he woke moments later to a sharp pain and it was when he realised he had been sodomized.

He later reported the matter at the Central Police Station in Nakuru in May 2022. A medical examination report indicated that a physical examination of the complainant suggested blunt trauma to the anal region. 

However, his efforts to access justice were for overtime hampered by the police who failed to reign in on the suspect who had been on the run. 

On March 2, hundreds of youth and members of the public stormed Peter K's church in Ruiru over allegations of him sodomizing young boys.

Tens of members of the public gathered outside Christ Impact Church threatening to destroy the building if the pastor in question failed to appear.

Photos and videos obtained by Kenyans.co.ke showed residents tearing down the church with some declaring they did not want the pastor to remain in their community. by Frankline Oduor , Kenyans.co.ke

CGIAR, through its Regional Integrated Initiatives (RIIs), has been working on scaling affordable, context-specific innovations co-developed with local and regional partners to support the transformation of land, water, and food systems through high-quality science since 2021. Despite this extensive and concerted effort by CGIAR and its partners, widespread innovation use is still evasive. Innovations that have been adopted so far have only partially contributed to the urgently sought transformative changes in agrifood systems.

The biggest setbacks come from global challenges such as climate change, environmental degradation, geopolitical instability, population growth, rising inequality, and unsustainable diets which pose major hurdles to the sustainability of scaling efforts. The sheer magnitude of these challenges demands disruptive, transdisciplinary approaches with non-linear scaling strategies and broader partnerships to co-create adaptable scaling solutions for long-term, measurable outcomes. To find scalable solutions that address today’s challenges and tomorrow’s climate, research must evolve rapidly.

The new CGIAR 2025-2030 portfolio, through its Scaling for Impact Program, aims to achieve large-scale impact through demand-driven, country-led innovations in agrifood systems that address the challenges of our time. The heart of the program portfolio lies in the close collaboration with other CGIAR programs, enabling feedback around demand, scaling strategies, opportunities for large-scale transformative financing, and pathways to learning and impact evaluation.

It is designed to coordinate and support research and scaling across CGIAR’s entire portfolio by engaging traditional and non-traditional partners. The broader mission of the program is to generate evidence to improve enabling environments, including policy pathways, market linkages, partnerships, institutional arrangements, and mobilizing science and finance. Scaling for Impact will ensure a responsive approach to developing and scaling solutions while strengthening the capacities of regional and national stakeholders and supporting innovation efforts at regional and national levels.

Interestingly, the program is “innovation agnostic,” meaning it will focus on scaling context-specific solutions through deeply embedded partnerships at country and regional levels. The Program does not intend to duplicate the work of development partners or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) but rather act as a catalyst to support regional and national partners in scaling both CGIAR and non-CGIAR solution bundles. The work areas of the Program will, therefore, look to engage and empower, innovate, enable, amplify, and learn. One of the major outcomes of the program includes a repository platform to share analysis, scaling readiness assessments, and impact evaluations.

Keeping an ear to the ground 

To better understand the ground realities and guide its proposal process, the Scaling Science team carried out several rounds of stakeholder consultations, involving donors, researchers, government officials, international and local NGOs, the private sector, and farmers. The initial online seminar for Scaling for Impact (attended by 140 participants representing a diverse range of stakeholders) and the private sector engagement session at the AFS Forum in Rwanda, Kigali, laid the foundation for the multi-stakeholder discussions that ensued.

The first multi-stakeholder discussion was held during the FARA Science and Partnerships for Agriculture Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, in July, attended by around 80 participants. At the session, Dr. Inga Jacobs-Mata (Ukama Ustawi Initiative Lead, Director Water, Growth, and Inclusion at IWMI, and Scaling for Impact Writing Team Transition Deputy Director) and Dr. Timothy Krupnik (CIMMYT Country Representative and CGIAR Country Convener, and Scaling for Impact Transition Director), outlined the program and its areas of work.

“We are trying to engage not only with the existing partners but also new and non-traditional regional and national stakeholders to prioritize research and scaling and ensure that whatever we are scaling is responsive to the demand and priorities of national and regional partners. It is very important that what we design is not simply the figments of imagination of a few CGIAR scientists, but it is actually built on a vision of what our stakeholders more broadly within CGIAR are.” 

– Dr Inga Jacobs-Mata, IWMI

This hybrid consultation was followed by three regional, multilingual partner engagement sessions (webinars) covering the regions of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, attended by around 190 participants, representing yet again a diverse set of stakeholder groups. These sessions gleaned invaluable insights and unique perspectives of different regions and countries, with some messages being echoed.

While the Program’s ambitious vision and goal were well-received by participants, the consultations highlighted specific opportunities and challenges for successful and impactful scaling efforts by the CGIAR.

Engaging partners throughout the innovation development process, and not just during the scaling phase, would reap maximum benefits from partnerships and collaboration. While local research agendas and scaling efforts should be ideally spearheaded by NARS, CGIAR can play an important role in maintaining information exchange with NARS while supporting the co-creation of innovations. There is a need to facilitate multi-stakeholder platforms. If well-defined, such platforms would enable sustained collaboration and provide opportunities for local stakeholders to also explore regional and global collaboration.

Embracing inclusivity requires a systematic approach to effectively empower marginalized communities. Addressing local concerns and identifying and understanding the key drivers of change can lead to better engaged stakeholders, foster innovation, and result in meaningful progress. Considering and addressing power dynamics within countries would also ensure that the most vulnerable are not left out.

Scaling and innovation must align well with the local needs. This could be achieved by applying bottom-up as well as top-down approaches while embracing plurality and diversity to enhance local innovations and resilient practices. The focus should be on the outcome rather than the innovation itself. Constantly listening to and understanding the local context is therefore essential for sustainable and impactful interventions and to avoid the risks in applying generic approaches across regions. Tools and metrics are needed to continuously measure and influence scaling success. And to attract governments and international financial institutions (IFIs) to invest in innovation scaling, economic and financial viability is a decisive factor.

It is crucial to disseminate awareness of innovations across a wider community through capacity building. However, special attention must be given to building and strengthening national systems for better uptake and scaling of innovations. This would involve in training of trainers and using digital and social media for knowledge dissemination with NARS. CGIAR, with its world-class research and technical resources, can play a pivotal role in mentoring and providing support to strengthen NARS. Backed by science, indigenous knowledge too could contribute to contextual and localized solutions and sometimes avoid re-inventing the wheel.

Science Impact at the Last Mile

Learning and gleaning feedback from past initiatives is crucial to reflect and reassess strategies, challenges, and impacts for continuous improvement and for overall program agility in maintaining a healthy scaling momentum. And the scaling effort would also benefit much from integration across the CGIAR portfolio. This is not only important in terms of avoiding duplicated efforts and achieving traction across interventions, but also to address complex and important challenges for successful and impactful scaling, rather than aiming for low-hanging fruits. Partnerships within and outside CGIAR need to be evaluated for better outcomes, while addressing both public and private sector innovation pathways. There is support for establishing a global innovation clearinghouse through CGIAR to assess innovations and provide technical assistance to attract large international financial institution (IFI) investments.

Carrying forward the regional legacy of the CGIAR Regional Integrated Initiative for Diversification in East and Southern Africa (Ukama Ustawi) to a global level, the scaling program aims to work closely with existing scaling partners. The CGIAR Scaling Program’s vision for 2030 is mobilizing science, finance, and partnerships to empower country-led transformation through demand-driven scaling of innovative food system solutions. A collaborative and informed approach would be instrumental in driving transformative changes in food security, poverty reduction, gender equality, climate adaptation, and environmental sustainability.

Authors:

• Nora Hanke-Louw, IWMI South Africa Deputy Country Representative and Ukama Ustawi Initiative Project Coordinator

• Timothy Krupnik, CIMMYT Country Representative and CGIAR Country Convener in Bangladesh and Scaling for Impact Transition Director

• Inga Jacobs-Mata, Ukama Ustawi Initiative Lead, Director Water, Growth and Inclusion at IWMI, and Scaling for Impact Writing Team Transition Deputy Director

Featured image: Stakeholders engaging in discussion during Day 2 of the Ukama Ustawi ShareFair, 13–15 March 2024, Masvingo, Zimbabwe. Credit: Ukama Ustawi Initiative CGAIR