SACRED Africa was established with the major objectives of improving the livelihoods of resource-poor farmers, promoting the sustainable use of natural resources, and agro-biodiversity that seek to enhance food security and safety. These objectives are being addressed through linking small-scale farmers to liberalized markets and dealing with social and cultural issues that hinder development. The NGO is now a full-fledged organization changing the lives of farmers within the Eastern and Central African regions through community-oriented capacity building, research and outreach services. 

SACRED Africa started as a small rural-based initiative way back in March 1997, but the idea that gave birth to this intra-African NGO was mooted the previous year. SACRED Africa is an acronym for Sustainable Agriculture Centre for Research, Extension and Development. It was established as an agricultural research and development organization meant to confront Africa’s agricultural problems with an “African mind and approach” operating in tandem with the scientific, technical and socio-cultural realities of the African continent. SACRED Africa works with poor rural communities in Africa to improve their lives by increasing agricultural productivity, food security and incomes while protecting and enhancing the environment.

The professionals behind the establishment of SACRED were greatly alarmed by the deteriorating situation of the farmers especially with the advent of liberalization of markets which negatively affected small scale farmers. The Secretary to the Board, who is also the the founding Executive Director, Dr. Eusebius J. Mukhwana, was genuinely outraged about this situation and wrote “as much as we liberalize and say we are leaving everything to the market forces, we still believe that our people cannot be fed on imports.” These concerns also arose from the fact that farmers found themselves in a quandary, caught between a rock and a hard place; with effects of liberalized markets on the one hand and the vagaries of middlemen on the other hand. The net effect was that food production for subsistence and cash was, and still continues to be, in many parts of Africa, a sorry state of affairs.

Over the years, SACRED Africa has realized that the problems facing the communities are complex and cannot be addressed by one single organization. To make a meaningful impact in facilitating development interventions and empowering communities in order to alleviate poverty, SACRED Africa has been working in partnership with individuals and organizations both in the South and in the North. Through this partnership, it has been able to carry out in-depth analysis and research on African food production, build the capacities of rural agricultural communities and address marketing as well as processing problems affecting smallholder farmers.

So far, SACRED Africa is the only organization of its kind in this part of the world and this only shows how much Africans can achieve if they became committed to solving their own problems. The organization considers itself as having a calling to make a tangible contribution with its partners in bringing about true and real change amongst impoverished African communities. The organization also supports and empowers women and other rural people by responding to their priority needs in a holistic manner.

Today, SACRED Africa has more than five programs; it employs more than 20 professionals with training and expertise in various fields up to PhD level and has an annual budget that is well over US $ 270,000. Current areas of expertise, which constitute the strength of this organization; are Agronomy, Agricultural Marketing, Forestry, Soil Science, Animal Production, Organic Farming and the Sociology of agro-based production.

In Kenya, SACRED Africa operates in well over seven administrative Districts with an approximate population of 3 million people. The organization has been expanding with time and on the basis of legitimate demand for its core services to other parts of the country and within the region into Rwanda and Uganda. In Rwanda, SACRED Africa has a presence in Umtara Province. Lately, it has also gained a foothold in Uganda. SACRED Africa has its head office on Muchai Drive, Nairobi, Kenya. The organization also has a Regional Programs Coordination Office for Western province in Kenya within Kakamega town.

SACRED Africa has developed this website where one can access the SACRED Africa’s in-depth analysis of the various aspects of Sub-Saharan African development and the role that the NGO is playing. The biggest endeavour of SACRED Africa is to present African problems, challenges and opportunities with an African perspective, something that is always almost missing in populist development approaches.

Hon Dr. Koffi Anna, Former UN Scretary General Visits a SACRED
Africa New Maize Variety Trail site at Bukembe, Bungoma, Kenya.                            Dr. Eusebius J. Mukhwana, Director, SACRED Africa


For more details contact the Director, SACRED Africa  at sacred@africaonline.co.ke  (c) 2009 SACRED Africa