Moses Makachia, Pastor, Teacher, ChangeMaker

Teaching Hundreds of People Sustainable Farming Techniques to Address Food Insecurity in Poverty-Stricken Communities of Western Kenya

Meet Moses Makachia, a 50-year old pastor of the New Life Foundation Gospel Church, community organizer, permaculture teacher, and master builder.

His early career was spent as a professional builder constructing schools and houses as well as protected watersprings, boreholes and bridges.

Like many other permaculture practitioners in East Africa, Moses has a variety of formal and informal training in the philosophy, techniques and practices of permaculture. In 2013, he participated in “Foodwatershelter” Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) in Tanzania hosted in partnership with The Permaculture Research Institute of Kenya. And, then in 2018, he participated in the Permaculture Design Certificate and Convergence (in total, 3-weeks of on-site training) at the Sabina Home and Boarding School in Uganda in May 2018 held by

Steven W Jones

of Sector39.

He is also a member of the Africa Permaculture Support Network on Facebook where permaculture practitioners of East Africa network to share advice, tips and gain financial and non-financial support.

Over the last ten years, Moses has successfully integrated his unique combination of skills as a builder, his position in the community as a pastor, and his knowledge as a permaculture designer to help hundreds of people living in Butere, Kenya gain the skills to feed themselves. Butere and Kakamega are ares in Western Kenya that Moses describes as “hampered by poverty” and negatively impacted by industrialized sugar cane farming. Indeed, the poverty level in Kakamega and Butere is staggering with 40% and 50% of the population living in poverty respectively.

Since 2022, working under the umbrella of the Shisaba Water Resource Initiative (SHWRI), Moses has been building a “food and horticulture” initiative with the goal of “helping communities - but especially women, youth, and the elderly - create income generating opportunities through farming.” Towards that end, Moses has trained 450 people in permaculture techniques.

Here, Moses gives final remarks during the closing ceremony for a three-day organic farming training.

He has plans to expand the scope of his project to include tree conservation, water conservation and protection, ecosystems managements and food production.

In the video below, Moses and group members celebrate National Tree Planting Day. Kenya's National Tree Growing Day is a public holiday celebrated annually on November 13. The holiday was first observed in 2023 as part of the government's plan to plant 15 billion trees by 2032 to help combat climate change.

Moses is always looking for ways to share his passion for permaculture. Whether it’s building a kitchen garden demonstration site complete with container gardening using sacks as shown here…

…or working collaboratively with local schools (as shown below) and community organizations to design water and soil conservation projects. In the following video, a local school teacher is planting potato vines in “swales”. Swales are ditches combined with mounds that run along the contour of the land to capture water in the landscape for passive irrigation and to slow runoff during heavy rains. It is an essential technique in this semi-arid area where alternative periods of drought and heavy rains wreak havoc.

Outside of his organic agriculture trainings and activities, Moses has successfully partnered with an American church outside of Kenya to fund the cost of supplies and fees for 120 children to attend and stay in school in his community.

Who Inspires Moses?

Moses named Steven Whitman as his own personal ChangeMaker. “Steve inspired me to change my skills from building and construction to permaculture. He brought me closer to community development and encouraged me to focus on the welfare of community members.” Perhaps a strange coincidence, Steve lives relatively close to me in the United States. I reached out to him prior to publishing this article. He was touched by Moses’s gratitude for his guidance and teaching.

Where in the world is Moses?

Moses operates his activities in Kakamega and Butere counties located in Western Kenya where 40% and 50% of residents respectively live in poverty.