Did you know there is a type of bean called Raila?
Beans are said to have been introduced to the local cuisine by the missionaries. Currently, there are hundreds of grain species in the local market.
However, not many people have a knowledge about the types and names of beans in the market.
For instance there is a type of bean named after former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and other a section of leaders have the grains named after them.
The name of Opposition leader Raila Odinga is among those picked to identify bean varieties developed during an eight-year research to improve agricultural yields in five counties.
Researchers said farmers had named one of the bean varieties Raila because of its crisp dark tone similar to the pigmentation of the towering opposition leader.
The bean is one of the popular varieties identified as best suited for growing in coffee zones and lower regions in Tharaka Nithi, Embu and Meru counties during the project called the Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA).
The Australian funded project by the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research (Karlo) was running in the Eastern region counties as well as Bungoma and Siaya counties in Western Kenya.
Farmers are routinely asked to identify a name for crop varieties developed by Karlo and some of the other names picked for other popular varieties include Mwende, a Kamba name for a girl for a bean that has little gas when cooked.
Kendi (a Meru girl’s name) has also been picked for a popular variety of pigeon peas tested under the Simlesa project while another variety under this category has been given the local name Ndombolo.
Researchers such as Dr Alfred Micheni of the Karlo Embu station who was an agronomist in the project said Ndombolo had not been a very popular variety among farmers.
In the past few, a bean variety had been named Saitoti, again because of its skin tone similar to late former vice president Prof George Saitoti.
Another bean variety developed during the 1980s was given the name Nyayo apparently in recognition of the political era of retired president Daniel Moi.
Mwende and Kendi grains were developed over the last eight years in a project dubbed Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA).