Excellent question since those types of leaves are not ones we would commonly deal with.

Related article (you may already be aware of) linked below provides C/N ratio of acacia and oil palm leaves and the effect on composting and vermicomposting rates when they are used. Personally I was surprised by their C/N ratio.

Guess the best approach would be to investigate the C/N ratio of at least enough of the native leaves to determine if any should be avoided due to low carbon ratios.

Good luck.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Potential of Selected Bedding Materials for Vermicomposting

Thanks for the response and the link. It will be helpful.

The numbers in this study support the commonly accepted numbers that show that all tree leaves have between 40:1 to 80:1 C:N ratio, and that depends on the age of the leaves. The sooner the leaves are composted after falling the lower the ratio, or the greater the amount of nitrogen in the leaves. For vermicomposting you may want to let the leaves sit around for a time before mixing them in the bedding.

C:N ratios of leaves start at 20:1 from lists I've seen.

I would go to the horses mouth for this, Kenyan agriculture and small plot owners are pretty geared up and anything that is worth knowing, these guys know it, Kenyans are pretty up front about asking for stuff, and wanting your address, either skirt round it or give them the address of the organisation, otherwise you will have begging letters and people turning up at your door! trust me I never once gave out my address, but I had many beging letters on returning home and 3 people to my knowledge claiming to be staying with me, when coming through emigration! I found out someone of the Kenyan Agricultural Ministry had been selling my address, from the offical papers he had regarding our visit! that said they are very helpful, and willing to show off their knowledge. I was most impressed with what I found, I visited in 1995 (long time ago) but have googled all of these and they are all still about

Depending on the project this school is excellent and the staff and pupils really clued up, they don't seem to have a website I can find, but here's the address it is high school age pupils.

Limuru Agricultural Youth Centre
Schools-Polytechnic
Limuru/Banana Rd
P. O. Box 30496 - 00100 GPO Nairobi.
Tel: (66) - 41243

The coffee research stations are another good source as they use all type of things to aid coffee farmers and these have to be cheap solutions, such as the husk from the coffee seed are dryed and for fertiliser and mulch.
http://www.crf.co.ke/

and lastly the ASK, which have offices all round Kenya, and maybe able to put you in touch with subsistance farmers, or an offical, who will be able to help you with every composing question you can think of! the one I visited near Meru was 3 acres and supported a large extended family, they had fruit and veg you can imagine there, and they REUSED everything, their 3 cows in a stall that was build on a slope with the roof sloping the otherway, so when it rained, the rain would run down the roof hit the floor roll across the floor and collect all the manure,in a tank, which was connected to the gas, so not only was the manure was used as fertiliser, the methane was used to power their stove and a few gas lamps in the kitchen and family room! amazing!
but don,t feel that they don't need help, some areas need resorces, as they are extremely poor, when I could excape my "offical" guides several "old colonal" farmers who I stayed with and a Asian headmaster, took me round to people who did not have the "right" political connections to get alot of the help available, or the money for bribes, so alot of people to help still.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ag soc of Kenya