Tales of suffering abound as prolonged drought continues

The stench of cattle carcasses left to rot in the bushes is unbearable.

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Flies buzz around the carcasses, occasionally landing and feasting on the remains as dogs watch from a distance. They have seemingly refused to fill their stomachs with the free food.

It is midday and the sun is quite hot. Just a few metres away, a young Maasai moran is driving a herd of about 50 emaciated cows home from the watering hole, oblivious of the foul smell.

The day has not been good for him. Despite waking up very early in the morning, his animals have not had enough water to drink and food to eat. This is now a normal happening.

But even as we struggled hard to stifle the awful stench by covering our noses with handkerchiefs, Mr Mutungi Lesingo, a resident of the Il Bissil in Kajiado Central constituency, Ruft Valley province, who is in our company, looks disturbed.

We are about 160 kilometres from Nairobi on the road to Namanga, the town on the Kenya-Tanzania border. The area is represented in Parliament by Defence assistant minister Joseph Nkaiserry.

Mr Lesingo is sadly witnessing the collapse of his “huge empire” of cattle, which took him years to amass, in a matter of days and there is nothing much he can do to save it.

The carcasses strewn all over the area were once part of his large herd of cattle. Today, they belong to flies and scavengers.

Mr Lesingo, who has four wives and 12 children, was by last December the proud owner of more than 300 head of cattle – a rich man by any standards.

But now, the number of animals in his boma (compound) is less than 150. The drought has taken its toll, not only in Kajiado, but also in the rest of the country.

In the past month alone, Mr Lesingo has lost more than 40 animals. He is not alone. The same story is replicated in other areas.

Surprisingly, goats and sheep in the area have not been much affected by the drought as they feed on the shrubs that dot the area.

According to Mr Lesingo’s Maasai culture, an individual’s riches are determined by the number of cattle he owns. The more you have, the richer you are.

Mr Lesingo says the failure of the rains has spelt doom for his cattle, which now face the twin problem of lack of pasture and water to drink.

“We are in many instances faced with a dilemma – deciding whether to feed ourselves or feed our cattle. I tell you, it’s a situation that many of Kenyans would not like to be in,” he says.
It is for this reason that the pastoralist decided to sell some of his livestock hoping to replenish the number in future.