Herders in bid to cut losses

Pastoralists have in the last few months been lining up at the Kenya Meat Commission to sell their emaciated beasts.

Large numbers of herders are bringing the animals in trucks and lorries to cut their losses as the drought that has resulted in one of the biggest famines in Kenya shows no signs of abetting.

Through a Sh500 million off-take programme initiated by the government to alleviate the effects of drought, a cow can fetch as much as Sh7,000.

Too late

“We are buying by weight and a kilo is going for Sh100,” KMC managing director Vincent Ngurare told Nation, adding that more than 13,000 cows have been bought since the scheme started in April. However, not all pastoralists can transport their animals to the meat factory near Nairobi and some have had to sell their animals for as little Sh500.

And because the KMC only buys live animals, some herders who left it too late lose out as their animals die at the KMC premises. Pastoralists feel the government should do more. Members of Isiolo Livestock Marketing Cooperative Society say their plight would be eased if KMC came to buy their animals.

“During the 2004/2005 drought, the government directed the Agriculture Development Corporation to buy our animals and take them to KMC,” the society’s chairman, Mr Hassan Shano said.

A report by the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) says most parts of the country are highly food insecure. “There is need for more aid to avoid an upsurge in food insecure households,” the report says, adding that Nyanza and Western provinces, a section of Nakuru and parts of Meru and Embu were still food secure.

It says in Kajiado and Loitoktok, people were leaving as livestock, their lifeline, has virtually been wiped out. The drought is so severe that food security is under threat in areas like Rift Valley Province and parts of Central Kenya which supply food to Nairobi and other towns.

The Red Cross is coordinating various programmes to mobilise funds and food following an appeal by President Kibaki on January 21 after he declared the drought a national disaster.

Since the launch of the programme, KRCS and other agencies have been distributing food to 10 million people. The drought has been aggravated by an outbreak of cholera in areas such as Isiolo, Moyale and Laimasis districts.

The effects of the drought began to bite at the beginning of the year but by June the situation slightly improved following rains in some areas.

Trickling in

As a result, vegetables and other foodstuffs began to trickle in from the agriculture-rich areas of North and South Kinagop, Kipipiri and Ndaragwa in the greater Nyandarua.

Fresh fears, however, are being expressed that the situation may deteriorate by the end of this month because the food has started diminishing with the next harvest expected at the end of the year if the short rains between October and December do not fail.

Weather experts have painted a bleak picture, saying there won’t be enough rains in the highly productive regions.