Where the skies have refused to open

• 130,000 people face starvation, and cattle die in large numbers as drought ravages Narok

Mrs Nolutuesha Nchoe stands forlon, her malnourished baby strapped to her back at her home at Naikarra. Another emaciated baby looks on with sunken eyes. In a faltering voice, Mrs Nchoe says she has nothing to offer her five children after drought killed all the family’s animals.

“This boma had 100 head of cattle and several goats and sheep,” she said. “Yesterday we slaughtered the last sheep.”

The picture is he same in many manyattas on the broad plains of Narok. Once beautiful lush green country, the plains are now an endless sea of grey, dust and dry shrubs.

Even as the rest of the country receives heavy rainfall, the skies have refused to open over most parts of Narok to the detriment of the local residents, many of who are pastoralists. According to weather reports, it has not rained significantly in the region for the last several months.

The regional drought management officer, Dr Joel Lang’at, says 130,000 people in the two districts are threatened with starvation.

Animal carcasses litter the roadsides in Mara, Osupuko and Lower Mau divisions, while the few cows that can still walk are being moved in search of water and pasture. The price of a prized bull is now as low as Sh300, down from Sh40,000. Traders now prefer to buy only the hides. Some people have migrated with their livestock to Naivasha, Nyandarua, Trans Mara and Tanzania.

While the staple food for children is milk and ugali (maize meal), only the lucky few are fed black tea and ugali. Many children even go for two days without food.

The livestock deaths could not have happened at a worse time, coming as they do after a massive crop failure. The situation has not been helped by the fact that wheat farms in the area recorded the poorest yields in recent history this year.

Maurice Suji, the district agricultural officer in Narok North, blames farmers for not heeding expert advice. He said the Agriculture ministry has been unsuccessfully advising against further expansion of land under cultivation.

“This has led to tremendously reduced pasture land while yielding nothing for the farmers,” he said, citing the increased area under wheat as an example.

It has also emerged that while the government has provided subsidised farm inputs like fertilizers, farmers are reluctant to plant. wondering whether it will really rain. Mr Suji said the government has stocked 13,782 bags of DAP, MAP and CAN fertilizers.

“This is the worst drought in recent memory,” said Sopir ole Karia, 70. He added that while in the past only one type of livestock died, this time round cattle, sheep and goats were dying in their hundreds. According to Christopher Kunter, the district livestock production officer, 28,400 livestock have died and 130,000 more are at risk of dying.

The prolonged drought was also undermining education in the area due to lack of water for the school feeding programme. The district’s Kenya National Union of Teachers secretary, Boniface Kashu, said while the government’s move to expand the feeding programme from 25 schools to 100 in Narok North alone was laudable, the efforts would come to naught without similar efforts to make water available.

Narok North District Education Officer Jane Mtange and her Narok South counterpart Sammy Chemwol confirmed that the water shortage is threatening enrolment.

“It is true that many schools have food, but they have no water with which to cook it,” Ms Mtange said, adding that expenditure on water would eat into free education funds even though it had not been budgeted for.