Deaths as drought scorches region

A disaster is looming in Marsabit County where at least two people have starved to death following a protracted drought.

The two died following what Marsabit North acting district commissioner Mburu Mwangi called “suspected hunger and dehydration”.

The two are Barile Bericha, 54, from Yaa Gara village, and Liban Ndenge Arelo, 22, from Huri Hills village. The two villages are in Maikona division.

Bad to worse

“So far, about 30,000 people are facing starvation in the district and the situation is going from bad to worse,” Mr Mwangi told the Sunday Nation.

Livestock in the area have for the last few months been dying in large numbers. The government had early last month been asked to make urgent interventions after the district steering group in Marsabit North District, which comprises the newly created North Horr and Chalbi districts, conducted a survey to establish the extent of the drought in the area.

In the report dated December 3, 2010, the district steering group said: “The assessment was carried out in the period of alarm to emergency stages of the drought cycle.

“We witnessed cases of livestock dying as a result of starvation and lack of water, especially sheep and goats. Emergency intervention is therefore required.”

“The situation is so bad since the last batch of relief food supplies from the government was received here in September. And 90 per cent of the maize we distributed was not edible,” Mr Mwangi said.

Carcasses of animals especially along Marsabit-Moyale highway are now strewn all over – an indication that the drought has reached a critical stage. The worst affected areas, Mr Mwangi said, include Bubisa, Turbi and Burgabo, which are along the highway.

Forolle and Huri Hills on the eastern side of the highway as well as Elhadi, Yaa Gara and El-Hadi are equally affected and some parts of Chalbi desert basin.

The Sunday Nation toured some of the areas most affected by the drought and found that pastoralists are trekking with their animals for between 60 and 80 kilometres in search of water.
Area deserted

In Forolle, which is along the Kenya-Ethiopia border, the village had been deserted when the Sunday Nation visited the place.

“People have fled the drought. Our problem is water. We have to walk with our animals to Arabor in Ethiopia which is the nearest borehole we have,” Forolle assistant chief Mohammed Elema said.

North Horr MP Chachu Ganya, whose area is affected by the drought, insists that the government has not made any efforts to prevent the catastrophe.