Thousands stare hunger in the face in arid North

• Starvation threatens families, with 70 per cent of them needing urgent relief food

At Makoror, a village of famine-stricken herders in the periphery of Wajir Town, women are braving the hot sun to excavate a nearby quarry to earn Sh100.

In a potentially risky environment, their young children join them in their daily search for means of livelihood as hunger bites.

Mrs Sarura Abdille wakes up at dawn daily to fend for her three children. She goes to the quarry accompanied by her 10-year-old son, Hussein.

She survived the ravaging drought of 2006 that claimed the lives of 100 people in North Eastern Province, including her husband. About 80 per cent of the livestock in the area died then.

Mrs Abdille says her husband died as a result of thirst on the border with neighbouring Somalia as he searched for pasture and water.

The current dry spell reopens old wounds in the hearts and minds of many survivors like her now living a day at a time.

Having also lost her herd of goats, she remained helpless, living in squalor in the village where life for her family is getting terrible due to lack of food.

“We work the whole day for just one meal; we get Sh100 for every wheelbarrow of gravel,” says Mrs Abdille.

But the few shillings she earns are not enough to keep her family for a day. Hunger is sapping her strength, and in the next few weeks, she will be too weak.

The number of times she has slept on an empty stomach is countless. “Death is just on the horizon,” she said.

“Sometimes we get a kilo of maize from the Government,” said the emaciated 54-year-old mother.

“That is why we have to dig these hard rocks ( in this quarry) every day to find a source of livelihood,” she says.

This is the situation in many other northern Kenya villages where hunger is the order of the day.

There are thousands of hungry people in North Eastern Province and now with failed rains, shortage of food and water is the biggest problem facing the people.

“We are terribly worried of food and water shortage since the dry spell seems to be holding on, particularly in the grazing areas,” said Diyad Mowlid a coordinator of Aldef-Kenya, a charity that has been distributing relief food in Wajir.