The misery of Marsabit

The scorching sun and the clear blue sky diminish the hopes of herders in Marsabit County by the day.

The land here is too dry for crop farming, and the local pastoralist communities depend entirely on animals for survival.

DANGEROUS

But a dangerous swing of weather between floods and drought has left thousands of pastoralists counting losses in Kenya’s largest county by size.

Many livestock farmers have been stretched beyond survival limits, with their frail and sickly cattle, sheep, goats and even camels continuing to die at an alarming rate.

The Nation recently visited the county and witnessed the disaster that is driving locals towards severe hunger and destitution.

In Dakaye Village, some 270 kilometres from Marsabit town, the green bushes by the roadsides can easily deceive a visitor that the famine that has wracked this arid region is about to end.

CARCASSES

But goat and sheep carcasses litter bare fields among skeletons of long-dead camels.

Villagers, mainly Turkana, say camel deaths are the real indication of the severity of this year’s drought.

From a herd of 400 goats, Edonga Natata says he has just 10 left.

“I lost about 300 to drought and 150 were swept away by flash floods two weeks ago,” he tells the Nation.

“The small bushes have sprung to life because of the short but strong floods that brought more misery instead of life.”

GOATS

According to Natata, they rarely keep cattle because the grazers are unlikely to withstand the harsh climatic conditions in the area.

“But the goats, sheep, donkeys as well as camels do well because they are hardy,” he says.

Natata’s story of struggle is replicated in many households across the village.

Another resident, Sam Nkeli, had to endure the pain of watching his goats wither away.

“We have never been hit hard like this before. Even the elderly men in the village tell us this is the worst drought ever on record,” he says.

Nkeli, one of the few locals who can speak Swahili in that village, says food rations provided by government and non-governmental organisations do not always reach them.

A big chunk, he says, ends up in the stomachs of untargeted people because of corruption.

Chiefs have been blamed for the vice.

While Marsabit has always been an arid area, the situation has been worsening due to climate change and overstocking.

The latest National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) report shows the county has inadequate pasture to meet the needs of the regions’ livestock.

“The quality and quantity of pasture is below normal compared to [a] similar time of the year and season,” NDMA says in its drought early warning bulletin for April 2017.

SEVERE

“The overall Vegetation Condition Index for the county in April was 10.52, placing the county in severe vegetation-deficit band. All the sub-counties are in severe vegetation deficit category.”

Kilometres away at Elmolo Bay on the shores of Lake Turkana, butchered and emaciated sheep and goats are hooked on a makeshift stand.

The mood here is grim as pastoralists are forced to sell and slaughter their livestock rather than see them die in the extreme drought.

The Elmolo, who also depend on fish for survival, are now selling their animals to the Kenya Red Cross and the European Union’s humanitarian wing (ECHO).

A goat or sheep is sold for Sh2,000, well below the market price of over Sh3,500.

The destocking, ECHO says, helps pastoralists earn some money and also provide much needed food aid.

Each of the 100 families in the area gets half a goat for four days.

Julius Akolong, a fisherman, says falling water levels in Lake Turkana due to the development of dams in Ethiopia is threatening fish supplies.

“Further reduction will impoverish this community because the few livestock we started keeping are now dying.”

The Kenya Red Cross says extreme weather patterns, marked by a prolonged absence of rain, have worsened the situation.

“Destocking is a temporary response measure to destock locals of their emaciated herds in Marsabit,” Upper Eastern Manager Talaso Chucha says.

NO RAIN

“With the money they get, they can buy a larger variety of food types.”

Chucha adds that the severity of the food scarcity will be felt in the coming months if there is no rain and urges urgent steps to deal with the crisis.

ECHO Head of Eastern and Southern Africa Peter Burgess says the agency funded the Kenya Red Cross Society in Marsabit with €1 million (Sh115,477,520) to reach at least 3,000 households with emergency cash transfers.

“[The] EU has prioritised food assistance in the form of cash or electronic vouchers, which people can redeem at local markets against food…. it is very direct, fast with little overhead costs; it is dignified as it gives people the freedom to buy the type of food they want unlike with in-kind food aid,” he says.

$20.9 MILLION

On the other hand, the World Food Programme (WFP) says it requires $20.9 million to purchase and distribute nutrition products to lactating mothers and children in Marsabit and other drought-affected areas.

WFP Country Director and Representative for Kenya Annalisa Conte says that in collaboration with the government and NGOs, they the agency has started a large-scale distribution of nutritious foods to mothers and children in Kibish and Turkana North sub-counties in Turkana and North Horr in Marsabit.

“Malnutrition levels are well above the emergency threshold in nine sub-counties in Kenya. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough funds for this expansion,” she says.