1 PASTORALISTS LIVING ON THE EDGE OF EXISTENCE IN KENYA I NTRODUCTION OCHA in partnership with the Danish Association for International Cooperation (MS) in Kenya and the Pastoralist Women for Health and Education visited pastoralist communities in Northern Kenya to get a clear picture of the impact of rising food prices and drought from vulnerable pastoralist communities. B ACKGROUND As climate change looms globally, extreme weather events have already impacted on pastoralists livelihoods in a significant and uncertain ways as is the case in northern Kenya. Pastoralists’ communities living in the predominant arid and semi-arid districts of Kenya are bearing the brunt of adverse consequences particularly food insecurity due to droughts, floods and livestock diseases. This is largely due to the fact that poverty remains entrenched in pastoralists areas, local livelihoods rely on fragile ecosystems, and local capacity to adapt to climate change is concomitantly weakest. Hence, pastoralists remain vulnerable to climate change. While some development and emergency programmes have undertaken several studies on vulnerability of pastoralists, they do this in an uncoordinated manner or with little collaboration with other local, national and international institutions. As a result, inadequate information on pastoralists’ vulnerabilities, existing adaptive strategies and comprehensive modeled efforts in anticipation of climate change impacts are lacking. mar ia Date: 00/00/00 Pastoralists in Kula Mawe share concerns over Tsetse fly outbreak to OCHA staff . Field Mission Report by: OCHA Kenya Country Office, OCHA, 2008 With support from OCHA Regional Office for Central and East Africa (ROCEA) 2 PASTORALISTS LIVING ON THE EDGE OF EXISTENCE IN KENYA, Aug 2008 * OCHA * I SIOLO AND GARBA TULA DISTRICTS Isiolo and Garba Tula districts are in Eastern Province but mostly identified as being in northern Kenya. The level of participation of local people in the district planning A CCESS TO EDUCATION processes is inadequate. This has also been noted as a major weakness in many districts across the country whereby local communities are not involved in the planning In areas with schools, inadequate process. school facilities have contributed to poor access to education by the local Despite Isiolo district being endowed and rich with natural resources particularly wildlife, population. A key-contributing factor areas housing pastoralists lack all forms of basic infrastructure vital for complementary to the high levels of illiteracy is lack support to socio-economic development including improvement of household livelihoods. of boarding school facilities for The local pastoralist communities in Chumviere, Daaba, Ngare Mara in Isiolo district and residential teaching and learning of Kula Mawe in Garba Tula district already cite poor road access, lack of schools, young girls and boys as their inadequate access to water for livestock and irrigation, and lack of accessible health nomadic parents migrate in search of facilities as major constraints to their development. pasture and water for livestock. The local leaders and members of the Isiolo community have cited this problem as dominant in most pastoralists’ areas. The on-going school feeding program has played a role in maintaining high enrolment of children in schools and does contribute to pastoralists’ willingness to keep their children in schools. However, despite this high enrolment, pastoralists’ girls are dropping out of schools due to lack of sanitary towels while others are forced to use cow dung. While providing the school feeding programme, agencies should support rural schools with sanitary pads to keep the girl-child in school. The local communities also cited early marriages as a contributing factor to high drop out rates. Schools also have poor access to basic necessities such as clean drinking water. A CCESS TO HEALTH S ERVICES Local communities in Kula mawe have inadequate access to health facilities. The nearest and sufficiently equipped health facility is in Isiolo town, approximated to be 150 kilometers from Kula mawe, which is R AVAGING DROUGHT the furthest location in Isiolo District. Chumviere area in Isiolo District, predominantly inhabited by the Turkana pastoralist Pregnant women and the sick are community who moved into the area in the 1980s, is bursting at its seams as rivers have often find it difficult to access health dried up and disappeared pushing many to the edge. This situation has been worsened services due to poor road conditions by the effects of climate change particularly droughts. Rivers Ngare Mara and Ngaranaiti and lack of transport. Such shrunk and eventually completely dried up in 2006 leaving the community, which was constraints contribute to high mortality rates. practising subsistence farming vulnerable to chronic food insecurity. In such events, the most vulnerable to adapt to such changes caused by climate change Limited access to maternity services are normally women and children who are unable to migrate with men in search of has also been cited as a major pasture and have to rely on small scale farming and small ruminants for their contributing factor to high incidents subsistence. of mortality rates, particularly among children under the age of 5 years. Women identified lack of access to R ESOURCE- BASED CONFLICTS prenatal care services as a key Climate change is also playing a crucial role in inter-ethnic conflicts among pastoralists threat to their health and child communities in northern Kenya as thousands of environmental refugees flee from survival. Daaba residents walk to droughts, which result in pasture and water shortages for livestock. Isiolo town, 30 kilometres away to 3 PASTORALISTS LIVING ON THE EDGE OF EXISTENCE IN KENYA, Aug 2008 * OCHA * access health services. Use of donkeys is the only means of In addition, access to veterinary and extension services is transport by patients to Isiolo, which normally result in deaths inadequate forcing locals to travel to Isiolo town to buy drugs due to the slowness involved. and get a veterinary doctor to treat their livestock. The outbreak is likely to wipe out most of the livestock impacting P HYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE negatively on their coping and adaptive measures and resilience to the drought. Even though there are no cases of Poor road access, specifically from Isiolo to Kula Mawe, a sleeping sickness reported in humans, residents fear that the stretch of about 100 kilometres was identified as a major insect will soon affect them. Concern has been raised by the constraint to marketing of livestock produce. residents that have forced to consume infected livestock meat The road is only functional during the dry season. The poor due to already looming hunger; there is a possibility of them state of the road exacerbates access to other essential basic getting exposed to other diseases which may result in death. facilities such as schools and health centres for local residents in Kula Mawe. A CCESS TO LIVESTOCK MARKETS The drought hitting northern Kenya has forced many pastoralists to sell their livestock at a cheaper price to get money to buy food and drugs for their sick livestock. The outbreak of tryponosomiasis has affected the body condition of the livestock thus fetching low prices in the market. A CCESS TO WATER Effects of global warming which have resulted in shrinking and drying up of natural water sources such as rivers and springs, coupled with recurring droughts is putting a constraint on available water resource which are used by the wildlife and pastoralist communities. As a result in Isiolo district, pastoralists are paying for water services including maintenance of water points. For example, the Kula Mawe community is maintaining and managing water pumps that provide them and their livestock with water. Maintenance of water facilities such as pumps is becoming costly due to soaring global fuel prices which has not spared pastoralists in Kenya either as many cannot afford to sustain this service. Road to Daaba in Isiolo District OCHA, 2008 T SETSE FLY INVASION Tse-tse fly infestation in Kula Mawe in Garba Tula district is threatening pastoralists’ main livelihood. Over 500 livestock have died due to the outbreak of tryponosomosis since December 2007. According to the locals, the invasion is Pastoralist children return from search for water in Chumviere. attributed to a nearby Bisanadi National Game Reserve, which OCHA, 2008 is 50 kilometres away from Kula Mawe. Meanwhile, some Borana pastoralists have been forced to migrate into the neighbouring Samburu district to avoid their animals getting F OOD SECURITY infected. The cyclical droughts have wiped out livestock, the main The tsetse fly, which transmits tryponosomiasis disease, has livelihood source. The pastoralists are scavenging on wild killed cattle, shoats and camels in the area making the already fruits/berries to survive. There is a humanitarian crisis looming poor residents more vulnerable to many recurring shocks in Northern Kenya as pastoralists have resorted to eating wild experienced in such environments. Following a recent influx of fruits and Gum Arabica to contain hunger. This is a Somali pastoralists from North Eastern in the months of June community which has been self-reliant on food as majority of and July, it is reported that the disease is likely to spread further them were farmers. However, due to prevailing circumstances due to migration patterns. they may require support in few pockets, although much