A sunny sky can be a warning of worse things to come in Western Kenya.
Living things are struggling to survive in Garissa. For those who want to live, there is either death or exile.
The cumulative effects of four successively unsuccessful rainy seasons have led to an unprecedented severe drought in Kenya, according to the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA).
“I am Dubey Ibrahim Werar, and I am 78 years old. In my entire life, I have never experienced such a severe drought. There hasn’t been a drop of rain in the past three years. The owners of these homes have all left them. Few of us have stayed in place. This is the most dire situation that we have ever encountered.”
Climate shocks have turned upside down the lives of pastoralists. Livestock, one of their key livelihood sectors, has been severely affected. Staple food prices have gone through the roof, while daily wages continue to plummet.
Vulnerability of communities
The fall of purchasing power led to rising rates of malnutrition among the most vulnerable communities.
Mohammed Noor Afey, a community leader, has observed the sad deterioration: “The drought has really affected our livestock and this has taken away our economic lifeline, What Is left here are people with no livestock. The only person who can afford to buy something is the one with livestock nearby through selling his or her livestock. We don’t have markets where we can buy food and we don’t have farms. The only income we have is our livestock and we’ve lost that.”
According to the National Drought Management Authority Food Security June report, the number of people facing food insecurity in Kenya has increased from the previous 3.5M to 4.1M.
The Kenyan Red Cross Society and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been distributing relief food and animal feed in four drought-affected counties.
In order to help communities build resilience in the face of the erratic weather patterns, households have also received cash support.
Drugs and other emergency health supplies distributed by UNICEF and partners reached 150,000 people in Marsabit, Turkana, Wajir, Mandera, Garissa, and Tana River, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
Drought-related disease outbreaks of Kalaazar, Chikungunya, Dengue fever and Yellow fever have been reported in drought affected Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs), further compounding the vulnerability of communities, and their coping mechanisms to drought emergency.
