Climate extremes push Northern Kenya Communities to the brink

In one of my recent post, I mentioned experiences of communities that live in Northen Kenya and the kind of struggles they have to go through because of negative impacts of climate change. In this post, I touch on the real life experiences of two wonderful people that I met during my sojourn in Marsabit County, having traversed it using the newly built international standard Isiolo Moyale Highway, which is part of the Cape Town Cairo international corridor.

Because of the changing climate, Marsabit County like other Northern Kenya counties is facing serious challenges that are negatively affecting the livelihoods of men, women and even children.

A few decades ago, droughts used to occur within cycles of five to ten years. During the intervening period, communities living close to hills were able to grow a wide variety of crops, including maize, beans, millet and potatoes. Unfortunately, drought cycles have become shorter. This has meant that the County does not receive enough rain to sustain agricultural production. As a consequence, the community’s food security has become threatened and levels of malnutrition are rising. This has particularly affected children and lactating mothers.

However, all is not doom and gloom. Men and women are learning new ways of adapting to climate change. The stories below are a good illustration.

Fatuma Kurungu is the Chairlady of Maiyan Self-Help group which is based in Saku Sub-County close to Marsabit Mountain. She learnt how to set up kitchen gardens after being trained by officials of Horn of Africa Development Initiative (HODI) an NGO that runs programmes in Marsabit.

“I learnt how to set up kitchen gardens in 2013. I now grow Sukuma Wiki (Kales), Dania and even tomatoes,” she said during a focus group discussion held at Marsabit. She gets to harvest produce worth an average of Kshs. 10,000 per month from the sale of the surplus.

“It no longer rains regularly in Marsabit. I cannot grow these crops in the open because of long drought periods but I am able to grow them on my kitchen garden,” said Fatuma. “I plan to train more women on how to set up kitchen gardens so that they can grow their own vegetable and give their children more nutritious food and even earn income."

When managed properly, kitchen gardens play a vital role towards building resilience because they improve the nutrition status of families while giving them an additional livelihood options.

Mzee Juma Letele is a resident of Walda, a trading centre close to Sololo Town in Moyale Sub-County in Marsabit. In May 2017, he heard about the revival of a Project Known as National Environment Management Authority (NEMA)/Kenya Red Cross Adaptation Project.

The two organisations have sunk a bore hole at Walda and set up a drip irrigation system. Community members are welcome to identify plots and plant a wide variety of fresh products. Mzee Juma first planted water melons in May 2017 on a plot he estimates to be less then a quarter of an acre. He harvested the first crop of more than 500 fruits in August 2017.

Prices of ripe water melons range from Kshs.300-500. “I have learnt the importance of tending my crop, weeding and applying pesticides to control damage by pests,” recounted Mzee Juma in an interview. I have now made an income of Kshs. 60,000.00 through the sale of water melons, having delivered 50Kg of the fruit to Marsabit Town, he said.

Encouraged by the success of his first harvest, Mzee Juma said he has now planted different crops including maize, potatoes, butternut, Sukuma Wiki (Kales) and onions.

The Kenya Red Cross and NEMA have now installed a solar powered pump for the drip irrigation system in order to eliminate the use of diesel. The Project is good example of moving away from emergency relief and instead empowering community members to produce their own food in order to fight food insecurity and malnutrition, two manifestations of the negative impacts of climate change.