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Subject: Kenya drought causes massive loss of livelihoods/LS
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KENYA: Drought Causes Massive Loss of Livelihoods
UN Integrated Regional Information Network
December 20, 2000
"If it does not rain soon, the remaining cattle will die," explained
Tarayia Ntaro, a Maasai herdsman from Kajiado, a drought-hit area in
Southern Kenya. Watching all but 20 of his 400 cattle die off is
rather like watching his future disappear, as it could take up to 10
years for Ntaro to rebuild his herd, according to humanitarian
workers.
"We are saving lives but not livelihoods," said Robin Wheeler of the
World Food Programme (WFP). Four million Kenyans are receiving food
aid, and WFP plans to expand its emergency-feeding programme into
next year. But pastoralists like Ntaro can take little comfort from
the handouts. Livestock owners are among the hardest hit by Kenya's
three-year drought, which this year turned into a major food crisis.
Recent rains across the country have been patchy and are unlikely to
make any impact at all, weathermen added.
By the time humanitarian agencies were able to launch non-food aid
programmes, livestock had died in the worst affected areas, or were
too emaciated to sell. Pastoralists were forced to move their dying
animals to search for what little green remained, even on the verges
and roundabouts of the capital Nairobi. Or they had to sell, if only
for the price of the skin, some 200-400 Kenyan Shillings, equivalent
to $3-5.
In Ntaro's home area, people are trekking up to 20 km to reach a
watering point. The distance between pasture and water is critical in
the pastoral food production system, and - since the drought hit hard
- averages 50 km in the worst affected districts. Livestock have to
wait for more than two days after reaching the watering point because
of the pressure on the wells.
Over 40 percent of Kenya's cattle and 10-20 percent of its sheep and
goats were lost during the current drought, according to the Arid
Lands Resource Management Project (ALRMP) at the Office of the
President, Daniel arap Moi. The immediate risk concerns children,
according to UNICEF, as with so many cattle dying, there will be no
milk left for them.
The most severely affected area covers 2/3 of Kenya's land mass and
includes 22 districts. Of these, the 12 pastoralist districts are the
most affected. The worst hit districts are Turkana, Marsabit, Mandera
and Samburu in the north, in addition to the Wajir and Isiolo
districts in the north-central region. In these areas, between 30 and
40 percent of the population is malnourished, virtually triple the
average malnutrition rate of these regions.
WFP distributes 40,000 tonnes of food every month to the 19 districts
included in its Emergency Operation (EMOP). From January 2001, the
districts of Narok, Koibateck and Ijara will be added to the EMOP.
WFP aid staves off acute malnutrition but fails to render the
affected populations "food secure". "Food insecurity" describes the
situation of people for whom acquiring food amounts to jeopardising
the basis of their future livelihood, as was the case for some
pastoralists in Kenya who started selling off emaciated cattle in
order to buy feed for their remaining animals.
The long and short term answer to the problem is a combination of
food and non-food aid in the form of funds for water, sanitation,
pastoralist programmes such as de-stocking and re-stocking of cattle,
and education. While the EMOP is close to fully funded, with $81
million now pledged, the non-food sector is only 35 percent funded.
The number of people affected would not be so great if the non-food
sector had been taken care of earlier, according toWFP.
Nick Alipui, UNICEF representative for Kenya, told IRIN it was not
only starvation that killed children during a drought, but also
disease and lack of water. At this crucial juncture following three
years of drought, attention was focused on food aid. But it was
essential that relief should also be geared towards the non-food
sector, such as water, sanitation, healthcare and education, Alipui
said.
The majority of the funds that Britain's Department For International
Development (DFID) allocated to drought response in Kenya were for
food aid. DFID's Graham Carrington told IRIN that it would rather
engage in a more mixed response but that it was difficult to fund
non-food relief on a big scale. He called for "a more developed
instrument that can be put into place quickly and effectively" for
the distribution of non-food relief. Kenyan officials, however, say
an effective system is already in place.
The issue of aid distribution systems looms large in the response to
the Kenyan drought. In late 1999, as it became clear that the drought
would have catastrophic effects, the Kenyan government, UN agencies
and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) brought in a new integrated
system for the distribution of food aid. For the first time, the
government was involved alongside WFP, and distribution on the ground
was taken over by the communities themselves. DFID described this
change as a "tremendous improvement".
The benefits of this system lie in the speed and scale of the
response and in its appeal to donors, who become fully included in
the relief operation. Though the Food and Agricultural Organisation
(FAO) coordinates part of the non-food response, there is no truly
integrated system in that domain.
Problems remain even with food aid. Donor response to WFP's second
Emergency Operation, launched at the height of the crisis in July
2000, was slow, according to WFP. This led to pastoralists selling
off their livestock and, with the slashing of food rations, to more
serious malnutrition.
Part of the problem lay in logistical impediments as WFP struggled to
balance donations in cash and kind. Food donated in kind by USAID
takes a minimum of two months to reach Kenya, whilst cash can be
transferred almost instantaneously. "DFID would rather give funds in
cash, so that economic decisions can then be made at a country
level," Carrington told IRIN.
Global competition for aid also played a substantial role in the
slower response to the Kenyan drought during the summer. The war
between Eritrea and Ethiopia, the floods in Mozambique, and the
ongoing situation in the Balkans diverted donor attention. Kenya, as
a country at peace, did not represent a priority, despite bearing the
consequences of a three-year drought.
An integrated system for non-food relief would present substantial
problems. Humanitarian workers doubt the efficiency of a large-scale
non-food programme, particularly as concerns pastoralist projects,
which have proved most effective when conducted at a local level. The
"de-stocking" of cattle, whereby cattle are bought from local
herdsmen and subsequently given away as fresh meat or dried in small
strips, is a case in point. The process provides pastoralists both
with food and the means to buy feed for their remaining animals, but
is extremely difficult to apply on a large scale.
During the 1984 drought, the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) played an
important role in the response by orchestrating a managed buy-up of
stock, and subsequently selling the meat products as canned goods. As
the facilities still exist, the Kenyan government was hoping to
negotiate funds from development partners to revive the KMC
temporarily as part of additional drought emergency funds, the Kenyan
Ministry of Finance told IRIN. The KMC however did not receive the
requested support.
Cattle de-stocking did take place, on a smaller scale, coordinated by
the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), but was hampered by
late donor response. The projects are implemented by local NGOs on
the ground, under the aegis of FAO, the Organisation for African
Unity (OAU) and the Office of the President.
=46AO considers the project fairly successful since $1.7 million has
been allocated for small-scale projects, half the target set by the
UN organisation. The slow start of the process was detrimental to
pastoralists, according to World Concern, an NGO engaged in
de-stocking cattle in the southern Narok district. By the time the
funds were received, health authorities judged 70 percent of the
cattle bought from local pastoralists too emaciated for consumption.
The issue of re-stocking lost cattle looms as the short rains season,
from October to December nears its end. But it involves the same cost
and logistics problems as cattle off-take.
The Kenyan government is considering a proposal for the re-stocking
of herds, according to the ALRMP, but the nature of the project,
long-term and small-scale, tends to discourage potential funding.
Livestock, however, is widely available on Kenyan markets following
the first reported outbreak of Rift Valley Fever outside Africa, in
Saudi Arabia. This led Gulf States to impose a ban in September on
imports of livestock from Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Kenya,
and Djibouti. As a result, affected countries, Somalia in particular,
are exporting to Kenya.
The loss of livelihoods for pastoralists is particularly devastating
as it occurs for the most part in Kenya's northeastern, least
developed districts. These districts, distant from the centres of
power and culturally and economically linked to Somalia, were only
recently restored to democratic rule after being under martial law
for nearly 30 years, from independence in 1963 to 1991.
The pastoralist populations of these districts benefit from little or
no health infrastructures. Aidan Keinan, MP for the Wajir district
from the opposition party SAFINA, was critical of provisions for
health care in the region. "Without the support of the international
community much of the population would have perished," Keinan told
IRIN. He spoke of an "impending disaster".
If there is no rain between now and the start of the long rains
season in April, the entire livestock population of Wajir will be
lost, destroying the sole means of subsistence of most of the people
who live there. They will then be entirely dependent on relief aid.
In part, pastoralists are victims of the Kenyan financial and
economic crisis. The Kenyan annual growth rate is expected to reach a
record low of 0.4 percent for the year 2000, according to a recent
report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The government has
been unable to sustain its investment in the health sector in the
past 10 years, according to UNICEF's Nick Alipui. "In addition to the
drought facing the country for the past three years this is a lethal
combination," Alipui told IRIN.
Despite food handouts, the disruption in pastoralists' lives is
evident. As is the case for many of Kenya's pastoralists, Ntaro in
the Southern Kajiado district can no longer afford the school fees to
send his children to the local school. Only 50 children remain at the
local school which initially had 155 students.
WFP initiated a school-feeding programme that plays an important part
in retaining pupils in schools where they receive what is often their
only daily meal. The project affects 1 million out of 6 million
children of school-going age in Kenya. But it only targets primary
schools, and out of those, only the 40 percent of Kenyan children who
go to school.
The problem of school fees remains, however, as families who cannot
afford the fees hesitate to send their children to school, and
schools face the risk of closing down for want of fees and pupils.
The government has urged teachers in these areas to let children
attend school without paying, however the lack of a clear government
directive concerning the non-payment of school levies in the
worst-hit areas leads families to keep their children home to work,
Alipui told IRIN.
"It is critical to strengthen the school environment," he said. A
focus on education would help avert the worst consequence of the
drought, yet donors do not consider education as drought response,
the UNICEF representative said.
Much of the population targeted today by WFP will remain dependent on
food aid well into 2001. But, even when the pastures are green, the
disaster is likely to linger on in the pastoralist communities for
years to come.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright =A9 2000 UN Integrated Regional Information Network.
--
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
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--></style><title>Kenya drought causes massive loss of
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<div><font face=3D"Arial" size=3D"+1" color=3D"#000000"><b>KENYA: Drought
Causes Massive Loss of Livelihoods</b></font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Arial" size=3D"+1"
color=3D"#000000"><b> </b></font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Arial" color=3D"#000000"><br>
</font><font face=3D"Arial" size=3D"-2" color=3D"#0000CD"><b>UN Integrated
Regional Information Network</b></font><font face=3D"Arial" size=3D"-2"
color=3D"#000000"><b><br>
December 20, 2000<br>
</b>"If it does not rain soon, the remaining cattle will die,"
explained Tarayia Ntaro, a Maasai herdsman from Kajiado, a drought-hit
area in Southern Kenya. Watching all but 20 of his 400 cattle die off
is rather like watching his future disappear, as it could take up to
10 years for Ntaro to rebuild his herd, according to humanitarian
workers.<br>
"We are saving lives but not livelihoods," said Robin
Wheeler of the World Food Programme (WFP). Four million Kenyans are
receiving food aid, and WFP plans to expand its emergency-feeding
programme into next year. But pastoralists like Ntaro can take little
comfort from the handouts. Livestock owners are among the hardest hit
by Kenya's three-year drought, which this year turned into a major
food crisis. Recent rains across the country have been patchy and are
unlikely to make any impact at all, weathermen added.<br>
By the time humanitarian agencies were able to launch non-food aid
programmes, livestock had died in the worst affected areas, or were
too emaciated to sell. Pastoralists were forced to move their dying
animals to search for what little green remained, even on the verges
and roundabouts of the capital Nairobi. Or they had to sell, if only
for the price of the skin, some 200-400 Kenyan Shillings, equivalent
to $3-5.<br>
In Ntaro's home area, people are trekking up to 20 km to reach a
watering point. The distance between pasture and water is critical in
the pastoral food production system, and - since the drought hit hard
- averages 50 km in the worst affected districts. Livestock have to
wait for more than two days after reaching the watering point because
of the pressure on the wells.<br>
Over 40 percent of Kenya's cattle and 10-20 percent of its sheep and
goats were lost during the current drought, according to the Arid
Lands Resource Management Project (ALRMP) at the Office of the
President, Daniel arap Moi. The immediate risk concerns children,
according to UNICEF, as with so many cattle dying, there will be no
milk left for them.<br>
The most severely affected area covers 2/3 of Kenya's land mass and
includes 22 districts. Of these, the 12 pastoralist districts are the
most affected. The worst hit districts are Turkana, Marsabit, Mandera
and Samburu in the north, in addition to the Wajir and Isiolo
districts in the north-central region. In these areas, between 30 and
40 percent of the population is malnourished, virtually triple the
average malnutrition rate of these regions.<br>
WFP distributes 40,000 tonnes of food every month to the 19 districts
included in its Emergency Operation (EMOP). From January 2001, the
districts of Narok, Koibateck and Ijara will be added to the EMOP.<br>
WFP aid staves off acute malnutrition but fails to render the affected
populations "food secure". "Food insecurity"
describes the situation of people for whom acquiring food amounts to
jeopardising the basis of their future livelihood, as was the case for
some pastoralists in Kenya who started selling off emaciated cattle in
order to buy feed for their remaining animals.<br>
The long and short term answer to the problem is a combination of food
and non-food aid in the form of funds for water, sanitation,
pastoralist programmes such as de-stocking and re-stocking of cattle,
and education. While the EMOP is close to fully funded, with $81
million now pledged, the non-food sector is only 35 percent
funded.<br>
The number of people affected would not be so great if the non-food
sector had been taken care of earlier, according toWFP.<br>
Nick Alipui, UNICEF representative for Kenya, told IRIN it was not
only starvation that killed children during a drought, but also
disease and lack of water. At this crucial juncture following three
years of drought, attention was focused on food aid. But it was
essential that relief should also be geared towards the non-food
sector, such as water, sanitation, healthcare and education, Alipui
said.</font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Arial" size=3D"-2" color=3D"#000000">The majority of the
funds that Britain's Department For International Development (DFID)
allocated to drought response in Kenya were for food aid. DFID's
Graham Carrington told IRIN that it would rather engage in a more
mixed response but that it was difficult to fund non-food relief on a
big scale. He called for "a more developed instrument that can be
put into place quickly and effectively" for the distribution of
non-food relief. Kenyan officials, however, say an effective system is
already in place.<br>
The issue of aid distribution systems looms large in the response to
the Kenyan drought. In late 1999, as it became clear that the drought
would have catastrophic effects, the Kenyan government, UN agencies
and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) brought in a new integrated
system for the distribution of food aid. For the first time, the
government was involved alongside WFP, and distribution on the ground
was taken over by the communities themselves. DFID described this
change as a "tremendous improvement".<br>
The benefits of this system lie in the speed and scale of the response
and in its appeal to donors, who become fully included in the relief
operation. Though the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO)
coordinates part of the non-food response, there is no truly
integrated system in that domain.<br>
Problems remain even with food aid. Donor response to WFP's second
Emergency Operation, launched at the height of the crisis in July
2000, was slow, according to WFP. This led to pastoralists selling off
their livestock and, with the slashing of food rations, to more
serious malnutrition.<br>
Part of the problem lay in logistical impediments as WFP struggled to
balance donations in cash and kind. Food donated in kind by USAID
takes a minimum of two months to reach Kenya, whilst cash can be
transferred almost instantaneously. "DFID would rather give funds
in cash, so that economic decisions can then be made at a country
level," Carrington told IRIN.<br>
Global competition for aid also played a substantial role in the
slower response to the Kenyan drought during the summer. The war
between Eritrea and Ethiopia, the floods in Mozambique, and the
ongoing situation in the Balkans diverted donor attention. Kenya, as a
country at peace, did not represent a priority, despite bearing the
consequences of a three-year drought.<br>
An integrated system for non-food relief would present substantial
problems. Humanitarian workers doubt the efficiency of a large-scale
non-food programme, particularly as concerns pastoralist projects,
which have proved most effective when conducted at a local level. The
"de-stocking" of cattle, whereby cattle are bought from
local herdsmen and subsequently given away as fresh meat or dried in
small strips, is a case in point. The process provides pastoralists
both with food and the means to buy feed for their remaining animals,
but is extremely difficult to apply on a large scale.<br>
During the 1984 drought, the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) played an
important role in the response by orchestrating a managed buy-up of
stock, and subsequently selling the meat products as canned goods. As
the facilities still exist, the Kenyan government was hoping to
negotiate funds from development partners to revive the KMC
temporarily as part of additional drought emergency funds, the Kenyan
Ministry of Finance told IRIN. The KMC however did not receive the
requested support.<br>
Cattle de-stocking did take place, on a smaller scale, coordinated by
the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), but was hampered by late
donor response. The projects are implemented by local NGOs on the
ground, under the aegis of FAO, the Organisation for African Unity
(OAU) and the Office of the President.<br>
=46AO considers the project fairly successful since $1.7 million has
been allocated for small-scale projects, half the target set by the UN
organisation. The slow start of the process was detrimental to
pastoralists, according to World Concern, an NGO engaged in
de-stocking cattle in the southern Narok district. By the time the
funds were received, health authorities judged 70 percent of the
cattle bought from local pastoralists too emaciated for
consumption.</font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Arial" size=3D"-2" color=3D"#000000">The issue of
re-stocking lost cattle looms as the short rains season, from October
to December nears its end. But it involves the same cost and logistics
problems as cattle off-take.<br>
The Kenyan government is considering a proposal for the re-stocking of
herds, according to the ALRMP, but the nature of the project,
long-term and small-scale, tends to discourage potential funding.
Livestock, however, is widely available on Kenyan markets following
the first reported outbreak of Rift Valley Fever outside Africa, in
Saudi Arabia. This led Gulf States to impose a ban in September on
imports of livestock from Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Kenya,
and Djibouti. As a result, affected countries, Somalia in particular,
are exporting to Kenya.<br>
The loss of livelihoods for pastoralists is particularly devastating
as it occurs for the most part in Kenya's northeastern, least
developed districts. These districts, distant from the centres of
power and culturally and economically linked to Somalia, were only
recently restored to democratic rule after being under martial law for
nearly 30 years, from independence in 1963 to 1991.<br>
The pastoralist populations of these districts benefit from little or
no health infrastructures. Aidan Keinan, MP for the Wajir district
from the opposition party SAFINA, was critical of provisions for
health care in the region. "Without the support of the
international community much of the population would have perished,"
Keinan told IRIN. He spoke of an "impending disaster".<br>
If there is no rain between now and the start of the long rains season
in April, the entire livestock population of Wajir will be lost,
destroying the sole means of subsistence of most of the people who
live there. They will then be entirely dependent on relief aid.<br>
In part, pastoralists are victims of the Kenyan financial and economic
crisis. The Kenyan annual growth rate is expected to reach a record
low of 0.4 percent for the year 2000, according to a recent report by
the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The government has been unable
to sustain its investment in the health sector in the past 10 years,
according to UNICEF's Nick Alipui. "In addition to the drought
facing the country for the past three years this is a lethal
combination," Alipui told IRIN.<br>
Despite food handouts, the disruption in pastoralists' lives is
evident. As is the case for many of Kenya's pastoralists, Ntaro in the
Southern Kajiado district can no longer afford the school fees to send
his children to the local school. Only 50 children remain at the local
school which initially had 155 students.<br>
WFP initiated a school-feeding programme that plays an important part
in retaining pupils in schools where they receive what is often their
only daily meal. The project affects 1 million out of 6 million
children of school-going age in Kenya. But it only targets primary
schools, and out of those, only the 40 percent of Kenyan children who
go to school.<br>
The problem of school fees remains, however, as families who cannot
afford the fees hesitate to send their children to school, and schools
face the risk of closing down for want of fees and pupils. The
government has urged teachers in these areas to let children attend
school without paying, however the lack of a clear government
directive concerning the non-payment of school levies in the worst-hit
areas leads families to keep their children home to work, Alipui told
IRIN.<br>
"It is critical to strengthen the school environment," he
said. A focus on education would help avert the worst consequence of
the drought, yet donors do not consider education as drought response,
the UNICEF representative said.<br>
Much of the population targeted today by WFP will remain dependent on
food aid well into 2001. But, even when the pastures are green, the
disaster is likely to linger on in the pastoralist communities for
years to come.<br>
<br>
---------------------------------------------------------------------<span
></span>---<br>
</font><font face=3D"Arial" color=3D"#000000">Copyright =A9 2000<font
size=3D"-1"><i> UN Integrated Regional Information
Network</i></font>.</font></div>
<div>-- <br>
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::<span
></span>:::<br>
Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern
Africa Program,<br>
and Editor, World Rivers
Review<br>
International Rivers Network<br>
<span
></span> 1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703,
USA<br>
<span
></span> Tel. (510) 848
1155 Fax (510) 848 1008<br>
<span
></span
>
http://www.irn.org<br>
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::<span
></span>:::</div>
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