Eastern, northern pastoralists acutely vulnerable

Most areas of the pastoral, agro-pastoral and marginal agricultural areas of North Eastern, Rift Valley and Coast provinces have had “exceptionally poor long rains”, the fifth such poor rains in the last two years, according to a ‘Kenya Vulnerability Update’ for August from USAID’s Famine Early Warning System (FEWS). Pastoralists in the east and north were worst affected, while the rains were normal to above normal in the largely arable and food secure areas of the Rift Valley, Western and Nyanza provinces, it said. Most pastoralists in Mandera, Isiolo, northern Garissa and southern Wajir (in the northeast), as well as northwestern Turkana District (in northwestern Kenya), continued to face “declining environmental conditions that are expected to deteriorate further”, at least until the onset of the next short rains (anticipated from mid-October), according to FEWS.

Well below normal long rains had reduced milk output from livestock; distressed livestock sales; reduced purchasing power; increased haphazard migration for grazing; escalated competition for grazing and livestock raids; increased dependency on, and clustering around, available boreholes; and induced an “almost exclusive yet uncharacteristic dependency on food relief” among badly-affected pastoralists, according to the Arid Lands and Resource Management Project, cited by FEWS. A decline in the food security of these pastoralists, as well as some farm households, could result in pressure on the WFP to expand the coverage and scale of its emergency food operation from the 13 largely pastoral and agro-pastoral districts currently covered, it said. However, FEWS reported better news on the condition of livestock and welfare of pastoralists in the western pastoral areas of Samburu and Moyale districts, and parts of Marsabit and Turkana, as a result of better pasture and water availability.