Bleak future for Kajiado pastoralists

A chronic vulnerability assessment in Kajiado District, south of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, has suggested that the sustainability of pastoralism as a livelihood is looking increasingly bleak due to climatic changes and social and other developments, the WFP reported on 13 July. At the same time, HIV/AIDS has further contributed to increase the vulnerability of the population, according to a study carried out in May by WFP, USAID’s Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) and the Kenyan government. Although malnutrition rates had reduced, the poor short rains season in pastoral areas was likely to have a negative impact on health, nutrition and food security, as the able-bodied men moved away with the livestock to dry-season grazing areas, WFP stated in its weekly emergency report. The departure of the livestock usually led to a deterioration in the nutritional status of women, children and the elderly, who no longer benefited from milk and other livestock products, it added. Pastoralists and those who work with them say the Kenyan government has failed to implement an effective livestock marketing policy to offset the difficulties pastoralists encounter while trying to maintain their livelihoods in the midst of drought, conflict and disease. “The sustainability of the pastoralist livelihood is looking increasingly bleak as a result of the climatic, social and other developments,” UNOCHA reported in its June humanitarian update. It called for support to preserve the pastoralist way of life, and for a partnership between the Kenyan government and development agencies to assist those who were no longer able to feed their families. [for more information, see “KENYA: Pastoralists facing neglect” at: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/webspecials/drought/kenya2.phtml]