In December 1982, I moved to Kenya. For three years I worked for UNICEF, before becoming a journalist based in Nairobi.
Since I left in 1989, I’ve visited every year or so, but this is the first time I’ve been back to the arid north where Samburu, Turkana, Pokot and other people herd their cattle, goats and camels.
I’m shocked and angry at what I’ve seen. We bounced along rocky, rutted tracks – in the quarter of a century since I was last here, the Kenyan government has done nothing to improve the roads. People remain cut off from services and supplies.
We went to a village called Mpagas where skinny, malnourished children were sitting listlessly under a tree. No health worker had visited them and the nearest clinic was 20km away.
The older children received a free school meal but the under-fives, the most vulnerable, were getting nothing apart from occasional general food aid deliveries.
The only change I could see is that the Samburu warriors in their beads and finery now have mobile phones, and more of them carry AK 47s to supplement their spears and traditional knives, so raiding over water, cattle and pasture is more deadly.
It’s a world away from Nairobi, where Kenyan MPs – who are, incidentally, paid more than their British counterparts – drive around in fancy cars and plot for the next election.
“The government isn’t focussed on the dry areas where pastoralists live,” said Joseph Lepariyo, who runs a local non-governmental organisation in the small town of Maralal. “Our problems don’t get any attention.”
Drought has ravaged northern Kenya; the land is littered with the carcasses of cattle and goats. In the Samburu Game Reserve we saw the corpse of a baby elephant, and desperate impala dying of thirst in the dry bed of the Uasin Giru river.
Lindsey Hilsum’s route through Kenya.
Climate change scientists say northern Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia can expect more extreme weather events like this. Later this month heavy rains associated with El Nino are expected, but they may not improve the pasture so much as cause erosion by flooding.
The aid agencies call this a “climate and poverty hotspot”, a desperate conjunction of misfortune. The people here need money to build dams to conserve water when the rains come. They need new laws on land tenure to minimise the risk of conflict between different groups and tribes over scarce resources. They need alternative employment opportunities, or they’ll end up leaving pastoralism, which remains the best way of using this arid land, and add to Kenya’s growing population of unemployed slum-dwellers.
Aid agencies, both foreign and national, can help alleviate the worst of the suffering but in the end a government is responsible for the welfare of its people.
As we drove south I thought how China has lifted 400m people out of poverty in the last 30 years. That’s the population equivalent of 10 Kenyas. What has the Kenyan government done in that time? It hasn’t even built a decent road from Baragoi to Maralal.
Commentsoldest first
Again you put succinctly and clearly many facts that should force change for the better but remember Lynsey that if Leaders did as is obvious to you then they would be out of jobs as interpreted by them, their power base would begin eroding.- but have you sent a copy to the Kenyan government to shame them into action? Has a copy gone to Mr Brown to show how much of his overseas aid is wasted and it does not make him look good but proves his ill informed policies – to even consider that Africa can have a ‘middle income’ state by 2015 proves he has not walked one town street or sat and observed in one medical clinic nor other reality of life on this continent., and for the rest of G8 to agree with him means they are as ill informed. I will add here to show how narrow is their vision – global warming cannot afford Africa to be middle income, as air conditioning is required to obtain this life’s strata!
Isn’t it just typical. A region of terrible poverty becomes one of the first victims of climate change while the first world contuines to wallow in self pity as it copes with the “recession”.
Great report Lindsey
Interesting to read your well written article with observations which need to be made. I was probably more shocked than you on my recent visit to Kenya a couple of weeks ago, as my last visit was about 45 years ago. It is such a tragedy and heartbreaking to see all the animals and people suffering as they are from the terrible drought. The local people told us that successive governments have promised reservoirs and water management since they gained independance nearly 50 years ago. The roads were appalling. Security a worry. Just what does the Governement do with all the aid money sent from the UK and various other governments around the world – as a UK taxpayer, I belive we have a right to know and that indeed the money should be accountable to make sure it goes to necessary projects to help the people and country improve.
I worked in Kenya for 4yrs in the 60s and returned to do an expedition with Earthwatchin 2006, mainly in order to go to Samburu; we were based in Wamba. I am booked to arrive in Nairobi 24 Oct 2009 and travel alone in a 4 wheeldrive taxi to Maralal on the27th to make contact with a young Samburu family that I have kept in touch with by text. Your blog confirms my own fears of what I shall find although my family are surviving by what they say but life is difficult. I will be staying in the Maralal Safari Lodge for 2 nights. In Nairobi I shall stay in the Fairview Hotel, I expect you will have left before I arrive. Do you have any advice for me regarding my trip North, my driver took some people to Maralal a few weeks ago so knows the area which is a help. I share your concerns for the country and the 40m people; in 1963 only 8m.
thank you posting your comments
John Miles
That was a good coverage Lindsey. I come from Northern Kenya (Laisamis district) and currently in the UK -Panning to return home soon. The story you covered are exactly the same as what my people tell me on daily basis.Politics and illiteracy levels are largely to blame.
The minority tribes in the North are so marginalized that they rarely participate in the allocation of the so called ‘aid /grants’ from the donors.Isn’t it high time that the foreign donors channel the aid directly to the people on the ground or enter additional contractual clauses on their offerings to such corrupt governments.
Thanks once again for highlighting the plight of my innocent people in an international platform. By the way the guns they are carrying are just for pure protection as the government has neglected their security issues from the porous borders of somalia, ethiopia and sudan (war ravaged countries in africa).
John Miles will have no problem travelling to Maralal.
the Maralal Safari Lodge…hmm. Maybe not the best place to stay – it’s not very frequented. I was last there in Oct ‘07 and the place was dead, with more zebras at the waterhole than guests. Rooms etc might be ok, but it seemed to have an abandoned feel. The Yare safaris campsite/lodge is a better bet, a few km out of town. But definitely do not miss Maralal, one of the most authentic and atmospheric towns in Kenya!
Leave a comment
* Required field.