In Kenya, severe drought threatens to leave 4 million food insecure

Children in northern Kenya are severely impacted by a drought that has plagued the region since late 2016. Learn how UNICEF is helping families treat malnutrition, thirst and disease.
  

MOYALE, Kenya, 31 March 2017 – Dust mercilessly cuts its way through the air, meandering across the pathways of Badanrero Village, Kenya, located 100 km from the border town of Moyale near Ethiopia. The terrain is flat and desolate, with nothing but dried up shrubs for miles.

As the dirt whirl picks up momentum, small children and goats begin scurrying for shelter in tiny, semi-permanent stick and grass-thatched structures where they live, for now. The majority of the inhabitants who reside in this arid region of northern Kenya are nomadic pastoralist families.

Dabo Boru, 21, is a mother of three who trekked with her family to Badanrero from her home village of Ambato, 38 km away. They were forced to move here in order to save their cattle from dying of thirst and hunger due to drought.

“I brought all these cows here in the hope that they will survive. I even bought for them fodder and water but 18 of them have already died and we are only left with 3,” says Dabo, as she stares sadly at the decomposing carcasses of her livestock, lying just a few metres from her hut. 

A crisis of hunger, thirst and disease

In late 2016 when the rains failed, a severe drought hit the arid and semi-arid regions of Kenya, affecting 2.7 million people. Marsabit county, where Moyale is located, is one of the hardest hit areas. Thousands of children are food insecure and in dire need of treatment for severe malnutrition.

“Hunger is a major problem here, children don’t have milk and we don’t have food and water. Where we fetch water from is very far and it is dirty,” says Dabo. “We are really suffering because of this drought.”

Most natural open water sources in Moyale have dried up, putting immense pressure on the few available boreholes and dwindling water pans. Households like Dabo’s now have to walk up to 10 to 15 km to find water.

“My husband has been away from home for two weeks now, looking for pasture for our remaining animals. I am now left alone to protect my children and make sure that they eat, which is very difficult without the animals that provide the milk,” says Dabo.

People here are at a higher risk of falling sick because they are malnourished and lack good sanitation. At the nearby Badanrero Dispensary, Hiliki Diba, 27, has brought her 9-month-old twins to be treated for malnutrition and acute watery diarrhoea.

Hiliki says, “I have been taught how to breastfeed exclusively for six months, but having twins and the drought have made it very difficult for me to breastfeed them. First I don’t produce enough milk because I don’t eat enough because there is no food. I am also weak and I fall sick often.”