Marsabit gets cash for camel restocking
Men from the Rendille tribe tend to camels at the Lake Turkana Festival in Loiyangalani, near Lake Turkarna, Northern Kenya, on May 19, 2012. The Lake Turkana Festival is an annual cultural event designed to promote tourism in the area and to forge better relationships between the seven different tribes of the area. AFP PHOTO/ CARL DE SOUZA.
Men from the Rendille tribe tend to camels at the Lake Turkana Festival in Loiyangalani, near Lake Turkarna, Northern Kenya, on May 19, 2012. The Lake Turkana Festival is an annual cultural event designed to promote tourism in the area and to forge better relationships between the seven different tribes of the area. AFP PHOTO/ CARL DE SOUZA.
A Sh1.65 billion project aimed at restocking camels in the Arid and Semi Arid Lands has been scaled up in northern Marsabit. The area has experienced a dry spell that has reduced the population of animals. Pastoralist Community Initiative Development Assistance is in charge of implementing the project. Patrick Katelo, CEO of PCIDA, says the restocking is aimed at cushioning more than three million people in the region who do not have sufficient food. He said the restocking intends to address the chronic food shortage among the victims of the recent drought.
More than 1,500 households are targeted in the project. The project is jointly funded by the Neighbors in Need and Caritas, an Austrian non-governmental organization working through the Catholic Church missions across the world. The beneficiaries of the restocking exercise, Katelo said, are families who lost a reasonable number of their livestock either to the drought or related hazards such as conflicts and diseases. “Conflicts are usually very high in the area and it’s the main challenge to the restocking because raids are conducted with an intention to either restock after loss of livestock or prestige,” he added.
The ASAL areas of Kenya are important in livestock production and account for over 60 per cent of the livestock population in the country. Over years, drought situations cited as the main threat to the survival of the nomadic pastoralists have decimated animals in this region. This according to Wario Guyo Adhe, PACIDA programme coordinator, is a possible threat to the smooth implementation of the restocking.
Adhe siad however they are working to integrate resource sharing through peace dialogue between communities in the targeted area. The restocking project will directly benefit 1525 households who will receive camels, 2375 families who sell camels and 615 households will be given goats. An estimated 3.75 million people in the ASAL are food insecure.
The areas are faced with a combination of other challenges including entrenched poverty, limited investment and perennial conflicts that have worsened the food security situation. “Load camels provide proactive form of transportation for the pastoralist households in search of natural resources within the vast territory,” Guyo added.