Residents of famine-hit Kilifi turn to wild fruits for food

Some Kilifi residents have to walk for 28km in search of water as drought worsens at the Coast.

If one is lucky to get water using a motorbike, it charges Sh100 for a 20-litre jerry can. Livestock, the main source of livelihood, have died in large numbers.

This is the story of Bofu residents in Magarini, Kilifi, who have resorted to eating wild fruits from cactus trees full of thorns after the area was hit by famine due to drought.

To get the fruit, one steps on it after picking to remove the thorns. At the same time, the number of livestock deaths is increasing daily in the Coast region following the drought that has hit the country.

Kenya Red Cross said Kilifi, Tana River and Lamu have been highly affected and warned that the situation needs to be addressed or else people will die for lack of water and food.

In the Bofu area, water is found at Raukani, which is 14km from the village where only motorbikes operate to sell this commodity.

The area is also completely dry and residents are surviving by God’s grace as they have not experienced rain for the last three years.

Most of them now depend on charcoal production for survival which has heavily contributed to the drought situation.

Charo Kalu, 65, said the situation is worse and the residents have no choice but to survive despite the lack of water and food.

Speaking in Bofu, he said children and the elderly eat wild fruits because there is no food.

When asked how they eat the cactus fruits and how they taste he said they remove the thorns and eat the inside part which is a little bitter but relieves hunger.

“We do not get food every day, our children eat them as we do, they have thorns but we have no choice,” he said.

Kalu said accessing healthcare is also a challenge as they have to go to Chakama which is very far from Bofu.

Currently, he said every homestead eats one meal a day and mostly they drink porridge for survival.

Gladys Kadzo, a mother of eight, said the drought has lasted a long time and has not witnessed such a disaster.

She said for the last three years they have not had rain and the water pan which was built in 2008 dried for the first time three months ago.

“Our livestock has no pasture, getting food is a problem, one packet of flour is Sh100 and a bucket of water Sh100,” she said.

Kadzo said one small sack of charcoal is sold at Sh250 which is had to get and producing it takes one week a problem that has forced them to eat once a day adding that bathing is not in their diary.

A water bowser came recently but due to the water challenge, every homestead got only one jerrican of 20 litres.

“We are appealing for help to get food and water, our livestock is not acceptable in the market because they are weak,” Kadzo said.

Sharlet Dama said they have not been able to get water for the last three months after the only water pan they depended on dried.

The mother of 11 said there is an urgent need for intervention, as they have no food and children, are unable to go to school.

“We have not harvested anything for the last two years, I have children in primary and secondary but they cannot go to school,” she said.

From Malindi, it is also disastrous after the Arabuko Sokoke forest in Mogotini where it's completely dry.

At Kakoneni, one family said they had 100 cattle but due to the drought situation, only seven are remaining.

Two of the cattle are in their last stages of life and can barely walk to the dry fields or even eat the grass brought at home.

Daniel Fondo lost 11 out of his 26 cattle, one of which was gestating but died three days ago.

“The cattle are dying because of drought as they eat soil, which makes them sick,” he said adding that he is left with only 15 cattle.

The 11th cattle died a day after he bought fodder worth Sh30,000.

Kenya Red Cross regional manager Hassan Musa said so far, over 350,000 people are affected by drought in the Coast region and the situation is worsening by the day.

He said out of the six counties in Coast four have been highly affected due to insufficient rainfall in the past two years. They are Kwale, Kilifi, Tana River, and Lamu. 

In Kilifi alone, he said 145,000 people have been affected by drought, Lamu 25,000, Kwale 165,000 and 107,000 people in Tana River.

He also said over 6,000 livestock died in Kilifi while in Tana River over 3000 cattle have died.

“The numbers could be higher than the ones am giving because there are animals from other regions which are going to the areas in search of pasture,” Musa said.

The regional coordinator said he was happy the government declared the drought a national disaster as now resources will be diverted to the situation to address the challenges. 

Edited by Kiilu Damaris