The road to Riongo is paved with risks of banditry attacks. This remote part of Baringo county is dreaded even by journalists. No wonder this hero nurse at the local dispensary is left alone, serving patients under trees.
Stephen Sapan attends to his patients under acacia trees, after strong winds blew off the dispensary’s rooftops in May last year. The Star highlighted the story last week, but questions abound as to why the authorities have not intervened to restore dignity to the facility in Tiaty subcounty.
I went on a fact-finding mission to Riongo dispensary. The journey took me from Kabarnet to Marigat to Chemolingot. I couldn’t get a matatu in the last phase, and for a boda boda, I had to part with Sh2,500 to fuel the motorbike and meet the labour cost.
The boda boda rider was a strong, youthful Pokot man called Musa Atolim. We rode under a stifling sun until the tarmac road ended at Chemeril junction. For the next 45km, we went through thin, rough and bushy pathways used by Pokot herders.
GUN-WIELDING YOUTHS
My adrenaline rose when we were stopped twice by four Pokot boys aged 8-12 years, armed with guns as they herded their huge heads of cattle, goats and sheep at Cheptaran.
“Where are you heading to?” asked one boy, aged around nine, a gun strapped to his shoulder.
I was dead silent, my heart racing, because I could not utter a single word in Pokot dialect. The boda boda rider answered them humbly in Pokot that I was his friend. “We are just heading to Riongo dispensary,” he said.
I was relieved when they did not interrogate further on whom this friend seated at the back was. They let us go but followed us with sharp eyes. I feared they might open fire on us from behind but luckily they did not.
Then a few metres ahead, a stone-faced Pokot man in his 30s, with a vest and a red Maasai sheet tied around his waist, stopped us at Kobolwo point, armed with a long stick.
He asked for a lift in Pokot, and the rider allowed him to sit behind me. I felt safer now that I was sandwiched between two Pokots.
We were now traversing in the middle of nowhere and if anything were to happen like careless utterances, one could just lose their life at the pull of a trigger.
On the way to Riongo dispensary, there were dry pan dams, and herders leading thousands of livestock to take water either at Chemeril dam or Nginyang river. It was clear residents here experience acute water shortage.
Some women and girls dressed in traditional Pokot attire, with beads around their necks, were seated patiently along the road from Kandingding, Mondi to Paka Hills, waiting to stop the GDC tracks and fill their 20-litre jerrycans.
GIVING BACK
We found a stream of patients Sapan was attending to. He said he spends up to Sh2,000 every week to pay a water bowser to supply water from Chemolingot or Ng’inyang river, 40km away.
“I left my well-paying job, earning Sh100,000 a month, at a private hospital in Nairobi, as my heartfelt spirit told me I should resign and go to give back to my community,” Sapan said
“Otherwise, I should by now be working in urban centers and enjoying my big salary, like my other colleagues of the same cadre.”
Besides using the water for cooking, bathing and washing his clothes, he said he also helps the patients quench their thirst.
“Drought is real in Tiaty, so I frequently receive patients who seem physically weak only because of thirst and dehydration,” Sapan said.
The nurse appealed to the county and national government to fast-track renovation and equipping of the facility to give hope to the residents seeking healthcare services.
He said he has notified Governor Stanley Kiptis, but nothing has been done to address the issue.
The nurse appealed for water bowsers to supply water to both Riongo dispensary and primary school, adding, “We also need a lot of water supply to carry out deliveries on expectant mothers,” he said.
The water shortage is jeopardising the studies of about more than 100 pupils at Ringo Primary School. They risk dropping out of school due to the crisis, blamed on prolonged droughts.
Last Friday, Pokot residents stormed the school in Tiaty subcounty, demanding the immediate closure of the school due to acute water shortage.
Armed with clubs, sticks and pangas, the pastoralists sought answers from head teacher Collins Kasses as to why the school operates without water.
However, the head teacher was absent, forcing the teacher present, Victor Nakomer, to face the crowd.
“As you can see, the water in this jug is the last drop that I just fetched from the school tank. The taps have now dried up completely, so we are left with no other option but to close the school any time from now,” Nakomer said.
He said rains stopped since May last year, adding that the pupils also go hungry as the government is yet to roll out the school feeding programme this year.
Once closed, some 129 pupils, including 84 nursery school kids, will be forced to stay home.
A parent, Hosea Kipkukat, said as pastoralists, they are ready to move with their children in search of water and pasture for their livestock.
“The lives of our children are at stake, so if nothing is done to address the water crisis, then it is better the school is closed down immediately so we can move out in search of water,” he said.
Riongo Primary is among 11 schools facing imminent closure in Silale Ward alone in Tiaty subcounty, whereas 118 schools face similar problems across the seven wards in the subcounty.
A neighbouring school, Naudo Primary, was closed indefinitely last week due to similar water and food shortages.
Other affected schools in Tiaty are Orision, Nasorot, Akule, Toplen, Silale, Napeikore, Nalekat, Napukut, Kitailem, Cheptamas, Kangoria, Nakoko, Cheptunoyo and Chemukutan.
Pokot residents are nomadic pastoralists by nature, so they are threatening to order closure of all the drought-hit schools so they can leave with their children.
Resident Chebokamarmar Lomadei said they can no longer stand the harsh weather. “If the government cannot provide us with water bowsers, it is better to be told early to start moving out of this place,” he said.
Lomadei said contaminated water has made some 11 pregnant women abort their pregnancies, adding that poor health facilities also force delivering mothers to opt for services of traditional midwives, who then offer them shoddy services.
COUNTY RESPONSE
Area MCA Nelson Lotela said he pushed the previous administration of Governor Benjamin Cheboi until a budget of Sh180, 000 was allocated to renovate the dilapidated health facility at Riongo.
“But due to political campaigns and nurses’ strike last year, everything stopped midday and nothing was done to date,” he said.
Lotela said the money was not spent on time to renovate and equip the facility ,so the damage has escalated now to Sh 5million. He called on the government and well-wishers to chip in for financial support.
He further appealed to Governor Kiptis to consider spending the county emergency funds to renovate the dispensary and supply water to the public facilities throughout the drought-ravaged Tiaty subcounty.
Addressing the media in his office, Deputy Governor Jacob Chepkwony said the county is battling with a water crisis due to the onset of droughts.
“We don’t have sufficient resources but we are really trying to address the food and water scarcity,” he said.