Tuya seeks payouts for communities affected by drought

James Sennet, a pastoralist from Ngatataek village in Oloililai subcounty in Kajiado Central, has lost most of his livestock to the severe drought.

He lost 10 cows in one week and is now left with a few cows, sheep and goats which are not enough to feed his seven children.

The drought has forced them to look for alternative diets for their livestock to survive.

Many of the pastoralists are now feeding their remaining animals on animal feeds and fodder like hay instead of grazing their animals. 

The story is not any different for Daniel Kasikwa, a resident of Merueshi in Kajiado East subcounty.

Kasikwa has had to travel to Mombasa and Makindu in Maukeni in search of pasture and water.

But the situation was not any better in those areas so he returned home with a few of the animals that have survived the drought.

“We are buying hay from Naivasha and Narok where there is wheat growing for the remaining animals that are either emaciated or weak,” he said, adding that buying the hay does not come cheap.

A bale of hay is sold at Sh350 and is consumed by one cattle for only two days. Kasikwa said with 100 cattle, one can spend close to Sh35,000 in a week.

Data from Kajiado county shows that more than 300,000 cattle have died due to drought.

The government has since released Sh350 million for the livestock off-take programme.

These are some of the devastating losses that pastoralists in Kenya are currently facing due to drought.

The drought situation is at the back of the mind of the Environment and Forestry CS Soipan Tuya.

Tuya is representing Kenya in the ongoing Conventional of Parties (COP 27) climate summit in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt.

She told the Star at the ongoing climate summit that she has started her first two weeks in office at COP 27.

She said she will be keen in ensuring that communities that are hard hit by the effects of climate change get financial and technical support.

“These have been my first two weeks in office and I have spent them at COP 27. I ask Kenyans to support me as I lead in ensuring that the communities combat the impact of climate change,” she said.  

Tuya said one of the key focus areas for Africa is the discussion about loss and damage.

“Africa is contributing the least to global warming but the adverse effects of climate change are harder on us than the developing world,” the CS said.

“We want that to be taken into account so that we can have commensurate support to the loss and damage that we are facing yet we are contributing the least in terms of the technological and financial support.” 

She said drought and adaptation financing is the other main thing that we are pushing to focus on alternative means of livelihoods like climate-smart agriculture.

“ I also want to encourage our communities to move with the tide. We cannot continue with the business-as-usual scenario yet things have changed,” Tuya said.

She said COP 27 is a good platform where Kenya can join the world leaders in seeking solutions to the climate change crisis.

“Am happy that as Kenyans, we are not bystanders and that we are doing our bit. We are trailblazing in going to a green electricity grid and we are determined to do 100 per cent renewable electricity energy by 2030,” she said.

She said Kenya also has an ambitious commitment to plant 15 billion trees in 10 years and will push this through.

“To combat climate change, we need the support of each one of us. I want to encourage the youth to come forth and become key actors. I would also like to encourage women of Kenya to take the front seat in greening our county,” Tuya said.

“This is because hand in hand with greening, we are going to go into alternatives of clean cooking so that as we plant our trees, then we don’t have to have an overreliance on biomass, charcoal and firewood. There is a lot of work ahead of us and mine is a rallying call for Kenyans to step in and support the Government,” she said.

The story has been published with the support from MESHA/IDRC grant for coverage of COP 27.