No matter who or where we are, or what our capabilities, we are called to do the best we can
Dear President William Ruto,
Receive greetings from the children of Turkana, Garissa and Wajir.
Even though a little late, we would like to congratulate you on your election to be the top leader of this country. Indeed, yours is an inspiring story of one who beat all odds to get to where he is today. We hope that one day, that will be our story too.
But for us to have a story such as yours Mr President, we have to survive, something that is a struggle because we are staring at starvation due to the ongoing drought.
The dried ground and the sight of carcasses have become our new reality. A lot has changed because of the drought and the ever-changing climatic conditions. The heat during the day is unbearable and sometimes it’s extremely cold at night.
In Turkana, we go to school mostly to get some food because there is none at home. We are however scared because schools are running out of food and water. While campaigning to be elected as president, you promised to double the amount of money allocated to the school feeding programme; could you please start with schools in the counties worst affected by the drought?
Schools are our only hope of survival because our parents back home have no food to give us. Most days we sleep on empty stomachs and if not that, our stomachs are sore from eating 'mkoma' a wild fruit that has become difficult to find nowadays.
Pupils in our classes continue to reduce in number because they are too weak to walk to school. They choose to stay home and hope that a well-wisher will bring them something to eat.
Mr President, do you know that when we are hungry, our vision blurs, we struggle to breathe, we struggle to think, we become small and parts of our body swell? We have heard the health workers in the community health outreaches tell our parents that this is something called severe acute malnutrition.
We are not the only ones affected by the drought, our younger siblings too. Every day, we are afraid for their little chances of survival. Our parents too have not been spared; they are slowly giving in to hopelessness.
Having lost almost all our livestock, there is a lot of despair. Livestock is what our parents depend on to ensure we have food and some money to pay for our school fees; when the drought takes away what we rely on, we are left with little or no hope to hold on to.
In Wajir, we are no better. Sometimes, we go to school hungry because at home there is nothing to eat. Our water pans have dried up and the small number of boreholes we were using have mostly broken down because they are being used by many people.
To make matters worse, our teachers have abandoned us because of the drought. We are being forced to look for teachers at a small fee which most of us cannot afford because our parents have no money. We are afraid that the dreams we had after finishing school may never come true.
In Garissa, our animals are dying every single day. Our worst fear is that one day, this will be our younger siblings, ourselves and even our parents. We have been born into a climate crisis yet none of this is our fault.
Mr President, we understand that we are living in areas that are usually dry, but the frequency of the droughts keeps getting worse. It is a fact that we are in a climate crisis and we need to address the situation before it is too late. We need long-term solutions so that our children and their children will not have to go through what we are going through.
We have many ideas that we think can help you come up with better solutions for the areas worst hit by drought. Will you meet us, Mr President? Will you give us a chance to talk to you and share with you what we are going through and what solutions we think you should put in place to help the future generation?
Wangari Maathai once said, “No matter who or where we are, or what our capabilities, we are called to do the best we can."
We pray and hope that you will listen to our cry as children and we look forward to meeting you.
From Generation Hope Campaigners in Wajir, Garissa and Turkana counties.
