The drought situation in the country is alarming, with the arid and semi-arid areas evidently overwhelmed.
The media is awash with locals crestfallen about the death of their livestock and diminished food reserves, putting humanity at stake.
Experts have attributed the grinding drought to climate change, warning that it may continue for a few more months, perhaps towards year-end.
Unreliable rainfall patterns in the ASAL areas make them unsuitable for crop farming, hence absolute dependency on pastoralism for the sustenance of livelihoods.
Death of livestock in droves as currently witnessed marks a monumentally tumultuous moment, hence the need for urgent need for a long-term solution to this perennial problem.
For instance, in Kajiado which is one of the counties in the alarm stage, the few dams therein have dried up.
Without permanent rivers, pastoralists traverse several kilometres in search of water for their livestock.
The trek further enfeebles the animals, several of which die on their way.
The few remaining cannot fetch even Sh3000 for a cow which would normally be sold for over Sh100,000.
Egypt which is ideally a desert country is more agriculturally viable than Kenya.
Statistics indicate that Egypt receives less than 200 millimetres of annual precipitation, which is far much lower than the average ASAL region in Kenya.
Human intervention has greatly eased the drought adversaries in this Sahara desert country, basically irrigation through the Nile.
Urgent humanitarian intervention is needed for both short-term and long-term solutions.
Drilling of community boreholes will provide a water solution for both human use and for livestock whenever dams dry up.
If the county governments in the ASAL areas mobilise resources and drill at least one borehole in every subcounty, pastoralists will be saved from the agony of the arduous journey of hundreds of kilometres searching for water for their livestock.
There is a need to practice mixed farming so that there are more sources of food instead of absolute reliance on livestock.
Agriculture experts and researchers should educate residents on smart farming and the growing of fast-maturing and drought-resistant crops.
Travelling the Nairobi – Namanga via Kajiado highway, one will notice some privately owned boreholes used for large-scale (plantation) and subsistence (small-scale) irrigation around Isinya, Kumpa, Nkoile, Ilbissil and Maili-Tisa areas.
If the idea is replicated in other ASAL areas, famine effects won’t be as adverse as currently witnessed.
Pastoralists should be enlightened to keep fewer animals.
It is preposterous to keep several hundreds of animals, only to be wiped out by the drought.
Charcoal burning is still a thriving venture.
Without proper counter-deforestation policies, the area will soon lose the few available vegetation covers, paving the way to bare ground hence more drought.
Hefty financial input is required to drill a borehole that can sufficiently sustain an entire village, hence the need for the county governments, national government and well-wishers’ intervention in the mobilisation of the requisite funds.
In its plan, the national government is focused on boosting farm produce as a way of reducing food prices.
There ought to be strategies in place to address perennial famine in ASAL areas.
As schools reopen for the third term in a short while, it will be difficult for parents to release their children to school on an empty stomach. A hungry nation is an angry nation.
Teacher, author and editor
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
