Life has not been easy for one Francis Thoya Chea. However, after he quit his casual labourer job in Malindi to work in a farm at Kakoneni area along River Sabaki, things started working for him.
After one season of being an employee, the 40-year-old ditched the job to begin farming at his family land in Bwaga Lau area in Kakoneni, Malindi.
With only Sh9,000 capital, Chea, a father of four, began farming water melons, bananas, tomatoes, maize and other crops.
The standard five dropout used the knowledge he got from his previous assignment to improve his farming skills. Due to lack of water for irrigation, Chea dug a well and he uses a bucket to irrigate his crops.
“I decided to start my own farm because casual labour was not paying me well. It was difficult to feed my family and educate my children,” he says.
Despite the challenges of irrigation using traditional methods, farming has changed his life and made him a role model in his community.
Chea wakes up at 5am to water his farm manually. The well is about 500 metres from the farm and it requires hard work to irrigate the entire farm.
He says many irrigation projects along the River Sabaki that were worth millions of shillings collapsed forcing many residents to abandon farming. This in return led to food shortage in the area.
“If the government can revive the stalled projects, I will be able to increase production and make a lot of money. There is a lot of potential in farming in this area as the river can produce food to feed the entire Kilifi county and other parts of the nation,” Chea says.
He says with proper planning, the region can be the county’s food basket. He is looking for funding to buy a generator to enable him increase the land under irrigation.
Residents say the irrigation projects initiated by the government failed due to poor design, as majority of them could not work after the river changed its course.
During a visit to inspect stalled irrigation projects, Malindi MP Dan Kazungu said seven irrigation schemes that cost the government millions of shillings were grounded in both Malindi and Magarini constituencies after river Galana changed its course in the past five years.
The projects reportedly covered 6,000 hectares including 2,000 hectares in Malindi and the remaining 4,000 hectares in Magarini. They have now turned into ghost facilities leaving hundreds of farmers stranded and unable to irrigate their farms.
“Some of the machines were also vandalised and the scheme is in bad state after being dumped for over five years. Those who used to depend on the water pumps from the projects have been forced to rely on rainfall, which has contributed to poor harvests. Most of the facilities have broken down. Some of the areas have turned into bushes while crops have died due to insufficient rains,” said Kazungu.
Kazungu said there is need for the government to allocate part of the Sh16 billion allocated to the irrigation department to revive the projects as it will help produce food for local consumption and surplus for sale.
He says the abandoned projects were a waste of public resources, which could have been used to produce food for the entire Kilifi county, and beyond.
“We understand the government allocated a lot of money for irrigation but we see the focus is only at the one million-acre Galana-Kulalu irrigation project. Part of the money should be diverted to these farmers to revive the stalled projects and help alleviate famine in the area,” Kazungu said.
The Malindi MP said it is sad that people depend on relief food every year while a lot of resources were abandoned in an area with good soil for farming.
“The government should rehabilitate the stalled projects and change the design to follow the river diversion for the areas affected including Madunguni, Goshi, Mongotini, Jilore, Kakoneni, Marikano, Mkondoni and Chakama areas.”