HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT

Climate Change is related to food insecurity, lack of income and starvation of livestock because of droughts”.

Abuya

Environmental issues in Kenya can be linked to three different phenomena: drought, water and health”.

Judith

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80.The survey was delivered in paper form in December 2021. Digitalisation of data and data cleaning are still ongoing at the time of writing. Quantitative results from the survey are therefore not included in this chapter but will be integrated later on in 2022.

81.The National Drought Management Authority issues monthly reports on the impact of drought in Kenya. For insights on Isiolo County, see https://www.ndma.go.ke/index.php/resource-center/category/15-isiolo.

The change in climate instigated a shift in rainfall distribution and high temperature which has dried up water sources. This has caused adverse effects on animals and humans, as it makes water scarce.

The pastoral community has to walk long distances in search of water”.

This was a pan with water some years ago, climate change accelerated the rate of evaporation causing this accessible source to dry out. Water that once spread across an expanse of land was gone, communities may have limited access to water for household use, including drinking, cooking, cleaning, and watering animals. In the long run, if adaptive meas- ures of water harvesting and protecting sources are not adopted, droughts may lead to higher water costs, rationing, or even the decimation of important water sources”.

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CLIMATE DIARY: ALI GUYO

CLIMATE DIARY: ALI GUYO

River bed, Isiolo County

Dried land, Isiolo County

Desertification is growing fast around this area of Burat, Isiolo in Kenya. Im- agine, this was a permanent river with a lot of crocodiles ten years back, now it has dried up and has nothing to feed live- stock.”

A small boy fetching water using don- keys…inadequate supply of water.”

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CLIMATE DIARY: YAPAR PETER

CLIMATE DIARY: HASSAN HUSSEIN

As emerged from respondents’ climate diaries, there has been a remarkable variation in the cli- matic conditions in Isiolo County over the past few years. The most common changes cited in- clude warmer temperatures, unpredictable rain- fall, water scarcity and prolonged drought peri- ods. In terms of perceptions of long-term change in climate, an overwhelming majority of farmers and pastoralists perceived an increase in average

temperatures and a decrease in average precipi- tation. The effect of climate change has seen an increasing number of families lose their entire herds to droughts, forcing them to settle for relief food. The heat stress suffered by animals also re- duces the rate of animal feed intake and results in poor growth performance and low production of milk and meat.

Dried river bed, Isiolo County

Boy fetching water, Isiolo County

Because of the drought in our area the animals move far from one place and other to look for pasture and water and some of our animals were dying because there is no rain in our area.”

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CLIMATE DIARY: SAFIA MAICHA

According to respondents, over the last 5 years, dry and wet seasons have shifted, seasonal cycles have become less regular, rainfall distribution has changed and there is a perception among pasto- ralists that overall precipitation has declined. Rain precipitation levels, and the climate risks associ- ated with them, vary greatly over time and geo- graphical area, and as such, they are a significant influence on livestock population dynamics, herd composition and vegetation. In particular, pasto- ralists have experienced the increasing effects

Livestock, Isiolo County

of climate change. Indeed, climate change-re- lated events like drought result in starvation for animals and food shortage for people. Hence, pastoralists, and the agriculture sector, are the most vulnerable to climate change and the live- lihoods of around seven million pastoralists have been jeopardised by the cumulative impacts of more frequent drought on livestock losses (ap- proximately 80% of losses in the last droughts), and consequently rising cereal prices and lower returns when they sell or trade their animals.

Today, the drought has worsened because there is less rain and the soil is becoming dry”.

Sarah The lack of food and water is affecting people’s

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survival.

For pastoralists, the lack of water represents a serious problem as it means they cannot sustain their livestock. As an interview reported, this not only impacts the family budget but also the edu- cation of children: when farmers cannot produce enough, they do not have money to send children to school and support their education.

For these reasons, many pastoralists decide to migrate both towards other lands or to towns. As

pastoralists use mobility as a basic strategy for their livelihood development and risk manage- ment systems, climate change is making it diffi- cult to predict where and when to move. For ex- ample, they move with their livestock in response to drought, so every time there is climatic stress – which manifests itself in failure of the rains – pas- toralists traditionally migrate, following the rains.

Pastoral communities are by nature adaptable, innovative and equipped with traditional knowl- edge and customary coping strategies to survive in times of drought.

This is what cattle are suffering as they try to find grass in this field.”

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CLIMATE DIARY: PAUL LOTIENG

Livestock, Isiolo County

Participants in the Focus Groups (Urban) report- ed serious situations of insecurity in some areas of Kenya, such as Turkana County. Indeed, since Kenya’s independence in 1963, political, ethnic, and land-related violence, disasters and develop- ment projects have all repeatedly triggered inter- nal displacement (IDMC, 2015). In the aftermath of the 2007 Presidential elections, the ensuing political violence compelled 664,000 people to abandon their homes: 1300 were killed, about 350,000 people were relocated to 118 refugee camps while 300,000 people found shelter with host communities or in rented accommodation in urban and peri-urban areas (OHCHR, 2012). Gen- eralised violence has continued to cause new dis- placement since then.

Against this background, in the regions bordering

Isiolo the effects of climate change are exacer- bating the conflicts arising among local commu- nities because of the progressive lack of resourc- es (A. Paul et al., 2022; F. Maelo, 2021), especially of water due to widespread drought that remains a significant concern to the agricultural sector.

According to participants, conflicts have reduced crop farming and livestock, affecting market busi- ness and also the educational progress of chil- dren, thus pushing people to move towards oth- er territories. Turkana County remains an area of protracted resource disputes. The persistence of conflicts and violence prevents people from re- turning to their territory of origin.

Many move to Isiolo to escape this. Indeed, Isio- lo is perceived as a safe place to live, despite the initial prejudices towards those migrating from Turkana County and other neighbouring regions: