When Mary S. and Mesret went home to Marsabit for their term break, they were both shocked to see how dry and desperate their community had become. Marsabit is located in the north of Kenya and has been badly affected by the drought, having had no rain since November of last year.

Mary S. helping out in the kitchen

“People have to buy water,” said Mesret. “Twenty liters costs 50 shillings. And if you’re washing clothes that day you need 60 liters.” Casual laborers in Kenya earn about 200 shillings per day, which means people may be spending 25 to 75 per cent of their income on water alone.

Mary said if aid wasn’t being delivered to the area there wouldn’t be enough food for everyone. The Kenyan government and the Red Cross are two organizations providing food in Marsabit. Both girls said they ate a lot of peas and beans while they were home, but only the rich can afford fresh vegetables that are brought up from the south.

Mesret

Mary and Mesret seemed quite concerned about the area’s livestock as well. Pastoralists have had to move their herds to less arid lands; some will load their animals into trucks to be transported south. Many such trucks have been unloaded near Daraja, where the land is green enough for the animals to graze, but several of the animals do not survive the journey. In an area where a family’s wealth is in their animals, the loss of even one can be devastating.

“It’s only getting worse,” Mesret said. When they came back to the Daraja their hometown was in the worst condition they had ever seen it, and still there has been no rain.

Fatuma I.

Fatuma I. agreed that the situation in her community, Wamba, was very serious. However, as a future leader in her community, Fatuma said she would bring in water buses, regardless of whether or not there was a drought, so people would have access to water and farmers would be able to irrigate their crops. She said if water was more accessible year round, droughts would have less of an effect on people. In the long term, she would like to see dams and taps built nearby so the community would have more reliable access to water, and women would not have to walk as far to get water.