Climate of fear: Tackling the effects of global warming in Kenya

Published on Sunday 18 April 2010 20:17

In Scotland the effects of climate change can seem to be a future threat.

• Julianna Katiku on the land she and husband Silas have made into a haven

In Kenya, however, the farming communities that live off the land have suffered a three-year drought during which cattle have died and harvests have failed. Experts say climate change is already taking its toll on this poverty-stricken nation.

Jenny Fyall went to see how people there are struggling to survive, and to learn what charities such as Christian Aid are doing to help out . . .

PAINFULLY thin Monica Wayua sits outside her small homestead mending holes in broken jerricans. For each of the plastic containers she fixes she can expect to earn ten Kenyan shillings – the equivalent of 8p. It is the only way that the 48-year-old widow, who has eight children to feed, has found to try to scratch a living.

Like most of the people in the rural Ukambani region east of Nairobi where she lives, she usually survives off the land. But the rains have failed for three years. The interminable drought meant last year's harvest produced just one bag of maize. "I can't remember the last time I had a proper harvest," she says. "There used to be more rain but it's different now. Now there's drought and even if we plant, there is no harvest."

When she cannot afford the small fee for water from a local well she has to walk four miles to the nearest river. There is never enough food. Meat is an unheard-of luxury. Her single chicken scratches in the dirt around the small round hut where she lives. She cannot afford the fees to send her children to school, but understands that the solution to her family's problems lies in education. "Education is the first thing we need, and food for the children," she says. "Education is the priority. If my girls are educated they will meet men who are also educated."

Her situation is repeated across every community in Ukambani. Last year, at the height of the drought, the landscape was littered with corpses of cattle that had succumbed to the lack of food and water. Seven out of ten of the 2,000 households in the region lost every cow, crucial for ploughing their fields. People burned thousands of trees to try to make an income from selling charcoal in Nairobi, exacerbating the problems. Now, land that used to be covered by lush forests is barren.

Sebastian Ngunegi, deputy chief of nearby Mukaa village, says: "Life was very hard. There was no food and no water. We fetched water 12km from here. All the cows died. We ploughed using our hands. It was very hard, and there was a lot of anger."

Since November the situation has improved. The rain started to fall, and bizarrely, did not stop. The desert-like landscapes of the past three years have been replaced by lush green vistas. There are fears that it will not last, however. Experts say the seasons have been thrown into turmoil by climate change, and, as a result, so have people living off the land.

In the past there were two rainy seasons a year. The long rains came from March until June. The shorter rains hit in November and December. Last year the rains started in November but have not stopped since. For the farming communities who for generations have relied on the land using age-old processes and timescales to grow crops, the disruption to the weather has left them confused and helpless.

Esther Mwende is director of Ukamba Christian Community Services (UCCS), a charity supported by Christian Aid that is helping people in Ukambani adapt to the effects of climate change. "In February the rain didn't stop," she says. "When they would usually harvest their crops and prepare for the next season, the rain was still falling. Everything has been disrupted. The extreme climatic conditions mean people are not getting their harvests. They lead to either total rain failure or erratic, unreliable rainfall."

Despite the wet weather, there are fears the droughts will soon return. "It's a big worry that the impacts of climate change will become more and more severe as time goes on," says Esther. "From 2006 the situation has continued to become worse up to this time when we are experiencing abnormal rains. Our meteorological department is telling us this situation will go on until May and then we are worried it will go back to the drought. When that happens we will once again get the desertification effects."

UCCS is advising people on how to alter their farming practices to survive the next drought. They are being encouraged to buy goats instead of cattle. "Whereas most cows died, the goats survived, which suggests they are very drought tolerant, so we are offering advice on goat management," says Esther.

Farmers are also being encouraged to invest in larger, stronger breeds of goat, which produce more meat and milk. This will enable them to diversify when crops fail. But the most desirable goats, such as the distinctive white galla goat and the German alpine, are expensive to buy and feed, each costing about 10,000 shillings (80). That puts them out of reach for many of the families in rural Kenya living hand to mouth, so UCCS has been raising money to pay a contribution towards the animals. Branching out into beekeeping and pottery are other ways people in Ukambani have been advised to supplement their incomes during dry spells.

The organisation has also been building dams, wells and water tanks to ensure a supply of water for drinking, washing and irrigation. Currently the average distance walked for water in Ukambani is four miles. Only small quantities can be carried back to homesteads, meaning people struggle to keep clean and have enough to drink.

• Dams in the Ukambani region provide reliable water supplies

Esther says that changing habits can be the toughest challenge for families that for generations have used practices that relied on the twice-yearly rains. "Now that the rains have returned many people have forgotten about the drought. They live day by day and they do not plan for what will happen when it returns. They need to build facilities to store food but they just have a glut now, and it is difficult to imagine what will happen in the future."

Despite an expenditure of roughly 1 million shillings (8,000), to dam a section of the local Kiangiri River in 2007 to provide a reliable water supply, only one nearby farmer has so far wholeheartedly made the most of the opportunity to irrigate his land and diversify. Silas Katiku, 50, has acquired legendary status locally, because where his land was once dry and barren, it is now alive with a paradise of bananas, watermelons, beans, sweet potatoes and maize.

"Before the dam was there, we couldn't grow anything at all. Now there's plenty of water for irrigation and that means I can pay for my children to go to school and get food every day."

Where once Silas and his wife Julianna struggled to feed their six children, now he is relatively rich by Kenyan standards. He earns 40,000 shillings (335) a month from his land, which is about four times the salary of a teacher. This puts him among the top 25 per cent of earners in Kenya. He has been able to buy livestock, including several Galla goats and cattle. His yard is full of plump chickens.

Esther hopes other families will learn from Silas's determination and ingenuity. He travelled more than 100 miles to purchase the hardier breed of goat, and found a way to convert a petrol pump in order to extract water from the dam to irrigate his fields. That sort of innovation must be taken up by people across rural Kenya if they are to survive the harsh impacts of climate change, she says.

"Other people try to carry on with the farming methods they have been using for generations," she says. "Change is very slow. People will have to start adopting these practices if they are to survive."